We are trying to get justice, we are involved in a homeless ministry in louisville, we met a homeless couple who were about to give birth so we did what we could to help them, the baby was born on February 19,2013 and we tried to find them a place to live with the baby, but we ended up moving them in our home on march 1,2013 they did not have the patience or desire to be parents,so my husband and I cared for the baby and paid for all her needs,formula,diapers,wipes,clothes , bottles, we took over as parents,but things got bad with the parents constant fighting, cursing, screaming ,not trying to find jobs,we were supporting them also,their behaviors were effecting my children and disruping our home,so we asked them to leave ,they found a shelter around March 25,and said they needed the baby to get in but they would call in a few days for us to come get the baby, and they did, we went and got her from the voa shelter, we would take her to them when they wanted a visit and they kept her two days and send her home this continued until they got kicked out of the shelter,around may 19,2013 they went back to living on the streets, the baby still remained with us on may 30,I had them write a statement saying the baby was in our temporary custody and care and they did, then I researched and all websites said it should be notarized so we printed off a temporary custody form and had it notarized, the parents would call and want visits and I would take her and pick her up in a few hours, then cps became involved on August 21, 2013 because of allegations on their visits and a cps investigator came to my house I explained everything to her showed her the temporary custody papers and she checked out my home and said she did background checks, she made a safety plan with me and said she didn't know if her supervisor will want to take the case to court ,but if so she can't recommend our home but if it goes to court when we go before judge tell our story and she will tell him that she is OK with the baby remaining in our home,on August 30. I received a summons to appear in court listing me as person exercising custodial control or supervision ,set for September 3, when we got to court she came and talked to us and said she will tell the judge she approves our home,she went in the room and spoke to GAL and came back to us and said the GAL does not want to place the baby in your home and I am in there fighting for you guys ,I am going to go speak to her again,she then came back to us and said I'm sorry to have to ask you this but the GAL wants to know your ages,and I said that is irrelevant and my pastor told her are you serious right now, that is out of line, but we told her our ages,she came back out and said she said she will not place the baby back with you guys because of your age, she said the GAL said she is looking for long term placement and when the baby is 20 you would be 71 ,and I said that is ridiculous, if we were still a licensed foster home our age would have no bearing on placement, the cps worker said yes we would place children in your home and I tried to get the GAL to come out and meet you and see how youthful you guys are and let you tell the story but she flat refused to meet you,she will not place her with you . When the case was called we went to the court room door and we were refused in the court even though we had a summons and we had physical custody of the baby. When the case was over the caseworker came out and said the judge ordered the baby to fosterhome even though the parents stated to everyone they want the baby to remain in our home,even with us being person exercising custodial control, de facto custodians, persons acting as parent,the cps worker went to the courtroom door with us trying to go see the judge so we could plea our case but the sherrif refused us again and the worker told him they have a right to talk to the judge and tell him their story but he hollered at us and said the judge don't want to talk to them so get out of here, we then went to cps office trying to talk to supervisors to help, she said she would try but they have to take baby,and they did, then we hired attorney and filed motion to intervene but was denied stating we were non party to case,but we were the ones who raised the baby for 61/2 months and had papers signed by parents and parents continued to tell them to put baby back in our home, our attorney then asked parents to sign an agreed order of custody,waiving their superior rights to custody and it was filed in circuit court on September 18, on September 19, the baby was returned to us because judge granted permanent custody to us, then on September 24, the judge set it aside because GAL said she was not notified,even though she filed no legal motion,the baby was removed again, the judge said he would leave it up to cps to decide if we were de facto custodians,if so they would have to consider us pecc and amend their petition to include us, we filed new motion to reinstate custody order and immediate return the judge overruled the motion and set a date for pretrial hearing,October 25 we had hearing we produced evidence all that proved we were de facto custodians, pecc, persons acting as parent, but the judge left it that we are still waiting on cps to respond to motion ,he left it open no court date no trial date nothing,two weeks later they responded and judge denied motion, said we are a long way from trial, we are supposed to have a trial someday, we filed motion to remove GAL from custody case, then GAL responded to motion as well as cps, at this point we had to fire attorney because he charged us 16,000.00 and did not file the proper motions defend us properly,we took out a loan to hire him and put ourself in debt, and used all our loan money paying him and cannot afford to hire another attorney or finish paying him,but we know there has to be justice somewhere,the whole point is is that there was no legal basis for them to have removed the baby from our home, pecc states that a pecc is any person who assumed the role or responsibility of a parent or guardian for the child but that does not necessarily have legal custody of the child, since the parents were charged with abuse/neglect and the child was not living with them because they had placed her with us since she was born and the statue says you don't have to have legal custody to be pecc,which even the initial investigator found us to be pecc, 1) how could they remove her from our home with no allegations against us,and we had her from birth by the parents when the law says that a parents has a right to give their child to anyone they choose,2) our constitutional rights to due process of law was violated and we were discriminated against from the start. I am trying to prove that what they did at the removal hearing was illegal in several ways, the law says that at a removal hearing all persons receiving a summons must appear before the judge and defend their rights to keep custody of child, it says that cps must prove with a proponderence of the evidence that the child would be in danger if left in the home of parent or person exercising custodial control,if they cannot the child must remain or be placed back in the home. This did not occur, they did not even acknowledge that the baby lived with us or that we were there to defend our rights even though we had proof, parents stating this fact, the great aunt statement other letters stating the fact, the custody papers the summons, the safety plan, the law was broken, also the law says that cps must try everything they can to keep removal from taking place,and if they don't there will not be funding for that child. Not only were we pecc,but we could also prove with the same evidence that we were de facto custodians,also krs 403.800 states person acting as parent is a person other than a parent,who(a) had physical custody for a period of six consecutive months,including any temporary absence,within one year immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding ;and (b) has been awarded legal custody by a court or claims a right to legal custody under the law of this state..
We don't know what direction to go in because we are forced now to fight this without legal representation because we are broke and have other children we are responsible for, we just want the law to be followed and don't know how to get that done,the baby should have never been removed from our home, they had no legal right or grounds to remove her, we have been her only family ,her only stability,the bond we have was strong and we miss her badly, they have now moved her to the great aunt and Tuesday cps is giving up their temporary custody to her, this is the same great aunt that has been fighting to help us get her back,she has known from the baby's birth that she lived with us and I have texts and voice recording of her stating that her and the fathers family are behind us and they consider her our daughter and a few months back stated which I have recorded that she works long hours and can not take care of her and her parents our in their 80's and it would be too much on them, and she told us for the last two months if cps places the baby with her,she is going to turn around and give her back to us and now, she changed her mind, after 61/2 months of us raising her and she only saw her a few times, went to court with us every time and watched us go in debt to fight for the baby, she now wants to pretend she cares and the first thing she says is that she is going to get every program she can get. Where is the justice in this. Where is our justice, we were not given the right to be heard or to intervene in the temporary removal hearing, and the parents had signed an agreed order of custody waiving their superior rights to custody to my husband and myself,even if cps had temporary custody (illegally) the parents rights were only reduced not terminated they still had legal right to give us permanent custody in circuit court.according to chfs handbook for grandparents and other caregivers . We are asking for someone to help us or guide us , our hearts will not let us quit we love this baby and want to fight for our legal rights we have only seen her twice since September 24, even though the parents case plan says we were to have visits with the baby, please if you can't help us guide us to someone that can, we have no more money to pay but pray that someone will want to help us fight this for the justice ,also we plan to file lawsuits for the descrimination and all the wrong that has been done

Any way you could compress this and put it in sentence form, almost impossible to read.

Agreed - I got three quarters of the way through it, and couldn't do it. Paula - please break it into paragraphs.

And summarize. Too much detail.

Have you called on the ACLU and spoken to them about it? They may offer some relief. Also if you are of senior age there may be other programs that you can access to get the help you need.

I managed to get through it all.

Bottom line is that OP wants to raise a baby because the parents are on the street and not particularly suited to be parents. CPS doesn't agree that OP and OP's spouse would be the best foster parents available, evidently, and the judge ruled against them. They had an attorney but were not satisfied with the attorney's results and cannot afford to continue to pay the attorney anyway.

It's a cruel world. Unless you can find means to pay a new attorney, you really don't have any options, but to continue trying to persuade the authorities to let you have the baby, and to pray for the baby from here on out.

I managed to get through it all.

Bottom line is that OP wants to raise a baby because the parents are on the street and not particularly suited to be parents. CPS doesn't agree that OP and OP's spouse would be the best foster parents available, evidently, and the judge ruled against them. They had an attorney but were not satisfied with the attorney's results and cannot afford to continue to pay the attorney anyway.

It's a cruel world. Unless you can find means to pay a new attorney, you really don't have any options, but to continue trying to persuade the authorities to let you have the baby, and to pray for the baby from here on out.


This needs a bit of adjusting. According to OP CPS had said they would recommend placement. The GAL did not want placement with the OP due to age concern. Op was never allowed to present thier case before the judge at the initial hearing. OP feels discriminated against due to age discrimination.