My 18 year old cousin had a baby, since birth she had repeatedly ask me to take him. She couldn't care for the child (no work, because of laziness) I tried to be a good cousin and take her and her son into my home to offer them some stability and a loving environment. She continued to smoke weed and stay out all hours of the night with a newborn baby in the bitter cold. To make a long story short, my aunt has been caring for the baby since he was 3 months old. The mother has made no attempt to fix her life or to change her ways. My aunt told her when she took the child that she would care for him so she could find a job and fix her life. The baby is going to be 2 years old and now, the mother wants to take him to Boston with her. She doesn't have any income except for welfare, she doesn't have any family out there and her live in boyfriend is a gang banger and drug dealer. The baby doesn't really see her until she needs for my aunt to loan her some money. Now she's saying she wants to take him with her to boston to live... What can my aunt do? What type of legal leg does she have to stand on? Not to mention, my cousin is pregnant again! Her boyfriend has also been abusing her! We can't fathum the thought of letting him go so, what can we do? PLEASE HELP We live in chicago, Illinois

I'm so sorry that you're going through this.

I'm not a legal expert but there are many on this board, sadly, it's a little late and many of them aren't on line.

Please check back often to see if you've gotten a response.

Thank you so much! I will be checking back often, I must get some answers I don't know where else to turn. I don't know when she plans on making this move but, I know we don't have much time and I would like to file a motion on Friday, I just don't know what to file... It's times like these I wish I had gone to law school!