Legal guardians, want to TPR and adopt
My husband and I are the legal guardians of my sister's 2 children, ages 2 and 1. The state of Tenn took them away from her at the time of their birth because they were born with cocaine in their systems. We have had Christian since he was 6 months (he's now 2) and Savannah since she was 3 weeks (she's 11mos). My mom and aunt had joint custody of Christian when he was first born, and then let him come live with us. My sister had to sign over guardianship of Savannah (because she was unable to pass her weekly drug screen) or the state was going to place her in foster care. Tenn would not let my mom have custody again, because she lied about Christian being with us. My sister has not been active in their life, she has been in and out of jail, and now is sentenced to another 3 years ( will probably serve 8 mos) for a felony charge in Tenn. She is out on medical furlough because she is pregnant again with this baby due May 09. We live in IL, claim the kids on our income tax, and receive no financial assistance from anyone. We are honest, upstanding members of our community, attend church regularly, and I am a 3rd semester Nursing student. Hubby is 47 and self employed, I am 41. We would like to adopt them, but my sister keeps threatening to regain custody. Her latest threat is that she is going to have this next baby, serve her time, and then "get her kids back" in her words. Her kids don't even know her!! We refer to ourselves as mommy and daddy, and that infuriates her. We feel they deserve to have parents who love and care for them. She is 24, never held a job, doesn't know who Savannah's father is (she was living in a crack house when she got pregnant), and has some sort of "anti social personality disorder" (not officially diagnosed). She lies, steals, manipulates, etc. She fled Tenn to avoid criminal prosecution after stealing my mom's debit card and "stealing" $8,500 from her checking acct. What are her chances of taking the kids from us, and what can we do to prevent that? Can we go to court and terminate her rights and then adopt? She was in IL from 4/08 to 1/09 and saw the kids maybe 4 times. No $ assistance (we don't need it, but she doesn't have it) and not even a Christmas present (she was here at the time). She broke into our house and stole $ in July 08 (fingerprints pending), but she admitted it. HELP!! My mom keeps saying that maybe she'll change (my sister), and that she is still their mother. My mom is on disability and has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I think she's a little nuts, too.
