[Salsamama5]

My male cousin arranged for his wife to drop off their older kids at my house this April. Last year, I raised one of their daughters for six months. Then, mom sent all the kids to live with their grandmother, my aunt in another state because she asked for them. I had no authority to contest her decision, so the little girl we were raising, that had received no support or contact from either parent, was suddenly taken by her mother one day.

My aunt invites the kids mother to go to this other state, so the kids could be around their mom. She agrees, but was eventually asked to leave. She angrily agrees to leave, but also took her kids.

Knowing that Tx CPS had given her a safety plan for the children not to be permitted to see their dad because of his past violent acts against his wife and kids, drug abuse and refusal of treatment, mom still leaves all ten children with him so that she may travel with a boyfriend. As to be expected, the children were beat, cursed at, and treated inhumanly.

Mom eventually picks kids up again because she misses them. She, the boyfriend and all the kids stay on the floor at a friend's house until they were kicked out.

That is when she brought me the older children this year.

When the children were left, they had severe medical needs that had been neglected. Since we had no formal guardianship papers, we could not add them to our insurance. However, we still took them to the appropriate physicians to treat their medical needs and paid out of pocket.

The parents are transient people. They are known for couch surfing, staying in weekly rate motels and at times, sleeping in stolen vehicles. I wouldn't know how to give them notice.

Our goal is to raise these kids as our own. We would like to add them to our health insurance, get them passports so they may join our family on vacations, and have the authority to make decisions regarding the children.

Mom and Dad of the kids are divorcing, so they both felt leaving the older kids with me was best. Plus, mom had a boyfriend that couldn't stand the older kids. You see, mom and dad had 10 kids altogether. Mom kept the younger kids.

How do we go about meeting our goals without.going broke with high attorney fees?

[JudyKayTee]

I don't know the legal fees will be high, but you do need an Attorney.

You can attempt to adopt the children but the parents would have to agree. You can try to get temporary guardianship, which would be easier of the parents would agree. If the parents don't agree you have the choice of trying to get legal custody (which probably isn't going to work) OR reporting the parents to CPS again and hoping you can get permission to take the children in.

My concern is that the children were obviously being abused and neglected. Someone has to come forward and protect them. An Attorney can best advise you how to do that.