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Years ago, I gained "custody" of a relative's child exactly this same way through CPS. I was naive and knew a lot less about how this stuff works then than I do now, and it was an unfair situation/plan for me, the parents, and the child. The dad had been in prison since before the child was born, and the mom had a drug problem and had flaked out and couldn't be found. The child had been left with a friend/babysitter and when the mom didn't come back after a week, the babysitter called CPS. They came in, picked up the child, placed her in temporary shelter and contacted relatives. I had 72 hours to decide whether to take the child in, go through a quickie CPS criminal background check, and to actually get her out of shelter care. I was told that after 72 hours, CPS would take custody of her under a dependency plan and we may never see her again. She was 22 months old at the time. I did pick her up from shelter care before the 72 hours expired, and was given a temporary power of attorney signed by a father in prison that had never even met the child. CPS then washed their hands of the whole situation. Mom didn't turn up and was not even consulted, even though she had "presumed custody" because there was no other custody order. It was nearly a year later when Mom finally turned up wanting her child back and sent the police to my house to pick her up late at night. It was only through the grace of a very nice police officer that the child remained safe. After looking at the whole situation, he decided to bend the law a bit and not take the child out of our home that night, but advised me that she could easily call another officer the next morning to pick up the child, and that we, at that point, had no legal right to keep her from the mom. As soon as the officer left, I was out of the house and checked into a hotel with the child that very night and waiting at the court house the next morning to file for emergency custody. I didn't even realize that the power of attorney we had was worth basically nothing, and that we needed to file for custody of her. After a 2 year battle in court, the parents rights were eventually terminated and we adopted her at the age of 4. She is an amazing 13 year old now. But CPS really let us all down at the time. And btw, this child was placed in our home as a relative placement with no proof of relationship, no homestudy, a temporary power of attorney signed by a parent that had never met her or us, and a simple police background check to prove that we had not been convicted of any violent or domestic crime.
I'm grateful to this day that we were able to bring our daughter into our home, but still disgusted with the way that CPS handled everything. They are a corrupt organization. I can easily see how Ayla could have been placed with the father, and how the mom may feel that her rights were violated over the whole situation.
Diana
Diana
