Grandparents worried about grandchildren
August 27, 2004
My stepdaughter has two children, 6-year girl white and a 6-month old boy part Native American. When the boy was born social services removed the baby boy and girl from our daughter and the boy’s friend due to high level of Meth found in the boy. Social Services came to us after my stepdaughter’s talk to me and asked if we could watch the children.
Our stepdaughter had lived with us for a year with the 4-year-old girl, and we had a close bond with this grandchild. We told social services that we would be willing to do grandparents kinship and everything was ready to go. My husband ex-wife then got involved, and the children were kept in foster care. Suddenly, my stepdaughter turn away from her father and me who has always been her support parent and only talking to her mother. Her mother was in treatment 4 times during my husband’s marriage and unfortunately blames everything on him and for his daughter drug/alcoholic use.
Every weekend for several months we would pick up the grandchildren from the foster mother and had grandparents rights with these grandchildren. In June the children were reunited with my stepdaughter and the boys father which was the goal. Only after not hearing from the parents we got concerned again and called social services. We learned that the children were removed from my stepdaughter again. The girl was placed with the other grandmother and apparently the boy is with his father is the message we received. We have tried calling social services for three weeks now and can not get any information. We can not find the mother and do not know if she is in treatment again. I called the other grandmother to talk to the granddaughter and she will not let me talk to her and only told me that the baby boy is with the father and not a good situation. We are not certain what that means.
This is when we decided we needed to get help for the grandchildren and have been calling every organization in Minnesota. We have left messages with two lawyers that are noted for Family Law and ICWA and have not received returned phone call. All we want is rights to see these grandchildren. We promised the girl that we would always be there for her and don’t let anyone tell her that she could not speak or see us. The baby boy was a joy even with him going thru withdraw from the Meth and seemed to be doing okay after the 3 months with us and the foster mother.
Any suggestions what we can do? People we can call? I came across you website while searching for information to help these children. We are a Christian couple in Minneapolis, MN and feel that our hands are tied.