August 2007 Pictures
Kerri, Brian, and Lena, watching the cars at the 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise:
Lena: “Can you hear me how?” - Talking on a cell phone:
Lena going for a drive:
Kerri, Brian, and Lena, watching the cars at the 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise:
Lena: “Can you hear me how?” - Talking on a cell phone:
Lena going for a drive:
After almost 2 years, it is with heavy hearts that we must report to you that we
will not be getting Kerri.
The reasons given:
> The length of time Kerri has lived with the foster parents. Because it has
been nearly 33 months, it would not be in her best interest to remove her from
the only stable environment she has known, since she is doing well in their
care.
While the length of time she has been there is entirely the fault of Calhoun
County Department of Human Services (DHS) for taking so long to process
everything. It does not change the fact that she has been there. While we did
everything we could to speed things up, they would not alter any of their
procedures which simply took too long.
> The limited relationship between Kerri and “the prospective adoptive parents”
(Us). We do not have the same bond as the people who raised her from when she
was 9 days old.
This is again the fault of the Calhoun County Department of Human Services (DHS)
for not letting us have more time with Kerri. Even after repeat attempts and
requests to get more time with her when she was of an age that it would matter.
> The biological parents did not identify or recommend us for placement when
she was first removed from their custody.
According to DHS, they did not, according to the biological parents, they did.
Since the Foster Care social worker at the time was new and often did not do her
paperwork until weeks later, it is possible they did tell her, but we will never
know what really happened.
We have the option to file a Section 45 and go to court with our case, however
we do not have the many thousands of dollars it would take to do this. Since we
have no guarantee that we would win, and by the time it was over Kerri would be
much older making the transition even harder, we can’t see any positives in
attempting it. However we do plan to request visitation.
While we do not believe it will help us, we hope to spread the word of how
messed up the Michigan Foster Care system is.
We would very much like to thank everyone for their support during this process.
Sincerely,
Chris, Karen, Brian, & Lena
