Just an update: Our daughter and son in law have consulted their lawyer, who is on the Children's Panel. He says that there is no need for them to wait until F has been with them for 3 years (family adoption) before they can apply to adopt her. Although our son in law is related to F, it is a distan...

For a year now, my daughter and her husband have had an SGO for a little girl whom Children's Services placed with foster parents at 5 months old (and she stayed there for 10 months), due to maternal neglect and drug abuse. While they have re-established (amicable) contact with the maternal grandpar...

Thank you for your prompt reply, Suzie. Obviously, it's not going to be the easy process the entire family was hoping for! I said the entire family, and that is what I meant - from guardians, to birth mother, to birth grandparents, to us, our daughter's family. Adoption was what we all hoped for, ra...

Thanks, Irene. Guardians still communicate from time to time with CS in the county that dealt with F's SGO placement, as CS still supervise BM and plan to arrange for her to have contact with F one day. So far, BM has not been co-operative about contact and has not seen F since she was removed into ...

F, the little one, has now been with her special guardians for almost 10 months. She recently had her second birthday. My daughter, after taking 6 months' leave, has now gone back to work 4 days a week. She works Monday and Tuesday, has Wednesday at home, then works Thursday and Friday. F goes to da...

One thing in the guardians' favour is that birth mother has already had a chance to prove that she could kick the drugs and stay "clean", and failed. She was on her last warning, having had 2 children removed from her by court order, when she became pregnant with F. From 6 weeks pregnant, ...

Thank you, Irene. That's what we thought, too. But it does worry the guardians. They still want to adopt F, feeling that would be a more secure arrangement for her. F now has a birth grandmother and grandfather, a birth great-grandmother, 2 guardianship grandmothers and a guardianship grandfather. S...

The little one has been in her new home for 6 months now and all is gong well. 21 months old now, she is a happy child and has bonded well with her SGO parents, calling for "Mummy" or "Daddy" whenever she needs anything. She is developing well and the Health Visitor is pleased wi...

Thank you, David.
There are so many questions about the less-than-perfect procedural handling of F's case, but I guess we'll never know the answers. The important thing is that both girls now have a clean start and the chance of settled lives, where they will be well-loved..

Thank you for your support. We're all relieved it has worked out well.