the other side

We have recently had some experience with being on the other side of the foster care system. A family member had their kids taken away back in september. At the time we were not able to step forward because we had our lil' love bug in our home. This family member called us recently and was very upset because he felt they were going to file termination and the kids were going to go be adopted by the foster family that the youngest has been with since september. The two older kids were placed in the same foster home as the youngest in the last month or so because they want all 3 to be adopted into the same home. We decided to call and get some information on the kids and the home they are in. We wanted to make sure that the kids were in a good home and that there would be the ability for the parent to have some type of contact with the kids after adoption. Well, let me tell you, after almost 2 weeks of calling and no one returning phone calls we were getting frustrated and started to question what they were hiding and why they were trying to blow us off. The thing they didn't seem to realize is that we have been certified for close to 3 years now and we know how the system works. We started to call supervisors and finally started to get our calls returned. At this point we decided that we would be willing to take these kids in our home if no one was willing to give us answers and if there was going to be a closed adoption and no chance for these kids to know where they come from. We were of course hearing negative feedback from the parent about everyone else involved in the case and we weren't hearing anything from social services even when they started to return our calls they wouldn't give us any information. We asked our resource worker here in boulder county to call and she was finally able to get us some information. They were reluctant to have us get involved with the case because of the anger they had witnessed in the family member trying to get his kids back. We plan on setting up a meeting with us and the foster family, we want to be sure they are in a good home and maybe we can facilitate the communication between the kids and their parent. We are not concerned with visits or even phone calls but a p.o. box set up for written communication and pictures would be nice. It is something that brian and i have discussed as foster parents and we realize the importance of knowing your family and where you come from. We hope we can help to facilitate some sort of communication with the kids, that has been our only concern and if they are in a home where the little one has a strong bond with the family, we would not move them. It is interesting to be on the other side of the foster care system.