Tag Archives: visitation

The Good Bye Video

Today is the day of the last visitation between Rebecca and her biological mother. Thanks to a successful mediation she has agreed to relinquish her parental rights in return for written updates on all three of her children each quarter, a picture and video of the kids once a year. We offered her the opportunity to make a video for the children to watch when they got older. We had hoped this video will allow her to tell the kids about herself. We thought it would be a great gift for the kids when they got older. They would have … Continue reading →

The Last Visitation

Today is the day that we have been waiting for. Today is Rebecca’s last visitation with her biological mother. This day has me a little emotional. I was worried about how hard it would be for the biological mother to say good-bye forever to her daughter. I don’t know if she will show any emotions as so far she has never cried, smiled or showed any sign of emotion when either being handed her daughter or when she handed her back to the case workers. I tried to put myself in the biological mother’s shoes and I cannot even begin … Continue reading →

Mediation Day Part 3

We are headed back into the mediation room; we have been hanging around town for the last two hours and the time has come to hear if the biological mother of our kids is going to relinquish her parental rights to Rebecca. If she says no to our offer which included quarterly updates, yearly picture and a video yearly than we are going to have to go to court to fight her for custody. I am ready to go to court if I have to but I would prefer she did what is best for Rebecca. As I mentioned before … Continue reading →

Mediation Day Part 1

Leading up to the mediation with Rebecca’s birth mother we sat down and gave a lot of thought to what we were willing and not willing to do. The CPS case worker talked to us and explained the whole procedure to us and gave us suggestions on what the biological mother may request and what we should and should not consider. Given the fact that she had lost her rights to George and Steve we had a feeling she was going to want them tied into this mediation agreement somehow. Legally she has no right to ask for anything to … Continue reading →

We Agreed To Go To Mediation

During the last visitation between Rebecca and the biological mother she had a meeting with the case workers who told her they did not feel reunification was going to be an option as she has not complied with her reunification plan and neither had her husband. They asked if she would consider relinquishing her parental rights and she said she would not do that. During the visitation the case worker suggested we try mediation as a last ditch effort to avoid going to court to force her losing parental rights. We had agreed to mediation but it was up to … Continue reading →

Mediation?

With one missed visitation between biological mother and Rebecca and it was time for the next one. We drove the baby to the one that she missed so technically CPS was supposed to come to us to bring her to the visit but because I knew that they were going to talk to her about relinquishing her rights today we decided to both go with her to the visit. We were sitting in the room with the two way mirror waiting for the biological mother to arrive for the visitation. We normally would sit in the front waiting room until … Continue reading →

The Visits Continue

We continued to go back and forth to the supervised visitations for a few months but there was no end and sight. So far the biological mother had been going to the visitations and was working the reunification plan. Because the biweekly supervised parental visitations continued and it was getting harder and harder for us to get out of work a half day every other week the CPS case workers offered to pick Rebecca up for one visit a month if we could drive her for the second visit. Given that we lived an hour and a half away it … Continue reading →

Visitation Is A Four Letter Word

Posted on by

Why is it called visitation? Are our children really visiting their non custodial parent like they are guests in that home? I’ve always disliked that word. It brings to mind prisons and hospital. Visiting hours are from… you get the idea. In the state of Utah if the divorcing parents cannot agree on a visitation schedule the state allows the custodial parent every other weekend and Wednesday nights. There are all kinds of rules about alternating holidays and what time the child has to be returned to the custodial parent. Really? Is this what we are reduced to in our … Continue reading →

Gospel Doctrine: A Pure and Chosen Vessel

Although last month seems like an ideal time to discuss the conception of Christ and the Lord’s choice of mothers, I’m going to buck the trend and do it in January. Of course, the Sunday School lesson for this week is a big part of the cause of the subject. Still, I’ve always been a rebel, so why not continue to go against the grain? We’ve discussed Elisabeth and the divine announcement of her pregnancy with John the Baptist. Shortly after, Gabriel, the same angel who visited Zacharias, came to Mary. While I studied the passages on Elisabeth, several questions … Continue reading →

Can You Survive? Stepfamily Holiday Stress

I don’t really care for the term stepfamily. I prefer blended family, even though I’m not usually given to politically correct terminology. The point is that stepfamilies or blended families can encounter some unique challenges, especially during the holidays. Time can be at a premium, especially when not only ex-spouses, but also ex-in laws, as well as your own family members hope to spend more time with your children. This can often lead to stressful and uncomfortable situations. It may also lead to resentment for your spouse. It is important to make sure that you try to keep everyone’s feelings … Continue reading →