OK, it doesn't seem possible, but here we are, over a month into this Mommy thing!!
It's been a trying month, full of ups and downs, lots of sickness, some sleepless nights, and one trip to the ER (she had a double ear infection, Bronchiolitis, and needed breathing treatments
). But she's slowly getting better and we're having lots of fun now too!
Let me give you as much of an update as I can:
About 2 weeks ago, call it intuition, call it what you want, but we were getting the strong feeling that DD's case worker was working harder for her bio mom than she was for DD. It was beginning to feel as though she was just ready to send her back to mom, just to have her off of her case load. It was frustrating. But the last straw was when she told us that there was a hearing coming up in February. She said that if they got a lenient enough judge, they may drop the whole case and send her back that day. Now I cannot go into detail obviously, but suffice it to say that there is NO WAY she should get this baby back without having to make some serious changes in her life first! Even since we've had her, we've seen mom cancel visitations, and even miss a family support team meeting because she "couldn't find a way to get there."
This poor baby has been physically and emotionally abused, medically neglected, along with a host of other things.
There is NO WAY on God's green earth that we're going to sit back and let a judge hand her back without a fight.
So we've begun doing our own footwork. We've come to the realization that there is NO ONE in the entire child protective services spectrum who will advocate for this little girl. Not her worker, not the judges, not even her guardian ad litem. If we don't fight for her rights, who will? So through a barrage of appointments, meetings and evaluations with therapists, pediatricians, and orthopaedic surgeons, we're slowly uncovering layer upon layer of evidence that indicates that the story goes much deeper than we had originally been told. So we took our findings to DD's case worker. And wouldn't you know, it was like a light bulb went off in her head! She seemed surprised that we were able to dig up all of the information that we did. She said that based on the information that we uncovered, it will definitely be her recommendation at the hearing that DD stay in protective custody (with us).
So if the judge agrees to this, he/she will make a plan of action for mom to follow in order to get back on track to get her baby back. I'm satisfied with that. I just wasn't ready to let mom off the hook that easily. She's got a lot to work on before she's ready to be a mom again. If she can make it through whatever program the judge orders and can prove that she's capable of being a good parent, then more power to her. I would be OK with that.
So anyway, we've been working tirelessly on making these things happen. Being a mom is like having a second full time job! Being a foster parent who is willing to fight and advocate for an innocent helpless child when no one else will? That's like having a THIRD full time job!! But it's worth it.
Thanks for the link to this thread. 
The last of the prospective family placements fell through, so she'll definitely be with us for the duration of the case. So now we just wait and see what happens with the case. 
"Sugar Bear" (I call her this more often than I do her real name! 
) is doing GREAT! Still not sleeping all the way through the night, but we're getting there. 
...... He is so big now. He started walking last week!!! *sniff*
I'm sorry you'll be having to let him go. I know how quickly you can get attached! 
Hopefully you'll at leat have the benefit of knowing that he's going back to a loving family who misses him. 
