Adoption and termination of parental rights

[sherbear]

My sister and her husband legally adopted his biological daughter in 1997. At that time, the biological mother (who lives in Colorado) was ordered to pay child support. My sister and her husband have never received a dime. They had had custody of the child for a while before the adoption. Because of the biological mother's lack of interest and refusal to pay child support, they had her parental rights terminated. My niece does not remember her biological mother (she'll be 8 this weekend), nor does she remember moving to Iowa to live with my sister. As far as she's concerned, my sister is her real mom.

Today, my sister received several packages from the biological mother. They are gifts for my niece's birthday. My sister is unsure how to handle this, since the very few times the mother has chosen to appear in the child's life, she's left it in an uproar. The last time, my niece went through a several-month bedwetting and nightmare phase immediately after a couple of phone calls from her real mom.

Since parental rights have been terminated, is there anything my sister can do to prevent these intrusions, which only serve to upset the child?

 

[deefran]

Well, your sister can send the gifts back to bioMom, with a certified letter from her attorney explaining that by terminating her rights she is allowed NO CONTACT with the child, up to and including phone calls and birthday gifts. Unless there was a stipulation that she was still allowed contact after she terminated her rights and allowed the adoption, then she should not be allowed to call, contact, attempt to see etc.. the little girl. If she continues to try and do so, they can call the police and have a restraining order placed against her, as it's nothing more than harassment. Some may say that what would be the harm in giving her the gifts? That would only encourage the bio-mom further...nip it in the bud now, before more confusion enters the little girls life.

 

[LegalBeagle]

they can call the police and have a restraining order placed against her, as it's nothing more than harassment.

Good post deefran except for the above.. they would apply to the court for a RO, not the police.

 

[deefran]

Really LB?...in NJ...we have to first contact the police, when the harassment is taking place...who then writes up a TRO...then we attend court the next day to have permanent one put into place. But thanks for the info on that. And thanks for the encouragement, hubby tells me that I am going back to college for wrong profession (studying to be literature teacher)..he says I have been obsessed with law since coming here...