Okay, I have a stepsister whom I've been rather estranged from. I only ever see her at Christmas when I bring presents for her children. She has two children, both girls, with two different fathers. I got a call on Wednesday last week saying that the girls had been taken into protective custody because my stepsister took the oldest child to the emergency room and was so strung out that she couldn't give the nurse any information. Right now, the girls are staying with a foster family, but they rather place the child with family, so I went down to the court and filed a petition for emergency temporary custody. I had a house study done and a background/drug test which both passed, and the preliminary for court was set up for this coming Monday. All looked positive.
But then I get a call from their case worker saying that the father of the youngest child had stepped forward to take custody of her. She said that they couldn't release both of the girls to him because my stepsister is adamant that she wants nothing to do with him, so the girls might possibly be separated. I called the guy and talked to him a little bit, turns out he has never even seen his daughter physically and she doesn't know him at all. All in all, the caseworker told me that his rights superseded my rights, which I understand, but this guy is a piece of work. He has a felony in his background, probably for drug use, and he can't support the girls like I can.
I'm wondering if there is any chance that I can get both of the girls. I've looked up the laws but I keep getting different answers. I really need some guidance before Monday. They told me the only red flag that I have is that I failed to protect the girls because I knew my father and stepmother (who my stepsister and the girls lived with) had a history of drug abuse. In my defense, I didn't know where my stepsister was staying at, and every time I saw her, she was sober, so I just assumed she escaped like I did, but I don't know if my story will mean much. I know that the girl's fathers both failed to protect as well.
Any thoughts?