Hi Im Nena my husband has two sons there is an open case right now so Ill call them Bean and Bee. Anyways Bean is a toddler up until August my dh and I have very little contact with him. Bee is older (4th grade) and when we lived close to bm we got him every weekend. There was no court agreement for custody or visitation. We opened a cps case against mom and moms family last year it was founded but there were no legal charges after that bm refused to let dh see the boys. He did call them regularly though. We have lived in a different state for a year now. Last month we get a call that cps removed kids from home because they had cigarette burns on them!!! So we now have them both<3 the person that did it is in jail on several charges assualt of a minor in the 2nd degree. There are still a couple more court apearances on that. After we have the kids for six months to establish residency we are taking bm to court for full custody with limited supervised visits.

So I joined this forum so I can talk to people in similar situations. Being a step parent is so hard! Bee has adhd bipolar and is in the process of being diagnosed with ptsd needless to say he is not the easiest kid to take care of. With Bean Im always so unsure of myself.