The Douglas County Juvenile Court found that M. M. and M. M., five-year-old twins, were deprived, and entered a two-year disposition of custody order in favor of their father. The mother appeals from the disposition and from an order of adjudication, arguing that the juvenile court erred in finding that jurisdiction was proper, as the deprivation was merely a disguised custody dispute over which the superior court has jurisdiction, and further alleges that the trial court erred in finding clear and convincing evidence of present deprivation. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. The twins’ parents never married, and the parents’ relationship ended during the pregnancy. Both twins were born with medical complications, and while one came home shortly after birth, the other spent seven months in the hospital and was diagnosed with short bowels, failure to thrive, and respiratory problems requiring the use of oxygen. She also needed a feeding tube with a port, and upon release from the hospital, and required occupational, physical, and speech therapy. The parents lived together and shared responsibility for the twins’ care for the first year-and-a-half after birth. The mother moved out, and about a month later, in 2007, Clayton County Department of Family and Children Services DFACS removed the children from her care because she failed a drug test. DFACS entered into a safety plan and placed the children with the mother’s sister. The mother moved back in with the father so that the children would not be placed in foster care, then soon moved out again. At one point, the mother filed for abandonment in Clayton County; however, the charges were dismissed upon a showing that the father had paid support and that the children were living with him.
The mother left the children with the father in July 2010, following one twin’s surgery for a wound that did not heal after removal of a feeding tube. Between the time the mother left the twins and the father’s filing of the deprivation petition in November 2010, the mother did not visit the children or pay support. When the deprivation petition was filed, a prior pro se custody and legitimation action filed by the father in 2009 still was pending. The mother did not oppose legitimation. The juvenile court found that paternity testing confirmed the father’s belief that the twins were his children.
