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Owen v. Watts

The trial court did not err in disregarding O.C.G.A. § 49-5-281, the Foster Parent's Bill of Rights, because the trial court did consider the former foster parents throughout the adoption process.

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Former foster parents Keith and Christine Owen filed this pro se appeal from the trial court’s order denying their petition to adopt M. F. L.1 For the reasons that follow, we affirm. M. F. L. was born in March 2000. The child lived with her mother in the home of her maternal grandmother, Kathy Watts. In January 2005, for reasons that are not clear from the record, DFACS removed the child from her mother’s custody and placed her in foster care with the Owens.2 The plan was for long-term foster care, and the mother’s rights were not terminated or surrendered.

In October 2006, the Owens petitioned to adopt the child. The next day, DFACS removed the child from the Owens’ home and placed her back in Watts’ home. In May 2007, the child’s biological mother and legal father executed Voluntary Surrender of Parental Rights forms in favor of Watts. Watts petitioned to adopt the child, and that petition was granted. The Owens, who had intervened in the action, appealed from the trial court’s order. In that case, a panel of this Court reversed the grant of Watts’ adoption petition, holding that there was insufficient evidence in the record to show that it was in the child’s best interest that she be adopted by Watts.3 This Court noted that the trial court had found that the child had done well in both the care of the Owens and Watts, and also that there was evidence from which the trial court could have concluded that adoption by Watts was not in the child’s best interest.4

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