On September 15, 1998, the Madison County Department of Family and Children Services DFACS petitioned to terminate the parental rights of M. W., natural mother, in the minor children, V. H. W. V. W. and S. D. R. W. S. W., alleging that, for the year preceding the petition, M. W. was unable to maintain regular employment to meet her own needs; failed to provide the necessary care or support for her children as required by law; and significantly failed to participate in the development of and to comply with Court-ordered case plans designed to re-unite her with her children. M. W. appeals from the orders of the Madison County Juvenile Court, terminating her parental rights. In four related enumerations of error, M. W. challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. Viewed in the light most favorable to the juvenile court’s disposition, the evidence authorized the following facts:
M. W. was born July 27, 1975, and was 23 years of age at the time of the hearing. M. W. was reared by her maternal grandmother, who was granted custody when M. W. was very young. Never married, M. W. had, at the time of the hearing, recently given birth to her fourth child out of wedlock. The first child S. W., was born March 17, 1994, the second, A. W., was born August 29, 1995, and the third child, V. W., born March 5, 1997. Each child has a different father. In April of 1993, when M. W. was not yet 18, her grandfather died, leaving her a substantial inheritance in the form of a business that provided M. W. with an income of $700 to $800 per week. M. W. found out she was pregnant with S. W. in June and turned 18 in July. By her own admission, M. W. spent her inheritance “drinking, partying, running wild and living wrong.” Consequently, M. W. did not care for her children like she should. In May of 1997, DFACS intervened due to concerns that S. W., A. W., and three-month old V. W. were deprived. The infant “seemed underweight and was losing some weight.” V. W. was born with a cleft lip and needed to be held while she was fed but Donna Gordon, the DFACS case manager, observed that the infant would be left alone “on a couch with a bottle propped up.” A. W. was placed with a relative while temporary custody of S. W. and V. W. was placed with DFACS. S. W. and V. W. have been in the custody of DFACS “continuously since that time.” When M. W. first lost custody of her children, she began to drink heavily; as much as one case of beer in a single day. Because M. W. had a place to live and reliable income, initial case plans envisioned reuniting M. W. with S. W. and V. W., if M. W. would complete a drug and alcohol assessment, undergo random drug tests, attend parenting classes, and undergo psychological evaluation. By September of 1997, M. W. had not completed any of her case plan but indicated her willingness to cooperate and so a third case plan was completed in December of 1997. But by then, M. W. did not have her own residence and no longer had any income. Under these case plans, M. W. never obtained psychological evaluation, never got a drug and alcohol assessment, never paid consistent child support, and, in fact, never paid any child support at all. In June of 1998, after S. W. and V. W. had been in foster care for a year, the focus of the case plan changed from reunification of the children with M. W. to permanency for the child, involving termination of parental rights and adoption or placement with a suitable family member. When it appeared that S. W. could be placed with paternal relatives, M. W. still failed to take any action to comply with the June 1998 case plan. Only in September of 1998, when this placement option was no longer available, and M. W. realized DFACS was serious about termination, did M. W. start completing any part of her case plan. Now pregnant with her fourth child, M. W. went to live with the Posses, the parents of Matthew Poss, the child’s father. She intends to marry the father but had not done so as of the hearing in February of 1999. Matthew Poss pleaded guilty to one count of family violence battery committed on April 15, 1998, against M. W.’s second child, A. W. M. W. first claimed she hasn’t consumed alcohol since May, 1998, when she returned to Matthew Poss. But in June, when M. W. left Matthew Poss again, to stay for a week or more at Linda Parham’s house, she admitted she would drink but not use drugs. She further distinguished drinking two beers and abusing alcohol. By December of 1998, M. W. had completed her psychological evaluation as well as the drug and alcohol assessment, and had begun parenting classes. Nevertheless, she remained completely dependent upon Matthew Poss financially, and had no realistic plans of supporting herself.
