A couple of years ago my husband and I decided we want to do foster care.  At the time, we lived in a small single wide trailer and there was not enough room.  So we prayed about it and asked God to show us a way to manage to this endeavor that he had placed on our hearts. Well as usual when your ideas do not contradict God he always provides a way.  

We found a 4286 sq ft home with two kitchens, 5 bedrooms and 3 and 1/2 baths well within or budget.  So we bought our home and began our journey.  We applied in June 2015 and finally opened in Feb 2016. While we were processing to be opened we began to watch the Heart Galleries for a child to adopt.  Then one day, we found her.  My 4 year old daughter actually found her and asked me if she was her cousin, I told her no and she told me then she has to be my sister.  So we inquired to adopt.  In Feb we met this young beautiful girl who was hopeless.  She had given up on being adopted. She was about to be 16 and had been in foster care since she was 11.  Her bother had been adopted and his adoptive parents were granted guardianship of her older sister, but they didn't want her. 

She was living in a facility at the time we met her, we began to do the home visits and finally in May 2016 they placed her in our home.  This was not an easy transition for any of us, she stole my credit card, she snuck boys into the house, and she lied about everything.  We had other foster children in the home and quite honestly, she had some jealousy towards them, as did the foster children toward her. 

In July 2016 our septic system broke.  We began working on this process and we have been waiting until today for the permits to start the repair of the system.  So a safety plan was put into place, and all was good.  Anyway back to the story of the young lady we wanted to adopt.  We worked through all of the problems just as we would have with our older biologial children, until one day I came home from work and noticed she had given herself a really bad indian burn on her arm.  I called her caseworker, advised of the situation.  I also called her therapist.  Now, the frustration of feeling like we were not going to be able to help this young lady was overwhelming, so I told her caseworker that we were going to have to see what happened after the acute visit to the mental health facility did for her to determine how we were going to move forward. 

A week after she was admitted acute for self-harm, this child returned home.  She was missing a couple of her meds though, so I called her therapist who advised me to continue the meds and then asked me about the request for the long term residential referral for our child.  I was unaware of this and apparently so was the therapist.  So I started making calls.  I was told they had started this process when I wasn't sure what we were going to do after the hospital stay.  And they were surprised there were any openings. (Please note, had we known this was going on we wouldn't have taken her back after the hospital due to giving her false hope of a family).  

Fast forward a week, one of the fosters decided she wanted to move out.  She made a horrible scene including hitting and kicking my husband.  We had to call the police to stop it.  After they took her to another home, she made allegations that my husband had beat her that day. Investigation complete and is unsubstantiated. However, this caused the young lady we were adopting to be moved as well as the other foster child we were planning to adopt as soon as TPR was complete.  DHS still has not allowed these two to return home due to the septic system.  (Mind you broke in July kids moved in Sept)  They have also advised that once the septic system is resolved, they will have to make a determination regarding reopening our home.  In the meantime the young lady we were adoptng is back in a facility again feeling hopeless. They have removed all of our communication with her and they do not intend to move forward with her adoption and place her on an APLA plan and put her into a long term residential program.  

Any advise on what we can do?  Can we write a pleading letter to the judge?  Her lawyer nor DHS will respond to our calls or emails. We still have more than half of her belongings. Pleas someone offer some advise.  We are in Arkansas.