Opinion ID: 2070134
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Mother's Background

Text: Mother was first involved with the juvenile justice system as a run-away when she was eleven years old. She was kicked out of her home in Illinois at the age of 14, and thereafter lived by herself in Denver, Colorado, for the next several years. She supported herself by taking a variety of fast-food related jobs. Mother is not a high school graduate. Mother met Father in Denver when she was 16 years old. It appears from the record that she was pregnant at this time, and that Father is not T.H.'s biological father. After T.H. was born, the parents traveled around the midwest taking odd jobs here and there. For two years, they lived in three different locations in Oklahoma, and then went to the Omaha area. During this period of time, J.H. was born. Thereafter, Mother, Father, and the two boys went to Hot Springs, South Dakota, where the parents decided to split up for awhile. Father returned to Nebraska leaving Mother and the children with little money, and no means of transportation. Mother took the children to Rapid City. She found work as a bar maid. It was after she failed to pick up the children from an inappropriate caretaker, (one who was characterized as mentally deficient), that Department intervened and took custody of the children in August of 1984. The evidence shows that the Department had little choice but to place the children in foster care due to Mother's extradition to Nebraska, and Father's abandonment of the family.