Court Opinion

ID: 7873735
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-08 20:58:17.584011+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:31:19.857154
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I agree with the majority opinion. I interpret the statements therein relative to the opportunity for Gail to establish a close relationship with her daughter and to a home study and parenting-skills evaluation to indicate that the county social service agency should make an affirmative effort to assist Gail in establishing a relationship which would permit the mother and daughter to be permanently reunited. It is apparent that Gail’s life prior to her marriage was considerably different from that subsequent to her marriage. Despite that fact, if no affirmative effort is made to assist Gail in establishing a close relationship with her daughter and if the extension of the order is construed to merely allow Gail time to show the requisite interest, the attempt to reunite mother and daughter may well fail. Gail may not without affirmative assistance be able to overcome in a few short months the attitudes established in the several *495years of her prior lifestyle. Hopefully, the aim of the social service agency is to reunite child and parent if possible. To that end, affirmative action on the part of the agency is required. The only other alternative for a normal family life for this child would appear to be adoption, and that should be considered only if the social service agency has exhausted all attempts at establishing an acceptable mother-daughter relationship.