A family from Lanzarote, who is temporarily fostering a two-year-old child, will take the Government of the Canary Islands to court. They denounce that the General Directorate of Protection of Children and Families intends to give the minor "up for adoption" when they are willing to take him in permanently, something they consider will mean a "new traumatic break" for the child.
"Children are not objects, they have a right, and we do not want a technician in an office to decide the future of the child, but a judge," says Ulises Montedeoca, "who believes that the management of the Government of the Canary Islands with this case has been "disastrous".
As Ulises explains, the child is now two years and three months old and arrived at his house when he was just over two months old. "We are biological parents of three children, we like children, and we got into this project," says this man, who explains that in principle the reception was only going to be "for two or three months" until his biological parents could take care of the minor again.
However, he says that finally the reception time was extended because, "six months later, the biological mother was detected with cancer" for which "she has been in the hospital for almost a year and a half." "And now, the Government of the Canary Islands wants to give it up for adoption," he says.
"The child is one more of the family"
"The child already suffered a break with his parents when he was little and now they want him to suffer an even stronger one", says Ulises, who says that the child has towards them "an abysmal attachment and roots". "Right now, we are his references, my wife and I. It's daddy, daddy, mommy, mommy, he's one more of the family, and my children are crazy about him," he says.
In addition, he indicates that the adoption will mean that the minor completely loses contact with his biological parents, with whom he says he has maintained a relationship during the reception time, something that Ulises is willing to continue to be the case.
In fact, he says that although the biological parents "recognize their inability to care" for their child, they accept that he remains in foster care with them because "they do not want him to go up for adoption". "We have a good relationship with his parents and I am going to pay a lawyer for them to also challenge the process," he adds.
They will request that the adoption be stopped as a precautionary measure
Ulises points out that he and his wife Gloria already submitted a letter to the General Directorate of Protection of Children and Families last June to request the permanent foster care of the minor, considering that it is the way in which "his interest and future education and personal well-being are best protected, also assuming the possibility of maintaining the link with his family of origin" as stated in it. However, he says that they did not get a response.
"We requested a meeting for the 5th and the technician told us that they were going to give him up for adoption and that we had to cooperate yes or yes, that if we did not cooperate with the adoption of the child, they would take him away from us," says this father who, faced with this, has decided to resort to Justice.
"We are going to go through the Criminal route," indicates Ulises, who says that next week they will file the lawsuit in court, in which they will also ask that the child's adoption process be stopped as a precautionary measure. "Because they are not dogs or cats, they are children," he concludes.
