The Saddest Thing Is I Can't Hug All The Puppers

I watched this as a kid and internalized it for forever

Nani couldnt get a job cause of Lilo, Lilo couldnt get her needs met cause Nani didnt have a job. If a cycle like that continued it would be bad for both of them and Bubble's knew that, hell he tries to give Nani a chance he really does but when Lilo is alone at home and a fire starts of course that would be the last straw, was it Nani's fault? No, but if she couldnt keep up with Lilo the chances of her getting hurt is much higher and even then Bubble's still felt sad doing this to them but he needed to put his foot down for both of their well-beings

Tbf my parents adopted my cousins, I was ten at the time. It's a lot faster than a closed/no previous relationship adoption. I've seen numbers in the 500-600 days range how long the kids are technically in foster, we were definitely less than a year. This has to do with some technicalities that aren't really mine to share.

Even so, the social worker visits are intense. The whole house has to be up to snuff, with a four year old everything has to be COMPLETELY baby proofed, you need to have your child care and back up child care plans vetted. My parents got some side eye for working in a bar WHICH THEY OWNED, so imagine Nani got similar for some of her jobs. 'It just doesn't look that great on paper," you know. Social workers were visiting basically every other week, especially in the beginning, with paperwork to sign or new tests to conduct. And this was with people who were actually working with us! I wish they vetted biological parents half as well tbh...

Having gone through all this, I was completely under the impression that Bubbles had already given Nani about 187 second chances and was in danger of having the case taken out of his hands.

And another social worker, unfamiliar with the sisters and their genuine if oddly expressed love for each other and not knowing where the trauma response of losing their parents ends and the trauma response of living in a chaotic, potentially dangerous home begins, might not allow Nani visitation or the chance to win Lilo back.

Because, when you lose custody of a biological relation? You can fight for your rights like that. You can fix the house and get a solid job and probably take a childcare class because on paper you already lost her once and you can get her back as long as she wants to see you and they can't prove active abuse rather than neglect. Actually two childcare classes, by the time she's done with the first Lilo will have aged into the second.

My friend got her kid back from "leaving the child with no/insufficient supervision" (the child's father, who was apparently off his meds but hadn't told my friend that) in less than 18 months with a social worker who was actively trying to thwart her because she went to church with the foster parents and "knew how much the child means to them".