[UPDATE!] My fiancé and I may soon become the sole guardians of FOUR little girls, including two babies.

Hi guys, I thought I’d update you on our situation, for those of you who were interested. I can’t figure out how to post a link on mobile, but if you want to read the first post, check my post history.TL;DR of my situation:My fiance’s father’s three little girls (plus one on the way) are going to get taken away from their mother by child services, due to neglect and abuse. It‘s uncertain whether my fiancé’s Dad, Ray, will be given custody, due to false allegations of violence by the girls’ mother. The social worker wanted to know if my fiancé and I would take the girls, as foster carers. We were keen to help but terrified and unsure whether we could cope.Well, it’s a bit of an anticlimactic ending.I read every single one of your comments. Thank you all so much for your opinions. I genuinely took every one of them seriously.I spoke to my fiancé about everything. We had a really long conversation. It was difficult.We both love the girls, and can’t stand the idea of them being taken into care. We both felt as though it was our responsibility, as family, to take them in.But, we also had to think rationally about what’s best for them, and whether we could realistically cope.We came to the sad conclusion that we couldn’t.Of course, we had very real worries about money and space (our living situation, plus our location, is absolutely not suitable for a family of six).But the main reason was that we decided we wouldn’t be able to cope, from a mental and emotional standpoint. We don’t know how to be parents yet, and are not ready to look after one child full time, let alone four very young kids with various emotional and developmental issues. We decided that trained foster carers, whose job it is to look after such children, would be far better carers for the girls than us. Even though we wanted to help, we realised that the best way to help them is allowing them to get the care they need, even if it’s not with us.I phoned the social worker and discussed everything with her. She totally agreed with our decision, and said that purely from a logistical standpoint, we wouldn’t have passed the viability assessment anyway due to our living situation.She said that they haven’t yet finished their report on Ray, the girls’ (and my fiancé’s) father. The case was supposed to go to court two weeks ago, but for whatever reason they delayed it. It will be another few weeks at least before they take the kids. They said that it’s clear that the girls absolutely love their one day a week with their dad, and have a great time with him. The social workers have actually instructed Tracey to let them see their dad 2 days a week now instead of just one, because of how much happier they are when they get to spend time with him. So it seems like there’s still hope that he might get custody.We’ve told the social worker that if he does get custody, we’ll fully support him and help him look after the girls in whatever way we can. We’re happy to help out financially should he need it, and take the girls for days out every week, occasional sleepovers and the like, to give him a bit of a break. The social workers really like us and seemed pretty happy when we said that. So I have my fingers crossed that things will go our way.Importantly, though, even if they do get taken into care, we’ll still have the right to see them. We’re family (well, I’m not legally family until we’re married, but my fiancé is their real half-brother) so we’re entitled to visitation with them even if they live with foster carers.Whatever happens, I want these girls to grow up knowing their big brother and sister-in-law love them to the ends of the earth and will always be there for them.Thanks guys. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2KHUotG