dissents and assigns reasons.
hi respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because I believe the focus of the majority is in error. Instead of focusing on the mother in this circumstance, our focus should be on the children who have been put at risk, and have suffered from this mother’s inability to confront or conquer her addiction to drugs.
Even the majority admits the factual findings of the district court are not manifestly wrong. And those findings show us that this mother has lied about her continued and current drug use. She has taken extraordinary efforts to obtain prescription medication, even to crossing the state line to obtain prescriptions. She fills these prescriptions at a pharmacy at a distance from her home. Although the mother claims she is drug free and has maintained her sobriety, her actions show she is not only continuing with her usage of drugs, but the manner in which she does so indicates an awareness of her addiction at odds with her testimony.
I find, from the facts established by the trial court, that this mother has shown herself incapable of conquering her drug addiction and, despite attempts to comply with the requirement that she remain drug-free, has failed. The mother has had from 2007 to 2009 to focus her efforts on maintaining sobriety. Our focus must then shift to her children, who have been in foster care for a long period of time. The outcome of the majority’s opinion is that these children will remain in limbo for an even longer period of time. For these reasons, I believe the proper course was to reinstate the trial court’s opinion and terminate this mother’s parental rights.