Following the grant of her application for appeal, Karla Sumlin, mother of A. E. S., appeals from the denial of her motion for new trial following the termination of her parental rights to A. E. S. by the Fulton County Juvenile Court. Finding no error, we affirm. On appeal from a termination order, this Court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the appellee and determines whether any rational trier of fact could have found by clear and convincing evidence that the biological parent’s rights to custody have been lost. We do not weigh the evidence or determine the credibility of witnesses, but defer to the trial court’s factfinding and affirm unless the evidence fails to satisfy the appellate standard of review.1 So viewed, the evidence shows that, on October 22, 2008, two days following A. E. S.’s birth in prison, the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services the “Department” filed a deprivation petition. Following a hearing, A. E. S. was adjudicated deprived by the trial court’s order of February 4, 2009. Among the findings of the juvenile court were that Sumlin gave birth while incarcerated; was without a home of her own and unable to provide housing for the child; was unemployed and unable to provide for the financial needs of the child; and that she suffered from mental health problems for which she allegedly failed to take her medication. The order further found that the identity of the putative father was unknown. Sumlin did not appeal this adjudication. An order on permanency hearing, dated October 16, 2009 and filed November 9, 2009, found that Sumlin had had no contact with A. E. S. while the child was in the Department’s custody and had had no contact with the Department. By order dated November 9, 2009, filed November 16, 2009, the juvenile court extended the Department’s custody of A. E. S., finding that the conditions of deprivation continued in that Sumlin had not attended and completed parenting classes, had not obtained stable and safe housing, had not obtained a source of income, and had not submitted to a psychological examination. This order further found that the whereabouts of Sumlin were then unknown. Neither of these orders was appealed.
On October 30, 2009, a Petition for Termination of Parental Rights was filed on behalf of the Department. At the beginning of the hearing on the petition to terminate, held on February 25, 2010, the juvenile court took judicial notice of the previous orders in the case.2 Case worker Ruby Crump testified that she had been involved with A. E. S. since April 2009 and that Sumlin’s whereabouts were unknown for some period of time because she had been incarcerated under the name of Beyonce Knowles. Sumlin had no contact with either A. E. S. or the Department from the child’s birth in October 2008 until the hearing in February 2010. Following the birth of A. E. S., Sumlin was briefly released from prison until she was arrested for assaulting a police officer. At this point, Sumlin gave her name as Beyonce Knowles. She was found incompetent to stand trial and sent to Georgia Regional Hospital in order to stabilize her condition with medication. Sumlin was returned to Fulton County in January 2010 and, according to her, she had been treated for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. During Crump’s meeting with Sumlin in jail on January 11, 2010, she advised Sumlin that a petition for termination of her rights had been filed and Sumlin said she wanted the Department to keep her son until she could get out of jail. According to Crump, A. E. S. has bonded with his foster parents, in whose care he has been for 16 months. Further, according to the case worker, a child who remains indefinitely in foster care risks suffering from “foster care drift,” making the child prone to have issues with behavior, attachment, and bonding. Although present at the hearing on the petition to terminate, Sumlin did not testify.
