In the Interest of I. G.

Evidence that the mother, who is mentally disabled, conceived the child with her step-grandfather and failed to meet any of her case plan goals, supported the termination of her parental rights.

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The mother of two-year-old I. G. appeals the juvenile court’s order terminating her parental rights.1 She contends that clear and convincing evidence did not support the juvenile court’s finding that her parental rights to the child had been lost. We disagree and 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.” Citation and footnote omitted. In the Interest of D. E. , 282 Ga. App. 519 639 SE2d 526 2006. So viewed, the evidence demonstrates that the mother, who is mentally disabled, came to the attention of the Peach County Department of Family and Children Services “DFACS” in 2004, at the age of 17, after she alleged that she had been molested by her stepfather. DFACS took the mother into foster care and placed her in a residential treatment home. Approximately four months later, the mother gave birth to I. G. A paternity test confirmed that the grandmother’s husband was in fact I. G.’s father.

I. G. was placed in foster care at birth. The juvenile court adjudicated I. G. to be deprived and concluded that the child could not be placed with the mother because the mother had behavioral issues, was mentally handicapped, and was in foster care herself, and that the child could not be placed with the grandmother because the mother had identified her stepfather, the grandmother’s husband, as I. G.’s father. In a subsequent order determining that I. G. remain deprived, the juvenile court found that the mother was “mildly retarded.”

In the Interest of I. G.

Evidence that the mother, who is mentally disabled, conceived the child with her step-grandfather and failed to meet any of her case plan goals, supported the termination of her parental rights.

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