Following the termination of her parental rights, the mother of C. M. and A. M. appeals, contending that: 1 the evidence was insufficient to support the juvenile court’s finding of parental misconduct or inability; 2 the termination was not in the best interest of the children; 3 during the hearing on the mother’s motion for new trial, the juvenile court erred in not admitting new evidence from a Department of Family & Children Services “Department” assessment done after the C. M. and A. M. termination ruling; 4 the juvenile court erred in failing to grant the mother a continuance of the termination hearing due to her family medical emergency; 5 the Department failed to make adequate efforts to find a relative placement for the children; and 6 she received ineffective assistance of counsel at the termination hearing. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. On appeal, we review the evidence in a light most favorable to the lower court’s judgment and determine only whether any rational trier of fact could have found by clear and convincing evidence that the natural parent’s right to custody should be terminated. We defer to the juvenile court’s factfinding and thus neither weigh the evidence nor evaluate witness credibility. Citation and punctuation omitted. In the Interest of J. K. 1 So viewed, the record shows that C. M., born in December 2000, and A. M., born in August 2002, first came into the custody of the Department under a shelter care order issued in January 2003, due to the mother’s drug abuse and failure to protect the children from her stepfather, who molested the mother when she was a child. On January 31, 2003, the Department filed a deprivation petition in the Juvenile Court of Cherokee County, alleging substance abuse, parenting and supervision issues, unstable housing, and lack of employment. In an order dated April 24, 2003, nunc pro tunc February 12, 2003, the juvenile court found the children deprived, placed the children in the custody of the Department for 12 months, and ordered the Department to develop a case plan requiring the mother to undergo substance abuse evaluation, parenting classes, maintain stable housing, and obtain stable employment. The Department prepared a case plan according to the order, and after the mother failed to adequately comply with the case plan, the Department filed a second deprivation petition in November 2003. Following a hearing, the mother consented to a six-month extension of the Department’s custody of the children, and the juvenile court ordered the mother to complete her case plan. After continuing to work with the mother, in June 2004, the Department filed a petition to terminate the mother’s parental rights. The Department also filed a petition to extend custody, which was granted. After several continuances, due in part to the mother’s incarceration for a probation violation due to speeding, a termination hearing was held over two days one in February 2005, and one in May 2005. At the close of the evidence on the second day, the juvenile court orally ruled from the bench and granted the termination. In November 2005, the juvenile court issued a written order terminating the mother’s rights. The mother filed a motion for new trial, which was denied after a hearing, giving rise to this appeal.
1. The mother contends that there was insufficient evidence of parental misconduct or inability, in that she adequately complied with her case plan for reunification. We disagree. In a termination of parental rights case, OCGA § 15-11-94 a requires the trial court to consider whether there is clear and convincing evidence of parental misconduct or inability as provided in OCGA § 15-11-94 b. . . . The four criteria that the court must find in order to hold that parental misconduct or inability is shown are: i The child is a deprived child, as such term is defined in Code Section 15-11-2; ii The lack of proper parental care or control by the parent in question is the cause of the child’s status as deprived; iii Such cause of deprivation is likely to continue or will not likely be remedied; and iv The continued deprivation will cause or is likely to cause serious physical, mental, emotional, or moral harm to the child. In the Interest of J. K. , supra, 278 Ga. App. at 566-567 1. We discuss each element of this analysis below.
