Piles of Playskool toys and a booster seat in primary colors sit in the dining room of Nicole Lever's home in Glen Burnie. But a toddler hasn't used them since August.
The foster child who lived there for nearly 17 months was taken from the home by county social services officials while he watched Sesame Street, after genetic tests showed that Lever's then-husband had fathered a child by the couple's other foster child, a teen-age girl.
And while Lever was not implicated - her former husband has since been convicted of child abuse and left the state - she remains frustrated in her attempt to adopt the toddler.
"I'm not going to get rid of it all. I'm not going to stop fighting," said Lever, 29, who so far has spent nearly $10,000 in legal fees in her quest to win back custody of the child and for her divorce. "I didn't do anything wrong."
The Arundel Middle School eighth-grade math teacher is appealing the county Department of Social Services' decision to take the toddler from her and to revoke certification of her home for foster care and adoption.
Lever also awaits the outcome of an evaluation of her as a single foster and adoptive parent. The Anne Arundel agency asked Howard County social workers to perform the evaluation because officials here knew Lever and wanted a fresh study, Lever said.
"My concern is [the toddler]," she said, adding that she is worried about his social and emotional well-being.
Dorothy Boyle, deputy director for services at the county Social Services Department, refused to discuss the situation, saying individual cases are confidential. She did say the toddler "was moved and he is taken care of."
Lever's quest looks like an uphill battle, said Barbara A. Babb, director of the Center for Families, Children and the Courts at the University of Baltimore.
Typically, if the family the child lives with wants to adopt him and if he is well-adjusted and attached to that family, it is likely to get priority, she said. The agency's top priority by law, she said, is what is considered best for the child.
"I feel for the [foster] mother. She has been victimized many ways," Babb said.
But she also said it could be argued Lever failed to protect the teen-age foster daughter and has no legal right to the toddler.
Lever said she had no idea her husband was having a sexual relationship with their foster daughter. In legal proceedings, the Social Service Department has contended that she should have known.
Reached at a Missouri telephone number - charging documents in his criminal case say he intended to move there with the teen-ager and their child - Samuel Curtis Lever Jr., 27, declined to discuss the situation. But he was critical of his ex-wife.
"She doesn't deserve [the toddler]," he said. " ... I have no desire to have anything to do with her."
The Levers first became involved with foster care in 2000 when, while waiting to adopt a child, they were asked by DSS to take in a 15-year-old girl. In their 20s, the couple felt that they would understand issues that might confront the teen-ager, Nicole Lever said.
A year later, DSS added a 5-week-old boy, with the possibility that the baby might be available for adoption later.
But once the baby arrived, the foster daughter's behavior grew troublesome, Lever said. In July 2001, the girl announced her pregnancy. According to court documents, she said the father was a teen-age boy.
The baby, born in February last year, was added to the household. But, Lever said, the teen-ager was becoming so unruly that one Saturday Lever asked DSS to remove her. The foster daughter and her baby moved in with a friend soon after.
The relationship between the teen-ager and Samuel Lever Jr., who visited the girl almost daily at her new home, made the friend's family uncomfortable, according to charging documents in the criminal complaint.
Paternity testing was performed soon after DSS received a call about the matter. On Aug. 21 last year, social workers arrived to tell Nicole Lever they were taking the toddler because DNA tests confirmed her husband was the father of the foster-daughter's baby.
Later that day, Samuel Lever Jr. was gone, too. According to charging documents, he told his wife that the "relationship had been going on for two years and he planned to move to Missouri with [the girl] when she turned 18 years old."
The couple divorced Oct. 28. The Sun is not naming the teen-ager because she was a victim of a sexual crime and was underage at the time.
Since the day the toddler was taken from her home, Nicole Lever has sought his return, attending the counseling DSS recommended and appealing the revocation of her foster care approval.
