Dear Judge Tom, I am a 50 year old single super dad raising my 5 year old daughter for the last 13 months on my own. She is placed with me through a dependency court order because her mother (we were never married) is addicted to meth amphetamine and failed to complete her case plan, relapsing twice including testing positive on March 16th 2016, the day before our last trial date, 15 months into the case plan. Currently the mother gets supervised visits 3 times per week at the grandmother’s house but my little one sleeps safe in my home every night. I am having trouble deciding whether to take her to family court. I have spoken to several lawyers, some of whom tell advise to get to family court asap while the evidence is still fresh of her dependency case plan failure and severe addiction problem and that I have to do so because it establishes a more permanent order… and others advise me that if I’m ok with the order currently in place to just leave it alone versus opening a “pandora’s box” by going to family court. I am fairly certain that eventually the mother will try to fake recovery and take me to family court to try and get more rights and time with our daughter. She lied vigorously during her case plan, denying her use of meth and trying to squeeze by, constantly objecting to everyone’s motions to close with our daughter being placed with me. My question is.. Do I act now and proceed to family court or wait and see what she does then defend my position ?