In re A.R.M.

OPINION

TOUSSAINT, Chief Judge

The 1990 judgment dissolving the marriage of appellant-mother Mary Mertz and respondent-father Robert Mahowald awarded mother sole physical custody of the parties’ child. In February 1997, mother voluntarily placed the child in foster care. Thereafter, in June, the child was adjudicated in need of protection or services (CHIPS). Later, efforts by father to obtain custody of the child under chapter 518 and efforts by the county to place the child with father in the CHIPS proceeding were unsuccessful. In Aug. 1999, however, the county’s third attempt to place the…