O'DANIEL v. Messier

OPINION

KOCH, Judge.

This appeal involves a biological mother’s efforts to preserve her parental relationship with her five-year-old daughter. The child’s paternal grandparents filed an adoption petition in the Circuit Court for Sumner County after obtaining temporary custody of then-granddaughter. The trial court, sitting without a jury, found that the mother had abandoned her daughter and granted the grandparents’ adoption petition. We reverse the order of adoption because the grandparents have not proved by clear and convincing evidence that the mother has abandoned her daughter.

I

Jeanette…