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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 2-478 / 12-0769 Filed June 27, 2012

IN THE INTEREST OF Y.C.F. and E.A.F., Minor Children, R.F.-C., Father, Appellant. ________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County, Gary K. Anderson, District Associate Judge.

A father appeals from the order terminating his parental rights. AFFIRMED.

Benjamin J. Pick of McGinn, McGinn, Springer & Noethe, Council Bluffs, for appellant father. Roberta Megel, Council Bluffs, for mother. Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Janet Hoffman, Assistant Attorney General, Matthew Wilber, County Attorney, and Dawn Landon, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee State. Phil Caniglia, Council Bluffs, for minor children.

Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Doyle and Danilson, JJ.

2 DOYLE, J. A father appeals from the order terminating his parental rights to his twin children. He claims (1) the State failed to prove the grounds for termination by clear and convincing evidence and (2) termination was not in the children's best interests. We review these claims de novo. See In re P.L., 778 N.W.2d 33, 40 (Iowa 2010). The mother of these children left them in the care of a friend when they were three months old. More than a year later, the friend attempted to take the children to the doctor but was unable to do so because she did not have the necessary medical authorization. The friend contacted the Iowa Department of Human Services for help. She informed the Department the mother was a drug addict and unable to care for the children. The father is not a citizen of the United States, having illegally immigrated from Mexico some time ago. He does not speak English and cannot read or write in either Spanish or English. The father married the mother after she gave birth to the twins. They lived together in Omaha for a few months until the

mother took the children to live with her friend in Council Bluffs. The father, who worked long hours during the week, would visit the mother and children on the weekends. He did not know she had left the children with her friend, believing she was living there as well. The father also did not know the mother had four older children who were not in her care because of her drug use. He was not even aware she had a drug problem. The children were removed from their parents' care in September 2010 and placed with the mother's friend, under the supervision of the Department.

3 They were later placed with a foster family due to concerns about the friend's care for the children, who appeared malnourished and exhibited significant developmental delays. The children were adjudicated as children in need of assistance (CINA) pursuant to Iowa Code sections 232.2(6)(a), (c)(2), and (g) (2009) in November 2010. The father immediately began participating in the services offered by the Department, expressing a strong desire to care for the children. A Hispanic

service provider, who had also immigrated to the United States from Mexico, was assigned to the case. He encouraged the father to pursue citizenship like he had. He also offered to help the father learn to read and write in Spanish and speak English, but the father was unwilling to learn and continued to communicate with his English-speaking children primarily through gestures. The Department recommended termination of parental rights at the permanency hearing in October 2011. The juvenile court denied that request, opting to instead give the father "additional time in which to become a full -time parent to these children." The court noted the father had consistently exercised visitation with the children, who enjoyed their time with him. The father's visits were increased after the permanency hearing. He

moved from Omaha into a two-bedroom apartment in Council Bluffs. With the help of the foster family, he was able to furnish the apartment. Overnight visits began in November. Unfortunately, things did not go well. During one of the visits, the father allowed his daughter to have too much sugar and had to take her to the emergency room because she became ill. He had been warned about the children's sensitivity to sugar on prior occasions.

4 The father also allowed the friend who had cared for the children when they were babies to have access to them, despite the children having previously been removed from her care. The last straw came when the father returned the

children an hour and a half late after a visit. After that, the father's visits were scaled back to Mondays through Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. He did not ask for the overnight visits to resume and declined to spend additional time with the children over the holidays. He also regularly returned the children early from visits, often failing to have them bathed or ready for bed. Because of these developments, the State filed a petition for termination of parental rights in January 2012. The juvenile court entered an order

terminating the parents' rights to the children under Iowa Code sections 232.116(1)(d), (h), and (i) (2011). The father appeals. We need only find termination proper under one ground to affirm. In re R.R.K., 544 N.W.2d 274, 276 (Iowa Ct. App. 1995). In this case, we choose to focus our attention on section 232.116(1)(d). Under that section, parental rights may be terminated if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence the children were previously adjudicated as CINA and if, after services have been offered to the parents, the circumstances that led to the adjudication continue to exist. Iowa Code

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