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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE
March 6, 2013 Session IN RE ERYKAH C.1
Appeal from the Chancery Court for Hamilton County No. 11A048 W. Frank Brown, III, Chancellor

No. E2012-02278-COA-R3-PT-FILED-MAY 6, 2013

This case involves an appeal by a mother of the termination of her parental rights to her daughter. We conclude that the grounds for termination have been established by clear and convincing evidence. Further, there is clear and convincing evidence in the record that termination of the mother's parental rights is in the child's best interest. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court's judgment. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Chancery Court Affirmed; Case Remanded J OHN W. M CC LARTY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which C HARLES D. S USANO, J R., P.J., and D. M ICHAEL S WINEY, J., joined. Peter J. Arant, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellant, Karen M. C. Michael S. Jennings, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellees, Daniel Scott Harnsberger and Tabitha Rife Harnsberger. Jeff Davis, Hixon, Tennessee, guardian ad litem. OPINION I. BACKGROUND This case is a parental rights action terminating the parental rights of Karen M. C.

This court has a policy of protecting the identity of children in parental rights termination cases by initializing the last names of the parties.

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("Mother") to her daughter, Eryka C. ("the Child") (d.o.b. August 29, 2010). Eric T. ("Putative Father"), the apparent biological father of the Child, was named as a defendant in the underlying action. He never made an appearance or responded to the petition.2 Daniel S. H. and Tabitha R. H. are the prospective adoptive parents ("Adoptive Parents"). Mother, who has spent much of her life in and out of group homes and other facilities, has had a court-appointed conservator over her person for her entire adult life. The current conservator, Diana Crawford Johnson ("the Conservator") joined in Adoptive Parents' underlying adoption petition as a co-petitioner, in order to provide her consent to the adoption. At a hearing in this matter, the Conservator testified as follows: Q. As the conservator of [Mother's] person, do you see any hope for substantive change? Sadly, as things go now, no, I don't. . . . [H]aving a child, the stress of having a child would just be so much

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