Adoption Story on Today Show

[kellyg403]

On the Today show this morning, the father said that the adoptive parents signed at risk adoption paperwork, which means that one or both of the parents aren't on board with giving up the child. So the adoptive parents knew from the get go that at least one biological parent had not given up the child and potentially wanted to raise her.

Slimy slimy adoption agency imo

Well that changes my opinion A LOT. They knew and continued to think it will work itself out and they would win.

Did the father say anything about them letting him have any contact, speak to the child, visit, get pictures anything at all?

Kelly

 

[RachaelA]

On the Today show this morning, the father said that the adoptive parents signed at risk adoption paperwork, which means that one or both of the parents aren't on board with giving up the child. So the adoptive parents knew from the get go that at least one biological parent had not given up the child and potentially wanted to raise her.

Slimy slimy adoption agency imo

That makes it even worse! Those adoptive parents should be ashamed of themselves. I understand they love the child, but they essentially kidnapped her and that doesn't make it okay just because they love her.

 

[PlutoPony]

Well that changes my opinion A LOT. They knew and continued to think it will work itself out and they would win.

Did the father say anything about them letting him have any contact, speak to the child, visit, get pictures anything at all?

Kelly

Don't think he's been allowed any contact.
Here's the link to this morning's interview http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/44201943#44201943

 

[Hannathy]

I totally agree with you about educating our kids about things like this. I do hope, though, that you're using "you" in your second sentence in the generic way, since I'm definitely not a guy!

I was using it toward the young men that this info would be going to.

I'm sorry for this man that this happened but this is a chance you take when you get someone pregnant without knowing all your legal rights. He lives in a state that the father isn't on the birth certificate. I feel for him but it was a chance he took, he gambled and lost.

After all the girlfriend could have gotten pregnant and simply not told him and he wouldn't even know about the child. Without legal papers the girl holds all the cards, unless laws are changed.

 

[shirleyb]

I guess I am wondering why the adoptive parents, who knew within the first year it was being contested, the VA court had already ruled he was within his rights, why they did not try to at least work out something until it was confirmed that they would be keeping the child.

Kelly

According to another poster, they knew after 4 months that the father wanted her back. Could you have given your baby back after 4 months? I certainly couldn't. I'm sure they loved her as much as if they'd given birth to her, so I'd have fought for her too, if I were them.

As tragic as it is for this young man, IMO, the rights of the child have to come first, and I think she should stay in the home that she's been raised in.

 

[jrmasm]

According to another poster, they knew after 4 months that the father wanted her back. Could you have given your baby back after 4 months? I certainly couldn't. I'm sure they loved her as much as if they'd given birth to her, so I'd have fought for her too, if I were them.

As tragic as it is for this young man, IMO, the rights of the child have to come first, and I think she should stay in the home that she's been raised in.

That post doesn't site anything so I'm not sure where that information came from.

Regardless, can an adoption be finalized in 4 months? If it wasn't finalized, it was finalized and she wasn't their baby.

 

[palmtreegirl]

That is so sad. The baby belongs with her father and I hope he gets her back soon.

 

[palmtreegirl]

Now as an adoptive child if I knew my "parents" hid me from my father who wanted me all along - that would be it. I would so be in contact with him and not them. It just shows their true character.

I would also own that agency - if ever litigation was called for this is it.

At what point does hiding a child constitute adoption?

I agree.

 

[ols386]

The guy should have his child back. And if the adoptive parents knew the whole situation from the beginning, then they have to be held accountable.

 

[kellyg403]

According to another poster, they knew after 4 months that the father wanted her back. Could you have given your baby back after 4 months? I certainly couldn't. I'm sure they loved her as much as if they'd given birth to her, so I'd have fought for her too, if I were them.

As tragic as it is for this young man, IMO, the rights of the child have to come first, and I think she should stay in the home that she's been raised in.

I guess that at some point, we have to agree that we don't have the facts or all the information. At the link provided, the father states adopting couple signed at risk adoption papers and knew that it was being contested. If the courts in VA said he filed at day 5, then the adoption agency withheld that information from these parents, not the father.

I am not doubting that everyone loves this baby. But I guess that is the point, everyone does and that is where they are today.

Kelly

 

[Sal]

This reminds me of the Baby Jessica story. The birth mother put a wrong name for the father on the birth certificate. Wen she changed her mind about the adoption, she told the birth father and he filed for custody.

After 2 1/2 years, the baby was returned to her bio parents. They filmed the moments before and during the removal of the little girl from her home and it was gut-wrenching to watch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Jessica_case

My heart goes out to all involved in this case.

 

[Ceila]

duplicate post

 

[Ceila]

According to another poster, they knew after 4 months that the father wanted her back. Could you have given your baby back after 4 months? I certainly couldn't. I'm sure they loved her as much as if they'd given birth to her, so I'd have fought for her too, if I were them.

As tragic as it is for this young man, IMO, the rights of the child have to come first, and I think she should stay in the home that she's been raised in.

The rights of the child were violated when the adoption took place without her father's consent.

Since the adoptive parents singed the "at risk" paperwork, that meant that they knew that the adoption wasn't agreed to by all parties from the get-go. I'm having trouble garnering much sympathy for them since they knew all along that a biological parent wanted to raise the little girl. And right or wrong, that also makes me question what kind of people are raising her.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I'm a mother of three adopted children. I truely HATE stories like this because it taints what is, for the majority of cases, a wonderful thing.

The adoptive parents are certainly in the wrong in this particular case. They knew from a very early time that the father was protesting their adoption.

They are to blame for the trauma their adoptive daughter will face when she is given back to her birth father.

Now it's up to the adoptive parents to make things right. They could help their daughter with the transition. They could mend fences with the father and maybe continue to be a part of the child's life.

Yes, it will be difficult in the beginning, but children are very resilent. I've adopted children between the ages of 1-4 at the time of their adoption. They had to adapt to a new family, new language, new culture, etc. This girl could easily make the transition back to her birth father. The adoptive parents shouldn't make it difficult for her.

 

[Folklore]

It seems like there is a lot of assuming of what the adoptive parents did and did not know. As an adoptive parent myself I can say that the process is a very difficult one. You put a lot of trust in the adoption agency and workers that you are given all the correct information. No one knows exactly what they were told so I don't think anyone can judge their character based on what is being written or said.

I do feel sorry for this man. I hope that this situation is resolved and if he really wants to be a part of the child's life then he is allowed to do so.

On another note, this is just another reason why a marriage certificate is not just another "piece of paper". I really wish they would do more about educating the young men in today's society about the fact that if they get someone pregnant and they are not married then the girl holds all the cards.

 

[AuntBJ]

I think all contested adoption lawsuits should be put on an expedited calendar in the court system much like death penalty appeals. All of this should have been settled at least two years ago.

 

[PaulaSB12]

I don't think a 3 yr old child should ever be taken from the only home they have ever known. Talk about early childhood trauma. I can't imagine.

The authorities responsible for overseeing adoptions should have remedied this early on. If the man truly was fighting for the baby right from the get go then the baby should have been returned.

But not now.

And if you allow that you will have babies stolen, because if you keep them long enough its your's anyway. NO the child needs to be returned to the father and the adoption agency charged and banned from doing any more adoptions. Remember that 6 year old stolen from her mother after the kidnapper set fire to the house would you have had that child remain with the kidnapper?

PHILADELPHIA -- The mother of a Philadelphia girl who was thought to have died in a house fire in 1997 is eagerly awaiting a reunion with her daughter.

Delimar Vera was just 10 days old when the fire destroyed her family's home in the Feltonville section of North Philadelphia on Dec. 15, 1997. Although a body was never found, authorities believed the infant had been consumed by the heat and flames of the fast-moving blaze.

But not everything added up, according to state Rep. Angel Cruz. Cruz said a woman had come to the house twice on the day of the fire, and left once with the baby's father, Pedro Vera.

Now, police say, it turns out that the infant was actually kidnapped by a woman who set the blaze to cover her tracks.

In January, the girl's mother, Luz Aida Cuevas, contacted police after spotting the now-6-year-old girl at a birthday party thrown by Vera's side of the family and recognizing the child as her own.

"I looked at her. She walked in front of me. She looked at me. I looked at her. I said to my sister, 'That is my daughter. She got my daughter.' My sister said, 'You have to take it easy. You need proof. We have to find proof,'" Cuevas said.

Luz Cuevas told The Associated Press Tuesday that she recognized the girl and was certain that it was her daughter, Delimar Vera. She says she pretended that the little girl had chewing gum stuck in her hair to remove five strands from the child's head.

She folded them in a napkin and placed them in a plastic bag, which she locked in a safe at home, then turned over to authorities. Cuevas says she knew from watching television that they would need hair for DNA tests.

"She bumps into the lady who had come to her house the day of the fire, and she sees the lady with a child, and all of a sudden, her motherly instincts say, 'that's my child.' She left there saying, 'that's my child, that's my baby," Rep. Cruz said.

The investigation was reopened and the DNA test results announced Monday confirmed that the girl Cuevas saw is her missing daughter.

Delimar has been placed in the custody of New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services. It is not clear when she will be reunited with her biological mother, but Cuevas knows how she will greet her daughter.

She said that she will "go and give her a kiss and a hug and say, 'I love you, I love you."'

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of 41-year-old Carolyn Correa of Willingboro, N.J., on charges of arson, kidnapping and conspiracy. She remains at large.


She was last seen living in Willingboro, N.J., driving a burgundy 2003 Chevrolet with a New Jersey license plate of NTL71H.

Birth Mother Talks To WCAU-TV

Philadelphia TV station WCAU-TV talked exclusively to Cuevas about her relief at finally finding her daughter.

"I screamed (when I was told the test results). I felt so happy. I don't know what to say. Cry? You know, because I was in shock when they say, 'It's your daughter,'" Cuevas said happily.

Cuevas said she knew she had just met her daughter because she recognized the moles on the girl's cheek. She also said the girl looked like her sons, who never gave up hope they would be reunited with their sister.

"Every Christmas, my sons say, 'Mommy, we have to find (her).' I said, 'Don't worry, we'll find her.' I knew she was alive," Cuevas said.

Cuevas is thrilled, but she also has bitter questions for the woman accused of kidnapping her child.

"Why'd she do that to me? Kidnapping my daughter? You know? She do a fire to my house to take my daughter," Cuevas said.

Correa's husband told WCAU that he is devastated to find out the girl he thought was his daughter belonged to someone else.

Girl's Birth Father Says He's Stunned

Pedro Vera said was stunned and excited that his daughter was alive and revisited the address where he last saw her. He told WCAU-TV that he couldn't wait to see his daughter.

Vera went to the same birthday party where Cuevas first laid eyes on Delimar. Correa is his cousin and introduced the girl to him as her own daughter, named Aaliyah.

"I got the feeling that was my daughter because she looked like me," Vera said.

Vera also had the feeling that the girl looked just like his son.

"A lot of years, I think she's dead. And now, when I looked at her and I said, 'Oh my God, that's my daughter. She's not dead,'" Vera told WCAU.

 

[Ceila]

I'm a mother of three adopted children. I truely HATE stories like this because it taints what is, for the majority of cases, a wonderful thing.

I agree with the rest of your post, too, but I just wanted to comment on the above. I can't speak for everyone, of course, but I *hope* that most people realize that this case is more the exception than the rule. I do think, however, as Hannathy pointed out earlier, that it is a very good warning for the young men out there who don't realize how limited their rights might be.

 

[Hannathy]

Not the same in anyway shape or form! That baby was criminally kidnapped. Neither parent relinquished parental rights. In this case the Mother legally signed over the baby in an adoption.

 

[Ceila]

Not the same in anyway shape or form! That baby was criminally kidnapped. Neither parent relinquished parental rights. In this case the Mother legally signed over the baby in an adoption.

But in this case, one parent did not relinquish rights. Sadly, that apparently is legal in the state they reside in, but that doesn't make it right.