Tuesday, December 30, 2008

FIRST PARENTS WIN THEIR CHILD BACK

This is absolutely awesome by the way. The first parents won their appeal. It is so incredibly sad that it took this long. I see this happening with Shawn McDonald. He has been fighting for three years straight. Hopefully this will happen to him as well. Since the cases are very similar, both fathers have been active in their children's lives.

I wish some adoptive parents would do the right thing.

Here is the story and the link:

Appeals Court Ends Adoption Battle

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Cody will remain with his biological parents. (Photo Credit: FOX 2 News)
By BILL GALLAGHER
FOX 2 News

ECORSE, Mich. (WJBK) -- A long legal fight over a planned adoption ends with the biological parents being reunited with their son. The costly court battle lasted more than five years and drained the parents' resources.

Kenneth Barnett and Christine Wolfe received word on Christmas Eve that their son, Cody, would remain with them. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in their favor.

"I was just jumping and screaming for joy... It's the best Christmas present ever because my baby's home," said Wolfe.

"We were so thrilled that not only will this case... keep him home for good, but being that the decision was a precedent, it's going to be... very hard... for anybody to ever do this to a set of biological parents again," said Barnett.

In 2003, Wolfe gave birth to Cody after she and Barnett had divorced. She already had another child and considered allowing a Dearborn couple to adopt him. "I wanted the best for him and I thought I was doing the right thing and it wasn't," said Wolfe.

The couple got custody and guardianship of Cody, but Barnett never gave up his parental rights and fought any anticipated adoption. Wolfe also withdrew her consent, but the couple went to court, fighting to keep him as his parents' legal bills soared.

"We're close to $225,000... This has basically impoverished us," said Barnett.

The child bounced between the parents and the guardians who wanted to adopt him. Last year, Wolfe received full custody of Cody, but the other couple tried to get the decision reversed. The Court of Appeal's ruling halted that move.

Cody's parents argue these disputes should never last this long. "He spent three years of his life with two homes, two names, two schools, two religions, two families and nobody could stop and say wait a minute, let's put an end to this," said Barnett.

FOX 2 News attempted to contact the other couple involved for a comment, but were unable to reach them.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you. We are so incredibly happy that he is home for good. We also have two daughters together and anticipate rebuilding our marraige. Christine and I have come a long way in 5 years, and if one good thing came out of this it brought us much closer together. I guess we needed a common enemy. :) you can see the entire opinion at the michigan court of appeals website. just type in unthank or barnett in case inquiry and check the box for closed cases. These people manipulated the courts, and Judge Callahan allowed and upheld these disgusting decisions. The court of appeals is a slap in his face!
-Kenneth Barnett

Unknown said...

I hope that in the future, the published decision in this case keeps these un-morolistic, disgusting, prospective adoptive scurges, from ever abusing the rights of a child and biological parents ever again in Michigan. Adopt a child that needs a home. Don't try to destroy the childs family that he already needs.
"Adoptionwas created so that children that desperately need homes can be provided with one. Not so that barren women and couples can set out to purchase a child for the sake of their own disgusting selfish desires. These people need to start thinking of children instead of themselves."