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My situation is complicated, but briefly the outline is this: Seven years ago, a childhood friend was pregnant and in trouble with DHS. Baby was not going to be coming home with her due to multiple safety risks. I was asked by a family member of hers to consider an open adoption. I was single, very young (19) and had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted to help and loved children very much.
Met with social workers that explained to me that I needed an attorney, parental relinquishment, etc. at the hospital in order to avoid them taking custody of the baby. I did retain an attorney and he presented the idea of permanent guardianship signed by the court while my adoption homestudy was completed. Baby girl was born and I became the legal guardian the next day. I fell in love with that curly haired angel the moment I laid eyes on her as she was being born. Biological mother wanted nothing to do with care or feeding, but was anxious for pictures and the open adoption agreement we agreed to ~ visits twice a year, photos monthly.
To make a very long story short, we did a visit just a few days later, and pictures followed, but soon things did not go well. Mom was having lots of issues with drug usage and we specified that she needed to be clean when visiting, contact needed to be made in advance, etc. She became angry with us and said she would just choose someone else to adopt the baby. This was about six months into the situation. I thought that was just an idle threat. Nothing was further than the truth.
Two months later, we had stopped sending pictures due to a kidnapping attempt which she admitted to setting up. Shortly after, my attorney was served papers demanding custody back of the child and relinquishment to a new adoptive family. The next four months were a nightmarish court battle, with the bio mom dragging me into court saying that she had been forced to sign relinquishment papers under fraud, I had kidnapped her child and was abusing her. These were all proved to be false, but powered by money from the newly chosen adoptive parents, the court battle pressed on. Finally, just before baby girl's 1st birthday, a judge declared that although his ruling was not in the best interest of the child, the bio mom won on a technicality of when the relinquishment had been signed and she did have the right to change her mind. However, despite this ruling, the court recognized that as an adoptive parent who had breastfed this baby, I was the sociological parent. Therefore, he ordered an open adoption between me and the adoptive parents. It was extremely painful to let go of the baby I intended to adopt and viewed as my daughter. I had named her, breastfed, cuddled, loved, she was the light of my life. By the way, even though I was only twenty, I owned a home and had a stable job and was in no way considered an unfit parent.
If you've made it this far with me, I'm amazed. But this is the background to my question. Fast forward six years. I have kept in contact with the parents, sent gifts on birthdays and Christmas, letters, etc. They live quite far away, but my parents have visited her twice. Her parents have accepted them as grandparents. She is now wanting personal contact herself. This is where I am needing input from those who have been in her shoes. Who am I to her? She has been asking her mom, telling her she remembers me, etc. I am obviously not her birth mom, my daughter is not her sister, etc. She is asking a lot of questions on how she got adopted and her adoptive mom is frustrated about the whole thing. She has had a rough time bonding with her and her take is that well, it's more people to love you, but it is obvious that she also feels threatened by me. I love this child more than I can express and want to support her attachment to her parents as this is the healthiest thing for her. I also do love being in contact. I know I'm not the birth mom, but I still feel the pain of the loss. If you were this child, what would you want in an open adoption? What would be important to you? Would you feel like you were between a tug-of-war situation?
I've learned so much from these forums (I've been lurking for over ten years!), thank you in advance for responding!
Wow! I admire that you and your former daughter's APs have done as well as you have negotiating such a complicated relationship. Good for you in continuing to put her needs at the forefront.
One way to think about yourself may be as a former foster mom to the little girl. Both my boys had FPs who cared for them for more than a year when they were babies and we keep in touch with letters and visits. We tell our boys that they lived with the FPs before they came to live with us.
I know your situation is different as I'm sure you don't think of yourself as a foster parent, but that might be a model for how to negotiate your roles.
Good luck to all of you!!
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MM gave you good advice. I would make contact in a heartbeat with whoever took care of me before mom and dad. No one has any clue about who they are and it would be wonderful to know the first part of my life. Your position is obviously more than that of a foster mother simply because your intent wasn't to just foster so the connection/feelings would be stronger there as well.
Could you split the difference and consider yourself a God Mother?
Kind regards,
Dickons
I'm sorry I dropped right off the planet after my first post. I got sick for awhile and life continues to roll forward...thank you both for your posts. I appreciated it very much.
We are actually foster parents now and our own daughter is adopted from foster care. Losing "my" first child has made me much more empathetic to all the moms and dads of our foster children. I truly hurt for them. I try to view myself as a "foster" parent to this special little girl, but I feel quite different towards her. I just don't want to complicate her life or make her feel that she has to "choose" between me and her (adoptive) mom.
Dickons, I guess I'm very ignorant, but I'm actually not familiar with the role of a godparent. I'll have to think about that one. :)
Abigail
I can understand the differing feelings :) I had a baby girl from 6 weeks of age until 13 months when she very, very unexpectedly went to live with a bio grandparent. No matter the legal reasons -- in my heart THAT baby was MY baby to my heart and emotions. I have fostered since, and before, but something about THAT baby girl made her feel like mine. No different than the children I had given birth to or adopted -- my emotions were the same.
It is hard as I watch her grow up, from a distance, in another home with another life. HOWEVER I do realize that her reality is very different than MY reality. In our situation, she will probably never even been told about the year she lived with us. My attachment to her is my own, hers to me (if she ever even finds out about me) will be a mere curiousity.
I think if you can just keep that perspective -- it wont be causing a rift between her and her amom, because you are TO HER, a friend, a stranger that used to care for her, a distant relative who sends gifts, even if to YOU she is your daughter. She has a mom (or two, including birth mom) and your role in her life is simply different.
Anyway - that is what has helped me :)
In all relationships love that is given needs to be received. Even though it may be hard I think you need to work on the wall that keeps that love flowing. And that is the natural mother of the child you love. If you have the energy and the want I think you need to establish a relationship with the natural mother. Once she feels she can trust you, she can stop blocking your relationship with your "daughter". I know it is complicated but I think that is the only way.
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