It’s over, finally over, it’s also just beginning. I wish them well.
Dad given custody of daughter secretly adopted 9 years ago
The post below was titled Father’s Day posted last June and delves into the back story with links…
There’s a father whose been fighting for 8 years to parent his daughter. He’s had to fight in both Utah and Colorado courts. Can you imagine the heartache? The devastation? All the time lost? Every first he will never witness? The memories they should have made together? The emotional toll? And he’s still fighting.
This is a Father…
This article from 2012 speaks to what happened in 2008, without reading this, you can’t understand the maze he’s had to go through. Towards the end it speaks to how Rob Manzanares filed a paternity action in Colorado before his daughter was born in early 2008, and that he’d also supported the expectant mother. You’d think that would have been enough, it wasn’t. It took four years to get to the decision the article is about. You can also read the Utah Supreme Court Ruling here.
Fast forward to an article from December 2013. At this point, he’s been able to meet, spend some time with, and start getting to know his daughter. It speaks to an upcoming court hearing in Colorado where he’s seeking custody, but according to the article, he still supports her having some relationship with the prospective adoptive couple in Utah. March 2014 he wins a partial victory in Colorado to have some parenting time and input into parenting decisions, but they still have primary custody.
In August 2015 the Appeals Court of Colorado heard his appeal, and they handed down a verdict, just days later. The prospective adoptive parents appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of Colorado that declined to hear it in 2016. Now, I believe, the Appeals Court of Colorado ruling takes the case back to a lower court with instructions, specifically, the Troxel presumption. You can follow along on the (hopefully) last part of their story on the FB page Bring Kaia Home Now.
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There may be some connected to adoption who are reading this thinking he should have bowed out because of the length of time, and the potential impact on his daughter. Or, if the prospective adoptive parents offered openness, he should have taken that, and been thankful. No, that belief just means you need to do some soul-searching on why you would think that. While I’m sure the prospective adoptive parents love this child, this, is not, what adoption is meant to be. Respect the role adoption is supposed play, a solution when a child needs a different family. This child did not need a different family, she had a willing and able father who wanted to raise his child. He was adamant about raising his child, and, not only that, he was proactive before his child was born. This should never have happened.
This was a hard piece to get all the details correct, any errors please let me know and I will fix them and apologize.
The adopted ones blog 
Lara/Trace
May 4, 2017 at 6:24 pm
This should never have happened. – You are exactly right but child trafficking is not fair nor do they care…
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Heather
May 4, 2017 at 7:21 pm
I hate seeing the “don’t tear her from the only home she’s ever known” comments. Those same people would be livid if you suggested they just give up on their own children if they were ever kidnapped.
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Cindy
May 5, 2017 at 10:08 pm
What folks always seem to shove aside is that any child, adopted as an infant, has always, and in every case, been taken from the only mother they have ever known. This adoptive parent “argument” loses all credibility and weight in light of that profound fact.
If it made no trauma inducing big deal for the infant /or child to be removed from the ONLY mother they have EVER known… the mother they were created in, lived in, and were ONE with, doesn’t matter, then this perpetual argument should be dismissed as irrelevant.
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