A Father's Love, Jasmine's story. part 2 in the fascinating story of one couple's quest for a child to call their own.

My wife and I are both in our 50's. We live in the Daytona Beach area. We attempted to adopt a child that I met in Quito, Ecuador while I was on a missions trip there. After two years and exhausting all of our savings, it fell through in Ecuador. Third-world countries can be extremely difficult to work with at times. To read that story, click on this link: A Father's Love, Mitzi's story.

With our hearts broken and our savings gone, we decided to become foster-to-adopt parents. We were told that the children placed in our home would be the ones that were most likely to become available for adoption. That has not been the case. We have had two foster children so far.

Our second child we got in February, and we had been working with the bio mom through the entire process and Sept 22 was their reunification. We are all happy to see their reunion. We have a good relationship with her and she comes over with the child to visit us.



Our first child came as a 7 pound newborn in November of 2005 and she has been the joy of our lives. Every morning I would lay her next to me on the bed and pray over her, sing to her and play with her. It was a real treasure watching her grow up. The bond between us has grown so strong that when I look at her the love and joy I feel inside makes my heart feel as if it about to burst. When I come in from being away even for a short time, she is so excited to see me come in the door. It is worth all the heartache and trials we had to go through to get this far.

The case manager said there was no one in her family that could pass a home study to get her. However, in April they started an ICPC on her grandmother in Texas. The authorities refuse to allow us to have any contact with the grandmother, with the threat of losing our foster care license and the child if we initiate contact on our own. They told us she was reluctant at first, so maybe they think we'll be able to convince her to let us keep the child. They have made it clear that the only case plan they have for Jasmine is placement with her grandmother.

We just found out that the grandmother's home study has been approved. CBC still refuses to give us her contact information so I am going to search to find her.

I found her in an internet search. She just called us and did not even know that her home study had been approved yet. We emailed her pictures of the baby and she is overjoyed to get them. The court date has been set for custody to transition to her.

August 24, 2006 We petitioned the court to allow us to take Jasmine to Texas ourselves and it was granted. They were going to have a case worker take her there, but we love her so much that we can't just stand by an see her hurt any more than absolutely necessary. We will stay there several days to allow her to begin to bond with her grandparents before we leave her there with them.

Sept 28, 2006 - We just returned from Texas. We left our treasure there with her new family. As it turned out the grandmother would have been willing for us to do an open adoption if she had only known that was our desire. She didn't want another child at first and would have let us adopt, but after going through all that she had to do to get her home study done and approved, she was not willing to give her up. So, after 10 months of having this beautiful, happy child as our own, we had to give her away. It is the hardest thing I've had to do in my entire life. It feels as if my heart has been ripped from me.

Now we are back where we started, with our hearts broken again. After nearly five years of trying to adopt, we still have not been successful. I know there is a child out there for us. God would not have placed this desire in our hearts only to have our hopes dashed like this.
Part 3 of our adoption story.