All custody battles are heartbreaking on some level, but what young dad John Wyatt is going through right now is particularly tragic. Wyatt was 19 when his now 2-year-old daughter was born. The plan, or so he was told at the time, was for Wyatt and his girlfriend to decide after the baby came if they would raise her together or if Wyatt would raise her himself. But that's not what happened at all.
When Wyatt went to the hospital in his home state of Virginia where his girlfriend went into labor, she was already gone. She gave up their daughter for adoption, Wyatt was told, without his consent and in the most underhanded way you can imagine.
Wyatt got a lawyer immediately to try and get his daughter back, but the baby was already in Utah, a state, not coincidentally, with some of the most restrictive custody laws in the country: If a parent doesn't file for custody within the first 20 days of a child's life, they lose their parental rights entirely.
Wyatt didn't even know where his daughter had been taken for the first 20 days of her life.
It was too late by the time he tracked her down. Utah supreme court ruled that Wyatt "failed to exercise his parental rights."
Wyatt's daughter is nearly 3 years old, and he's spent her entire life trying to get her back. He's never even seen her in person, and the only pictures he has of the girl were taken when she was around 4 months old. Wyatt says he'll never give up, though -- he even has a bedroom set up for his daughter (his name for her is "Emma") at his mother's house.
How is it even possible that a variation in custody law from one state to another is preventing a father from reclaiming his stolen biological child? Particularly when Utah law is in desperate need of an update anyway?
In a statement, the Utah Attorney General cited the birth mother's decision that it was in her child's best interest to go to an adoptive family as one determining factor.
Ironically, the baby's mother, Colleen, has since reunited with Wyatt and now regrets her decision to give her daughter away.
This baby belongs with her biological family!
Do you think Wyatt will get custody of his daughter?
Image via MSNBC
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Comments 119
wait, she gave up his daughter WITHOUT his consent, had the baby taken across state lines to a state where they know it is harder for him to exercise his parental rights - and he took her back?!? i hope it works out for him, truly... but i think i'd definitely be re-visiting that whole "is this the right person for me?" question!
Watch the video, shes 3.
At some point someone needs to think about what is best for the girl. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but taking that girl away from her lawful parents will screw her up.
This video and situation is every adoptive parents worst nightmare.
And please someone do some research on Adoption before writing another article about it. Utah is not the only state with that law. Ours was a 40 day wait and thats long compared to Oklahoma.
No, she consented and signed all the forms. Its the birth mothers fault for not telling the birth father, not the little girls fault. All adoptions are at risk adoptions, even if both birth parents sign their rights away. Unfortunately the biological father is putting his own spin on this. If the adoptive parents had falsifird documents, he would already have custody. We arent getting the whole story I would imagine.
First, as much sympathy as I feel for this guy, he is being completely selfish. He and his family are making this all about THEM. There has been nothing about "this is what's best for the girl". Saying that the birth parents "stole the child"? That if she remains with them, she will be "living a lie"? That she would be better with him - being torn from the only life she's ever known - at ANY AGE??? Selfish. Completely and utterly selfish.
The child is 3. At this point, she deserves to stay with her family. Yes, her FAMILY. That couple that adopted her did everything right. They are fighting to keep their daughter.
I feel sorry for the dad. I really do. What happened to him is awful, and I sympathize, but it's time to let her go. Perhaps if he approached it in a different way - offered to the adoptive parents to be in an "open" situation? Move to Utah so he can be a part of his daughter's life, but still leave her in their care. Yes, it would be difficult for him, but plenty of other people do it. For Heaven's sake, she deserves to have HER feelings put first. By all parties.
If anything, the birth mother deserves to be the one being raked over the coals. If he needs to sue anybody, and drag anybody's backside through the courts, it should be hers. She had no right to sign away that child without his permission.
I remember a case like this many years ago (I'm thinking... 15? 20?). The case of "Baby Richard". The child was given up for adoption by his mother. Dad either didn't know or didn't care - at the time. But then Mom and Dad got back together, and decided to contest the adoption. Several years later. 'Baby Richard" turned three. And then four. I believe he was something like FIVE when the courts finally decided that the birth parents should have him back. I will never, EVER forget the horror of that child being torn from his *real* parents - those who adopted and fought with their lives to keep him - and placed into the waiting car of people that he didn't know. This is shaping up to be the same way.
THIS is why you need to know who you are sleeping with before you do the deed. The consequences are very, very real, and affect more than just you.