Soldier's Wife Gives Their Baby Away & He's Desperate to Get Her Back
This may be one of the most disturbing adoption stories I've read in a long time. A man named Terry Achane was away from home on duty as a soldier in the United States Army when his wife gave birth to their daughter and then promptly put the baby up for adoption, allegedly doing so without ever telling Terry it was happening. It goes against everything adoption is meant to do and then some ...
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Now Jared and Kristi Frei, the people who brought little Leah home and thought she was legally their daughter, are in a fight against a dad who just wants his little girl back.
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I can't help thinking of little Leah (or as her biological father had named her before her birth, Teleah) here. Adoption is supposed to be about the kids and what is in their best interests, and this case has done anything but give this little girl a good start in life.
Adoption isn't a game. It's not a means for biological parents to exact some sick sort of revenge on someone else. It's a way for biological parents and would-be adoptive parents to come together with a common goal: to give a child a great life.
My heart hurts for Terry Achane and for Jared and Kristi Frei, who have been ordered to give the girl back to her dad in 60 days, because one person didn't understand what this was all about: Tira Bland, Achane's now ex-wife, who allegedly set this whole adoption scheme up behind his back.
Bland and Achane were apparently having marital troubles when he left their home in Texas to take a job as a drill instructor at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. But with Bland pregnant with their first child (her second), Achane left home with the understanding that he'd be coming back to be by her side during the delivery. He'd even gotten permission from his commanding officers.
But then it all changed. Bland put the kid up for adoption, and somehow it went through without dad's consent.
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It sounds an awful lot like a woman got hella pissed at her man and decided to screw him over. Only instead of burning his clothes or putting a baseball bat through his window like some average woman scorned, she put his child up for adoption. She literally used a human being as a pawn in a game!
And who was hurt here? Those poor adoptive parents who thought their dreams had come true when they got their little girl. The biological father. And worst of all, that poor child.
Sadly, fixing this situation is too late. No matter who "gets" Leah in the end, too many people have been hurt. But here's hoping this sends a message to people who would use adoption for anything other than helping a child.
What do you think should be done here?
Image via Dominique Godbout/Flickr
Written by Jeanne Sager on CafeMom's blog, The Stir.
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