OK, the other day I saw a wonderful article from Salt Lake about a former meth addict who was turning her life around and getting her children back. Today I saw the most ridiculous story I could ever imagine. See if you agree.
A couple adopted a child 6 months ago. The mother opted to give the child up for adoption and the new family took custody of the child right out of the hospital. This made the adoptive parents the only parents this child would know. Unfortunately this child was born addicted to drugs and the adoptive parents had to nurse him back to health. The birth mother then changed her mind about the adoption. Since she is an American Indian, the Indian Child Welfare Act came into play and the tribe was able to say the boy belonged with the tribe.
OK, here is the kicker.....The mother has been declared unfit and has four other children in foster care. So the child has to be given back to the tribe because the woman changed her mind, but since the mother is unfit, the child will end up in foster care.
This has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. The boy is in a loving home that is treating him well and there was a legal adoption, now they are going to put this child in foster care. The adoptive parents are of course fighting this and I hope they are successful.
Is this what the Indian Child Welfare Act was supposed to do? If it is, there should be some changes. Obviously this law is not seeing to the welfare of the child.
I guess I have ranted on this enough, but does anyone else think this is totally ridiculous, or am I over reacting to this. Heather and Clint Larson are the adoptive parents. They have my support!!!
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This actually happens more often than what you would think. The tribe is being made the aggressor in the media. I bet the media wouldn't have latched on to the story if it wasn't about a baby. Fact is, the tribe should have been notified immediately because the baby falls under ICWA. I agree, it is horrible...but somebody did not do their job notifying the tribe. I feel awful for the family and for the baby. And I think it is terrible that the baby is going into foster care and not to a permanent family. However, ICWA was put into place so that tribes would be able to retain their children and their culture. I am Menominee and my adopted sons are Ojibwe. I don't always agree with how ICWA is implemented, like in this case, but I do believe it is a necessary law albeit flawed.
ReplyDeleteI have heard this so many times??????? And really sad that the systems are so STUFFED!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd the sad thing is it happens in countries all over the world!