When my son Isaiah was born on January 3, 2007, I was unsure whether I was his father. Then I laid his small body against my chest with my head bowed down to his and felt an unmistakable bond. I knew he was mine.
PROVING MY FATHERHOOD
Unfortunately, because of his mother’s actions, my son went into foster care. I was determined to get him back. While I filed for paternity and waited for the court to … Read More
This is not about what’s easy to write. This is about what people need to know. This is a pain and suffering that never goes away. I really miss my little girl every single day. When I last saw my daughter she looked so beautiful and happy. She looked almost exactly like my son, Aaron. her long curly brown hair. Her skin a little darker than mine. short and cute. I’ll never forget her smile.
SAFETY … Read More
There was a time when all adoptions were closed, parents signed over their rights and rarely ever saw their children again. But time and research have shown that children who maintain connections to their biological families do better. While private adoption agencies have increasingly embraced openness, child welfare systems have not.
Meanwhile, over the past 20 years, adoptions have increased, from 38,000 in 1998 to over 50,000 last year. That’s a result of the federal Adoption … Read More
In 2013, I placed my oldest daughter in foster care because I didn’t know how to help her. She was 6 when she started to say that she hated me and her siblings and didn’t want to live with us anymore. One day, after I told her that she could have a piece of cake only after she did her homework, she said, “I hate you, Mommy,” and “I want to kill myself,” over and … Read More
I came to court that morning with my heart and my mind racing in time with one another. I was handcuffed as we traveled from the bowels of Bronx criminal court, arriving at a phone booth-sized room where I was told to wait for my lawyer.
It was the day for me to sign those papers. My son, Justin, was 8 then. For the first three years of his life, Justin had slept in my bed, … Read More
