Finally Becoming A Dad Was The Greatest Experience Of My Life. It Lasted Less Than A Week.

“We never saw Henry again. I wouldn’t wish the pain and suffering on anyone.”

His name was Henry. A beautiful baby boy, born in a San Diego hospital in February.

Once we got the call from our adoption agency that Henry’s birth mother was in labour, my husband and I grabbed our go-bag, jumped into our car, and drove throughout the night – over 400 miles from San Francisco to San Diego – arriving just in time to witness his birth and cut the umbilical cord.

By 3am, I was living the greatest moment of my life, holding him in my arms for his first skin-to-skin, feeling his first few breaths in rhythm with mine. I can relive those 16 minutes over and over again; it was the happiest I’ve ever been.

I was finally a father. This was the baby we’d been waiting for, and the awful, ridiculous, painful adoption journey that we’d been on for the past four years was coming to an end.

The next day, his birth mother signed off on her rights, giving us her blessing to care for her child moving forward. We were cleared to leave the hospital with our new baby.

It wasn’t long, however, before we got a call from our social worker informing us that the father of the baby had come back just to contest the adoption. He did not want two “f*****s” to raise his son.

For the brief time we had Henry, I called one lawyer after another, looking for any way to keep custody. The answer was the same: “Right now you’re a glorified babysitter and if the baby’s father is unwilling to sign his rights, you have to give the baby back. Otherwise, you’ll be........

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