 Let
me introduce ourselves, Susan & Kenneth Hayden. We lived in Florida.
We were Foster & Adoptive parents to our child. |
| HRS brought Sarah to our home when
she was just only 14 days old. We loved and nurtured her with every breath
that we take. And yes, we all bonded together with an emotional tie. |
| When HRS placed her with us, we
were told that none of her blood relatives could nor wanted any part of
her life. Our little one had been born with special needs which included
medical. |
| When Sarah turned 6 months old,
HRS asked us if we wanted to adopt Sarah and we said yes, we were overwhelmed
with joy. We were told continuously that this home, our home
was Sarah's and that we were her Mommy and Daddy! |
| When Sarah became 8 1/2 months old,
a blood relative came forward, saying to me that she was only interested
in seeing on how Sarah was doing in our care. They wanted to know about
her health. The relative told me they had been asked by HRS if they wanted
to take and care for Sarah and that she had not decided whether she could
or wanted to do that. She said she needed to know more about the child's
health. |
| When Sarah turned 11 months old,
her birth mother and I shared many tears. She asked us if we truly
loved Sarah. And too, if we wanted to adopt Sarah. She told
us she didn't want her relatives to raise Sarah. We cried and hugged
one another just prior her voluntarily signing her termination of parental
right. I'll never forget her on that day, just before she signed,
she looked back at me as though her eye were saying, please take care of
my baby with your loving heart. |
| When Sarah was 1 year old, HRS Adoption Unit
asked me if we wanted to adopt Sarah, again I told them yes. They gave
me all the necessary forms to fill in along with the application on adopting
Sarah. They asked us if we still had a copy of the Approved Adoption Home
Study that they had already done a year prior. And if so, for us
to give them a copy of it with our application for Sarah's adoption.
I gave them everything they asked for. I had asked the adoption unit
supervisor about the relatives of Sarah and HRS said she hadn't talked
to them. HRS asked us in our adopting Sarah if we would let the relatives
still be a part of her life. I told them yes. HRS wanted us
to put it in writing for which we did. |
| When Sarah turned 1 year and 3 months
old, HRS called and told us that they had found an appropriate adoptive
placement for Sarah and a relative of Sarah's was coming to Florida to
visit with her. Those words felt as though all the breath had been kicked
out of me. I felt like I was stabbed in the back. I asked HRS what
about that we were adopting Sarah. HRS said we were not Sarah's blood. |
| Our story goes on, as we took it
to court. Through it all HRS had harassed us putting an emotional strain
on us and Sarah. |
On October 30, 1995, a Judge granted us, Sarah's Adoption Finalized.
We received Sarah's birth certificate as our child. Sarah was 3 years
& 2 months old. |
| The relatives, not HRS, appealed
our adoption for Sarah. The relatives were not party to our case
with HRS, but yet they were allowed to appeal. |
| On April 10, 1996. the appeals court
ruled in the relatives favor. |
| On May 1, 1996, HRS came to our
home and was able to take Sarah. I live this nightmare everyday. Our tears,
our hearts being ripped in many pieces. Telling Sarah to hold onto
mommy's heart and I love her so much. I still can feel Sarah reaching
out her arms to us when they took her, she was crying, saying "no mommy,
please". |
| We had later found that HRS and
the relatives really had gotten Sarah through perjury and fraud. |
| We filed in court a Motion for Relief
From Final Judgment Of an Adoption. Later, it was denied. |
| We wanted to show that the Fourth
District Court of Appeals (DCA) ruling on April 10, 1996, the overturned
adoption with Sarah, was so full of non-factual information, a lack of
knowledge of laws, and a lack of knowledge of HRS Administrative Code.
In reality, it was just a staged ruling. Most of all, we wanted to
show them what they printed about a Doctors testimony, the Judges didn't
put the correct info in the ruling. The 4th district Judges wrote
in their ruling what the HRS lawyer said to the Doctor in court and it
was not in any way or form the Doctors testimony. |
| I had been able to get an appointment
with the Governor of Florida. To no avail did he help. |
| We find the system with their own
agendas and their own laws. A Political Law! Forget the child's best
interest, who are they..... |
| We are praying and hoping one day we will be able to see Sarah again. |
| CLICK HERE To write a letter via
e-mail to Florida State Governor. Please ask him for his help and assistance to pass a bill to protect all the children that cry out for the only mommy and daddy they know.
*Note: Please add this URL in your e-mail. *copy and paste* |
| CLICK
HERE For
information to write your Representative. Please write! Our
children need us all to protect them from Psychological Abuse from within
the system. Children need their love and nurturing foundation of
security, and not to have it ripped away from them and tucked under the
carpet. |
Always Shining For Sarah 
