Awhile back my husband and I were watching this new TV show “Locked Up Abroad”. They were telling the story of this woman who moved to Egypt, got married and decided to adopt a little boy. Unfortunately, the adoption didn’t meet full legal standards in Egypt. And one day while they were decorating the Christmas tree, her worst nightmare happened – the police knocked down her door and took her son. This woman refused to let go of her son. She held on for dear life. Watching this happen to her, I felt my heart get ripped out of my chest. Even though it wasn’t my son that was taken, I cried for her, I grieved for her. And even though there was missing paperwork in her original process, I cheered her on to not let her son go – fight to keep him! I rallied behind her. It gave me a tiny glimpse into a nightmare I never want to come reality – losing my son. Even writing this now, my heart hurts and my eyes well up with tears. No mother should ever feel the pain of losing their child, either through death or from a third-party taking them.
Sadly, there is a mother and father in South Carolina that knows this pain all too well. They have lived that nightmare of having their daughter, Veronica Rose, taken from their arms. Actually, they are still waiting to wake up from it. And even though they held on for dear life, they had the SC Supreme Court tell them they had to let go. Now, before we go any further with this tragic story, I want to point out the key difference in this case and the one above from TV – the parents in this case truly believed they were legally adopting their daughter. Yet, in spite of this, she was still stripped from their arms, all because the biological father was a Native American. And need I remind everyone that for an adoption to be legal, both the mother and the father have to relinquish their rights to the baby. From what I have read of the case, I believe the father did terminate his rights. (I need to interject that I am NOT an attorney, I am NOT legally involved in this case. The father’s side has a very different view of how all of this occurred. This is just my personal opinion.) He told the mother he did not want to support her or the child, he said he wanted the papers to sign away his rights and he verbally gave the mother full custody of their child. While those papers were never signed, the father was not apart of the baby’s life during pregnancy, at her birth or afterwards.
But even though he had relinquished his rights (I believe), had made the decision before her birth that he didn’t want to raise her, didn’t want to be the one to put her to bed at night, didn’t want to be the one to wipe away her tears, didn’t want to be the one to teach her the ways of the world – he made the decision that he DID NOT want to be her father and then on New Years Eve 2011 he just up and changes his mind. And to make matters worse, he misuses the Indian Child Welfare Act to have her taken from the only parents she has ever known. He feels because he is Native American that his heritage trumps federal law. Veronica Rose (who is not full blooded Native American) and her parents, the Capobianco’s, woke up in their worst nightmare.
I’m not going to try to explain any of the legal mumbo-jumbo bullsh*t that the courts cited around the Indian Child Welfare Act. I am not an attorney, I do not work in the legal forum and I have no credentials to explain it. I am simply a mother who is outraged. From everything I read, I believe it was misused. I believe that when this act was first placed into law, the creators of it did not intend for it to break up families or for it to overturn a lawful adoption. I believe Veronica’s case has become a tragedy in our courts. I believe the justice system let her down, and her parents. I believe they (the courts, the justice system and especially her biological father, whom was nothing more than a sperm donor) are not listening to Veronica’s voice.
So who speaks for Veronica? Thousands of people across the country do, a strong legal team fighting for her rights do, her REAL parents do everyday; and you can too. Take a stand with me. For the love of everything holy, if you have a child, try for one second to put yourself in the shoes of the Capobianco family and imagine the pain, pain you cannot begin to put into words, you would feel if your child were ripped out of your arms and out of your life. The emptiness you would feel every night as you laid down to sleep since a big part of you isn’t there anymore. The hollowness in your soul from knowing your child is crying and you can’t get to her to comfort her. If even 1% of this you can empathize with, then please join in and be a voice for Veronica.
As it stands right now, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the ruling to allow Veronica to stay with her biological father, thousands of miles away from her real parents – again, the only parents she has ever known, the only parents that raised her from birth. And away from her birth mother, who was able to be a part of her life with her adoptive parents. This ruling also sent a clear message that the birth mother has NO rights in a case where the father is Native American, and if the child has one ounce of Native America blood then they have no rights as well.
This fight is not over, and you can join in.
Follow the updates and progress – http://www.saveveronica.org/
Sign the petition to Save Veronica – http://www.change.org/petitions/save-veronica
Make an online donation – https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1004119
Buy products from Veronica’s store, the money goes to help with her legal fees – http://saveveronica.myshopify.com/
Write your legislators and those that want to back the bill. – http://www.saveveronica.org/what-can-you-do/stop-mn-bill-h-f-no-1967/
If you are on facebook, follow the updates – https://www.facebook.com/SaveVeronicaRose
Pray, Pray, Pray. Pray for safety for Veronica. Pray for healing for her family. Pray that God will weigh on the hearts of the justice system to over turn this heinous decision they have made, pray they will make right what they have wronged. Pray that Veronica isn’t hurt anymore than she already has been. Pray that her legal team stays strong and fierce in their fight. Pray that God gives them all the tools they need to get her back.
Many will read this and say there is no hope, the SC Supreme Court already made their decision. Well, the US Supreme Court can over turn this. And above all of that, God can move mountains that we on Earth are not able to.
Like I said before, I am not an attorney or a legal analyst. I am just a mother who will fight to the death if anyone touches my son, a mother who cannot begin to imagine what the Capobianco family and her birth mother have gone through, a mother who wants this wrong to be made right. And a mother who believes that I have a BIG GOD.