Michael was born in Pennsylvania in 1972. the first five years of his life were the beginning of a hell we can only imagine.

His father left after his birth and lost touch with the family. Michael spent a good part of the first five years locked in a small closet as his mother worked and entertained men in their home, which was over a bar where she was a frequent visitor.

At age six the department of Health and Human Services removed Michael from the home and place him into foster care. repeated attempts were made to reunite him with his mother but to no avail he became a part of the system.

"this is not a subject we will cover here as it is on our , government and the children lost in the system page".

Michael was put up for adoption and soon after was placed with a rather wealthy family with no experience in handling abused children. the placement agency never informed the adoptive parents of Michael's past, so they were never given the opportunity to either get the training necessary to handle a child with these disabilities or back out of the adoption. after two years had passed the adoptive parents found they could no longer deal with Michael's behavior and not knowing what to do they placed him in a hospital for emotionally disturbed children, and made application to terminate the adoption.

They had moved to California where they allow an adoption to be reversed (at least then) for the first five years. at the hospital Michael was subjected to a psychiatrist (who was finally removed from the hospital) that ran a special wing for adopted children. he was on intravenous medication and sedated. once again the system trying to rehabilitate someone who has never been habilitated..

I met Michael when he was eleven years old at this hospital and decided that day I wanted to adopt him. after long and complicated negotiations with his adoptive parents and the state and local government, I brought Michael home. the first year was touch and go, I feared suicide, sat in front of the bathroom counting the minutes till the door would open, searched if he was not in from school. this was not going to be easy. Michael went through many stages over the next six years, presenting challenges where I could only guess as you go. or should I say dare to survive. Michael has a (151 iq) and yet had no street smarts. he could do calculus at age ten but could not wash a dish. these are things you learn when bringing up a child with disabilities. you have to get to know what is a real problem area and when you are being used!

Michael was reunited with his birth father at age eighteen (another story for another page) and the reunion was wonderful. here his father had been searching for him for many years. what a pleasure it was to see them together, yet how fearful it was to feel so challenged and vulnerable after so many years of being this child's father.

My fears were quickly put to rest as Michael rallied to the occasion, happy to meet his father and yet defending me as his father throughout the day.

Michael's life has taken many twists and turns between now (age 27) and then (age 11) and sometimes I did not think we would make it. but he is now twenty five years old and lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. he supports himself and has a full time job. he is thinking of going to collage to become a university professor.. personally I think he would be better as a high school teacher as he has so much to offer children that age. this is a very small portion of my son Michael's life. as time goes on I will add more to the stories as you will need to reads them to believe them.

I will not go further into the abusive life Michael had as a small child, or the mistakes the system made while he was in their care, or the first adoptive family who had to terminate their parental rights and place Michael back into the system, so I will begin when I first met Michael.

It was a busy day around may of 1984 and I had to be at a meeting at a children's unit in a mental health hospital. While I was there I saw a young child who was noticeably broken. I had my first conversation with the psychiatrist in charge of Michael that day and found his adoptive parents could not keep him, so they had turned him over to the hospital until they could admit him into a facility in California where they would then turn him over to the state.

It was at that moment I decided I would adopt him.
Well it was far from being that easy. First, he was legally adopted and not free for me to make application to adopt. Second, the psychiatrist at the hospital felt Michael was in no condition to be placed with another family and the hospital would be the best environment for him.

Well the picture looked a little gloomy, but like any sane person I decided to pursue adoption anyway. what was a little thing like parents, the government and a hospital anyway.

I spoke to an agency that agreed to help and then spoke to the hospital to inform them of my intentions. then I had the adoptive family contacted to let them know of my interest in adopting Michael and they could terminate their parental rights in California without moving Michael there, leaving him free to be adopted in Pennsylvania.

Well, like all things go it was not going to get any easier. the adoptive parents were in a predicament where if they allowed Michael to stay in Pennsylvania and move in with me, it would take at least a year to finalize the adoption and by then if I decided not to adopt, they would have gone beyond the statute of limitations and could not terminate their parental rights.

Sound impossible, oh yes, so I decided to pursue the issue further. I met with Michael for an afternoon to get to know a little more about him. he did not have much to say and was in obvious distress but I could tell he would be with me soon (call it the voice of god, I do).

I went to court and requested that Michael not be moved to California as the state of Pennsylvania had legal custody and the reason for the move was not in his best interest. I then petitioned the court to allow placement of Michael in my home pending the termination of his adoptive parents rights. I then petitioned the state of Pennsylvania to refuse to relinquish Michael's rights to stay in Pennsylvania as the move to California would leave him without parent(s) and lost in a mental hospital where he probably would never recover.

After long negotiations with the adoptive family and both states, a home study, investigation of me and my home and family, many documents and agreements, Michael was temporarily placed in my home for six months, where if everything went well we would petition the court to adopt. in the meantime the family in California could only terminate their parental rights if I adopted so they were really on the hot seat.

Well the day came and I went to the hospital to pick up Michael and bring him home. I had to sign an agreement that I would continue to bring him into the hospital for weekly therapy until the doctors felt it was safe to end or cut back therapy.

I arrived at the hospital early and went to the section that housed emotionally challenged children (mostly adopted) and signed the paperwork to release Michael from the hospitals care. then I proceeded to collect Michael's belongings and Michael and we made way for my car where it would be the longest 30-minute drive we would ever have together. as I looked out my rear view window and saw the hospital fading away in the background I knew I had no idea what I was doing. but I was sure Michael would never step foot in that hospital again.

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