[willowbrook] Elly Boykin

[John Price]

On Mon, Nov 22, 2004 at 02:44:37PM -0600, Sheila Eisenzimmer wrote:
> Church Family, This is being sent at the request of Bill & Kelley Boykin,
> our WBC members, regarding their daughter Elly.

Bill is a good friend of mine.  Please take a minute to
pray for this situation.

For those of you that didn't see the article, I have
included it below.

The Huntsville Times, Saturday, November 20, 2004, page A1

Court voids city pair's adoption of toddler

Girl ordered back to unwed mother after dad's appeal

By PHILLIP RAWLS
The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY - An Alabama appeals court voided an adoption
by a Huntsville couple Friday and ordered a 1 1/2-year-old
child return ed to the biological mother in Georgia who
had given her up for adoption.

In a 4-1 decision, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals said
a lower court erred in approving the adoption, because the
biological father had not given his consent.
 
The appeals court said the child must be returned to the
biological mother, pending further proceedings in the
case, because in Alabama the mother of a child born out of
wedlock has a superior right to custody.

The court record identifies the parties only by their
initials because a child is involved.

The case involves a girl born May 4, 2003, in Gwinnett
County, Ga, to a couple who had been engaged, but never
married because t he woman broke off the relationship. The
biological father said he set up a bank account for the
child and tried to be involved, but was stopped by his
former girlfriend's mother.
 
The biological mother said she received no phone calls
from the biological father for three weeks after the child
was born, and at that point she agreed to an adoption.

A Huntsville couple picked up the child on May 27, 2003,
and the probate court in Madison County awarded them
custody on June 30, 2003. On July 14, 2003, the biological
father received notice of the pending adoption and began
taking legal steps to get custody of the child.

On April 26 of this year, the probate court approved the
adoption and rejected the biological father's claim to the
child, ruling that be had failed to maintain a significant
relationship with the child.

In a decision written by Republican Judge John Crawley,
the majority of the Court of Civil Appeals said the lower
court erred be cause the biological father was pursuing
his parental rights through legal action.

In dissent, Republican Jud Glenn Murdock said filing court
papers does not equate to building human relationships
with children.

"They are loved. And they love back. And bonds are formed
- but not by a biological father who has absented himself
from the child's life," Murdock wrote.

Andrew Whitmire, the attorney for the adoptive parents,
declined comment on the decision Friday.

Jim Gaines, attorney for the biological father, did not
respond to requests for comment.

-- 
It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world
end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try and pass
them.

Have a great day and don't forget to laugh!

http://www.gcfl.net (The Good, Clean Funnies List): Good,
clean daily funnies you can safely tell your mom!