WSVN — Your child has a child, and you want to raise the baby, but they decide to put it up for adoption without telling you. Do you have the right to see your grandchild or at least know where they are? It’s why one woman called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.
Some things just break your heart.
Jennifer Feldman: "That was the last day I had ever seen my granddaughter. To think I buckled her in the car seat and everything, to never see her again."
Jennifer is talking about her granddaughter Monroe, who was born last September.
Patrick Fraser: "Did you help raise the baby?"
Jennifer Feldman: "I solely took care of the baby here."
When she was pregnant, Jennifer’s daughter wasn’t sure she wanted to keep the baby.
Jennifer Feldman: "I told her that this would not change her life. She could go back to school. She could do anything she wanted to do, that I would be there for the baby."
And so, Jennifer’s daughter and granddaughter lived with her in a home she filled with clothes and toys for Monroe.
Jennifer Feldman: "She had everything. I dressed her like a little princess every day."
At night, the baby slept in a crib in Jennifer’s room.
Jennifer Feldman: "I adored the baby. I lived to stay up at night and in the mornings. I loved it."
Jennifer was happy. Her daughter was troubled.
Jennifer Feldman: "She was on a very bad roller coaster with her emotions, doing a lot of crying."
Then, right before Christmas, when Monroe was three months old, Jennifer’s daughter said she was taking her baby to show to her friends. A few hours later, Jennifer got a phone call.
Jennifer Feldman: "She said, ‘Mom, I know you’re going to hate me for this, so I won’t be coming home. I gave the baby up.’ I just started screaming, ‘No, no, no, you’re lying.’"
Jennifer’s daughter told her she had given Monroe to an adoption agency, devastating Jennifer.
Jennifer Feldman: "What did I do wrong? Did I pay too much attention to the baby? Was she jealous?"
Jennifer called the police. She called DCF. She went to court to try to get her granddaughter back and kept being told the same thing: "We can’t tell you anything about your granddaughter."
Jennifer Feldman: "’Private and confidential.’"
Patrick Fraser: "So she has just disappeared?"
Jennifer Feldman: "She’s gone. I mean, I worry about her all the time."
Jennifer’s daughter changed her phone number and moved away, and Jennifer has no idea where her little granddaughter is.
Jennifer Feldman: "I’m her biological grandmother. I love her as much as I love my daughter."
Howard, legally what can Jennifer do?
Howard Finkelstein: "This is horrible. It is terrible, because the law does not recognize grandparents’ rights. Meaning, once the mother put the child up for adoption, even the mother lost any rights. As for what the grandmother can do to change things, she cannot."
Jennifer says the father of the infant wanted nothing to do with the baby. The adoption agency wouldn’t tell me anything, even if the baby, who suffers from asthma, is doing OK.
We had nothing good to tell Jennifer.
Jennifer Feldman: "I have to get this baby back."
Jennifer won’t give up, and is leaving the baby’s room the way it was the day she was given away. She’s been told she has no legal rights, but she’s hoping for a miracle.
Jennifer Feldman: "If they are really good people and they care about the baby, they need to bring the baby back home where she belongs. And that’s the truth."
It seems so unfair for Jennifer to never see her granddaughter grow up, but the state doesn’t care about the grandmother’s feelings. The state’s concern is what’s best for the baby, and in the state’s eyes, no one — even the mother — has a right to know who has the child.
With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD:
E-mail: helpmeHoward@wsvn.com
Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN
On Twitter: @helpmehoward7