” I’m going to do what’s in the best interest of the child.”

I’ll never forget those words Judge Campbell said.

And I’ll never forget how fast another judge was requested by the adoptive couple’s attorney the moment he finished that statement.

To me, that clearly means that the attorney and the ‘adoptive father’  knew full well that ” in the best interest of the child ” meant that the child would be returned to her rightful family. It was obvious that the best interest of the child meant that the child should stay with her family. It is absolutely in the best interest of a child to remain with the people they belong with, the family they are a part of. If a child is in foster care, if there is no option of a family member to take care of the child, then yes, adoption is an option.

Adoption, the severing of a family, the permanent alternator of a family’s life and future, should be the very last option, acceptable only when there is no other alternative. A child should be kept within their family and all other options should be exhausted before that child is taken away, given a ” new identity ” and a ” new history .” People aren’t to be bought and sold, bargained, or guilted away by people who unfortunately can’t have children of their own; people willing to do  anything to get what they want. They had no problem putting their needs in front of my niece’s needs. You don’t take a child from a family to play house.

I’ve said it a million times ” Adoption is for children without homes, not homes without children.”

You don’t step into someone else’s family and secretly take one of them just because someone was afraid and didn’t know how to tell those that loved them. My sister had a support system, the safety net of her family to fall upon. It would’ve taken us less than two minutes to not only embrace the news but to become completely overjoyed by it. We never got the chance.

Those words, ” in the best interest of the child ” have played over and over again in my mind. I know in my heart what those words meant and what they still mean.

I’ll always trust and believe that WE, our family, is and always will be THE best for my niece. Blood is thicker than water no matter how you drain it. No family is perfect and every family has trials and triumphs, but keeping the family together to love and support each other is vital. You need your family to help get you through tough times, and you need your family to fully enjoy times of celebration.

The moral of the story: family was designed by God; not lawyers, baby-buyers or baby-sellers. Family is sacred, think twice before you barge in and destroy one.