I want you to pay attention. You can’t close your eyes so I want you to just imagine what I’m saying while you read this. Don’t try to wrap your mind around what I’m going to say because, quite frankly, it’ll be impossible. I need you to clear your mind and feel what you are about to read. Imagine you and your spouse have a baby. You have to leave the state because you are in the military and when the US Army says move, you have to move. You and your spouse are having marital difficulties but you are committed to working it out while you are gone. You call to check on your baby, there’s no answer. You keep calling and you keep getting no response from your mate. When you finally do get in contact with your spouse you find out that your child has been given up for adoption. Sounds crazy right? Now imagine if this happened to a woman. What would be the outrage? How many TV appearances would this woman have? Nancy Grace, Bill O’Reilly, Jon Stewart and Oprah would have her in studio to tell her story. The ACLU, NOW, and Delta Sigma Theta would have organizers in the streets and on the phones with every local, state and federal law-maker to DEMAND this child be returned to its mother. Barrack AND Michelle would make statements about how you should never take a child away from its mother. How long would it take for this woman to get her baby back?
I am going to tell the story of Terry Achane. A Drill Sergeant in the US Army. A man that married Tira Bland in 2009. She got pregnant around June of 2010 with the baby being due around March 2011. In January of 2011, there were marital issues but they were still a couple when he got stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina to be a Drill Sergeant. The plan was for him to return to Texas to see his baby born. This is where shit gets twisted.
According to several news outlets, less than two weeks after Terry Achane left for SC, Tira Bland decided to give their baby up for adoption. She sees a reality show on MTV that makes mention of The Adoption Center of Choice(they actually had a reality show on TLC “Birth Mom”) she already had a child from a previous relationship and she was very familiar with the struggles of being a single mother. She heads to Utah, which has very shady adoption laws that favor the mother and violate, in so many ways, unmarried fathers. In this situation however, Tira and Terry were married and that is a vital point of the story. Terry is in SC and has no contact with Tira. He has no idea where she is, how she’s doing, or how his baby is doing. She gives birth to a baby girl on March 1, 2011 and because of her contact with The Adoption Center of Choice, she has a family that’s going to take the baby girl immediately after birth. Terry finally gets in contact with Tira in June of 2011, three months after his baby is born and she tells him that she gave their baby up for adoption. There are no reports of what was said during that conversation but I’m going to assume that he called her everything but a child of God. Mr. Achane gets in contact with The Adoption Center of Choice and asserts his rights as the biological father. He clearly stated to them that he was opposed to any adoption of his daughter and that he wanted to have custody of her.
The adopting parents, Jared and Kristi Frei, are a married couple from Utah. They have
4 biological children of their own and have adopted another little boy. They decided they would like to add another child to their family and got in contact with The Adoption Center of Choice who in turn put them in contact with Tira Bland. The Adoption Center of Choice arranged the whole adoption between Tira and the Frei’s. Now this is another part of the bullshit. The Adoption Center of Choice, having been in contact with Mr. Achane, informed the Frei’s that the biological father may contest the adoption. The Frei’s decided to proceed anyway. Hear me now…even when they were told that the biological father IS GOING TO CONTEST, this family and this adoption agency decided to move forward with the adoption process. At this point, in my opinion, everyone involved needs to be charged with a crime. The adoption agency, the Frei’s and Tira Bland. They all need to be locked the fuck up ASAP! According to the Frei’s blog, set up to solicit donations for legal fees, Terry Achane gave up his parental rights when he abandoned his pregnant wife and when the baby was born by not having contact with the child, by making no effort to get to know the child and because he has made no effort to provide for the child.
Jared and Kristi Frei Blog
http://frei-adoption.com/Frei/Leah.html
Now Mr. Achane decides he needs to get some legal representation. He hires Mark Wiser to help him get his daughter back. Mr. Wiser gets in contact with The Adoption of Choice and lets them know that his client was opposed to any adoption proceedings involving his daughter and he wanted his clients child returned immediately. But…wait a minute. Let me rewind just a little bit. One of my first questions I had when I read this was: Why didn’t the The Adoption Center of Choice try to get in contact with Mr. Achane before they allowed this process to play out? What has come out is Tira Bland gave the adoption agency the wrong contact information for Mr. Achane. The Adoption Center of Choice didn’t know where Terry Achane was at the time they started working with the Frei’s and Ms. Bland. Ms. Bland didn’t want this adoption held up by her husband and in an interview with ABC, she clearly states she wants the baby with the Frei’s and not her now ex-husband.
ABC News aired 12/6/12
Now we get to the good shit. There’s a court date. I’m assuming there was a couple of court dates. Regardless how many there were, a judge, a man that has at least some semblance of common sense, human decency and knowledge of the rights of a BIOLOGICAL FATHER! 4th District Judge Darold J. McDade ruled the Frei’s must give up Taleah, the name Terry uses for his daughter, within 60 days of the ruling. The exchange of the child is set to happen on 1/16/13. In his ruling Judge McDade said “Once Mr. Achane contacted the Adoption Center of Choice … to let them know he opposed the adoption and wanted his daughter back, that should have been the end of this case,” AND “Likewise, when the attorney for the Adoption Center of Choice contacted Mr. Achane and confirmed that Mr. Achane would not consent to the adoptive placement, the very next conversation they should have had was what arrangements the adoption agency would be making to return Teleah to him with all due haste. That did not happen.” Hell no that didn’t happen.
What happened, the Freis and The Adoption Center of Choice tried to move forward with the adoption anyway KNOWING this child had a father who wanted her. KNOWING this man was married to the mother of Teleah and had every right to not only oppose this sham of an adoption but to also get full custody of his daughter without a second thought.
I believe the Freis love this little girl…I really do. But it is pure fuckery to try to TAKE a child away from her father. This wasn’t an adoption, this was human trafficking. Once they were told that Drill Sgt. Achane was going to contest the adoption the right thing for the Freis and The Adoption Center of Choice to do was give that man back his child. That didn’t happen so there had to be a court date. Even with a judges ruling, the Freis still tried to move forward with keeping Teleah. They filed a motion to block the return of Teleah to her father. The judge even gave the Freis 60 days to return Teleah to Terry and that wasn’t good enough. They wanted to keep that child.
The happy ending to this very sad story is on January 24th, 2013 Teleah was reunited with her father. On January 25th, 2013 there was a hearing to uphold the original ruling of Judge McDade. There is a Facebook page for all those who would like to show their support to Drill Sgt. Achane and Teleah Achane. I believe there’s also a baby registry for the things Teleah will need.
As a father, as a Black father inparticular, we always hear how we don’t do this and we don’t do that. In a lot of cases this is the case. And I know negative information spreads wider and faster than anything positive, but damn people how are any of these actions condoned? How did the Freis raise over $22,000 to STEAL a baby? How can people make comments about him being a dead beat dad when he contested the adoption as soon as he knew? How does the State of Utah allow the stripping of father’s rights? How can The Adoption Center for Choice continue to operate without consequences or repercussions? How can the mother go without being punished for what she did? When a man is wrong, he’s wrong. Everybody goes H.A.M.on him…where’s the outrage against this women, this family, this company or this state?
Support Terry Achane Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/SupportTerryAchane?fref=ts
There is talk of letting the Freis have visitation with Teleah. Even after all of this and even though there is another hearing to block Terry from keeping Teleah, he’s thinking of giving them visitation. To that Drill Sgt. Archane and with all due respect to you and all you do for this country, I say HELL FUCKING NO!!! Are you shitting me?! These no good, baby stealing, pieces of shit would never and should never see Teleah again! But that’s just me!