"Raising Isaiah"...true story

rockin'robin

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The movie, "Raising Isaiah"....Halle Berry starred as the mother. She was an addict/single mother, who put her baby into a garbage can, left it there, during the winter and snow.

The baby was found, was addicted to crack at birth. A white couple fell in love with the child...and adopted the baby, Isaiah.

When the child was 2 or 3 years old, the mother went to court to get her baby back....and the judge gave the child back to the birth mother!

Because the judge/court felt like a black child should not be raised in a white home!

I cried so much during this movie on "Lifetime"! Will never forget it!

Even tho' the birth mother got clean, off drugs, etc., there is no way in the world that child should have been allowed to go back to her!

This has happened many times, with adoptee parents who are willing to give a child a good home, education, love, etc., to find the courts return the child back to the birth parents, just because they have finally decided to grow up, get off drugs, etc.!

I, too, am an adoptee mother of 3. And no way in the world would I allow my boys to be returned to the birth parents! I would appeal and appeal and exhaust any avenue I could find to prevent it!

After watching this movie, (and it's a true story)..it's bothered me ever since! As I was complating on adopting a deaf child, as my oldest boy will be 18 very soon. Suppose I did, and the child would be snatched away from me because the birth mother decided she wanted the child back? No matter what she did to the child!

Big decision!
 
Your description make me feel want to order DVD but I find none in Ebay... :(

I check at google but most DVD is in USA, not Europe!!!! :( US DVD can´t play in EU DVD player...
 
The movie, "Raising Isaiah"....Halle Berry starred as the mother. She was an addict/single mother, who put her baby into a garbage can, left it there, during the winter and snow.

The baby was found, was addicted to crack at birth. A white couple fell in love with the child...and adopted the baby, Isaiah.

When the child was 2 or 3 years old, the mother went to court to get her baby back....and the judge gave the child back to the birth mother!

Because the judge/court felt like a black child should not be raised in a white home!

I cried so much during this movie on "Lifetime"! Will never forget it!

Even tho' the birth mother got clean, off drugs, etc., there is no way in the world that child should have been allowed to go back to her!

This has happened many times, with adoptee parents who are willing to give a child a good home, education, love, etc., to find the courts return the child back to the birth parents, just because they have finally decided to grow up, get off drugs, etc.!

I, too, am an adoptee mother of 3. And no way in the world would I allow my boys to be returned to the birth parents! I would appeal and appeal and exhaust any avenue I could find to prevent it!

After watching this movie, (and it's a true story)..it's bothered me ever since! As I was complating on adopting a deaf child, as my oldest boy will be 18 very soon. Suppose I did, and the child would be snatched away from me because the birth mother decided she wanted the child back? No matter what she did to the child!

Big decision!

Well, in the movie, the woman had not yet completed the adoption. She was just fostering the child, if I'm not mistaken. The birth mother's parental rights had never been removed or surrendered.

When a mother surrenders a child for adoption, she has 6 weeks to change her mind. If she doesn't, the adoption is completed, and she no longer has any rights to the child. In the case where a court removes a child from parent custody, the parent still has rights. Unless the court specifically removes the rights of the parent, or the parent surrenders their rights, the child cannot be adopted, but only put in foster care.
 
Well, in the movie, the woman had not yet completed the adoption. She was just fostering the child, if I'm not mistaken. The birth mother's parental rights had never been removed or surrendered.

When a mother surrenders a child for adoption, she has 6 weeks to change her mind. If she doesn't, the adoption is completed, and she no longer has any rights to the child. In the case where a court removes a child from parent custody, the parent still has rights. Unless the court specifically removes the rights of the parent, or the parent surrenders their rights, the child cannot be adopted, but only put in foster care.


Thing is.. The mother left that baby in a Garbage can, out in the cold.... Abandoned the baby. :ugh: Basically leaving it to die.

And she still has rights?? Her rights should have been stripped.
 
Well, in the movie, the woman had not yet completed the adoption. She was just fostering the child, if I'm not mistaken. The birth mother's parental rights had never been removed or surrendered.

When a mother surrenders a child for adoption, she has 6 weeks to change her mind. If she doesn't, the adoption is completed, and she no longer has any rights to the child. In the case where a court removes a child from parent custody, the parent still has rights. Unless the court specifically removes the rights of the parent, or the parent surrenders their rights, the child cannot be adopted, but only put in foster care.

The woman was a nurse at the hospital and saw the baby there while it was being weened off crack addition....She applied for, and was allowed to bring the baby home, and I do believe they did adopt the child when he was 1 or 2 yrs. old. So the baby was abandoned!...The birth mother did not reappear until the child was 2 or 3 years old.

As for adoption, the birth parents are required to sign over all their parental rights.....the birth mother could not be found, and since they did not know the father of the child, there is a waiting period, while the courts search....and if they cannot be found, via newspaper, old addresses, etc., then the child can be adopted, without the parents signatures. The search process takes a few months. And you have to hire a lawyer for all this. Even the child's last name changes also....The couple that adopted the baby, they named it Isiah and gave it their own last name....the baby had no birth certificate, and no name when they found the child.

I believe the birth mother was doing so much drugs, she did not remmy where she put the baby, only that it was in a garbage can, while she went into a crack house to get a fix....how long the baby was in the garbage can, no one knows...but when the mother finally got a clear mind, she went looking for the baby, could not find it! She could still remmy the baby's crying! Fortunately, someone did find the baby and called the police and took the baby to the hospital.

Even tho' the birth mother did get clean....still wanted her baby back, I do not believe that she should! No way! So her lawyer made it seem that a white couple could not raise a black child, because of the cultural difference. Even the judge, she was reluctant to give the baby back to the birth mother, but said it was the law!

It needs to be changed! And in the end of the movie, the little boy would not eat for almost 3 weeks! He cried for his Mommy, the only mother he ever knew, and it was the adoptee mother! Finally, the birth mother called the adoptee mother for help! Because the little boy was getting sicker, and the adoptee mother went to see the little boy, and he cried, "Mommy! Mommy"!!!....both women decided to somewhat "share" Isiah...until he was old enough to understand everything.

This movie was a tear jerker! And a true one....it happens!
 
I've seen this movie on Lifetime Network a several times as I remembered it was called "Losing Isaiah". I remember how I was hysterical in tears.

I agree with everything you had stated on this thread, rockin'robin. She did not deserved to have Isiash at all. Who in the right mind will just send Isiash back to her? They must been out of their minds. The judge should have focus on the child's best interest--The child's happiness, security, mental health, and emotional development. Who cares if she's the biological mother, she was the one who had abandoned her own child, that child could have died if nobody had found him in time.
 
Thing is.. The mother left that baby in a Garbage can, out in the cold.... Abandoned the baby. :ugh: Basically leaving it to die.

And she still has rights?? Her rights should have been stripped.

They no doubt gave her the oppportunity to clean herself up, as she was an addict, and to stay sober for a specified amount of time. If she didn't follow through on it, then they would have terminated her parental rights. It is not easy to have parental rights terminated.
 
They no doubt gave her the oppportunity to clean herself up, as she was an addict, and to stay sober for a specified amount of time. If she didn't follow through on it, then they would have terminated her parental rights. It is not easy to have parental rights terminated.


I do understand what you are saying..

but what irks me is that the mother just dumped the child in a garbage can. It was not like she has any intentions to keep the baby. She basically left it for dead.

If no one would have found that baby. And in result. if the baby died. It would have been a totally different ball game.. regardless if the mother cleaned her self up from the drug abuse. The mother would have still been charged for the death of the baby.


But the baby survived... In a weird way. it gave the Mom a second chance.

See what I am saying???

Many young mothers and drug addicts dump their baby. Many of the infants die in result. The mothers do not get a second chance. They end up serving time.

Why should this mother get one when the others don't .... Just because some one was able to save that baby.... and for that baby to be found and cared for some one.

especially when they rescued that baby from certain death.. Why should the hero have to suffer??
 
The movie, "Raising Isaiah"....Halle Berry starred as the mother. She was an addict/single mother, who put her baby into a garbage can, left it there, during the winter and snow.

The baby was found, was addicted to crack at birth. A white couple fell in love with the child...and adopted the baby, Isaiah.

When the child was 2 or 3 years old, the mother went to court to get her baby back....and the judge gave the child back to the birth mother!

Because the judge/court felt like a black child should not be raised in a white home!

I cried so much during this movie on "Lifetime"! Will never forget it!

Even tho' the birth mother got clean, off drugs, etc., there is no way in the world that child should have been allowed to go back to her!

This has happened many times, with adoptee parents who are willing to give a child a good home, education, love, etc., to find the courts return the child back to the birth parents, just because they have finally decided to grow up, get off drugs, etc.!

I, too, am an adoptee mother of 3. And no way in the world would I allow my boys to be returned to the birth parents! I would appeal and appeal and exhaust any avenue I could find to prevent it!

After watching this movie, (and it's a true story)..it's bothered me ever since! As I was complating on adopting a deaf child, as my oldest boy will be 18 very soon. Suppose I did, and the child would be snatched away from me because the birth mother decided she wanted the child back? No matter what she did to the child!

Big decision!

It's "Losing Isaiah" not "Raising Isaiah".
 
Hmm... sound interesting movie. Someday, hopefully, I will watch that one. :)
 
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