How do we even begin . . .
You might have read our story from July 13th entitled One of THOSE Moments. We told about meeting Tony & Veronica's new son, Patrick and how happy and proud we were for the 3 of them. Some of you might have seen the three of them at the America Boxes gathering in Coventry several weeks ago with Patrick calling "Mommy" and "Daddy" during the day.
Patrick was placed with Tony & Veronica as part of an adoption process. They had a year before everything became final. Last week, after Patrick was part of their family for 2 months, they were contacted and told that Patrick's grandparents petitioned the court and the judge awarded the grandparents custody of Patrick until his mother got her head on straight - after 2 years of Patrick being placed in foster care.
Needless to say, we are all devastated. I print this story with the full permission of Tony & Veronica, whom we spent some time with last night. They are coming along but will need many, many months until they can fully recover from this tragedy. They were told that 1% of all state adoptions end like this. Our question is "Why them?" and "Why now?"
We ask that you give Tony & Veronica their space now, per their request, but keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they begin the mending process. And if you see them on the trails or at a gathering in the near future, give them support but it might be best if you didn't raise the issue. Let them talk about it as and when they see fit. Sue & I are devastated and can only imagine the pain these special pair of friends are feeling.
Sue summed it up best when she told me "I couldn't feel worse than if this was our own son!"
Time heals everything, they say. We hope time speeds up and heals these broken hearts . . . .
