A father has been reunited with his 22-month-old daughter who was given up for adoption at birth without his knowledge. After a grueling custody battle between the army drill sergeant, Terry Achane, and the Frei family who had adopted his daughter, a Utah judge ruled that the girl must be returned to her biological father.
“I’m just happy right now. I’m with my daughter,” Sgt. Terry Achane told “Good Morning America.”
Achane was stationed in South Carolina when his now ex-wife, Tira Bland, gave birth to their daughter Leah (who he calls Teleah) in March 2011. He expected to return to his wife and baby in Texas, where he expected the birth would take place, after the child was born, the Salt Lake Tribune reported in December. But Bland delivered Leah in Utah, instead, and gave her up for adoption just two days later. It was weeks before Achane knew his daughter had been placed for adoption.
“Utah’s laws appeal to people who want to get it done quick, rather than to people who want to get it done right,” Adam Pertman, executive director at the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, told GMA.
h/t HuffPost
