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this is recoming a new trend in adoption. They take your baby and make you support the child that you may not even be able to see. Some do it through child suport, and others sue the parents for a variety of reasons. It's a fairly new trend, but it seems to be taking off. Losing your child does not neccessarily mean getting out of the financial obligation as more and more natural parents are beginning to discover. As word spreads about the various ways to get money from the natural parents, it will become a more common event.

Copied from AL.com (Alabama News on the net)

Alabama couple gets custody of `Baby Sam'

The Associated Press
3/11/02 5:35 PM

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -- A lengthy custody fight over a boy known as "Baby Sam" ended Monday with the couple raising the child getting to keep him under an agreement with the biological father.

In the settlement, approved by Circuit Judge Phillip Lisenby, Mark and Tracy Johnson of Tuscaloosa received legal custody of Joseph Samuel Johnson, 5, who has lived with them since he was an infant.

Sam's biological father, Christopher Vietri, will get four doctor-supervised visits a year with the child, according to an order by Lisenby. Vietri also was required to pay $200 a month child support.

Vietri's lawyer, Martha Jane Patton, said the case was a partial victory because her client was acknowledged as the child's legal father and the Johnsons are only "custodians" of the boy.

"They are not his legal parents," she said. Patton added, however, that the boy views the Johnsons as his mother and father.

Vietri now lives in New York, but he lived in New Port Richey, Fla., when Sam was born in March 1996. The baby was put up for adoption without Vietri's consent by his former girlfriend, Natasha Gawronski, who told him the child died at birth.

Vietri filed suit within weeks of the child's birth seeking custody, and courts in both Alabama and Florida considered the issue.

Gawronski accused him of physical abuse and his wife later made a similar claim, but Vietri denied the allegations. He and his wife separated but reconciled and remain together, according to Patton.

The judge's order requires Gawronski to pay $207.00 a month child support to the Johnsons, whom she supported in their fight to keep the child. The order said the Johnsons have the authority to decide whether Gawronski will be allowed visitation of her son.

The Johnsons told WBMA-TV they were pleased with the settlement.

Patton said Vietri wasn't happy with his "extremely limited visitation rights" but hoped they could be expanded if a good relationship develops.

Both sides were ordered into mediation in October in an attempt to resolve the dispute, which made it to the Alabama Supreme Court. The justices ruled last year that Vietri did not give up his parental rights and sent the case back to Lisenby.

Lisenby had planned a custody trial for this spring barring a settlement.

Sam turns 6 next week.