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Fight continues for Cache County man to see his daughter after adoption dispute

Posted at 10:10 PM, Nov 24, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-01 17:06:12-05

https://www.facebook.com/groups/461150960646796/permalink/911235215638366/

CACHE COUNTY, Utah -- A Cache County baby, put up for adoption, has been returned to her biological mother, while the biological father is left out of the picture.

“She gave the baby up and I fought for her the whole time and it’s not right that I can’t even see my daughter,” said father Colby Nielsen.

Nielsen, 20, doesn’t understand why he is being denied access to his daughter Kaylee, when it was the baby’s mother who put her up for adoption to begin with.

“Like, the whole time she felt like she was never her mom, like this isn’t my kid,” Nielsen said of Kaylee’s mother.

Kaylee was born on Nov. 4. The adopted parents took custody of her on Nov. 18. On Nov. 23 they returned her to Kaylee’s biological mother.

They issued this statement, “Had we known that all parties were not in agreement in these regards the adoption would have never taken place.”

However, Nielsen said the adoptive parents knew he wanted to keep his daughter, and he had been pleading with them over text messages not to take her from him.

“She said, ‘Well this is going to be OK Colby, you are going to be part of the family, we’ll kind of raise this child together,’” said Nielsen’s attorney Wes Hutchins, regarding texts received from the adoptive mother.

Nielsen said he and the birth mother met for 15 minutes following Kaylee’s return, but at this point his baby girl remains absent from his life.

“She wouldn’t work anything out, she wouldn’t even bring Kaylee so I could just see how she is doing,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen said for the first 13 days of Kaylee’s life he did everything for her, he wants the opportunity to do that again. He said the baby’s mother lost her chance.

“I was feeding her, I was changing her, and I was bathing her by myself,” Nielsen said. “All of a sudden it’s her daughter, and I don’t know what’s best for her.”

Under Utah law if a couple isn’t married the mother has the right to give a baby up for adoption without the father’s consent. This law has been challenged before, and it may be challenged again.

“If we continue to run up against a brick wall we have no other option than to seek the assistance of the court and making this right,” Hutchins said.

FOX 13 News made multiple attempts to contact the attorney for the biological mother but calls were not returned.