Adoption turns into nightmare

AMERICAN FORK — Jed and Cally Nielson of American Fork thought they would be celebrating their first Christmas as a family with newly adopted baby Harvey this year.

But they haven't even begun purchasing any gifts for their 5 1/2-month-old boy. Besides spending their $25,000 savings on a custody battle, the Nielsons said, they may actually be facing the holiday alone if Harvey is sent back to his birth parents in Idaho.

"We don't want to just hand him back," Cally Nielson said. "How could anyone hand their baby back?"

What began as a dream-come-true for the couple has quickly turned into a never-ending nightmare of courtrooms and contention.

Since learning the birth father wants custody, the Nielsons have hired two attorneys, one in Idaho and one in Utah. The couple has traveled the 12-hour-long 700-mile trip four times to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for court proceedings.

The nightmare began just two weeks after Jed, 26, and Cally, 24, brought Harvey home from Idaho in July. LDS Family Services informed the Nielsons that the birth father was contesting the adoption.

The Nielsons say Kootenai County District Court ruled the birth father still has parental rights, but they are continuing their court battle.

The birth mother, Cammie Knight, 19, of Coeur d'Alene, said she hasn't changed her mind about giving up her baby. A music major at North Idaho College, she was 18 when she gave birth.

Knight says she and the birth father, Matt Tennyson, 20, of Coeur d'Alene, dated off and on during her sophomore and junior years of high school but their relationship became strained by her senior year.

The teen said she hadn't been in regular contact with Tennyson since the last couple months of her pregnancy.

Tennyson's mother returned a phone call from the Deseret Morning News Thursday evening. She said the family declined to comment until they have spoken to their attorney.

Phone calls to LDS Family Services were not immediately returned.

Knight said the judge is now just taking testimony and gathering information. She believes it could end up in a joint custody arrangement between her and the birth father where one parent has the baby during the week and the other parent has him on the weekends.

Meanwhile, the Nielsons can only sit and wait.

"We have zero rights. We're just guardians of Harvey. That is all," said Jed Nielson.

The Nielsons spoke in an interview in their American Fork home, as Jed bounced a laughing baby Harvey on his lap. On the living room wall is a black-and-white golden-framed picture of Harvey taken when he was only a few weeks old. In the photo, both Jed's and Cally's hands hold the infant.