Mom Fights City Hall

April 22, 2014 permalink

Oklahoma mother Heather Bazzle gave up her fourth child Max for adoption by Lance and Darcy Norick. Lance is the son of former Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norick. Now that the adoptive parents have divorced, she wants her son back.

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Biological mother wants adopted son back from powerful family

Posted on: 5:50 pm, April 22, 2014, by Ed Doney, updated on: 06:19pm, April 22, 2014

OKLAHOMA CITY – A metro mother claims she was deceived into giving away her baby boy last year and is now fighting a powerful family to regain custody.

Heather Bazzle says she gave up her child to a stable family in September out of pure love for him.

Before the adoption was finalized, she learned the adoptive couple was getting a divorce.

Before Bazzle’s child, Max, was born, she decided she couldn’t support a fourth child.

She remembers thinking, “How am I going to give this child everything I can?”

So she met with an adoption attorney, who recommended placing the child with a couple in Arizona, Lance and Darcy Norick.

Lance’s father is former Oklahoma City Mayor, Ron Norick.

Bazzle said, “They seemed like the perfect people.”

The Norick’s were there for the birth and Max was eventually handed over.

But Bazzle now calls it a “failed adoption” because the adoptive parents have filed for divorce.

She eventually filed an application for emergency custody and now wants her child back, for good, because she believes the couple misrepresented themselves.

“That’s my baby. I love him,” Bazzle said. “I’m trying to do what’s best for him, and even though I may have made a mistake placing him for adoption, I feel like God’s giving me a chance now to fix that and to be there for him.”

But adoption attorney Jim Ikard says a judge is very specific with biological mothers during the adoption process.

“(The judge asks) you understand that forever is a long time?” Ikard said. “(The mothers say) Yes, I do.”

Ikard said biological parents who want their children back have to prove there was fraud.

First they have to prove what is in the “best interests” of the child, but they already told a judge they weren’t that option.

“And so the question gets to be, if you don’t like this couple, it’s not a matter of you getting the child back. It’s finding another couple,” Ikard said.

Bazzle said, “I don’t feel like I can give my son to anybody and trust anybody with him anymore.”

Ikard said adoption “home studies” of prospective parents are very thorough, so fraud is hard to prove for a biological parent.

Court documents show former Mayor Norick was granted temporary guardianship of the child because he’s able to travel between Oklahoma and Arizona with the baby as this legal fight continues.

Source: KFOR