I am the father of my 13 month old son. I have been fighting a private adoption agency for custody of my son for 15 months. Two months before he was born my girlfriend made arrangements with an adoption agency without my knowledge to place our child for adoption. One day I called her to ask her how the test results came back from our last visit to the doctor and she would not call me back. We had been regularly going to doctor appointments and making arrangements for the birth of our child when all of the sudden I get a letter of Intended Adoption. I could not believe my eyes. I kept trying to contact her but she would not respond to any of my calls. I pursued with filing with the Florida Office of Vital Statistics and a verified response to the clerk of court contesting the adoption. I notified the adoption agency and told them I wanted my child and I wanted to be at his birth. They convinced my girlfriend not to have ant futher contact with me and not to tell me when she went into labor so I could not put my name on the birth certificate. I retained an attorney and was told I had no rights until we got a DNA test. We served the adoption agency with a court ordered DNA test. Ultimately had proof through DNA the baby was mine. My girlfriend called me one week after the baby was born and told me she was very sorry and had made a terrible mistake. She called the adoption agency to tell them she wanted her baby back five days after he was born and they told her NO. SHE HAD SIGNED OFF ON HER PARENTAL RIGHTS. They told her she only had 3 days to change her mind and offered to get her counseling. We went to my attorney and pursued a custody hearing but at the pretrial hearing they requested an emergency summary judgment hearing and terminated my parental rights because they said the notary did not ask me to raise my right hand when he notarized my verified response. The judge terminated my parental rights forever and now it is in the District Court of Appeals. I have spent $39,000 dollars fighting for custody of my son and have been ordered to pay the adoption agency $250 per month to support my child that they are legally stealing from me. I won the appeal but the adoption agency filed a motion for a rehearing. We are now waiting for the District Court of Appeals' decision on the motion for rehearing. We hope to go back to circuit court for a custody hearing that I never got . They have stolen my child and the judicial system has allowed them to keep my son, who is now 13 months old, away from me. This has been a very expensive nightmare and I wish we could sue them.