The Army drill instructor whose daughter was adopted without his knowledge is "elated" now that a judge has ordered her return, and he hopes to meet soon with the family that has been raising the toddler, the man’s attorney told FoxNews.com.

Terry Achane, a 31-year-old soldier now based in South Carolina, hopes the end is near for a nightmare that began in early 2011, when little Teleah's mother, Tira Bland, put the baby up for adoption and didn't tell Achane after they split up. When he finally learned what had happened from his ex-wife, he launched a legal battle that culminated in 4th District Judge Darold McDade's 48-page ruling Monday that the baby belongs with her father.

“He’s completely elated at the judge’s ruling,” attorney Mark Wiser told FoxNews.com. “He felt the judge could not rule any other way.”

Achane now hopes the girl’s adoptive parents, Jared and Kristi Frei, will visit him in South Carolina to make the girl’s transition as easy as possible. McDade has given the couple 60 days to return the child, Wiser said.

McDade, who faulted the Adoption Center of Choice, which brokered the adoption, for refusing to tell Achane where the baby was living, has scheduled a Jan. 16 hearing in Provo, Utah.

“It is our hope that the child will be returned to the father at that time and he’ll take her back to South Carolina,” he said. “He is willing and has made offers to the adoptive family to go to South Carolina. He’s looking for their support. They can be part of the solution or they can be part of the problem.”

The Freis have filed a request to stay McDade’s decision, which could delay the girl’s transition if granted, Wiser said.

“We’re expecting the judge to deny that,” he said.

Achane, who is now divorced and has only met his daughter twice, was unavailable for comment, according to Wiser. But the Army serviceman told the Salt Lake Tribune last week that he was concerned about the “precious moments” he would be unable to get back.

"I am not a very religious person," he told the newspaper last week. "But ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ If they prolong it, that is more time away from my daughter. There are precious moments I can’t get back ... It has been a year and a half now. There is no court order saying they have the right to my child. I just won the case. I want to get my daughter and raise my daughter."

Achane, according to the judge’s ruling, accepted a position as a drill instructor at South Carolina’s Fort Jackson in late 2010 and was ordered to report for duty no later than Feb. 1, 2011. Achane and the girl’s mother, Tira Bland, soon began having marital problems shortly thereafter and she grew concerned that she would become a single mother with two children.

Bland then suggested the couple either pursue an adoption or an abortion, both of which Achane rejected. After considering a move to South Carolina, Bland later told Achane she wished to stay in Texas with her relatives for the birth of their daughter. Achane had planned to return for the birth, with the new family joining him in South Carolina afterward.

Bland would later proceed with an adoption, according to the judge’s ruling, contacting the Adoption Center of Choice, which brought Bland to Utah to give birth.

Wiser said he equally blames Bland and the adoptive agency for Achane’s anguish.

“She was not telling the truth,” Wiser said of Bland. “Now, with that, the adoption agency equally ran with this and knew this was a married family.”

James Webb, executive director of the Adoption Center of Choice, declined comment when reached by FoxNews.com.

“There’s a lot of facts that need to be brought out and litigating them in the court of public opinion is a bit challenging,” he said, without elaborating.

The Freis, meanwhile, who maintain a blog detailing the custody battle, did not return a message seeking comment. The couple has raised more than $22,000 in donations for adoption-related costs and attorney fees via the website.

“If you find that you are in a position to offer any amount toward helping us cover these expenses, we cannot convey to you the gratitude, appreciation and tender mercy we will hold for your offering,” the website reads. “Truly, any amount will help.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/05/drill-instructor-elated-with-judge-order-to-return-daughter-from-adoptive/?test=latestnews#ixzz2EG64F4ot

These adoptive parents are just as guilty as the birth mother and adoptive agency. Their desperate needs to have another African American baby to match the other one drove them to adopt a baby from an agency who KNEW the father would be against this and who would protest his child being put up for adoption.

I am disturbed that the judge gave them 60 days to turn the baby over. I have read their blogs and they sound like relgious fenatical nutjobs. The judge just gave them all the time in the world to flee with the child. She should have been turned over right then and there when the decision was made!

I think their lawyers are just as bad. I have read a lot on this case and EVERY legal expert has said they stand no chance of winning this case but are still being convinced by their lawyers that it is winnable and of course the lawyers would say that since they are going to make over $30,000 just for the appeal!

http://frei-adoption.com/Frei/Leah.html

Here is the family's blog with their email address. People need to flood their email box and let them know what they are doing is wrong and selfish and they are trying to ruin the reputation and career of a decorated American hero who wants nothing more to have the daughter back that they STOLE from him!

I feel for all involved

noone knows what happened but the birth mother and noone knows what she told the biological or custodial parents

as someone who has had the situation of a spouse leaving and abandoning support of his child, I can believe that possibility is just as stated on their website

I also emphasize with them raising this child for nineteen months without any contribution from the father who is interested in preventing the adoption

I think the mother , if the husband did leave, was in a tough spot choosing between aborting (which would have been legal) or giving birth and allowing another family to raise and love the child

I think the father, if he was lied to, was in a tough spot believing he would have a child and later being served adoption papers instead


I think the parents, if lied to, are in a tough spot being so desperate and investing so much of their life and resources into this child to have to just give the child to someone else instead


my own parents had a rule that if they raised a child for more than a year and a half, it was their child,,,

its sad all the way around really

I notice that their is an archane and a bland, so Im not sure the mother was married to the father, which makes his decision to leave and how it happened a pretty important detail for discovery,,,

Apparently, you didn't pay close attention to the news story. If you had, then you would know that the baby's biological father is a member of the U.S. Army who was transferred to a base in South Carolina. He did not abandon his baby or the baby's biological mother. After his transfer, the father expected to be reunited with the baby's biological mother in time for the baby's birth.

Here is an excerpt from the afore-linked story in The Salt Lake Tribune:



The biological mother engaged in an act of fraud in order to prevent the baby's father from having role in the baby's life.

As for the adoptive couple involved in this case of fraud, they are poster children for what it means to covet - as in “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20:17)

I read the story Dodo

but its one persons story

the man being in the service does not mean he could not have decided to walk away from her or the family at the time of her decision

there is no mention of when they had seperated as a couple, so if the split up was actually earlier in the pregnancy we dont know what ACTUALLY Happened regarding their reactions to it,,,,


there are plenty of possibilities and unanswered questions, for instance,

if he was to return and had clearance, why no pictures of him at the hospital with his child?

I just suspect this is a he said and she said with plenty enough left out

I tried to cover all possible scenarios and the tragic consequence of each,,,

Are you serious? The baby's birth was hidden from the baby's biological father.

Here is an excerpt from the aforementioned news story:



Here we have a case of a woman committing an act of fraud so that she could prevent her baby's biological father from being the father that he wanted to be.

thats more information than what was previously given,,,,,

fraudulent

yet still not proof , by itself, that the man wanted to be a father,,,,,


its quite possible he was one who didnt want her to have the option not to be a mother,,,,,they do exist,,,

there are plenty out now who whoop and holler about what the mother better and better not do with their children while not contributing a thing to that childs life themself,,,,

those who refuse to have any other man around even though they have no capacity or inkling to be around themself

its a control thing,,,,and there is a slight chance she was trying to avoid such a situation,,,,

but I have no way of knowing whether the fraud was motivated by that type of survival/desperation or just by selfishness,,,,

Nothing in the news story implies that the biological father didn't want to be a father. The man is a military man who received a transfer. He had to go to his new base when he did, or otherwise he would have been AWOL.

When this case went to court, plenty of evidence came out which revealed that the biological mother told lie after lie and took actions to prevent the baby's father from knowing when the baby was born and where the baby was. It is no wonder that the judge in the case is appalled by what happened.

In court, the attorneys for the biological father proved that the biological mother and the adoption agency both did something corrupt. The biological father has been exonerated. So, why keep siding with the biological mother when in a court of law she was proven to be the villain in this case?

I understand that. It seems that the newsstory is 'slanted' in the fathers favor. That was why I included options that may have been left out of the newsstory or not yet uncovered.

Im not siding with anyone, IM aknowledging that there are usually two sides. Courts can be wrong. There was no information in this piece about the court case, my statements only reflected what I thought of what was shared in the OP

being labeled the villain by a court also doesnt do alot for me, to choose one side over the other,,,

mothers sometimes do what they have to, even when laws are broken in the process

she may be a vindictive, lying , cheat

or she may be someone who was scared that she would raise children alone with an absent or disinterested parent and wanted the child to have a better option,,,,,

Perhaps that is because the facts are in the father's favor.

Why is it so difficult for you to believe the news story?
Is it because of this: "as someone who has had the situation of a spouse leaving and abandoning support of his child . . ."

its not that I dont believe it, its that I have come to often have an inkling that news stories can tell only PART of the truth


could be the woman is as horrible as painted

or there could be some other undisclosed facts

it could be because I have personally experienced a man 'playing' like he cares about being a father that I Can consider that a possibility as well




and it could be because so little information is given about the timeline of their breakup or what the father did

only what the mother did



in any case, I do think I didnt settle on one side or the other, as I have CONSIDERED more than one possibility each post,, including the possibility that she was just simply wrong,,,

So, is it possible that you have difficulty being objective when it comes to this particular case?

if considering more than one option means 'difficulty being objective'


then yes

I am totally objective but the first thing I also wondered (even before i read your comments)was why if the father is so attached to this child why wasn't he more involved and aware of what was going on, have his own family or friends acting as proxy...or in some way keeping tabs on things

he was in the Army not on the moon

there may be answers to those things - I may need to reread the OP, but those were things I wondered about


and then, why is david so convinced the story is accurate? - just as he asks you to consider the possibility it is accurate, so should he be adult enough to consider that it is flawed......I seldom trust media stories myself...........

Uh, what evidence is there that the news story is flawed?
Brooke Adams is the reporter who wrote the story for The Salt Lake Tribune. If you want to accuse her of flawed reporting, then tell her directly. Her business contact information is given at the end of the news story.

Like any good reporter, Adams tried to get everyone side of the story. So, what happened?



Being that this case went to court, a judge had to go through the evidence to see what happened. So, how did the judge respond?



What we have here is a case of a biological mother deceiving her husband in attempt to prevent him from being the father that he wants to be.

So, why are some people criticizing the father after it was demonstrated in court that he had not abandoned his baby daughter?

Is it too difficult to believe that the biological mother is a villain and the biological father is an innocent victim? Is anti-male sexual prejudice preventing that from being believed?

Uh, what evidence is there that the news story is flawed?


the story is INCOMPLETE, that is all

noone says they dont believe the fathers side, we only consider that his side may not be the WHOLE story,,,,


more of the story

http://abcnews.go.com/US/utah-custody-battle-mother-adopted-baby-tot-good/story?id=17891768

NOTE: the op says she stayed with her family, this piece says his attornies claimed he was paying her bills,,

as I said, there seems enough questions and blanks to consider that we may not know what really happened with that pregnancy


judges can be wrong, especially with 'hero' fathers who are in the military or police force,,,etc,,,,


I dont know the judge was wrong or right, he could be either, my pov is that I just dont really know what happened in this couples relationship where the pregnancy was involved,,,