(WKYT) – More than 100 bills are on Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk, but one child welfare bill is personal for a Garrard County woman.
Caroline Boyd says she was misled into signing adoption papers decades ago. She thought her pastor was helping her, only to learn recently that her son was placed with the pastor’s daughter. Now, she says her story helped prompt an amendment in House Bill 778.
As the clock ticks down for Beshear to sign legislation into law, Boyd is watching and waiting, hoping House Bill 778 makes it across the finish line. She believes it could help other families avoid the kind of situation she went through.
“It was heartbreaking to know that I had not been told the truth,” Boyd said.
Discovery of personal connection
Boyd says the truth did not come out until she spoke to the people involved in her son’s adoption and learned, for the first time, there was a personal connection she had never been told about.
“He said that I hope this doesn’t hurt, but I actually know the reverend. The reverend is deceased and he was my father-in-law, my wife’s father,” Boyd said.
For nearly 40 years, Boyd thought she had done the right thing, giving her son up for adoption while single, pregnant and following her pastor’s advice.
But she says she recently learned the “agency” she believed handled it never existed. When she needed to share medical information, Boyd says she discovered the adoption was tied to her pastor’s biological daughter instead.
“Now can you imagine being told that decades after you had signed papers to give your child up for adoption thinking that it was being handled,” Boyd said.
From personal experience to legislation
A former nurse and crisis manager, Boyd says she knew she had to act. With her own research and help from the internet, she drafted proposed language and took it to her local representative.
She says she heard back quickly, and before long, much of the language she drafted was included in Amendment 1 to the child welfare bill, House Bill 778.
For Boyd, she says it is personal and adds transparency to help make sure other birth parents get clear, independent guidance.
Lawmakers say that is exactly what this bill is aimed at doing.
“The first goal is to strengthen our protections in the foster care and placement system. And you’ll see that in sections 1, 2, 3 and 7,” Rep. Nick Wilson said.
Boyd says she is hopeful about the governor signing the bill. She hopes to work to get similar legislation passed in other states.