Word: kazmierazak
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...Penny Kazmierazak, 40, a disabled Army veteran in Palm Bay, Fla., is the woman being kept from seeing the little girl she has helped to rear, and she thinks she knows the answers to the tough questions. She thinks anyone does, if she listens to her heart. A mother, Kazmierazak says, is the person a child calls "Mommy"; the one who cares for the child physically and emotionally, without pay. She adds, "It's easy for a child to have two moms"--and the child doesn't care which one gave birth...
That's the proposition that Kazmierazak has placed before the Florida appeals judges. Much of her evidence is stuffed into a scrapbook that she hugged to her chest during a court hearing last month. It includes a sperm-donor list, the stick from an early pregnancy test that still shows the positive lines indicating a baby had been conceived, ultrasound pictures of Zoey in the womb and a letter from Kazmierazak's former partner. It reads: "Thank you for having our beautiful little girl with me...You are her mommy and will always be. I will never do anything...
...former partner, Zoey's biological mom, is Pam Query, 37, whose job for years has been caring for her ailing mother. She and her lawyer have not argued the facts of the case so much as the law--and the law, so far, has been on their side. When Kazmierazak first sought custody rights, the trial court ruled she had no standing in the case. Florida law recognizes parental rights of custody only for biological or adoptive parents and grandparents. Kazmierazak is none of these...
Most states allow what is called a second-parent adoption, which allows a person to adopt the children of his or her partner without ending the partner's parental status. But Florida is not one of those states. So Kazmierazak and her lawyers are, in essence, asking the appeals court to interpret the law broadly and consider her role as a parent and the best interests of the child...