32-Year-Old SF Native Being Adopted After Years Of Separation From Foster Family
SAN DIEGO (KPIX 5) - A San Francisco native is about to fulfill his longtime dream of being adopted, at the age of 32.
Maurice Griffin, who now lives in San Diego, was put up for adoption at age three and was placed into the care of Harris family. Lisa and Charles Harris already had two biological sons.
Griffin said during an interview with Fox 5 in San Diego that he was happy in the home and wanted to feel like he was a regular member of the family.
"I wanted to be treated like a real son. Their sons got spanked and I didn't," said Griffin.
He said his request backfired when he told his social worker.
"I told her they were going to be spanking me. She told her superiors and her superiors told her I had to be taken out," he said.
Griffin said two months before the Harris family was due to adopt him, he met with social workers who packed his things and took him away without giving him the chance to say goodbye to the family he spend 10 years with.
"They were threatened. They were going to have their own children taken away from them," Griffin recalled, holding back tears.
Over the next three years Griffin was handed from foster home to foster home more than a dozen times – never finding another match.
"Basically, in my young mind, I had decided that if I acted out everywhere, they would put me back with my family," said Griffin.
But that never happened. Griffin eventually went to college and then moved to San Diego for work.
About six years ago, Lisa Harris found Griffin through social media and he called her.
"She answered the phone and said 'hi baby.' I held onto her voice for so long," he said. "I told her I had to call her back. I couldn't talk – (It was) very emotional for me."
Griffin learned his foster father had died. He and his foster mother met up and, after years of frequent visits, Griffin told her he still wanted to be adopted.
"I filed on Valentine's Day, because I wanted her to know she was my valentine," he said.
Griffin will be legally adopted by his former foster mother Friday, March 15 in San Diego.
