Davis family completes son's protracted adoption

A Florence family who said their son was taken from them by the state Department of Social Services as the economy took its toll on them has officially been allowed to adopt the boy.

On Feb. 14, 2008, Mark and Kelly Davis brought their son Matthew home. They’d tried for seven years to start a family. After multiple fertility treatments failed, they decided to adopt Matthew.

Two weeks later, Kelly learned she was pregnant with their daughter, Sophia Rose. Six months after that, Mark was transferred from Charleston to Florence, but the move came with a pay cut.

That’s when the Department of Social Services stepped in, saying the couple’s finances no longer met the criteria for adopting a child.

Mark said in a previous interview that at no time did Matthew go without anything he needed. The Davises also had signed a form at the beginning of the adoption process stating that if they ever became pregnant, they would keep their adopted child.

The Davises worked for months to comply with DSS, but made no headway. They said they worked to comply with every request made by DSS, including selling their home, but DSS did not accept their proposals.

The Davises claim that as DSS workers waited to take custody of Matthew, they were told to sign a form. Mark said they were so upset, they just signed it. Then DSS told them the form took away their right to appeal Matthew’s removal.

The Davises’ only option was to hire an attorney to fight for their son. They can’t afford the thousands of dollars it will take to do so, however, and hoped a local attorney would take their case pro bono.

In March, Stuart Axelrod of Myrtle Beach and Paul Taylor of Conway both agreed to work on the Davises’ case after hearing the facts behind it. The Davises also established a legal fund at Wachovia bank under the name The Davis Family Fund. Contributions can be made at any branch.

On Thursday, a judge declared the Davises the adoptive parents of Matthew and sent them straight to the office of their adoption attorney, Stuart Snow, to sign the formal papers.

Kelly Davis said Matthew is adjusting very well.

“He’s really into his (9-month-old) sister now,” she said. “I think he’s just where he should be.”

After the adoption process initially moved along smoothly, the Davises sais they were shocked when they lost Matthew with only an hour and a half notice.

“It’s taken a terrible toll on our family not just out immediate family, but our extended family,” Kelly said. “Everybody’s been involved in getting our son back to sending letters to the governor’s office to doing whatever we could to fight for our son because he may not be biologically ours, but he is ours.”

“I just remember us sitting in the courtroom and when the judge said the adoption had been ordered and he agreed we should be the adoptive parents,” Mark said. “It was just the biggest weight you can imagine lifted off of our shoulders.”

The Davises said they want many of the DSS procedures reformed. They believe the system must exist to help children in need, but they hope for better educated and trained case workers.

“Before you take a baby away from a family, maybe you need to do a little bit of research,” Axelrod said. “Look, that’s the most sacred thing we have in our country is family, and our state DSS just obliterated this family, just split them in half, and nobody cared.”

State Rep. Dr. Kris Crawford of Florence worked with the governor’s office on the Davises’ case and said it could serve as a catalyst for change.

“I think this sets a precedence that we really look at getting the district DSS board involved in these decisions to remove children from homes,” Crawford said Thursday. “Maybe we just simply require that cases of removal of children who are in the adoptive phase do go before the district so that there’s some outside input as to this being an appropriate decision.”

News 13 attempted to discuss this case multiple times with DSS officials, including state Department of Social Services Executive Director Kathleen Hayes, before it moved to the governor’s office in March, but to no avail. Even though the Davises gave their permission, News13 wasn’t allowed in the governor’s office hearings or the final adoption preceedings.