Quets is now in police custody and is facing international kidnapping charges, after being found with the twins in an Ontario, Canada, bed and breakfast. The children were unharmed and were placed in protective custody in Canada until they could hopefully be reunited with their adoptive parents.

Even though the babies had been placed for adoption by Kevin and Denise Needham in North Carolina, Quets, a Florida resident, apparently had court-approved visitation in some form of open adoption. She picked up the babies sometime on December 22nd. Authorities have also learned that she turned in a notice at her job that same day. She was supposed to return the Tyler and Holly to their adoptive homes on Christmas Eve. When Quest and the children failed to show up at the court-appointed time, Mr. and Mrs. Needham reported the children missing.

Apparently Ms. Quets placed the babies for adoption when they were just weeks old but almost immediately regretted her decision and filed an appeal in the Florida courts to regain custody of her children.

Why did this happen? Did it have to happen? Could this have been avoided? These are just some of the questions. I truly think there is much more to this story than we know.

This incident is of particular interest to me since I live in North Carolina and adopted from Florida several years ago. According to online sources, the adoption was an “attorney assisted” adoption. Does this mean that a Florida adoption agency was involved? Have Florida adoption laws changed so that agencies are not required for interstate adoptions? If the answers to the last two questions are no, then is this placement even legal?

Quets’ family members now say she was “weak and confused” in the weeks following delivery. If this is true, was she taken advantage of by the attorney, adoptive parents, and court system? Did she receive any sort of counseling before signing the adoption papers?

No matter the answers to the above questions, the most important question is: What is best for the children? Their birth mother obviously loves them, but they have been with their adoptive parents for well over a year now. Now that her desperate actions have landed her in jail, she risks losing her children forever. This is sad because, with a whole lot of understanding, compassion, respect, communication, and caring between the parents, without involving courts or attorneys, they might have been able to reach a mutual agreement to keep them all actively involved in the lives of these two precious children.