- The adopted Ukrainian girl who may have been an adult? Or something like that.
When the Natalia Grace case blew up right before COVID, no one knew what to think. The story was about the adoption of a girl, but possibly an adult. Here’s the whole story.
Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian adoptee, had all kinds of controversies and questions around her. Some people say Natalia destroyed the lives of the
Barnett’s, the family that adopted her. Some say that the Barnett’s were abusive and negligent and it took years for everyone to get straight exactly how old she was.
The Barnett’s had been married for about 15 years when they decided on the adoption and to add to their family. At first, they were going to receive a girl from Haiti named Gilberta. The earthquake hit Haiti though and they closed all adoptions out of the country.
Afterwards, they got a call from an adoption agency in Florida called adoption by Shepard Care. They had a girl coming to them with dwarfism, but they had 24 hours to decide. Either they could pick her up by Monday or she’d be going straight into foster care.
The adoption agency was in a weird area and seemed off, but they adopted Natalia in the summer of 2010, with no details as it was a closed adoption, also her second adoption. They had three boys in their family already, Natalia making it four.
It’s that very first night when Kristine goes to give Natalia a bath, that the first
shock comes. Natalia had pubic hair. When they googled it, they found that girls could grow pubic hair as early as eight and thought it was a possibility.
The Barnett’s threw a huge party once they brought her home from the adoption and some were even shocked at how similar she looked to the family that brought her in. The family said they just wanted to love her and they let the pubic hair situation go and they just wanted to accept her.
From there, a lot of strange things began to happen within the first couple of
months of her being there. One night when Michael came home, he talked with Kristine and Natalia and it turned out that Natalia had her period, too. And that she had been hiding it.
This was when they really started to question her age and the truth of the adoption. How old is she? Did she fake her age? Also, where did she really come from? She didn’t say much about Ukraine, she couldn’t speak the language nor could she talk about people she’d known in the past or what the orphanage was like.
This story beyond the adoption only gets crazier, so watch out for more! And let me know in the comments what you think so far!