The adoptive mother is not a blood relative of the little girl, but the ex-partner of the baby’s father.
She had a child with the man nearly 25 years ago, and stepped in to care for the half-sister of her now adult daughter in 2023.
The people involved in the case cannot be named because of protections around identities in the Adoption Act 1955 and the Family Court Act 1980.
However, the Family Court has released its decision approving the girl’s adoption, with the names changed.
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It calls the girl Zita and the adoptive mother Stephanie Pierce.
The pseudonyms Krystal Miller and Andrew Waterman have been given to the girl’s birth parents.
Zita’s adult half-sister, the daughter of Pierce and Waterman, has been called Wanda.
Long-term health issues
“Wanda is Ms Pierce’s connection to Zita,” Judge Nicola Grimes said.
“Sadly, for Zita, her first seven days … spent with her birth parents resulted in long-term health issues,” she said in her decision.
“Not only did Zita test positive for methamphetamine in her system but was subject to an event resulting in a non-accidental head injury.
“Despite being over two years ago, the circumstances surrounding that non-accidental injury continue to be investigated by the New Zealand Police, who have recommended to Ms Pierce that Zita have no contact with her birth parents.”
Pierce first obtained a parenting order in 2023. With the consent of Miller and Waterman, she has now made a successful application for a final adoption order.
Social workers reported to the court they felt Pierce was a “fit and proper person” to adopt Zita.
They had no concerns about her finances, living arrangements, parenting experience or attachment to the little girl.
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Meanwhile, the birth parents, and members of the girl’s wider whānau, have accepted they cannot care for her.
An ‘open adoption’
Pierce accepted, however, that this would be an “open adoption” where there would be ongoing relationships with the girl’s birth relatives.
Zita would retain her father’s surname as part of her name.
“The name which will appear on the birth certificate … is Zita Waterman Pierce,” Judge Grimes said.
Pierce’s parenting relationship with Waterman regarding Wanda showed her willingness to keep that door open, she said.
“While Mr Waterman has, by and large, been an absent father to Wanda and Zita, that is of his making, not Ms Pierce’s,” the judge said.
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Pierce had used DNA testing to link Zita to her maternal relatives, identifying her Māori whakapapa, allowing her to be officially welcomed onto a great-great-grandparent’s marae.
“Likewise, Wanda is undertaking her whakapapa journey and will walk alongside her sister and teach her,” Judge Grimes said.
In words addressed to the girl in court, Judge Grimes said: “I know mummy will make sure you can see all your family and grow up knowing who you are and where you come from. That is very important.”
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.