Michelle and Roy Rodriguez look at the photo album of the girl they tried to adopt, Nathaly, who turned 3 Saturday. The child's grandmother was awarded custody earlier this year after the Rodriguezes, as foster parents, had cared for her more than two years. Photo by K.M. Cannon. The cover of Michelle and Roy Rodriguez's baby book shows the foster child they cared for, Nathaly. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Michelle and Roy Rodriguez masked their April outing to a pizza parlor as a party for their 2-year-old foster daughter, inviting her preschool playmates and a handful of their own friends.

The couple thought they hid their anguish, knowing that the next morning they had to hand Nathaly over to her biological grandmother, a woman who was practically a stranger to the girl.

Nathaly sensed something was wrong.

"She was just clinging and clinging to us," Michelle Rodriguez recalled last week, wiping away streams of tears as she struggled to finish her sentence. "She knew."

The next day, April 28, with a bag packed of Nathaly's favorite Elmo toys, the Rodriguezes met the grandmother, Maria Lopez, at the county's Department of Family Services.

That was the last time the Rodriguezes saw Nathaly, a girl whom they took in as a 1-month-old after traces of amphetamine and methamphetamine were found in her system. They are not allowed to visit or ask about the girl they raised for nearly three years.

On Saturday, the couple spent Nathaly's third birthday preparing for more court battles in an attempt to at least earn visitation rights with the child. Meanwhile, Nathaly's grandmother and aunt held their own birthday party for the girl, their first together.

Last week, Michelle Rodriguez slowly turned the pages in a photo album that showed her foster daughter's birthday parties and pictures of her first Halloween, her big brown eyes peering from inside a giraffe costume.

"I don't have anything left," Rodriguez said. "I grieve over this photo album."

Although both families are antagonistic toward each other and dispute the facts of the case, they do agree that the system that allowed this situation to occur is flawed. Rodriguez said they were given false hope. The Lopez family said they were ignored.

Rodriguez said that after caring for Nathaly for seven months with no word from the biological mother or other relatives, they inquired about adopting the little girl.

"I'm not saying, 'Oh my gosh, we're better than her,' " Rodriguez, who was raised by a single mother, said of Lopez. "We're a mother and father wanting to take her out of the system and provide an opportunity for her."

According to court records, Clark County Child Protective Services had contacted Maria Lopez when Nathaly was born. Lopez was caring for her daughter Yesenia Sosa's five other children and social workers believed she would be overwhelmed by a sixth.

With the blessings from county social services and District Judge Gerald Hardcastle, adoption proceedings moved forward in the summer of 2004.

The Rodriguezes believe they have since been caught up in a web of politics.

On behalf of Maria Lopez, Barbara Buckley, an attorney with Clark County Legal Services, filed a petition to stop the proceedings just days before the adoption was to be finalized. Buckley, a state assemblywoman, also appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court Hardcastle's earlier decision to move forward with the adoption and terminate the family's guardianship rights.

Buckley said Lopez had petitioned the court for custody of Nathaly from the day she was born.

"Maria was pretty much ignored by the foster care system," Buckley said. "She wanted her grandchild and they told her she would be too overwhelmed. They gave her custody of five; that same month, they said she couldn't handle six."

While the case was pending, Buckley introduced and got passed an Assembly bill that required courts to attempt to keep together siblings removed from their home. Hardcastle, who is presiding over the so-called Baby Sosa case, testified in favor of the bill during the legislative session.

"She represents a client here, then goes to Carson City and introduces this bill that helps her client's case," Rodriguez said of Buckley.

Rodriguez isn't opposed to the legislation, but she doesn't believe it applies to Nathaly, saying the girl didn't know her siblings. Over a 21/2-year period, the family visited Nathaly eight times, she said.

But Buckley said her bill had no effect on the Rodriguezes' case.

"The case (state Supreme Court appeal) was filed before the law was passed and was decided on the issue of Maria being her grandmother and not based on her siblings," Buckley said. "That's a false allegation; it wasn't an issue with this case."

At the state Supreme Court, a panel of judges overturned Hardcastle's ruling.

The state Supreme Court ruling found that Hardcastle failed to consider Lopez as a potential parent when he sided with Child Protective Services.

"Had the District Court initially placed N.S. (Nathaly Sosa) with Maria, it could have reassessed the temporary placement after several months to determine Maria's ability to care for all six of her grandchildren," the March opinion states. "The District Court never gave Maria the opportunity to show her capability to keep her family together."

In April, Hardcastle ordered a two-week transition period to begin transferring Nathaly to her grandmother. Hardcastle cast doubt on whether Lopez had expressed interest in gaining custody of Nathaly early on.

"The one issue that mitigated very strongly against not placing with the grandmother was the issue of the bonding of the child, the grandmother's initial effort or lack of commitment to the child," Hardcastle said, according to transcripts of the April hearing.

Part of the transition called for Nathaly to spend an entire weekend with her new family. Rodriguez said when she returned to them, she was confused by the length of her visit.

"She ran up to us and put her hands up and said 'What happened?'" Rodriguez said.

Buckley is critical of how the county handled the case.

"Who dropped the ball?" Buckley said. "Certainly the county should never have promised a foster family they could potentially adopt a child who has a loving family."

Officials with the county's Department of Family Services declined to comment on the case.

The Lopez family disputed information provided to the court by county workers. Maria Lopez always intended to keep Nathaly and even filed a petition for guardianship when the girl was 4 months old.

"We told them we have all the other kids and we want Nathaly too," said Nathaly's aunt, Gaby Lopez. "We all wanted the baby. She (Rodriguez) knew we were there. We were not just going to say, 'Oh well, she's gone. Who cares.' No."

The Lopezes intend to fight the Rodriguezes on visitation rights because of the ugly exchanges between the families; they maintain the Rodriguezes have treated them like strangers. Each family has created Web sites to tell their side of the emotional story. The Lopezes' plight is explained at www.familytogetheragain .com; the Rodriguezes' story is at www.nojustice4natalee.com.

"I feel if (Michelle Rodriguez) loved the baby she would have said, 'OK, this is where she's supposed to be, but I want to be a part of her life,' " Gaby Lopez said Friday. "She was not thinking of the baby."

Through an interpreter, Maria Lopez said she is "afraid (Michelle) is going to take matters into her own hands. I'm afraid to let her go outside to play."

On Friday, Nathaly Sosa played with her siblings and ran to her aunt screaming excitedly "Gaby!" when she entered the home. The family planned to throw her a party Saturday to celebrate their first birthday together.

The Rodriguezes are not new to foster parenting. They took in a 10-year-old boy for a month and a 3-year-old for a year. In each case, however, they knew the parents were working to regain custody of their children.

Michelle Rodriguez admits the latest saga involving Nathaly has soured her feelings toward foster care. Not only was Nathaly taken away from them after three years, but they have had to sell their home and other property to pay legal fees.

"The court system, the attorneys, they treat foster parents like crap," Rodriguez said. "I feel for the kids, I would have to do it for the kids, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone."