Attorney takes pride working for children in adoption system

Family Court is often a place of contention and heartache. Todd Moody knows its other side. He handles adoption cases.

"I can't imagine anything more rewarding than putting a family together," he said. "Judges are always happy to see me step through the door."

He is one of only three attorneys in Southern Nevada who enjoy the title of Fellow, bestowed on him by the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. A Fellow denotes an attorney who specializes in the legalities of seeing children adopted by foster parents.

Moody is a partner in Hutchison & Steffen, which has two offices in Summerlin. He has worked on cases involving medically fragile children, sibling groups, stepparent and agency adoption cases.

One of his busiest days to date was Nov. 17, when he took part in an Adoption Day celebration. Working with the Clark County Department of Family Services, he assisted 18 foster families in adopting 28 children. The day was filled with tears, tissues, hugs, smiles and plenty of photos. It almost certainly ensures that he will see even more Christmas cards and birthday celebration photos sent to his office by the families involved.

Single people and gay couples also are adopting children. The latter have adopted an estimated 65,000 children, or 4 percent of adopted children, according to the Urban Institute.

In the past 17 years, Moody has litigated and tried many cases in both state and federal court. He estimated that roughly 1,000 cases have crossed his desk. Many are done on a pro-bono basis.

One that stood out was an effervescent little boy named Joey, about 7 or 8 years old. When they first met, Joey was in the foster system. The boy had significant medical problems that required him to get around with a sort of walker on wheels.

"He just blew me away, how quickly he got around with this thing, like he had no handicap at all," Moody said. "He was all over the courtroom."

That day was yet another happy one; Joey was being adopted by his adoptive mother's new husband.

A more taxing case was about three years ago. It involved terminating the rights of the father after a young woman had given birth. She had put the newborn up for adoption, but the father, in jail on a felony conviction, refused to relinquish his rights and appealed the ruling against him. There were more circumstances surrounding the case, but Moody preferred not to go into detail.

"The facts are ugly," he said.

The case took two years to go through the appellate courts before the child was able to be adopted legally.

The National Adoption Day Coalition estimates that since the event began 11 years ago, more than 35,000 children have been adopted from foster care on that day.

Michelle Dye, a social worker with the Department of Family Services adoption unit, has known Moody for about nine years and worked more than 100 cases with him. She described him as intelligent, caring and thoughtful and as someone who shakes hands with the child. He also finds ways to put apprehensive children's minds at ease, she said.

"One time, we were all waiting for the judge to come into the courtroom, and he rolled up his tie and said (to the child), 'Let's see whose tie is the fastest,' " she said. "So they rolled up their ties and let them go, and he said, 'It's a tie.' ... that little play on words ... everyone laughed. It let the child know that this was a good thing."

According to the U.S. Census, there are 114,000 children nationwide in foster care who are waiting to be adopted.

"It's important for the public to know that there are a lot of kids who need homes," Moody said. "The tricky part is you don't know when you'll get to keep them."

Or if you'll get to keep them. Sometimes children in foster care are reunited with their biological families, and the foster parents who took the children into their hearts can only watch them walk away.

Moody and his wife, Dee, have four children, ages 12 to 20. Their daughter, Mary, 17, is studying communications at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

"I always thought she'd be perfect as a social worker, though I never told her that," he said. "About two months ago, she called me and said, 'You know, Dad, I'm leaning toward social work."

The new plan? For her to get her undergraduate degree in communications, then get a master's in social work.

"She made me proud when she said that," he said.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.