‘SHE GOT MY BABY BACK!’

Teresa Anderson’s client was desperate to keep her newborn child. In 2019, three days after the baby was born, Anderson, a Kansas City attorney, and Samantha, the worried mother, appeared before Missouri’s Jackson County family treatment court. Samantha’s prospects were poor. Her daughter was born two-and-a-half months premature and had tested positive for methamphetamines. And Samantha’s drug-riddled life didn’t evoke confidence in the court. She had started smoking meth at age 14, she had a criminal record, and the baby’s father was “a narcissistic monster,” as Samantha puts it, who was in and out of jail. Samantha had left him earlier in the year, but she continued to abuse drugs while pregnant. The court deemed her unfit and gave her 24 hours