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Maurice Griffin (pictured right) has waited decades to be adopted, and finally at age 32, his wish is being granted. Even though adoption at Griffin’s age is rather odd, the wheels will be in motion anyway since he has finally reunited with the only foster Mother who ever treated him like her own son, reports CNN.

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Griffin was placed in the home of Lisa Godbold (pictured) and her then-husband in the 1980s, after they spotted him at an orphanage not too far from their Sacramento, Calif., home. Griffin was 9 years old and is biracial, while Godbold is White.

Godbold told CNN, “Interracial relationships weren’t as common or accepted as they are today, and the fact that Maurice was biracial and we were a biracial family, made us a great profile, so to speak.”

The muscular and mohawk-sporting Griffin felt as if he was truly a part of Godbold’s family.  According to the widowed and now-remarried Godbold, Griffin and her two boys got along great.  Griffin reminisces, “We were best friends. We’d run around, we did mischievous things, and fun things. It was a good time.”

Griffin was such a perfect fit that Godbold and her then-husband decided to adopt the boy who was 13 at the time. However, two months before the adoption process was finalized, the foster care agency snatched Griffin out of Godbold’s home for spanking, which Godbold believed in at the time.

Godbold told CNN that the agency’s powers-that-be admonished her, “‘You can’t spank foster children.’ Maurice very much wanted that [to be spanked],” she said. “We wanted him to feel like the rest of our kids. And there was a difference of opinion with some of the [child welfare] supervisors.”

Godbold contends she battled to keep Griffin but lost in the end because she was told she could lose her own children.

As the years progressed, Griffin and Godbold lost touch. For Griffin, being removed from the home was devastating, “It was just an emptiness,” he said. “I couldn’t talk to anybody about it because nobody was there. I couldn’t call somebody; there was just a void in me.”

Throughout the years, both Griffin and Godbold continued to search for each other. Griffin was placed in several homes, so his life was constantly in flux. Godbold’s husband passed away in 1998, and she later remarried and changed her last name. Meanwhile, Griffin confessed to CNN that he hit many rough patches in his life and always kept people at arm’s length.  “I didn’t let anybody get close to me again,” Griffin said. “I hurt a lot of people.”

Six years ago, Godbold found Griffin on the social media site MySpace and was able to call him.  He was so overwhelmed by the phone call that he had to hang up to compose himself.

Now the two are reunited and have decided to make their relationship legal. On Friday, both Griffin and Godbold are heading to a San Diego juvenile court and they will finally be Mother and son.

Watch Griffin and Godbold’s story here:

 

After Years Of Being Separated From Foster Mom, 32-Year-Old Man Will Get Adopted  was originally published on newsone.com