Maybe Late to the Party... Thoughts on The Curious Case of Natalia Grace Season One

 

I may be a little late to the party.

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace was release in 2023. It ran for three seasons from 2023 through 2025. I'm midway through season two, Natalia Speaks, where she shares HER side of the story.

Her story is tragic, shocking and sensational. It makes for "tabloid television" the kind of gaper's block you would find on Geraldo! The Maury Povich Show, Dr. Phil, or any one of the typical daytime talk shows.

The first season is all about things like "control", "manipulation", "narrative" and "spin".

Natalia's story unfolds from her adoptive father, Michael Barnett. He comes across very articulate. Very flamboyant. The story he tells is quite vivid and detailed. Almost polished and rehearsed. It's quite possible that Michael and Kristine Barnett's version of the story may be based on the 2009 horror film "Orphan". The Barnetts adopted Natalia Grace in 2010. Season One focuses primarily on Michael Barnett and his son, Jacob, leading up to Michael's trial for the abandonment of Natalia. As Michael's grip on the "narrative" and "spin" apparently slips, and the seeming house of cards starts to collapse, he comes across more of a bitter, vindictive, whiny cry-baby. An unnecessarily foul-mouthed one at that.

My take-away from Season One is that it is not Natalia's complete story. It's only the horrific experience with the Barnetts. 

Natalia Grace was born in Ukraine to a single, low-income mother. Natalia's mother was told that she could not afford to care for Natalia properly. In Season One, she comes off as not wanting to be tracked down for any information on Natalia. Eventually, she provides DNA and critical birth information.

What's missing is any information from Gary and Dyan Ciccone. Did they decline to be interviewed? What comes across is the question of why they only had Natalia for a year after adopting her. The quick and glossy answer is that they found some behavioral issues with her. But there's several accounts that the Ciccones were trying to find a new home for her with couples that also had dwarfism, to the point that the narrative and spin is that the Ciccones were shopping her around.

Toward the end of Season One and midway through Season Two, the story comes across that Kristine Barnett may be the true villain of the story.

The sad thing is that very few people came to Natalia's help and rescue.

It's a shame that her story was negatively sensationalized and turned into trashy tabloid television.

There are a lot of noble couples and families looking to build relationships and support future generations through adoption. Hopefully this one story doesn't severely damage that.   

Things I Wish I Knew...

I'm an adoptive dad. 

Our adoption journey started in 2004. Cathy and I had been married for fourteen years. We'd been trying off and on - mostly off - to start a family. The reason I say "off" is because we moved around a lot. I worked in radio. I interned for a couple years at Chicago's US*99. I was an intern there at the time John "Katman" Katzbeck passed away. I'd never met him, or J. D. Spangler. I was kind of acquainted with Trish ("The Dish") Biondo. I found out she was a McAuley lady - She went to Mother McAuley in Mount Greenwood, not far from where I grew up in Evergreen Park. My grandmother and aunt lived in Mount Greenwood. I got to meet a few of the other personalities there at US*99. After a couple years, I got a gig in Rockford, as a morning show producer and stunt ("grunt") man. I was a "Wake-Up Crew Gerbil". It's better than Mancow's stuntman - "Turd"! After four years of misadventures in Rockford, we moved on to Columbus, GA to the tune of "The Gerbil Went Down to Georgia".

After four years in Georgia, we moved back north of the Mason-Dixon line to Minnesota. Twelve years at one of the two Country stations in Rochester. Cathy is a far, far better person than I. She followed me from one move to another. Not only was she able to land a new job one right after another, but she also excelled far better than I did at each new position. In the years that I worked in radio, I felt like I always had a "Black Thumb". Like Gilligan, I was stealing failure from the clutches of success. Each new job was a rousing success for Cathy. The mortgage company she worked for in Columbus had a $5,000 discrepancy that Cathy managed to completely clear in virtually no time at all. Her reward for that was a coin that she could redeem for anything. I do mean anything. We kicked it around and decided on a trip to Disneyland. In September. We had fun, but we agreed it would have been more fun with kids.

So, when we moved on for another radio job in Rochester, Cathy put her foot down through the floor. She wanted to get rid of our second car which was a U-Haul truck, stop living out of packing boxes, settle down, plant roots and start a family. So, she got us into a fertility program. That's when she was diagnosed with cancer. It was August of 2004. The doctor gave us the diagnosis on a Wednesday and scheduled surgery for two days later, on Friday. From the Fall of 2004 through December of 2010, we were in one adoption program after another, trying to find the right fit.

We finally made a connection in January of 2011. Our first child came home to us in October of 2011. Our second child came home December 7th, 2012 (Yes, "a date that shall live in inFAMY!") Our third child came home at the end of May 2014.

I'm not a procrastinator, but just the other day, I finished reading Sherrie Eldredge's "Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew".

I found it very informative. Not so much about International Adoption - our three were all in Ukraine. 

Adoption starts in rejection.

Eldredge writes, "...one must enter into freedom through pain." She continues that companions on that journey are, "...truth and suffering." 

The sorrow and grief of adoption goes deep down, to an individual's DNA. It runs so deep that, at times, it can be almost inexplicable.

Eldredge's book addresses how to handle and manage the unknown. How to car for the broken, hurting, rejected individual. There are things adoptive kids may not be aware of that they are going through.

If you, or someone you know, is affected in any way by adoption, this is a good book to read.

If you'd like a peak at our adoptions, you can visit us on Facebook, Cathy and Dave's Adoption Journey.