Not giving up. A Santa Clarita, California, couple are fighting back after their 6-year-old foster daughter, Lexi, was taken away on Monday, March 21, because she’s 1/64 Choctaw Native American.
Lexi now lives with her extended family in Utah. KTLA reports that her birth parents haven’t been in contact with the child for years because of incarceration and addiction. Lexi’s court-appointed attorney reportedly said that her relatives in Utah have been waiting for her for three years.
Rusty and Summer Page, Lexi’s foster parents, opened up exclusively to Us Weekly about the harrowing situation they say the Indian Child Welfare Act, which prefers to keep Indian children with their American Indian families, has put them through.
“I am feeling lost, angry, exhausted, sick and helpless. I am feeling like I am falling short of my solemn promise to be Lexi’s Superman — that no matter how many hours I work, or thousands of emails I send, Lexi isn’t home yet,” Rusty tells Us. “I feel sorrow for Lexi, my children and my wife. I ache when I see them crying — and it hurts.”
The Pages, who began to foster Lexi four years ago, have three biological children — Maddie, Zoey and Caleb. “They are struggling in their own way,” Rusty tells Us of his kids. “Every time the doorbell rings, our youngest, Zoey, comes running to the top of our landing exuberantly crying, ‘Lexi’s home!‘ We are trying to distract them as much as possible, and friends have been so gracious to help.”
Rusty is determined to bring Lexi home, but the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has cut off his family’s communication with her.
“Despite the ‘promise’ by L.A. County DCFS and the family in Utah, we have not been able to speak with her at all,” Rusty claims. “We have no idea where she laid her head down the last few nights, and that is why I simply cannot lay my head down.”
Rusty says that he has petitioned elected officials and has filed for emergency relief from the California Supreme Court. He also hopes that his community and more will share their petition and Facebook page.
“Lexi was a beautiful, happy, sweet little girl,” Rusty gushes to Us. “Having our own personal dance parties was a favorite way to spend time together.”
Lexi also had plenty of fun with her foster mom. “She had beautiful long hair and loved to have a side braid and pretend she was Elsa [from Frozen],” Summer tells Us. “She loved to hear me say, ‘Lexi, I love you to the moon and back.'”
