YouTube star Myka Stauffer and her husband, James, tearfully shared in a video on Tuesday that their adopted son, Huxley, is no longer living with them.
Myka, who has 717,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, has continuously shared their journey in adopting Huxley from China in 2017 with fans. In a blog post from April 2019, Myka said the adoption agency initially told the couple that Huxley had been diagnosed with a brain cyst and that he also had a small brain tumor, but that it didn’t affect his cognitive abilities. However, once they brought him home, she said he was "profoundly developmentally delayed" and also displayed worrisome behavior like "violently banging his head against the wall" as well as biting and pinching his other siblings. She said that after Huxley saw multiple specialists, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder level 3.
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In the couple's emotional YouTube video on Tuesday, James reiterated that they were not aware of the full extent of Huxley's medical issues when they adopted him.
"With international adoption, sometimes there's unknowns and things that are not transparent on files and things like that," he says. "Once Huxley came home, there was a lot more special needs that we weren't aware of and that we were not told. So, over the past few years, Huxley's been in numerous therapies to try to help him with all of his needs."
Breaking down in tears, he notes, "We never wanted to be in this position. We've been trying to get his needs met and help him out as much as possible. We truly love him."
Myka said they eventually made the difficult decision to give him up to a new family based on his needs.
"There's not an ounce of our body that doesn't love Huxley with all of our being," she says. "There wasn't a minute that I didn't try my hardest. ... After multiple assessments, after multiple evaluations, numerous medical professionals have felt that he needed a different fit and that his medical needs -- he needed more."
"The reason we haven't updated you sooner is because the medical professionals, the agencies, multiple people have been allowing for Huxley to spend time with some different people to see and to make the perfect match and fit for his now new forever family," she continues.
Myka says that now Huxley is "thriving" in his new home.
"He is very happy," she says. "He's doing really well. And his new mommy has medical-professional training, and it is a very good fit."
Myka acknowledged that she feels bad about how Huxley's adoption turned out and has read some of the comments criticizing her for her actions when it comes to Huxley.
"Do I feel like a failure as a mom? Like, 500 percent," she says, clearly emotional. "So when you get, like, insidious, hurtful comments, it just, like, really makes it hurt worse. It's not about me at all, but it's just, like, this journey has been -- the last couple months have been, like, the hardest thing I could have ever imagined."
Meanwhile, back in 2017, Madonna got candid about her emotional journey adopting four of her six children from Malawi. Watch the video below for more:
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