My adoption story

Autobiography
( ages 0-6 years old )

Birthed by anjeanette kochell nelson ( march 23rd 1970 ) and jimmie jerome freeman senior ( june 26th 1970 ) who were 22 and 22 years of age respectively at the time of jimmies birth. Both anjeanette and jimmie senior were/are african american.

According to medical records before jimmie was born the mother anjeanette went into spontaneous labor with him on two separate occasions due to cocaine use.

Jimmie jerome freeman junior an african american baby boy was born 2 weeks premature on december 11th 1992 in memorial hospital of carbondale IL, jackson county 62901 at 10:33 am, weighing between 6 and 7 pounds. Jimmie also tested positive for cocaine at birth.

Jimmie was born of nigeria, cameroon, congo & western bantu peoples, benin & togo, mali, ivory coast & ghana, senegal, england & northwestern europe, wales, Ireland descent. I.e jimmie is 88% African, 12% european.

( More specifically I am 35% Nigerian, 20% Cameroon, Congo & Western Bantu peoples, 12% Benin & Togo, 10% Mali , 9% Ivory Coast & Ghana, 2% Senegal, 8% English & Northwestern European, 2% Welsh, 2% Irish)


( Those DNA percentages are subject to change when ancestry.com updates it's regions around the world every 2 years to be more precise with your DNA results )

Jimmies biological mother anjeanette continued using cocaine after jimmies birth. Including while she was breastfeeding jimmie. Resulting in new born baby jimmie developing an addiction to cocaine.

Jimmie was born with two older half siblings mason nelson ( September 21st 1986 )and nykeshia freeman ( January 8th 1992 ) at the time of jimmies birth mason and nykeshia were 6 years old and 11 months old respectively.


In June 1992 there was an indicated report for lack of supervision. Mason and nykeshia had been left alone at their residence. DCFS was given guardianship of mason and nykeshia on august 17th 1992. They remained in the home of the parents and family. DCFS first trying to work with the family. On February 11th 1993 another report for lack of supervision was received. This time all three children ( mason, nykeshia and jimmie ) were taken into protective custody and placed in foster care.

There was an adjudicatory court hearing on november 25th 1997 and on december 23rd 1997 there was a dispositional hearing and the court ordered the biological mother of the 3 children, anjeanette nelson's parental rights be terminated. The terminated parental rights were set to be reviewed for permanency on July 7th 1998 at 9:00 am. On july 7th 1998 at the permanency review hearing the terminated parental rights were court ordered to be permanently terminated due to anjeanette nelson the mother of mason, nykeshia and jimmie junior showing she is an unfit parent in that she had failed to maintain a reasonable degree of interest, concern or responsibility as to the welfare of the children in that she had failed to visit or have anything to do with the children for at least two years. Anjeanette failed to maintain reasonable progress toward the return of the children in that for over two years she has neither participated in planning for the children nor complied with the orders of the court concerning participation in programs for herself.

Mason, nykeshia and jimmie were all placed in separate homes. Mason and nykeshia were kept together in a foster home for a short time until mason was moved from foster care and placed with his aunt caroline and her husband.

Jimmie and his siblings had visitation with each other after they were placed in separate homes for a few years but those were infrequent and eventually stopped altogether.

Mason's father william amerson was involved in the early years of his life and contributed financial support. Financial support continued while mason's dad was in the military service and for a period of time after military service. Mason's father lost track of him and mason's mother after she moved the family and the financial support ended. The court could not find that mason's dad abandoned him, so his parental rights remained intact. letters were sent to Mason's dad to set up regular visitation but were unsuccessful in reaching him until october 1998 at which time mason's father agreed to meet with mason once a month because mason's dad lived in chicago IL and mason's aunt (where mason was living ) lived in mounds IL. The ultimate goal of the visitations was for mason to eventually be placed in his fathers care permanently. Mason was in counseling to combat his depression and feelings of being upset and angry. Mason was upset and angry mostly because of his dad's lack of interest in him which caused him to act out in school. Mason was on medication for ADD because he had difficulty staying on task, paying attention when there were too many distractions and having disruptive behavior. Mason had been working at below his grade level in his school work. Mason worked better one on one due to his ADHD. According to mason's aunt his behaviors were only at school. The only problem at home was that mason cussed too much. Mason now works as a truck driver and has two children one boy and one girl.


Nykeshia's father demitrius crittendon had been in prison for most of nykeshia's life and had never called nykeshia, sent her presents or cards or supported her financially or emotionally, therefore he was found to be an unfit parent in that he abandoned nykeshia. Nykeshia's father's rights were terminated but he appealed through the appellate court to maintain his parental rights. he lost his appeal which meant nykeshia was free for adoption. Nykeshia's foster parent marie dowell who had had nykeshia for most of her life wished to adopt nykeshia. Marie adopted nykeshia and nykeshia became nykeshia dowell. Nykeshia went on to grow up happy, healthy and safe. Nykeshia graduated high school, went to college, got married, purchased a home and went on to have three beautiful children two daughters naomi, nova and one son nasir.

Jimmie juniors father, jimmie freeman senior had had virtually no involvement in jimmie juniors life or ever expressed a desire to be his father. Jimmie senior had not called jimmie junior, given jimmie junior presents or cards or supported jimmie junior financially or emotionally. During the court hearing jimmie senior was found to be an unfit parent and jimmie junior was considered abandoned by his father. Jimmie freeman senior entered a final and irrevocable consent to adoption on November 19th 1997.


On february 11th 1993 jimmie was placed with a caucasian couple named paul and deana vuichard. Paul and deana had actually decided they were done adopting children but they got a call about jimmie and they decided to take him. Jimmie was 60 days old when he was placed in the care of paul and deana vuichard. Paul john vuichard ( born June 23rd 1953) and deana fay vuichard ( born August 25th 1956 ) were 39 and 36 years old at the time of jimmies placement. According to medical records jimmie was going through withdrawals from cocaine at the time he was placed with paul and deana so they had to deal with that and a whole host of other issues jimmie had. According to medical records as a baby jimmie was diagnosed with anemia with/iron deficiency, thalassemia trait, asthma with frequent URI, tachacardia, exostosis medial clavicle etc. On one occasion deana took jimmie to the emergency room on may 30th 1993 ( after having jimmie for 3 months ) according to medical records from that visit jimmie had always been congested and had bronchial infections, had the shakes and night sweats, was irritable, wheezing, and having fevers, at that visit jimmies temperature was 101.5. Jimmie sat up alone at 6 months old and walked alone at 8/12 months of age. Jimmie was somewhat delayed in developing his speech and language; however, he began to talk in sentences and was intelligible so that was short lived. During the first year of jimmies life he had recurrent ear infections.

Jimmie actually got to pick his middle name with his mom. They were sitting on the couch together and were going through a baby name idea book and jimmie had 3 best friends at the time and the boys names were taylor, nick and eli. So in order of closeness with the friends jimmies first pick was " taylor " but his mom didn't like it and his second pick was " nicholas " and his mom didn't like that either and his third pick was " eli " and his mom actually liked that and so that eventually became his name when he got adopted.
(The friends I wanted my middle names after were taylor beninati, nick evers and eli shaw)

On october 20th 1999 at 1:00pm in pinckneyville IL perry county 62274 at the state of Illinois circuit court house of the twentieth judicial circuit of perry county jimmie jerome freeman junior was officially adopted. On this day october 20th 1999 jimmie was 6 years, 10 months and 9 days old. Jimmie jerome freeman junior officially became james eli vuichard.