Catelynn Lowell claims she’s been “blocked” from her firstborn daughter Carly‘s life by her adoptive parents!
On Monday, the Teen Mom star took to her Instagram Story to give a heartbreaking update on the status of her relationship with her eldest, whom she and her husband Tyler Baltierra gave up for adoption to adoptive parents Brandon and Teresa in 2009.
It was an open adoption, so the birth parents were supposed to be able to stay connected to their little one — only that hasn’t been so easy over the years. While they’ve managed to have some wonderful visits, there’s also been periods of tension — including right now, apparently!
Related: Other Teen Mom Stars Shade Tyler Baltierra’s OnlyFans Hustle!
The 16 & Pregnant alum shared on the ‘gram that Brandon and Teresa have reportedly “blocked” her from speaking with or seeing Carly, claiming:
“Adoption is crazy. I’m blocked all because of me sending updates and pictures of her sisters.. how is that fair for Carly and her siblings? It’s sad for sure.. But, makes me sad for the kids… When you’re a bio mom you have no say … no control.. all I can do is show Carly in the future how much I tried and continued to do so … she can make the decision herself to understand who shut who out…”
Oof! That sux!
The reality star also came with the receipts! She posted a screenshot of a text thread with Teresa, in which she wrote messages and sent pictures and videos of family life for Carly. In the clip, the texts were sent from July 1 until this Sunday — but all of them were unanswered. Oof. Captioning the screenshot, she wrote:
“Literally ignored for months then just blocked. Hurts my heart for all the kids involved”
See some of the texts (below):
After giving the 15-year-old up for adoption, the parents went on to welcome sisters Nova, 9, Vaeda, 5, and Rya, 3. They’d all started to bond with Carly, so it’s gotta be tough to deal with this radio silence, and Catelynn is clearly upset about it. The 32-year-old reflected:
“I gave them one of the biggest gifts ever.. A child I grew and love so deeply.. I will not let them take my voice… I post so that hopefully Carly will see it and see I have always tried. To know I mean nothing to the APs [adoptive parents] but just a womb to give a child hurts my heart… I’m a person with feelings, the children I’m parenting have feelings.. Carly has feelings…”
She also claimed Carly’s parents are “threatened” by her and Tyler, adding:
“A child being involved with extra people that only love and support them. How is that threatening? I’ll never understand..”
She elaborated:
“At the end of the day I think her parents feel scared/threatened because Carly would ask questions about why we don’t get together more, why we can’t just fly to her for a weekend etc. I will ALWAYS support Carly loving her parents! They raised her! But the fact that they keep us distant and Carly’s siblings distant does not help Carly… anyone would know that if they were adoptee informed”
In her final slide, she hit back at followers who thought she was stirring up drama with the other parents, insisting:
“I love how people say that I’m putting them on ‘blast’ when I am literally just sharing my own feelings, not calling them any hurtful names or anything. as bio parents we are taught to just take what’s given to us and that we should feel ‘lucky’ but if anything goes wrong, we need to shut up and be quiet.”
It’s a tough position to be in, for sure, especially after dealing with this kind of push and pull for years! Their last public visit with Carly was last summer, but when Carly turned 15 this May, the bio parents weren’t able to celebrate her birthday with her. Catelynn hinted at the parental rift at the time, writing in a post:
“Today is Carly’s 15th birthday! I wonder what kind of day she’ll have and what she’ll do. I wish things were different so we could celebrate with her. I hope she feels our love and has a great day! I look forward to knowing that one day we will be lucky enough to celebrate with her and B&T I can’t wait for that day! @tylerbaltierramtv we are soooo blessed to have our girls!!”
Tyler opened up more about the problems they were facing at the time, expressing on Facebook:
“Carly is almost 15 years old. Throughout those 15 years, her parents have chosen not to have our (mutually agreed upon) annual visit, MULTIPLE times! This is nothing new or foreign to our story & there’s nothing we have done in our personal lives that has influenced this decision. Now is it always disappointing & hurtful when it happens? Yes of course. Is it sad? Yeah. But at the the end of the day, Brandon & Teresa are HER PARENTS! They are the only ones who have the authority to make these decisions.”
He made it clear how much they respected the adoptive parents’ role, adding:
“We can waste our time asking questions, dissecting responses, & begging for an answer…but we are NOT entitled to it (regardless of how much we may believe/wish otherwise). All we can do is accept the decision without the requirement of an answer. We have to just trust that their decision is for the best interest of Carly. Because that is the honor, privilege, & gift we chose to give them when we decided that they would raise her & be her parents.”
Can’t be an easy thing for anyone to navigate! We just hope Carly is happy, healthy, and gets the opportunity to reconnect with her birth parents one day if that is something she wants.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? How do you think Catelynn and Tyler should handle this? Let us know (below).
[Image via MTV’s Teen Mom/YouTube]
