Dad Charged $7,800 After He Finally Finds Long-Lost Daughter

Dean Harper, second from left, shown here with his two sons and his daughter, Athena Glusing, whom he reconnected with after 16 years. (Photo: Dean Harper/Facebook)

A father who has reconnected with his daughter after 16 years was slapped with a $7,800 bill from a Canadian child welfare agency, the very organization that he says could have reunited them seven years ago.

Dean Harper and his ex separated when their daughter, Athena Glusing, was 2. “I tried to see Athena, but my ex wouldn’t allow me any access to her,” Harper tells Yahoo Parenting. “Then she moved and I didn’t know where she moved to.”

STORY: Cop Who Told Teen His Parents Were Killed Shows Up to Graduation

When Glusing was 12, she was put into foster care, unbeknownst to Dean. “My ex turned out to be an alcoholic and abusive, so child protection services were called one too many times, and they took Athena into care.”

Around this same time, Harper was trying to track Glusing down on Facebook. They both lived in Quebec. “I sent her a friend request four or five years ago, but she didn’t know who I was and didn’t accept it and I don’t blame her – a friend request from a strange older man,” Harper says. “All I could do was watch her grow up on Facebook pages.”

STORY: Woman’s Search for Birth Mother on Facebook Turns Up Another Surprise Instead

Until one day last year, when a Facebook notification alerted Harper that one of his niece’s friends was connected to one of Glusing’s friends. Through his niece, Harper tracked down where Glusing worked and showed up to meet her. “My heart was pounding,” he says. “In my ears I could hear it pounding and I thought for sure Athena could hear it. It was a surreal moment.”

Harper told Glusing that he was her father, and says he could see the shock and fear in her eyes. “She had a nice big smile on her face and then when I said I was her father it was like one of those cartoons where suddenly her smile was gone and her eyes opened wide.”

Glusing says she was scared at first, because her mother had poisoned her against Harper. “There were a lot of bad stories my biological mother told me about him,” Glusing tells Yahoo Parenting. But her adoptive family, who Glusing lived with since she was 12, encouraged her to pursue a relationship.

It started with meetings at coffee shops, where the two got to know each other, which is when Harper learned that Glusing had been placed in foster care through a Canadian government-funded child welfare organization called Batshaw. “I went down and met with the folks at Batshaw and I was very upset and I said ‘why didn’t you look for me?’ They had my name on file, but they just said they didn’t have my birthday, they’re not detectives, they weren’t legally obliged to look for me,” Harper says. “I lost six years with my daughter because of them.”

Batshaw didn’t respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment but gave a statement to CTV. “In all situations, social workers make regular attempts to locate parents, in the province of Quebec, across Canada, and any other countries, even in prisons,“ spokesperson Claire Roy told the station. "These efforts are always based on children’s needs.”

Six weeks ago, after a year of meeting for coffee, Glusing decided to move in with her father. “She asked if she could come live with me and I was super excited,” Harper says. “It’s going great. We’re noticing ways that we’re similar – we have the same sense of humor.”

Two weeks ago, though, Harper got an unexpected piece of mail: a bill from Batshaw for $7,800 in “parental contributions.” Harper says he’s going to fight the bill, since he would have happily taken custody of Glusing rather than leave her in Batshaw’s care. “I already spoke to a lawyer. We’re going to fight the bill and I’m looking into suing them for moral damages,” he says. “Having my name on file and not doing anything about it… If I had known I would have snatched her up faster than anything.”

Glusing also says the bill is unfair. “I understand why they sent it. It costs money for a kid to be in their care, to be with social workers and stuff,” she says. “But they didn’t look for him, and he was on my birth certificate. He would have taken me, no problem, and I could have had a better childhood.”

While she’s still close with the foster family she lived with for the last seven years, Glusing says reconnecting with her father — as well as her two biological half-brothers and a niece and nephew — has had an immediate affect on her. “He’s very protective of me, I’m his only daughter,” she says. “Having that father figure really helps me boost my confidence.”

Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? Email us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.