The brands she has worked with in the past have severed ties and the world has been left with a slew of questions after social media influencer and YouTuber Myka Stauffer revealed that she has “re-homed” the little boy she adopted years ago.
Now, the YouTube video, which vaguely explains the decision, has amassed over four million views in just six days and her Instagram page, which still exists, has been hit with a ton of backlash in the comments sections. And Stauffer’s explanation for why her adopted son is no longer in their care has spread around the internet like wildfire.
“Go get your son back and be a parent,” one of the commenters wrote on Instagram. “NO! You can NOT use our everyday fight or his to get pity for you! HE will continue to experience meltdowns for the rest of his life, HE will wish for a manual to figure out how he functions and what triggers him. YOU opted out. YOU do not speak for us.”
This is what Myka and James had to say about all of it.
On YouTube, Stauffer described herself as “a Mommy of 4 from Ohio,” who is married to my best friend. I LOVE sharing videos about family life, DIYs, organization, fitness, cleaning, lifestyle, and Day in the Life videos!”
And she began the seven-minute video by saying, “this is by far the hardest video James and I ever publicly had to make.”
According to both Myka and her husband James, when adopting Huxley it wasn’t initially transparent just how many special needs Huxley had. According to James, over the last four years they were his parents, Huxley had been in and out of different forms of therapy in an effort to help him with all of his needs.
The couple first announced they were adopting Huxley after already being parents of three biological children on July 6, 2016.
“Over the last year, he’s been in more intense therapy to try to help him as much as possible. For us, it’s been really hard hearing from medical professionals a lot of their feedback. Because it’s not what we ever wanted to hear.”
“We’ve never wanted to be in this position,” James said.
The couple said they made a great effort to try to get all of Huxley’s needs met and help him out as much as possible, but it became too much. Myka and James are also parents to four biological children.
“There’s not an ounce of heart that doesn’t love Huxley,” Myka said with tears in her eyes.
It’s unclear how long the family, who has been in the public eye throughout Huxley’s adoption and before, had known Huxley needed more medical attention than they could give him as his parents. The family has tried to protect his privacy and his rights so that the future that has been laid out for him remains a possibility.
The mom has continued to make and post videos, their latest, aside from the update video, came just one week ago. And in March, Myka vaguely opened up about the trauma she had recently been through along with a photo of her and Huxley.
“And that’s why on Instagram and stuff I’ve tried to let you know as little as I could but I couldn’t tell you any more because I didn’t want to mess anything up with what is going on legally. And if I said anything, was I going to mess things up for his future?”
“Do I feel like a failure as a mom? Like 500-percent.”
The family then explained that they will not be going into detail behind their decision to “re-home” Huxley and where he is now because they want to protect his privacy. They say it is not their story to tell despite filming much of their lives before that decision.
“I didn’t adopt a little boy to share these things publicly.”
Nonetheless, Myka and James say that Huxley has been adopted and placed with a “new forever family.” They say they have been received updates from the agency they worked with in order to get Huxley what he needs.
“They found somebody who they felt ultimately the best fit and he is thriving. He is very happy and he is doing very well. And he’s new mommy has professional medical training.”
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The family then asked for privacy, grace, and support to help them get through this very difficult time. However, backlash quickly ensued.
Since the video went viral, many of their business partners, including Kate Hudson’s Fabletics brand, have severed ties with the Stauffer family. It’s unclear how the family will choose to proceed from here.
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