BOY REUNITES WITH GRANDPARENTS

Local Youngster in U.S. Foster Care Gets Family Visit

During the day he had been released into his grandparent's custody,
12-year-old Noah Kirkman visited a farmer's market, played with his
iPod and fell in love with the omelette station at his hotel.

Phyllis and Mike Heltay, Noah's maternal grandparents, were allowed
to spend a day with their grandson last week after a judge ruled he
would be returning to his home in Calgary after almost two years in
Oregon foster care.

It was the first unsupervised visit the grandparents had been
permitted in more than 20 months.

"It was a day a little bit warmer than today and a little rainy,
which is typical for Eugene, Oregon. We went to a farmer's market and
there were musicians and stalls," Phyllis said. "That morning, he
woke up and he was most excited about the omelette buffet in the hotel."

She said Noah was elated and excited to be returning home.

Last week, a judge ruled the boy would return to the guardianship of
his Calgary grandparents after a two-year custody battle in which he
was shuffled between several foster homes in Oregon, despite having
family in Canada.

Noah was visiting his stepfather in the summer of 2008 when the
police found him bicycling without a helmet. The police didn't
consider his stepfather to be his legal guardian and so sent him into
the care of the Oregon Department of Human Services.

His family has been fighting to have him returned ever since.

"He kept saying, 'You smell like my family,' I said, yeah. Well, it's
like a little cub: each family had its own scent,' " his grandmother
told the Herald of their short reunion.

Noah seemed to be affectionate and in good spirits, she said.

The court decided he should return to Canada after he completes the
school year, slated to end in June.

Heltay said she hoped he would be home in time to see his little
sister's eighth birthday, on the 18th.

In the meantime, he will continue to stay with his foster family.

Heltay and her husband returned to Calgary without Noah.

"He was so happy; that's why it was so difficult to leave him," she said.

Noah's mother, Lisa Kirkman, said she was thrilled to know he would
be returning home.

However, she said she's worried that some other obstacle might bar
his path home.

"Until I have Noah in my arms, I'm not doing the happy dance quite yet."