He overturned his termination but still lost his daughter

An Alaska father proved the state was wrong to take away his parental rights — and still lost his daughter permanently. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that because he never separately challenged her adoption before a one-year deadline passed, there was nothing left to undo.

The case involves a father the court calls Jonah B. and his daughter Serena, adopted by her foster family in July 2023. That December, the Supreme Court reversed the termination of his parental rights, finding the Office of Children's Services had never made a real effort to reunite the family.

The victory turned out to be hollow. In Alaska, a termination case and an adoption case are two separate legal matters, each running on its own clock, and winning the first did not touch the second. State law bars any challenge to an adoption more than a year after it is finalized — and to stop that clock, a parent must appeal the adoption itself, not the termination.

Jonah had about six months after his December win to challenge Serena's July 2023 adoption. He did not, and the window closed the next summer. By August 2025 the courts declared his case moot, and the Supreme Court affirmed that Wednesday.

He raised several arguments to escape the deadline, but the court turned each down, finding Serena had lived with the adoptive family since September 2023 and that Jonah had been represented and heard throughout.

The outcome carries a hard lesson for other parents: overturning a termination can mean little if the related adoption goes unchallenged past the one-year mark. Advocates say that can quietly erase a legal win, especially for parents juggling two cases at once without steady legal help.

For Jonah, the courts are not done. In April 2025, the Office of Children's Services moved to terminate his parental rights to his two other children. That case remains open.