A Family YouTuber Has Ignited A Firestorm After Admitting To Rehoming Her Adopted Autistic Son - BuzzFeed News

Even before her family adopted Huxley in 2017, Myka had made his story a key theme on her channel, which has exploded in popularity and landed her several high-profile sponsorships.

Myka produced 27 videos about their “adoption journey,” including a 13-part series of “adoption updates.” In the series, Myka answered questions about the process of adopting from China and the emotions she felt.

In some videos, Myka plugged a fundraiser she had organized for Huxley’s unspecified needs.

In a sponsored video from 2017, Myka said she was using her proceeds from YouTube ads towards her adoption, writing in the caption that the sponsorship “profits are going towards bringing our SON home from China!”.

In an article she wrote for Parade, Myka said the Stauffers were told by the agency Huxley had a “brain tumor” and “brain damage.” She wrote that at first the couple weren’t open to a special needs adoption.

In October 2017, Myka posted a compilation video titled “Huxley's EMOTIONAL Adoption VIDEO!.

It featured videos of Huxley from before his adoption, as well as a video of the family traveling to China and meeting him for the first time!

After Huxley came home, the next video Myka posted was titled “My CHINA ADOPTION Experience: The Truth,” in which she described her emotions the day of the adoption.

She continued updating her followers in videos like“Huxley's 10 Month China Adoption Update.

Some of her Huxley update videos, like “5 Things I Didn't EXPECT About Our China ADOPTION.

In the piece for Parade, Myka wrote that when Huxley came home, they realized his special needs file was “inaccurate.” In actuality, she wrote, Huxley was diagnosed with “having a stroke in utero, has level 3 autism, and sensory processing disorder.”.

In September 2019, Myka posted her final update on Huxley’s progress: “Emotional China Adoption Update Two Years Home,” where she announced that since Huxley’s autism diagnosis, he had been in ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy.

Huxley continued to appear in photos on Instagram and in YouTube videos in late 2019 and into 2020.

But in the late winter and early spring, followers began to notice Huxley had stopped appearing in videos.

Her account, where she posted photos and videos of Huxley calling for the Stuaffers to address his whereabouts, soon amassed over 600 followers.

Then, on Tuesday night, the Stauffers posted a video called “an update on our family.” They had removed Huxley from their home and placed him with another family, they said.

James said Huxley had several special needs that they weren’t aware of until he came home to the US.

“After multiple assessments, after multiple evaluations, numerous medical professionals have felt that he needed a different fit in his medical needs, he needed more,” Myka said.

In a comment on the video, Myka said “multiple scary things happened inside the home towards our other children.”.

“Imagine adopting a special needs child from China, naming him Huxley (a crime in itself), exploiting him for sponsorship money and monetized videos, and then ‘rehoming’ him when things got to hard.

“I think it would be best for her to step away from YouTube for the time being to reflect on the consequences of her actions and the hurt she has caused the adoption community and parents of special needs children,” she said