Let me guess, you’re an adopter. Based on your description of parenting (does the raising, changes the diapers, is there for the milestones, shaped the child into the person they are today, etc.) a great many “parents” are actually Latin American maids rather than the people whose names are listed on the birth certificates. Though you are correct that a blood relationship has nothing whatsoever to do with that. $7.50 an hour however is the tie that binds. The client’s ability to to be “the single most important person in the child’s upbringing” appears to me far from good thing and I’m not sure what the client “achievements” could be said to be other than make a person who did love her actively dislike her. Lately, the client has been blathering to me that if this young woman (whom she claims she loves) actually tries to find her biological parents, the client is going to stop paying her college expenses. I usually don’t get that involved with other people’s lives when they are not family, but really this client honestly makes me sick. I can contact the young woman and tell her about the mental state of the client. My advice for the young woman would be to lie as much as she must until she gets her degree or has somesort of safety net in the world then let her emotions lead her.