JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – A couple must return a 3-year-old boy they adopted shortly after birth to his biological mother, a judge has ruled.

Evan Parker Scott has lived with Dawn and Gene Scott for most of his life, but the adoption petition was dismissed because the boy’s biological mother did not get consent from the father.

Judge Waddell Wallace III last week ordered the Scotts to take the child to a naval base in Illinois where his biological mother lives. The mother, Amanda Hopkins, will have custody, but the court ordered that the boy’s biological father be given liberal visitation rights.

The Scotts are “trying to prepare Evan the best way we know how for the horrific event he faces,” the couple said in a statement. “We are spending our last few days together as a family preparing for Santa and trying to make a happy holiday time for Evan.”

Hopkins and the boy’s father, Steven A. White Jr., never married, and she did not learn she was pregnant until she sought medical treatment for injuries suffered when she was assaulted in the residence they once shared, court documents show.

Hopkins supported the Scotts’ adoption of Evan until it appeared the court might grant White’s request for custody.

“She took an adversarial position against them because she felt it was not in Evan’s best interest to live with the father,” said Debbie Grabarkiewicz, director of case advocacy for Hear My Voice, a nonprofit network of child advocates.