Two years after U.S. authorities seized a Canadian-born child and placed him in foster care during a visit to Oregon, the state is now suing his mother for the cost of that seizure.

The state of Oregon is suing Lisa Kirkman, of Calgary, in a Canadian court for her son's foster care and medical costs during the two years they kept him in the U.S.

Kirkman, whose son Noah was only returned to her earlier this year, told CTV's Canada AM that she has not yet been told how much the U.S. state is seeking from her.

But she intends to fight the state's court action, which her lawyer said "tested the limits of chutzpah."

"We're asking the court to consider dismissing Oregon's action and giving Lisa her legal costs for defending the action," Daniel Mol told Canada AM.

Mol said he will also launch a suit against Oregon for seizing Noah in the first place.

"In my view, they exceeded their jurisdiction," he said. "They've really gone very far."

Noah Kirkman and his family traveled to Oregon in the summer of 2008 for a vacation with his stepfather.

During the course of the summer, the 10-year-old Noah and his friends were stopped by local police several times and cautioned about riding their bikes without wearing helmets.

Police eventually questioned Noah, who had been diagnosed earlier in his childhood as special needs child because of anxiety issues and severe ADHD, and notified Oregon's Department of Human Services.

Kirkman said part of the problem was that when officials checked into Noah's background, they discovered that he had a Canadian social services file because his mother had used the system to access resources for him.

"When they discovered he had a file I think it spooked them," Kirkman said.

To the shock of his parents, the state sent police officers in September, 2008 to apprehend Noah from the stepfather's home.

Oregon authorities cited the boy's mother with abandonment for leaving him with someone without legal guardianship.

Noah spent the next two years in a series of foster homes in the U.S. while his mother fought to bring her son back to Canada

Kirkman said the U.S. authorities seemed to be confused by why her son was living with her husband, who never formally adopted Noah but has acted as his father since he was two years old.

"I think there was just a lot of confusion around why he was down there … they said I was negligent by allowing my son stay with my husband of 10 years because he's not his biological father, he's his stepfather," she said.

While Noah was in foster care in the U.S., Kirkman was only allowed to speak to her by monitored telephone calls for 15 minutes every few weeks.