early attachment and bonding. So we accepted the child into our home. After much hoop-jumping and bureaucracy, we were officially allowed to have her in plasament (placement-foster care) in May of 2002. From the very start, adoption by us was the preferred option for us and for the birth-mother, as well as by our social worker (other "powers that be" had other things in mind). After several months of CPS/DPC trying to get the birth-mother to visit the child in our home, they finally realized that she had no interest in having the child in her care. Following the necessary procedures, we were finally able to file all the documents in Bucharest in November of 2003 under the exceptional case clauses of the emergency ordinances then in force. We received a registration number and in January of 2004, the National Adoption Authority requested the final recommendation letter and last psychological study from our local DPC. One week later, even the registered cases/ exceptional cases were blocked and we were stuck. THIS CHILD HAS BEEN IN OUR HOME FOR ALMOST 4 YEARS NOW (THE FIRST FOUR YEARS OF HER LIFE) AND KNOWS NO OTHER PARENTS. WE ARE HERS AND SHE IS OURS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BONDING AND ATTACHMENT. Furthermore, we do not think that the new law should be allowed to make us retroactively guilty for acting in the best interests of the child. Nor should it make us retroactively guilty for all the things we have done in the past which were perfectly legal and in Larisa's best interests. Frankly, that's communism-the very thing that Romania purportedly has repudiated. Please do all you can to see that these registered cases get resolved honorably and that these children can officially have the permanent family they were promised to. Please help us to be able to adopt our little (and rapidly growing up) Larisa (Gaita). Please! PETER & JULIA HEISEY Timisoara, Romania The Honorable SAM BROWNBACK, Chairman The Honorable CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, Co-Chairman Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 234 Ford House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 DEAR SIRS: Just about three weeks ago we left our son, Brandon Kelly, at NC State University to start his freshman year. A few days later while reorganizing the room that he shares with his younger brother, I came across a paper he had written for his senior year English class. Of course being his very proud mother, I thought he did a great job of summarizing our situation. That paper is copied below. Just before Christmas of 1997 our daughter Rebekah was born prematurely at 5 months and died right in front of us. Her funeral was the day after Christmas. While I was still in the hospital, I saw a documentary about abandoned Romanian children in orphanages. That same Christmas a church friend visited Romania with Samaritan's Purse. She visited the orphanages and saw many street children. Our baby had created a place in our heart and home for another child, so we felt it just made sense to give that place to a child who needed a family to love them and care for them. We began saving the money and were finally able to start the paperwork in January 2000. By March 2000 our paperwork was completed and submitted to the Romanian government. Obviously we were caught in one moratorium after another with one promise after another that adoptions would soon resume. Finally in November 2002, we were matched with Alina who was then eight months old. We were sent pictures and videos and we all instantly fell in love with her and in our hearts she became our daughter. We were told at that time that it would only be about three or four months before we could go to Romania to get her. Of course that was just one more of many disappointments. In July 2003, we were on vacation in Florida when our agency called us very excited and said they were getting ready to approve our case. Supposedly Romania had lost one of our papers and we had to find a notary in Florida and have it overnighted. We were again disappointed when nothing happened. In November 2004, I went to Romania and tried to visit her, but they would not allow me to see her. We have waited on this almost six-year emotional roller coaster because the Romanian government had claimed up until January 2004 that international adoptions would continue after they had rewritten their adoption laws. Then as recently as March of this year the Romanian president told President Bush and many of us pending parents that he would allow the cases to be resolved after the EU Treaty was signed in April. How can the EU allow a country to break so many promises? Is there no honor even in the word of a country's president? Alina is now 32 years old and is still in foster care. Please do everything you can to help us give her a loving home. If we did not already love her, we would not have waited this long. Thank you so much for the help you have already given us. Respectfully submitted, BEVERLY KELLY (Robert, Beverly, Brandon, Sarah, and Nathan Kelly & Alina?) The Honorable SAM BROWNBACK, Chairman September 12, 2005 The Honorable CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, Co-Chairman Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 234 Ford House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 DEAR SIRS: We are one of the 200+ US families who are currently waiting to finalize an adoption(s) in Romania. Here are the details of our story. • August, 2003 Homestudy and paperwork completed and sent to Romanian Government. The dossier is received and we are officially matched with Geta and Domnica. We expect a 6-9 month wait before we can bring them home. (They are still available at this time due to the "exceptions clause" that was put in place during the 2001 moratorium under PM Natase). • Background on these girls: They are sisters-very close in age. They were placed in separate foster homes at the end of 2001. They were both very young (1 year or younger) at the time of placement in foster care. Domnica was very premature and low birth weight (1260 grams). These girls may be among some of the longest "pipeline cases” since they got into the pipeline in 2001 and they are still waiting for a forever home as of 9/2005. • We were matched to these girls after the first couple from Chicago had a family emergency and could not continue with adoption. The girls are now 4 and 5. We have waited, prayed everyday, spent approximately $10K on homestudy, passports, foreign attorney fees. Our wait has been 2+ years. We will continue to wait! Our girls are sisters, yet have not lived together for 4 years!! • Our concerns: The girls grow older everyday without the sense of a forever home. (We are thankful that they have not been in an institution this entire time. We hope and pray that their foster homes are good ones and not just women/families who need money). Words cannot express the incredible emotional roller coaster that our family has experienced. The open-ended waiting, the sense of powerlessness. We have bonded with the girls in this picture though we've never met them. We pray for them daily, look at their picture, yet try to go on with our lives here. Greater than our pain, however, is the absolute injustice served to these innocent children by not allowing them to come to a permanent, forever home where they will be loved unconditionally and provided for in every way. Every child deserves a permanent home these girls have one waiting for them but their government will not allow them this fundamental right??? What medical care might Domnica need that she isn't getting? Years have passed and these two girls have not lived together as family as they should! We gave our dossier (tons of personal information, references etc) to the Romanian government. It was accepted and assigned a case number. Doesn't this demonstrate some sort of agreement on the part of the Romanian government? They have yet to fulfill their part of the agreement! PAUL AND BECKY LUNDY The Honorable SAM BROWNBACK, Chairman The Honorable CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, Co-Chairman Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 234 Ford House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 DEAR SIRS, We, Brent, Lisa, Blaine, Logan and Jeremy Ragsdale of Shawnee KS, need your help. We first submitted our dossier to Romania in February of 2001 and were registered with the Romanian National Agency for Child Welfare and Adoption. We received a referral for Georgiana under Romania's Emergency Ordinance in September of 2002. From the time we first saw our daughter, we were in love. She was 13 months old at the time of referral. In August of 2005 she had her 4th birthday. We have received periodic photos of her and have watched her grow up from afar, without the love and stability of a permanent family. We have wanted to fly to Romania and show her that she has a family, that she has three big brothers that love her, and that we talk about her and want her to be with us, but it is our adoption agency's prudent policy that we must not have contact with our precious daughter. We have had to explain to our sons for 3 years, something we don't understand ourselves, that their sister hasn't gotten the final approval for us to bring her home. We know that if our son's don't understand why we can't bring their sister home, she would never understand why these people who visited her and love her, haven't come back to take her home. So, to protect our daughter, we have not flown to Romania to be with her. This has been the most difficult thing we have ever done. She needs us and we need her. For 3 years, we have held Georgiana in our hearts. We respectfully request that we be allowed to hold her in our arms. Georgiana has a future with us. This child will have a soft place to fall with our family. She will have opportunities for a quality education and medical care, as well as family and extended family to provide a nurturing and stable environment. We implore you to give Georgiana a voice and urge the Romanian government to finalize our pending adoption immediately. Please let Georgiana begin her life with us. Sincerely, BRENT AND LISA RAGSDALE Shawnee, Kansas September 11, 2005 The Honorable SAM BROWNBACK, Chairman Washington, DC 20515 DEAR SIRS: Thank you so much for your interest in Romanian children. I speak on behalf of two little girls waiting to be adopted by our family. These 2 girls have been in an orphanage all their lives. They have 5 other siblings (at last count) also in orphanages. Their mother is of Roma (gypsy) descent and lives outside the dump in Oradea, Romania. The father is unknown. Those of Roma descent are terribly discriminated in Romania and in all reality abandoned Roma children have little hope for adoption into families. I met these beautiful, spunky little girls on a humanitarian trip I took to Romania 22 years ago and fell in love with them. We were approved for adoption and were ready to finish our adoption when the moratorium went into affect. I continue to visit Romania two times a year to assist with medical missions and humanitarian aid. I love Romania and the people there. Pamela and Gabriela will join their two older brothers who were adopted in 2000 from Romania. The boys were abandoned by their parents, one at 8 days old. The boys are very proud to be Romanian and want to return there someday. I strongly agree that better laws and more guidelines need to be in place for adoptions to continue. But how important it needs to be to not punish the children for inappropriate laws, let's fix the laws. With sincere thanks and appreciation for your work, LAVERNA SOUCIE ALONG WITH TONY, ANDREW AND Message: Please read the below message we sent to the Romanian President. No response as of yet, but we feel that people are not revealing that we have the twins' biologiocal sister who is thriving here in the U.S. Springer twins DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: We would greatly appreciate your help in allowing us to adopt our daughter's biological twin sisters who are currently in Iasi. In December 2002, we were contacted and told about our daughter's siblings. Immediately, we agreed to adopt these children and provide a wonderful family environment. Due to the new law, as you well know, our adoption process was stopped (we are considered to be one of the true "pipeline" cases). It is our understanding that we are the only case in America that has a biological sibling of the children who are stuck in the pipeline cases. It is with our utmost concern and belief that these children should be brought to live together, to run and play together, and to be loved by a family who has loved them from the day they learned of their existence. We would appreciate any help you can offer to this very difficult and heartwrenching situation. Very Truly Yours, RICHARD W. SPRINGER AND KAREN A. CHILDERS Attached please find the article in today's paper that explains our situation. There are about 80,000 children in Romanian orphanages . . including these twin girls who will never know their sister (By Shelley Emling) [Palm Beach Post-Cox Newspapers, Monday, July 25, 2005] BOTOSANI, Romania-Richard and Karen Springer of West Palm Beach were on top of the world seven years ago when they were allowed to bring their adopted daughter, Gabriella, home from Romania. Six days shy of her first birthday, Gabriella had lacked so much stimulation in a Romanian orphanage that she was unable to maneuver her fingers well enough to pick up a Cheerio. But under the Springers' care, she has blossomed into an inquisitive squirt of energy who, like any 8-year-old, loves to play with dolls and pepper her parents with scientific questions they find tough to answer. |