Families thwarted in desires to adopt tsunami orphans

Katherine and Barry Hart were ready to welcome a second adopted child from Guatemala to their suburban Atlanta home when they saw a greater need in the faces of the tsunami orphans on their TV screen.

"My heart just breaks with those pictures. I called my social worker this morning and said, 'Hold on, I don't if know if we want to do Guatemala anymore. Let's try Thailand,"' said Katherine Hart, who adopted her 2-year-old daughter, Jayden, last winter. "I would love to be able to take in even more than one of those children."

But when Hart jumped online, she and her husband quickly joined thousands of other disappointed couples in learning the dream would be next to impossible.

The State Department has ruled out for now the adoption of children from the affected countries, which themselves are clamping down - partly because of fears of sex trafficking.

Several Western European countries are following a similar no-adoptions policy regarding South Asia.

The State Department and international adoption agencies caution that many parentless children may be claimed by aunts and uncles, grandparents, even distant cousins in cultures built on strong family bonds.

The rest will likely be adopted by families in their native countries or watched over by protective neighbors and friends.

"A child whose family has been ripped away by a wave, probably the last thing they need to do is be rushed away to some foreign country," said Cory Barron, spokesman for the St. Louis-based adoption agency Children's Hope International. "We have to think of the child first."

The countries most devastated by the tsunami - India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand - have strict adoption laws. Some Muslim countries strictly control adoption by non-Muslims, if they allow it at all.

Just four Sri Lankan orphans went to U.S. families in 2003, while 72 Thai children were adopted, according to the State Department. India, the South Asia country with the most liberal policy, sent 472 children.

China, the No. 1 country for U.S. foreign adoptions, allowed 6,859 adoptions.

Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, doesn't authorize foreign adoption by non-Muslims and rarely allows non-relatives to adopt.

The State Department said this week it won't allow the adoption of tsunami orphans for many months and will do so "only if and when these countries decide to make these orphans available for international adoption."

Following the tsunami, the Indonesian government forbid the removal of children under age 16 from its hardest hit areas following reports of kidnapping for sex trade.

Reacting in part to fears of sex trafficking and child slavery, Sri Lanka and Thailand previously enacted tough qualifications for foreign adoptions.

"The rules are very complicated and it takes tremendous effort," said Brent Yoder, executive director of Adoption Options Inc. in San Diego.

Nonetheless, some international adoption agencies have fielded hundreds of e-mails and phone calls since the tsunami and seen a 50 percent increase in traffic on their Web sites.

Online chat rooms buzzed this week with inquiries from couples desperate to adopt and anxious for information.

"Anyone know who may be handling (adoptions)?" wrote one woman from Pennsylvania on the Web chat www.adoption.com. "One agency? Several different agencies?"

A woman from Wisconsin wanted to take a side trip to pick up a tsunami orphan on her way to China to adopt a new daughter.

Even before the tsunamis, couples had to wade through a complex, bureaucratic process designed to limit the number of adoptions.

Jamie and Stephanie Starmer of Chico, Calif., applied to adopt from Thailand two years ago but have yet to pick up the 1-year-old baby girl waiting in a Bangkok orphanage. They will likely get their baby, renamed Ainsley, next month.

"It's demanding, it's a ton of paperwork and the timeline is long. You have to be very patient," said Jamie Starmer, 48.

For the Harts, the difficulty of adopting is hard to accept.

"I just don't understand why it has to take so long when they know that there's a child who is orphaned," said Katherine Hart. "I know these kids are going to have some trauma to go through, but these kids need to be loved on now."

On the Net

Holt International: http://www.holtintl.org

Children's Hope International: http://www.childrenshopeint.org

Adoption Options, Inc.: http://www.adoption-options.org

U.S. Department of State's adoption page: http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/notices/notices-473.html