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Emerson DOB 03-15-00 Gotcha Day 3-5-02, birth country: India
Logan DOB 02-07-01 Gotcha Day 9-7-01, birth country: Guatemala
Audrey DOB 10-27-02, biological child
*I have included a glossary of some of the Indian terms at the end of our
story. I want to apologize for the length and detail. I have tried for over
a year to condense this story, and this is the best that I can do. There is
so much to tell, the story is truly amazing and at times unbelievable.
Please feel free to take notes and ask questions. We have video, photos and
all of the newspaper articles that are discussed throughout.
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Ours is not a "typical" family and our story is far from typical. We
experienced love, hope, frustration, loneliness, hopelessness, distress,
fear, perseverance and victory in building our home through adoption.
Logan's adoption was very easy and eleven weeks, and Emerson's was a
twenty-month nightmare. We prayed for babies and were blessed with three!
Dan and I got married in November of 1999 and had been friends since our
early teens. We were ready to start a family but I suffer from Crohn's
Disease and was in remission for a few months when we decided adoption would
be a better route at that time.
July 2000: We accepted the referral of our little angel, Zuleika, from
India. We were so excited! She was everything we ever imagined and MORE!
November 2000: late in the month we finish Emmy's nursery thinking she will
be home early 2001 only to have it sit empty for almost 18 months. There
were several months I did not even set foot in that room for fear of
breaking down. It was so hard to see her crib and toys and know that she was
thousands of miles away.
January 2001: Things were progressing nicely with our case in India when a
terrible earthquake shock Gujarat, India. Our daughter was in a private,
Christian Orphanage in Hyderabad, India, Andhra Pradesh which is very far
from Gujarat but things would slow down all over the country.
February 2001: Our case was postponed in Family Court twice awaiting
guardianship.
April 27, 2001: The Government of Andhra Pradesh (GOAP) raided several
Christian Orphanages and seized hundreds of innocent children. The children
were taken to the state run Shishu Vihar which was not capable of housing or
caring for them. At the time of the raid, Emmy was 13 months old and 18
pounds. She was able to pull herself to stand and was starting to try and
walk.
In the next few months there were daily newspaper articles written and the
Director of our Orphanage in India (Anita Sen of Precious Moments) was taken
to prison where she served 64 days. To date, she still has charges to be
filed against her (she is currently in the US visiting her daughter and
family). One day we would be told we were not getting the children and the
next we would be getting them. It was heartbreaking and depressing. We had
some friends that we caught in the adoption scandal that went to the state
run home to visit our daughter while visiting their child (who was not
seized) only to find out the kids names were changed and they brought out a
different child for her to see.) A month later our friend from our church
who happens to be from AP, India went over to do missionary work and he went
to see Zuleika (Emmy) and they showed him the wrong child also. We just
wanted our daughter and we were caught in the middle of a religious and
political battle in India. The GOAP and NGO's (Non Government Organizations)
screamed child trafficking. The newspapers sensationalized the facts to
support the current government with upcoming elections in the near future.
June 1, 2002: Dan and I decide to further build our family through another
adoption and continue trying to get Emerson (Zuleika) and keep fighting to
get her home. We accept the referral of our son Logan William Mauricio in
Guatemala. We hired a second agency that had Logan's referral. He was an
abandonment case and things were supposed to move quickly. We were terrified
to fall in love with another child and so scared that he too would never
come home. He was in a private foster home and was thriving
August 2001: I go to Guatemala with another friend who is adopting an older
child there to visit Logan and her daughter. The Director of Logan's agency
suggested that I go to visit him since I was so sad that both of my children
were so far away and I was having a very difficult time dealing with the
uncertainty. She made a GREAT suggestion! The moment I laid eyes on him, all
the months of waiting and loneliness were gone. It was one of the best
moments of my life to hold my little guy! He wasn't scared of the crying
blonde woman kissing and hugging him. His foster father had picked us up at
the airport and told me that I would be returning to Guatemala in 3 weeks to
bring Logan home. I was hesitant to believe this since I had a huge chip on
my shoulder with Emmy's adoption but Feliciano, his foster father, was
right.
September 2-7, 2001: Dan and I go to Guatemala to bring our son home. Dan
was nervous up until he went back to the US Embassy to pick up Logan's visa
to get into the USA. Things went smoothly and we arrived home to a huge
greeting at the Minneapolis airport.
December 2001: We hear from our first adoption agency that we have been
granted guardianship of Emmy in the Family Court in Hyderabad, India. We
also get an update on her size, 13 pounds. She had lost 5 pounds in the care
of the GOAP. We arranged for another parent who was traveling with her
father to bring Emmy home. All the paperwork was set but we ran into, yet
another problem. When the faxed copy of our guardianship papers arrived
there was an error that needed to be corrected and the State would not
accept a fax. We live in Wisconsin and the state requires the original
papers to allow the US visa. By this time the other family had left and Emmy
would not arrive home on Christmas as promised. We had the processing agency
in India overnight the original guardianship papers after they were
corrected in the court and we drove them to Madison and the State signed off
on them.
January 2002: We now had arranged for our friend from church to escort Emmy
home since he was back in India. We ran into another problem; the processing
agency no longer wanted a man escorting a girl child. Our friend is a Non
Resident Indian man who has four children of his own and is married to one
of our good friends. He attends our church and does missionary work in India
with his family. This was not really the truth. A newspaper article came out
in one of the Indian papers that "exposed" confidential information from our
dossiers. Several families were attacked in this article written by a woman
who works for several NGO's (UNICEF being one of her large funding sources).
She deemed me an unfit parent since I suffered from Crohn's Disease. I was
horrified that this information was in the newspapers for public review. It
finally came out that the Director of the processing agency was doubting my
health and I was told if I wanted my child I would have to travel to India
and get her myself. I was terrified to travel to India and leave Logan. Dan
and I agreed that we could not both go and leave him and since I had to go
my father volunteered to go with me. We were going to fly over and get her
and return in 5 days. We arrived in India on a holiday and had a day to rest
until ANOTHER PROBLEM arose. John (our friend from church) was still in
India and met us at the processing agency where the Director had her staff
doctor examine me. The doctor expressed that I was in fine health and saw no
problem. We were then sent to Shishu Vihar to meet with the Director to get
Emmy. We waited for hours and finally got a meeting with Ms. Shalini Mishra.
She told me flat out that I would not get my baby and that there were "new
developments" in my case waving the newspaper article in my face. I
immediately asked for foster care of my daughter since all the reports of
her health were terrible and I thought I could nurse her back to health and
start bonding if she was with me. That also was denied.
We were told to stay in India for 10 days while the National Human Rights
Committee made its decision regarding my adoption. I broke down in tears. 10
days! 10 days in India, away from my baby and husband and no foster care for
my daughter. I asked to go and visit her and was told visitation was one
hour a day in the evening and to return. I was beside myself and we returned
later that day and were denied visitation. Thank goodness John was with and
had visited the prior summer and talked the Orphanage Director into us
seeing Emmy. When I asked to see Zuleika they told me there was no Zuleika.
My heart sank since I was staring at a black board that had all the numbers
of the children seized from each agency and how many children were ill in
the hospital and how many children had "EXPIRED". It was sick. I got out
some photos of Emmy and they told me she was now named "Jasmine" and went to
get her. It was horrific when they brought out my daughter, she was skin and
bones. Her head had been shaven, she was covered in scabies, her eyes were
sunken, and her skin was grey (we have photos from the parents in December).
She was the size of an infant not a 22 month old child. She could not put
any weight on her legs and could barely hold her head up. She was
dehydrated, weak, and starving.
From then on things grew considerably worse. I hired an Indian attorney and
sued the GOAP for immediate custody of Emmy. I was in the headlines the next
day and for the next two months after that. The papers followed my father
and me and we moved from one hotel to another. The NGO activists filed
counter suits against me in the Indian courts and tried to stop my every
move. Confidential information from our home study was published in the
papers; the list goes on and on. I was made a political pawn in the midst of
the local government elections. I appeared at the High Court of Andhra
Pradesh for my case against the GOAP to be heard, and it was postponed time
and time again. I was continually denied visitation to my child at the state
run orphanage. I was not allowed to take photos or video of my own child.
When I was allowed visitation, I was observed by several staff and limited
to one hour visits. My father and I would take turns holding Emmy and
singing to her and hugging her. We showed her photos of her home and family
that was waiting for her and we fed her. We had to physically pour Pedilyte
down her throat since she didn't know how to drink from a cup or bottle. She
was so weak and sad; it was heartbreaking to leave her there.
We met with several GOAP officials and were always told they were looking
into our case. No one would give us a straight answer. We tried several
times to meet with the Chief Minister who had the authority to enforce our
guardianship papers only to be denied appointments. We would sit in the GOAP
offices at the Secretariat for hours on end and sometimes split up to try
and catch an appointment with the Director of the WDCW, Shalini Mishra, only
to waste our time. The activists were always one step ahead of us; meeting
with all of the officials and telling them I was unfit to be a parent and
demanding that Zuleika remain in India.
Our case was postponed again in late January and my father and I returned
home to the US. My son, Logan, was turning one and I was not about to miss
his 1st birthday. We were home for two weeks and in that time found out that
we won our case against the GOAP in the High Court but were advised by our
attorneys to wait until they had a Government Order stating that Zuleika be
handed over to me to come back to India. My father and I left in mid
February 2002 to try and get custody of Zuleika.
Upon our return to India we were again denied appointments by all GOAP
officials and visitation of Zuleika. The Director of WDCW ignored the GO
from her higher ups and would not give me custody of my baby. Again, we were
in the papers on a daily basis and followed. I had written orders from high
ranking GOAP officials and could not get my child out of the care of the
GOAP. The NGO activists were relentless and were angry that the case had
been won in my favor. They were determined to stop Zuleika from leaving
India.
We were stuck in India for another 2 weeks trying to get custody. We finally
got a lead with a reporter who was willing to put my side of the story in
the news; he was going out on a limb. He fought for me and got me front page
news with all the court rulings and GO's in my favor in the paper and none
of the GOAP officials would comment. We also got news coverage from the
local Telegu newspaper who was horrified that the Director was deliberately
disobeying the Indian court rulings and GO's. It still did not get Zuleika
released into my custody. We ended up going to the Opposition Party to seek
intervention. The party leader was amazing; he got us an appointment with
the Chief Minister within minutes and was so helpful and interested in our
case. He found it very curious why we didn't have custody since we had all
the legal documents and court rulings in our favor.
We were still forced to wait for the legal department of the GOAP to review
all the documents for a final ruling. The next day after meeting with the CM
we were told we would get Zuleika and that they were drafting the orders. We
never saw the orders as promised at noon, 3pm, 6pm. My lawyer was at the
Secretariat waiting for the documents and my father and I were waiting at
the orphanage. The orphanage was mysteriously closing early for the day. The
Director got word that Zuleika was going to be released and closed up shop
for the day! I continually called my lawyer and her direct boss and he
finally came himself. He arranged for the Director's assistant to come and
the release finally happened. It was Saturday March 2nd 2002. We waited
hours while Dr. Chellapa, past Secretary of the WDCW Department, arrived at
Shishu Vihar unannounced and toured the facility. He was horrified at the
condition of the children and the lack of care. He released Zuleika into my
care.
We were told to leave immediately and that the Director was on her way to
try and stop us. We went to the processing agency to get Zuleika's passport.
She was terrified. I was terrified. When we got back to our hotel around
midnight the phone rang off the hook, the press was calling to confirm all
the details of the night.
We left the next day to get her visa and were advised to take an alternate
flight to Chennai since the press was expecting us on the morning flight.
While waiting for our flight several people were reading the newspapers,
Zuleika's photo was everywhere and every paper covered the story. It was
horrible and everyone knew who we were. We arrived in Chennai in the evening
and were recognized upon arrival, we had the hotel hold all calls. We were
informed that we had several people trying to get through. My husband didn't
know where I was since we were advised not to call anyone.
We got Zuleika's visa the next day and stayed at the US Embassy all day
while they helped us change our flights. We heard that the NGO activists had
filed a lawsuit against us in the Supreme Court in Delhi to stop us from
leaving the country. We had to get out of India on the soonest possible
flight. The nightmare was still not over. We finally got out of the country
and arrived in London and were able to call home! We were SAFE!
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We arrived in Minneapolis on March 5, 2002 to an amazing homecoming all
caught on tape. It was surreal. 10 days later Emmy turned 2 and we found out
that I was pregnant. Another twist! We had never tried to conceive since I
had been on medication off and on for my Crohn's and now was expecting
another child. I had a healthy pregnancy and Audrey Ann arrived 2 weeks
early on October 27, 2002.
We built our family in 13 months, 3 children in 13 months. We prayed for
babies and God gave us 3! We feel truly blessed by our children and our
adoption experiences. As horrible as it was in India fighting for the
release of our child, it was such a wonderful experience for all of us. I
saw things that I was meant to see; I am still trying to help the other
waiting parents and am still trying to expose the corruption with the NGO's.
Glossary:
CM Chief Minister
GOAP Government of Andhra Pradesh
GO Government Order
Gotcha Day The day we got our children home to the US
NGO Non Government Organization
Telegu One of the local languages of Andhra Pradesh
WDCW Women Development & Child Welfare