Susan Joncha: "Don't call him 'Da.' "
Walter Klein did not sign the children's adoption papers.
Posted on 12/17/2006 8:56:55 AM PST by Graybeard58
As far as Walter Klein is concerned, the 6- and 2-year-old girls he and his ex-girlfriend flew to China to adopt over the last four years are his daughters.
He helped raise them. He says he's the one they called "Da!" the last time they threw their arms around him in an emotional 10-minute reunion in their mom's driveway in September. And he is the one who will be heartbroken if he doesn't see them this Christmas.
But his name is nowhere on the adoption papers. The adoption agencies told him and his ex-girlfriend it would be easier for a single woman to adopt than for an unmarried couple, he said.
So the question confronting a Cook County judge is whether Klein has a legal leg to stand on in seeking visitation rights with the girls.
'Just a guy I dated' "He's not your father," Susan Joncha shouted to the girls as they ran to him Sept. 30 in her driveway, Klein said. His 6-year-old was hugging him, his 2-year-old frozen next to her mom, wanting to run to him but not wanting to disobey her mom who had ordered her to stop, Klein said. When Klein turned to leave, the 2-year-old ran to him and grabbed his leg, he said.
"His name is Walter. He's just a guy I dated. Call him 'Walter.' Don't call him 'Da,' " Joncha corrected the girls, according to Klein.
Turning to Klein, she said, "You will never see these girls again. I will leave the country if I have to," Klein said. That was the older girl's sixth birthday, the last time he has seen them.
"'Da' is all she could pronounce when she first came from China," Klein said of the 6-year-old girl.
Father's Day cards he attached to his lawsuit have the last "d" on the cards scratched out. The sentiments Klein said Joncha wrote on the girls' behalf next to a heart-surrounded Snoopy say "You are the best Da in the whole world."
Christmases in Tucson where Klein, Joncha and the girls used to live were spent at home with Klein helping set up the girls' gifts under the tree. Last year Joncha asked him to leave the house just before Christmas but allowed him to come back and spend Christmas Day with the girls, he said.
"All I want for Christmas is to see my children," Klein said.
On Aug. 17, Joncha called Klein and told him, "You're not their father anymore. You're just a guy I dated," the lawsuit said. She told him he would not see the children again and she would be taking the children to a counselor to explain to them that Walter was not their father.
Joncha could not be reached for comment and her attorney declined to respond to questions.
Klein, 56, the former owner of the Vic Theatre, started dating Joncha, 52, a teacher, in 1992. In 2001, he sold the Vic and they moved to Tucson, where he bought a home. They traveled to China together and Joncha adopted the first girl -- who was 2 years old, and moved back to Tucson, where they lived together as man and wife, or mom and dad, Klein said. Klein footed all the bills for the trip and the adoption, according to documents he attached to his lawsuit.
Didn't want to jinx adoption Why didn't they marry? Klein was married once before and did not like it, he said. He has two adult children from that marriage.
Why didn't he sign the adoption papers? The adoption firm, based in Wheaton, told him a single woman stood a better chance of adopting a child in China than an unmarried couple, he said. Also, the Chinese authorities ask a lot of questions about adoptive parents' health. He had just had a heart bypass and didn't want to jinx the adoption, he said.
In 2005, they flew back to China to adopt a little sister for their girl, he said. They moved back to Tucson but then moved back to Chicago soon afterward, according to the lawsuit. They broke up just before Christmas.
Though Klein's name is not on any of the adoption papers, his attorney, Enrico J. Mirabelli, thinks he has a good chance to get visitation rights for Klein if a judge considers "the best interests of the children," he said.
Mirabelli helped push this area of the law in an earlier case in which his client said her ex-boyfriend agreed to support her becoming pregnant through in vitro fertilization, but then refused to help support the children after they were born. The court ruled Mirabelli's client could bring a case even though the ex-boyfriend never signed a contract. But he died six days before the verdict, Mirabelli said.
Judge Leida Santiago will hear the case Wednesday.
Susan Joncha: "Don't call him 'Da.' "
Walter Klein did not sign the children's adoption papers.
What a bitter bitter woman- so sad for these two helpless children. It would be interesting to know what prompted the break up before assessing blame, but it is NEVER in the children's interest for them to be placed in the middle of a BITTER ADULT FEUD between people they both learned to love and depend upon.
Neither of these people are fit for parenting, imo.
Years ago I became involved with a girl who was early in her pragnancy. The pregnancy was the result of a one night stand in Europe. I was with her throught an extremely difficult pregnancy (she had a serious heart condition) and I was there for the first 3 years of the child's life. When the girlfriend decided to move on she no longer let me have contact with the child that had become my daughter.
I sued unsucessfully. The sad part was the fact that the judge clearly was in favor of me having parental rights but the law said no simply because the child didn't have my last name. The judge even asked her "what kind of mother wants her child to be illegitimnate?"
It was the most painfull thing I've ever dealt with. I assume it's very much like a parent losing a child to death.
He's old enough and jaded enough to not want to remarry, but not to protect his interests as a father?
Dumb Ass.
What kind of two idiots would adopt children without marrying(not counting gays)? And why would the guy not insist on signing papers? And what it is with the woman? The guy sounds lucky to be rid of her. Of course she may be lucky to be rid of him too.
Sounds like he wanted to keep his options open...only to be surprised when it turned out she wanted to keep hers open, as well.
"Sounds like he wanted to keep his options open...only to be surprised when it turned out she wanted to keep hers open, as well."
Yea, he got an option that he apparently doesn't like.
They are too old to adopt American children.
No good deed goes unpunished.
She dumped a guy who wouldn't marry her and now he's trying to hang on to her, not his, kids? No way Jose.
Damn China for killing its girl babies, and damn us for our nation given over to selfish bastardy. The kind of selfishness that takes wholesome sweet fruit of a good deed and rots it out from the middle, like some worm in the pit.
"They are too old to adopt American children."
Really? I guess I haven't heard that before. What is the age?
Or -- they get married and be the mom and dad they made themselves to be to these orphans.
Is anyone here surprised? These two 'adults' are thinking only of themselves. Both of them. The children are nothing but accessories that the man and woman bought. And please don't lecture me on foreign adoptions. There are two in my extended family and both daughters are wanted and loved very much. These 'adults' make me sick.
I get so sick of these "Do-Over Dads"--
As usual, these days, the children are the big losers. This couple was wrong to adopt if they were not committed enough to marry. If the love between them was not strong enough to make them want to marry, they should not have adopted the girls. Now these two babies are being ripped from the only father they have ever known. Selfishness knows no bounds.
Adoption agencies are also in the wrong, not wanting to address the issue of committed married couples over single women or men.
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