Posted on 01/26/2007 5:59:46 AM PST by paltz
(CBS News)
NEW YORK Anna Mae was left in the United States by her Chinese parents when she was just 2 years old. Since then, she has lived with foster parents in Tennessee and is about to turn 8.
After a long legal battle, the Tennessee Supreme Court cleared the way for her to be reunited with her biological parents, Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He.
The Hes left Anna Mae with the Bakers after her father, a student at the University of Memphis, lost a scholarship and student stipend over a sexual assault charge for which he was ultimately acquitted.
The Bakers refused to give Anna Mae up and have been trying to adopt her over her parents' objections. They are not alone in their struggle: 29 percent of adopters had at least one failed adoption before successfully adopting. There are 1.6 million adopted children in the United States.
"The prolonged litigation as reported in your piece is really tragic," Lee Allen, policy director with the National Council for Adoption, told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "Unfortunately, it's not that unusual. There are about 500,000 children living in temporary care across America who cannot wait for courts to make decisions."
Even though she looks different than her Caucasian foster parents, the Bakers said she is an integral part of their family.
"She knows she's Chinese girl and has a Chinese mom and dad," Anna's foster father Jerry Baker said.
Three years ago, The Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman met with the Bakers, who said that it would be traumatic for everyone to remove Anna from their home.
"We think of it all the time, just putting her in that car seat for the last time and telling her bye, that she's never coming back. Yeah, that's very heart wrenching to even think about," Louise Baker said then.
"She's gonna ask, 'Well, where am I going?' " Jerry Baker said. "And you're gonna say, 'Well, you've, you've got to go to, um, China.' "
The Bakers have said Anna Mae has no connection to her biological parents, and contend she would have a better life in the United States than in China. In 2003, Chancery Court Judge Robert Childers of Memphis took away her biological parents' parental rights, ruling that they had abandoned Anna Mae.
But Tennessee Supreme Court overruled and said "the only evidence of substantial harm arises from the delay caused by protracted litigation and the failure of the court system to protect the parent-child relationship."
Allen said that decisions like this are usually best left to parents, but despite all the trauma and the years Anna Mae spent living in limbo, it appears that she will be going from one loving home to another.
"But, also, her story is not that uncommon," he said. "About 20,000 children experience this kind of a cultural transfer every year when they come to America from other countries, through international adoption. And the children overwhelmingly do very well.
"So it's going to be very interesting to see how Anna together with her parents face these challenges. Hopefully they will get professional help along the way."
Anna Mae will not be leaving the Bakers right away. Both families will be back in court to finalize the transfer of custody.
Her parents abandoned her in this country, where she has a shot at a good life with foster parents that love her and now she is being sent back to her Chicom parents???
What a great country we live in.
It was on the news they had been looking for a family to take the child before she was even born and that they had given a child up before for adoption. I don't think its in the best interests of this little girl to be ripped from parents she knows and be sent to China. Its not like she is a small child ...she is almost 8 yrs old. This case is very strange. I wonder if they are going to try to get the other child they adopted out too.
I hope they taught her how to use chopsticks.
Odd. They must not be able to conceive another, to go to such lengths to fill their "one child" allotment in China. Girl children are not favored by that culture, I understand.
Horrible tragedy for this little girl, to lose the only mommy and daddy she has ever known, to leave American life, and go live in a communist country to be indoctrinated. Prayers up for her.
Stories like this are part of the reason some childless couples, like my brother and his wife, refuse to adopt. They know there is a chance that they could end up in court and bankrupted by legal fees because some crack whore decides she wants her baby back three years post-adoption, or because the Russian Mafiya tries to blackmail them. In so many cases like this adoption is not forever, and the courts don't seem to consider the emotions of the child at all, only the greed of the biological parent(s).
This story is WAY too one sided.
Why was the child left behind? Why was the child in foster care? Could it be because the father was in a criminal case?
Seems we have another typical delay delay delay tactic.
Reading between the lines it seems but for the child being in foster care, they would have taken her with them back to china.
If she was left by her parents why reunite her with them ?
While your points may be valid, they don't apply here.
It seems the child was not abandoned but swept up with the father's criminal problems. When the father was aquited the child should have been returned to the parents. Instead (the article does not say intentionally) the foster parents essentially tried to steal the child.
This happens time and time again with adoptions by force. The lawyer is generating legal fees by playing on the emotions of the foster parents. If we apply the logic of the adoption lawyers, just steal the baby of your choice and as long as you are a better mother or father you get to keep the child!
They have another child, if I remember correctly. This makes the girl an "extra" in China and puts her life in danger.
-- sighing in Memphis
If the biological parents put the needs of the child first and not their own selfish ones, they would allow the child to be adopted by the foster parents. Any way you cut it, that's what's best for the CHILD. The bottom line is that in the end for the biological parents it was about winning. Sad.
I hate the US family first mantra. It has killed many children. The conservatives need to take a long hard look in the mirror at themselves on this issue.
I don't believe it is selfish to want to raise your child that was wrongfully taken away from you and not returned.
I wonder where the child was born. If she was born here then that would give the motivation for the bio parents.....American citizenship for the child.
There's nothing wrong with wanting the child -- many loving parents give up their children for adoption and miss them -- but what is BEST for the CHILD? Too many adults do things regarding children for selfish reasons. They didn't begin trying to get the child back until she was 2 which is old enough to cause damage to her. They actually signed away their rights and then later claimed they misunderstood (which is another reason to question why people come to a country in which they don't understand the language, but that's another thread), not to mention they are illegal immigrants. If the Hes think this child is not going to be permanently negatively affected, they've got a huge surprise ahead of them. I wouldn't be surprised if they change their minds a few months down the road after the child continually cries and begs for the only parents she's ever known. She's not a baby, she's 8 years old.
No, she was put into foster care when she was two. That is when her father was accused of a sexual assault. According to the article, the foster family refused to give her back when he was acquitted. According to the article, the father was on student aid in college when this happened, that is not an illegal alien.
The best interest of the child was for the foster family to give her back when he was acquitted. Foster families have given children back to abusive parents, which does not seem to be the case here. btw, how many years has the foster family been fighting this? Many years, hardly in the best interest of the child.
This story is WAY too one sided.
Why was the child left behind? Why was the child in foster care? Could it be because the father was in a criminal case?
You're right. We don't know, and those missing elements are huge factors. This article lacks all the substantive and important information.
Foster care is not one-way. It is not abandonment. It is designed to reunite children with their parents whenever possible. Unless there was a very strong reason not to send her to China, the court seems to have done the right thing.
Actually, they've had 2 other children since giving this one up for adoption. They live (or lived) in Oak Ridge, TN.
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