Snipping Adoption Red Tape

Filed: 11/13/2000

By MARYLEE SHRIDER
Bakersfield Californian staff writer
e-mail: mshrider@bakersfield.com

Dawn Kennedy couldn't believe what she was hearing. The voice on the phone was one she had heard before, in her worst nightmares.

The caller was vice counsel with the American Embassy in Moldova, the eastern European country where, six months earlier, Kennedy had adopted a 3-year-old girl. The vice counsel told Kennedy she had failed to fulfill the requirements necessary to complete the adoption. That her failure was delaying other adoptions. That she was creating problems between the United States and Moldova. That she could lose her daughter.

"I was shocked," said Kennedy, a Bakersfield attorney. "I thought everything was in order, but here she was telling me if the Moldovian government demanded Julia's return, our government would not stand behind us. We were beside ourselves."

Kennedy and husband Michael Shorr had paid their Michigan-based adoption agency in advance to complete the post placement requirements after Julia's adoption in November 1995. The agency, which has since lost its license, failed to meet the requirements, a circumstance Kennedy said she was not aware of until the phone call in June 1996. Because they had not yet completed Julia's naturalization process, Kennedy and Shorr viewed deportation as a serious threat.

When Kennedy discovered the Michigan agency was under investigation, she turned to the Wasatch International Adoption Agency in Utah. With the help of Wasatch, Kennedy and Shorr were able to resolve the matter and officially adopt Julia, now 7. The problem, which took several agonizing weeks to resolve, is one Kennedy hopes future parents of adopted children won't have to experience.

Thanks to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, signed into law by President Clinton on Oct. 30, they may not have to. The new law, effective in February, will confer United States citizenship automatically upon foreign-born children adopted by American citizens. Adoption advocates are also watching the progress of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2000, a bill they believe will encourage more Americans to adopt domestic and foreign-born children.