Foreign Adoptions Tricky, Tough

When Lori and Chris Manlio decided they wanted to adopt, they looked to another country for a child.

The Boca Raton nurse and doctor are among couples who last year adopted 20,099 children internationally, according to the U.S. Department of State. Like most, they believed a foreign adoption would be faster than a domestic one -- and would less likely result in a birth mother showing up one day on the doorstep to reclaim their child.

Three months and $35,000 after setting foot in a Boca Raton adoption agency, the Manlios adopted 4-year-old Jodi, a Russian orphan, in December 2002. That's quicker than most domestic adoptions.

But international adoption, an unregulated industry in many countries, can be a tricky endeavor. Child-smugglers make millions of dollars selling babies to agencies, according to international human rights groups, and tales of kidnapping and birth-mother coercion are not uncommon.

Allegations of child-smuggling have clouded the reputation of a Coral Springs agency. On Dec. 5, Florida suspended the license of International Adoption Resource while an international arrest warrant was issued for one of its employees implicated in Colombian, Guatemalan and Costa Rican smuggling rings. Despite assurances that their pending applications will come to fruition, IAR clients across the country worry that their adoptions are now in jeopardy.

Jill Scott, director of Adoption Source, the Manlios' agency, said adoptive parents can be easy prey for unscrupulous agencies.

''When people walk into your office, they are most often more vulnerable than at any other time in their life,'' she said. ``They want a baby.''

The Manlios had married when Lori was in her late 30s. After giving birth to their first child, Tyler, they tried in-vitro fertilization three times at a cost of $16,000 per session. Lori miscarried once and was unable to conceive again.

''We went through so much,'' she said. ``It was hard on our marriage. It was hard on every aspect of our lives.''

The Manlios paid a $250 application fee the day Adoption Source showed them a videotape of Jodi playing with blocks in her orphanage. That transaction began their three-month process, which involved two trips to Russia, one to meet Jodi and a second to bring her home last Christmas.

In the end they had paid $35,000, tracking each check they wrote carefully.

''It was handled so professionally, and we couldn't be happier,'' Lori Manlio said.

Domestic adoption professionals say the Manlios' fear of a birth parent reasserting rights years down the road is no longer an issue in Florida with the passage of a law in May that severs both birth parents' rights at adoption.

''If an adoption is handled properly by a competent firm, there should be no chance of the child being reclaimed,'' said Mike Danciu, a Boca attorney who has handled hundreds of domestic adoptions. Danciu concedes that domestic adoption may take longer, but notes that there are thousands of parentless American children in need of stable families.

International adoption requires adoptive parents to stay up on their country's political and economic status. A prime example was a struggle last year between a Pembroke Pines couple and U.S. immigration officials. Steve and Robin Godby had arranged to adopt a Vietnamese child, but after Robin went to pick up the baby she was told the child could not have a visa to enter the United States.

It took took 17 months to determine that the birth mother had legitimately given the child up for adoption. Because she could not bear to leave the child behind, Robin Godby spent those 17 months in Ho Chi Minh City. On March 21, she finally came home -- with two Vietnamese children. There was no problem with the second child's visa.

Journalist Ethan Kapstein has reported extensively on child trafficking for The International Herald Tribune, among other publications. ''The fundamental problem is that parents from rich countries are adopting from poor countries where parents are in such poor economic conditions that they're willing to give up their children for a minimal price,'' he said.

Although American couples may pay as much as $50,000 for a child, the birth mother may get only a fraction of that money.

Most of the funds often go to an agency or to lawyers and middlemen in the foreign country, he said.

Adoptive parents would be wise to ask their agencies to show them a complete record of where their payments went.

In some countries, including Guatemala, the United States requires that a baby and his or her mother be DNA tested at the time of adoption to ensure a match -- and insists that the mother sign a consent form formally relinquishing her parental rights.

DNA tests are typically performed by American companies and given to the host country's authorities for further evaluation.

As with domestic adoptions, parents adopting foreign children undergo home studies to evaluate their parenting capabilities.

Adoptive parents should have full access to their foreign attorney, whose qualifications can often be checked with a U.S. embassy, said Diana Adams, who has coordinated Guatemalan adoptions for many years in Washington, ]D.C., Florida, and other states.

IAR clients have complained that the agency's director, Rebecca Thurmond, who did not respond to The Herald's efforts to interview her for this story, refused to provide them with the name of their Guatemalan attorney. They also complain she rarely returned their e-mails or phone calls.

''These are all red flags,'' said Adams. ``I'm a little surprised that anyone would stay with an agency that treated them like that.''

A mother to five internationally adopted children from India and Eastern Europe, Adams empathizes with the vulnerability adoptive parents feel when they walk through an agency's door.

''It's a hard process. It's emotionally exhausting,'' she said. ``If you're not with an ethical agency, unfortunate things can happen.''