Nepali adoptions investigated; U.S. parents agonize

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Jenni Lund went to Nepal to become a mother.

She loves the mountains. She loves the culture. And after seeing a postage-stamp-size photo of the 2-year-old boy who was matched with her, she easily fell in love him. She met Pukar on Sept. 27 and, as far as the Nepal government is concerned, she now is his legal mother.

But whether she ever will be able to bring him home to Leavenworth, Chelan County, where she is an acupuncturist and owns a yoga studio, is now in the hands of U.S. government officials who must see proof that Pukar really was abandoned by his parents.

Concerned about child-trafficking allegations, the Department of State announced Aug. 6 it no longer would grant visas to abandoned Nepali children waiting for adoption, unless abandonment could be proved.

Twelve countries are taking such action.

In the meantime, Lund and Pukar's fate, and that of 80 other U.S. families — including three others in Washington — are in limbo as investigators go case by case in an effort to find witnesses, missing parents or police officers who signed original documents.

The children's futures hang on investigators being able to make sense of the chaos of a developing nation with little infrastructure, limited computer and telephone systems and no postal service outside the cities.

Nepal is among the world's poorest countries, with one-third of its population living in poverty and an average per-capita annual income of about $400, according to relief agencies. The Asian country also is going through a change in government, and the political parties are deadlocked over a variety of issues, including who will be prime minister.

So far, not a single child investigated by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since Aug. 6 has been granted a visa.

On Oct. 27, the State Department sent Lund a letter saying a preliminary investigation into Pukar's background found "insufficient evidence" for him to qualify as an orphan under U.S. immigration law. The case is now in the hands of Homeland Security "for adjudication."

"Unimaginable"

John Meske is a Tacoma attorney and executive director of Faith International, an adoption agency that for years was the leading U.S. authority on Nepal adoptions. Faith has no families affected by the ban, but, Meske says, those who promote the ban on visas know little about the culture or the reality of life in Nepal.


Women still are stigmatized for bearing children out of wedlock, and honor killings against unmarried women who give birth still happen, he said.

Confirming details of a child's background is impossible and condemns the child to live in an orphanage, Meske said.

"The Nepal situation is unimaginable. ... In the end, the actions taken harm not only American families but ... orphan children in need of permanent families."

U.S. officials say they are sympathetic and first will investigate the cases of families waiting in Nepal. But protecting the children is their priority, said Rosemary Macray, public-information officer for the State Department.

"We found a pretty disturbing pattern," Macray said. "When we are working with adoptions we have to act in the best interest of the children and protection for the parents.

"Nepal has little villages. They know if someone is truly abandoned or if there are other issues," she said.

Ambassador Susan Jacobs, appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as special adviser to the Office of Children's Issues, said, "We've heard stories about mothers being pressured to give up their children by orphanage directors. ... It makes me heartsick to see people make money off children."

In 2008, as Parliament went through changes that brought Maoists into power, Nepal suspended international adoptions over allegations that children were being given up for financial gain and that documents were fraudulent.

But a new minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare was appointed, and adoption resumed.

Now there is a new U.S. consul general to Nepal, Clay Adler, who handles adoption issues; waiting parents believe the change is part of the problem.

Adler came to Nepal from Cambodia, where similar action in adoption cases was taken. Cambodia's adoption system is rife with fraud but slowly is improving, according to Jacobs.

A long wait

The parents who came to Nepal and have become attached to the children wait and hope, Lund among them.

In Nepal, she says, she is risking her retirement savings, her business, her home and relationships as life in Leavenworth is put on hold indefinitely and her nest egg dwindles. But she and Pukar grow closer day by day.

"Mama!" he calls. "Mama."

The other day, Lund, 45, sat cross-legged on her bed in a small apartment they are temporarily sharing with a Minnesota woman, who also is waiting to hear about her child's visa.

"Did you eat a bead?" Lund asks Pukar, who sports an Old Navy shirt she bought. She fishes a bead from his mouth, grabs him and swings him into the cradle of her arms.

"I'm really concerned. They are looking for some kind of corroborating evidence of abandonment," she said. "How can they get that?"

She was told by Portland-based Journeys of the Heart, the agency that handled the adoption, that Pukar had been found abandoned by a river in 2008 and later was taken to an orphanage, where he's been ever since. The agency would not return phone calls to comment on Lund's case.

Lund only received notice of her match from Nepal's Ministry of Women and Children in late July and was making her travel plans when the State Department made its announcement. Since the government of Nepal gives parents a limited time to come to the country and meet the child, she went anyway.

Being in Nepal, however, has only meant expense on top of the $25,000 in adoption-related fees she's already spent.

Still, she's prepared to wait it out.

"All the parents who are here, and have chosen this, have put their whole lives on the line for these children," Lund said. "Everyone is at risk of losing so much."

Source: The Seattle Times