STEPHANIE WANTS HER SISTERS BACK

FYI - the child's name is Gabriella and not Stephanie.

from website www.eafacere.ro published on Jan. 11, 2006 and taken from Averea Newspaper of Jan. 11, 2006
Author: Daniela Serb

STEPHANIE WANTS HER SISTERS BACKAn American congressman, Robert Wexler, came to Romania yesterday to convince the Romanian authorities to unblock the adoptions of over 200 children which were blocked as a result of the institution of a complete moratorium in 2004, concerning international adoptions. Romanian authorities have repeatedly announced that not one of these over 1,100 Romanian children whose international adoptions were requested will be adopted abroad.

The Congressman came to help Stephanie, an 8 year old girl, to recover her twin sisters, Madalina and Manuela. Stephanie is a Romanian girl whose parents gave her up for adoption in 1998 to a family from the U.S. Madalina and Manuela are 4 years old and for the last 3 years they have been raised by a maternal assistant whom they call 'mamma'. Their birth family was not able to support them financially because there are another 5 children who need to be cared for. Beyond this, neither parent has a job and they are separated and they are each living with their respective parents. A source close to the family declared, "These 5 children are in a village and are in the care of their mother's mother. They live off of welfare, but they are good children. The oldest boy is 15 and is good at school, but he doesn't have anyone to help him any further. It's a typical case of the failure of the local authorities to get involved with these kind of problems."

Thus the family gave their consent that Madalina and Manuela should be adopted. The twins became 'adoptable' on the 26th of November and the 4th of December 2003 respectively. On the 13th of January, 2004, Stephanie's adoptive parents, Karen and Richard Springer, solicited to adopt the twins, the little sisters of their adopted daughter. One month later, on the 6th of February, 2004, an emergency ordinance entered into force which declared that international adoptions were blocked totally. One year later, on the first of January, 2005, a new law, Law 272/2004 entered into force. According to this law, all the requests for international adoption needed to be re-evaluated and these Romanian children would not be able to be adopted by foreign families. The fate of the twins was no exception. After re-evaluating the case, the twin's were declared to be no longer adoptable and remained in the care of the maternal assistant. Now the biological parents have changed their minds and don't want the twins adopted, waiting for God or the local authorities to be merciful and help them with something.

The Springers, however, who have a law firm in the U.S., did not give up and insisted that their suspended case for adoption be resolved. They sought help from the American Congressman, Robert Wexler. Wexler declared, "We have arrived at the point where Romania, if she desires, could permit international adoptions in appropriate cases. This decision should not be a political one, but one that best serves the interest of the child." Robert Wexler is pleading for the resolving of this case and says that it is a "unique situation" in which he has become involved. According to mediafax, he maintains that Romania should permit the uniting of these three sisters for humanitarian reasons and that these three girls really want this thing.

However, the Romanian office for adoptions will not allow one iota of hope. The Romanian adoption office maintains that no one is able to adopt children who have not been judicially declared adoptable. Theodora Bertzi, head of the Romanian adoption office, declared, "We have responded to the Springer's request and explained to them the current situation regarding the twins. They are no longer adoptable. And even if they would be adoptable, the maternal assistant would have priority to adopt them because she raised them and she is attached to them."

According to the Romanian law, a child can be declared adoptable only if he cannot be integrated in the extended family which means relatives to the 4th degree. Even given this, international adoptions of Romanian children are not permitted at all, except by the child's grandparents who happen to live in another country. In other words, only grandparents are able to adopt their grandchildren internationally. Bertzi added that there are currently 1,533 requests by Romanians to adopt, but there are only 530 adoptable children. Bertzi specified that, "Seventy of these have now been adopted and another sixty have been in legal custody with a view to adoption. This period of legal custody lasts 3 months."