FTIA-referred child rejoins biological family in Vietnam

We tried to stop the spin on the Bac Lieu 16 in this post and touched on more recent commentary here. We addressed adoption-lobbyist-speak in this post. We even corrected the text of a lawyer on Bac Lieu here-a must read! Now, there is another ridiculous spin on Bac Lieu.

One of the children referred to in the lawyer-article has indeed rejoined his biological family. Family loses fight to adopt Vietnamese boy [Dayton Daily News 8/12/12 by Mary McCarty]

“A Washington Twp. couple has lost their quest to adopt a little boy from a Vietnamese orphanage after trying for more than two years. Four-year-old Thomas called Angela Manuszak “Mommy” and longed for the day when he could return with her to the United States. [Question 1: WHY was this child told that this PAP was his “Mommy” when the adoption NEVER was finalized? WHY would anyone be so cruel to lead along a child when these adoptions NEVER were guaranteed to go through? CRUEL CRUEL CRUEL!]

It was a dream never to be fulfilled. [A dream of the PAP, not the child.] After more than two years of fighting to adopt Thomas, Angela and Terry Manuszak have learned it will never happen because Thomas, now nearly 5, recently rejoined his birth family after living in the orphanage all his life. [ APPLAUSE. APPLAUSE! We are very happy for this reunion!] The Manuszaks’ plight, featured last year in the Dayton Daily News, gained international attention along with that of 14 other so-called “pipeline families”caught in a tangle of changing regulations designed to prevent human trafficking. Eleven families ultimately brought their children home from Vietnam, but Thomas’ adoption was not completed in part because his birth family reappeared after an absence of more than four years.[Reappeared? Other stories say that the director went into villages seeking signoffs. Someone is not being entirely truthful here!]

Keith Wallace, executive director of Families Thru International Adoption, the Manuszaks’ adoption agency, said that Thomas’ adoption also was foiled [Excuse me?] by “the misguided interference of the State Department.” [You have some nerve Keith! Reunification which is REQUIRED under Hague is not MISGUIDED, but compassionate.I don’t believe that the State Department cares at all anyway because I have read what they did in Guatemala in the Embassy Cables.] Keith Wallace added that a State Department official “posted on a website within a few weeks of arriving in Vietnam and after one short visit to the province that she believed that all these adoptions were improper. Perhaps her attentions were honest, but it’s naive and ignorant to arrive in a country and think you have it all figured out.”[Interestingly you KNEW what was going on and moved to a new province to make a few more bucks.]

Angela Manuszak said, “State Department officials believe that all international adoptions are human trafficking.”[BIGGEST LIE EVER AWARD! ]

A State Department official declined to comment about the Manuzsaks’ case, but denied the State Department opposes international adoption: “Intercountry adoption is a good option for children in need of a safe and loving home. The Department of State supports intercountry adoption and made resolving pipeline cases in Vietnam a priority. After the government of Vietnam initially denied all 15 pipeline cases, Department officials met with leaders in Vietnam to move these adoptions forward. We worked tirelessly on behalf of all the families and were successful in completing adoptions for 11 out of the 15 cases.”

The Manuszaks and the other pipeline families initially found themselves in legal limbo, because their adoptions were approved shortly before the U.S. began enforcing stricter guidelines as part of the Hague Adoption Convention. [Not true, they did not have legal adoptions!They mean that their I-600s were approved. That is NOT the same thing.]Adoptions between the two countries, which peaked with 828 in 2007, halted while Vietnam contemplated signing onto the Convention guidelines which, among other things, require participating countries to have a central authority that investigates cases to ensure that children are not being trafficked.

International adoptions decline [Again, what the heck does this have to do with ANYTHING?]

At the time, State Department officials said they were “working diligently to raise these cases with Vietnamese adoption officials at every opportunity.” The pipeline families’ plight garnered national press last year when U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee for ambassador, David Shear, to Vietnam over the issue. [And they are proud of this?]

International adoptions to the U.S. have plummeted sharply in the past eight years, to fewer than 10,000 last year from a peak of nearly 23,000 in 2004. Some countries, including China, are promoting domestic adoptions at the cost of international adoptions.[Again, you say this as if promoting domestic adoption is BAD? What a tool!]

The Manuszaks applaud the concern over human trafficking, but fail to see why Thomas languished in an orphanage for more than two years when a loving family wanted to adopt him. “I hope they can prevent human trafficking without throwing out so many good adoptions from needing to happen,” Angela Manuszak said.[Obviously your referred child did not NEED it to happen if he had a family, now, right?]

According to the State Department official, “The State Department works to facilitate ethical adoptions, which protects American families, birth families, and children. In countries like Vietnam, we have concerns about how the children entered into care. The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption provides the best framework for ethical, transparent adoptions, and we are supporting the Government of Vietnam as it implements the Hague Convention and other child protections.”

The Manuszaks adopted three children from Taiwan — Samuel, 10, Tessa, 8, and Cara, 6 — but that did not stop their quest to bring Thomas into their family.

“Ask who his Mommy is and he points to Angela’s photo on the wall,” Terry Manuszak said. [Again, how CRUEL!]

Angela Manuszak made several lengthy visits to Vietnam, bonding with Thomas, and her husband traveled to Vietnam last Christmas in the hope of finalizing the adoption and bringing Thomas home before the Hague Convention was ratified in early February.[Again, CRUEL] During his absence, Angela Manuszak said, she received a “a very terse email that Thomas’ birth mother was coming to retrieve him after four-and-a-half years had passed.” [Sorry, no tears here.]

The family still did not lose hope, and soon they had reason to feel encouraged. Orphanage workers told the Manuszaks that the birth father visited Thomas and asked why he did not sleep well at night. Thomas replied, “Because I miss my Mommy,” pointing to the picture of Angela Manuszak. “The father bawled his eyes out and decided to let us adopt,” Terry Manuszak said. [THIS made you feel ENCOURAGED? For the birthfather to bawl his eyes out? How Christian of you!]

The family signed relinquishment papers in March. [How did that come to be?] “The father earned two dollars a day, and the family didn’t have enough to support Thomas,” Angela Manuszak said. [So the ONLY reason was poverty and you thought it was A-ok to take the child away?]

Weeks later, the birth parents changed their minds and abruptly brought Thomas home from the orphanage.[As is their right..maybe they JUST learned that they had that right?]

Wallace acknowledged that being reunited with his birth family could be a happy ending for Thomas:[COULD be? You are a piece of work!] “I don’t know enough about what’s going on to make any judgment. A kid’s happiness is not about having stuff; it’s where he’s going to be loved and treasured. If it is that way, that’s great for Thomas, but it’s still devastating for the Manuszaks who have stayed involved for so long and worked so hard to adopt him.”[Devastating for you and your money flow.]

Although they are busy with their three children, who are attending Centerville schools, the Manuszaks will never forget Thomas. Angela Manuszak often wears a frog pendant, in honor of the nickname Thomas earned “because of his big eyes and skinny legs.”

The couple worries that Thomas will grow up thinking they abandoned him. [Arrogant, much?]

“He is not going to feel like trash, I am not going to let that happen,” [Why would he?]Terry Manuszak vowed. “Some day we will show him everything we did to fight for him.”” [WHY interfere any more?Let him be with his family. This is NOT about you. It never was.]

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