Let’s Get Real: Adoption Insanity in Pakistani Case UPDATED

This case is a perfect example of the insanity that comes with some adoptions. The article Tulsa woman refuses to give up attempt to adopt Pakistani girl [Tulsa World 9/18/11 by Wayne Greene]

This is a must-read for adoption preparation to understand attitudes, approaches, and what NOT to do while going through the adoption process.

(1) “Baney adopted a son from Russia in 2004, and in 2005 she decided to adopt a second child, a daughter. After four years of waiting in the Russian program, her international adoption agency suggested a new country program – Pakistan.”

Four years of waiting for a Russian program?  One possibility is that her agency is inept in a country that has an established adoption program. The other possibility (and it could be both) is that her expectation of a specific type of child (likely a very young healthy girl) is an IMpossibility. Furthermore, she uses the same agency for a pilot program after they have already shown themselves to not be able to deliver from an established program. Lastly, Pakistan is a Muslim country. The Department of State website says, “Pakistan has no statutory law on adoptions, but does have a law governing guardianship. Prospective parents should consult a lawyer in Pakistan regarding the guardianship requirements.

Again, it should be noted that the guardianship process in Pakistan requires several additional procedures and concerns not associated with Hague countries with accreditation agencies. If you have a particular child in mind for adoption, especially a relative, you must consult a lawyer or USCIS to assist you in determining whether this child meets the specific U.S. legal definition of orphan before proceeding.”

Now the DOS website was revamped in the past year, so likely this information was not available at the time that she STARTED the adoption process. There is no excuse for any PAP to not know this type of information NOW. Being that it is a Muslim country, kafala not adoption is the process as adoption is just not recognized under Muslim law. We discuss kafala in one of our Egypt posts here.

Kafala is a form of sponsorship, not adoption and guardianship is what is possible. This makes things difficult for the immigration portion of the two-part process. It is what it is. Additionally, for other PAPs (this child was apparently from Christian birthparents and conversion does not apply to this case, but guardianship does): if you don’t like the idea of kafala and don’t want to convert to Islam, then DON’T pursue an “adoption” in a Muslim country. Pakistan is 97% Muslim, so it would be likely that you would be referred a Muslim child. YOUR interest IN the child is not more important than the BEST interest OF the CHILD. And don’t get me started about adopting a Muslim child to convert to your religion thereby “saving” the child…

(2) “The agency presented Baney with the profile of a 10-day-old baby girl whose mother had died in childbirth and whose father was unable to raise her.”

10…days…old!?!

(3) “Shortly afterward, a Pakistani court granted Baney legal guardianship of Marina Grace, and she started the U.S. immigration process, but just before her final interview she was called to the U.S. embassy with facilitators for the Pakistani adoption agency.

At the embassy she was told the girl’s birth certificate and the birth mother’s death certificate were fraudulent documents.

U.S. officials had discovered the alleged birth parents had been hired by the adoption agency to pose as the birth family. When the officials traveled to the birthplace, the alleged birth mother answered the door, very much alive. Officers from Pakistan’s Federal Investigative Agency – the FIA – arrested the two adoption agency facilitators at the embassy. Two more people would be arrested and jailed two weeks later.

Baney’s adoption was the first child-trafficking case caught through the U.S. embassy in Pakistan.”

Is Marina Grace her legal name or is that the name that the PAP calls her? She is still a Pakistani citizen. This plays into the fantasy of what the child IS in the PAP’s mind.

Fraudulent documents, fraudulent “birthparent” and real, LIVE birthparents. Seriously? How can it be any worse? Read on…

(4)”“We were the first child-trafficking adoption case. And, you do feel betrayed by adoption agencies and individuals you are supposed to be able to trust,” Baney said. “When the embassy officials told me, I dropped to the floor. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t believe it.”

“The next thing that I was told, FIA was going to be removing Gracy from my custody,” she said. “Having my child taken from my arms is the most horrendous experience I’ve ever been through.”

She was given 30 minutes to say goodbye before the child was taken away to an orphanage. They wouldn’t be allowed to see each other for 16 months.”

This is why you need to research the process BEFORE you enter into any contract or go as far as accepting a referral. The agency isn’t going to be there for you. Visa-issuing proof is the burden of the PAP.

(5)”Pakistani officials ultimately cleared Baney of any involvement in the child trafficking and found Marina’s authentic birth parents, who signed affidavits stating they were uninterested in being reunited with their biological child.”

Now here is where things get dubious again. The article does not state HOW these birthparents came to sign these affidavits. The question we have and we are sure that the Embassy had is: Were the signatures coerced? This is another effect of the large amount of money in the process.

(6) “Late last year, Baney was given the chance to renew the adoption process, to start over with a new guardianship application, and she took it.”

Who gave her that chance? Same agency? Another agency? And she took it! It is like an addiction. She just couldn’t stop!

(7) “In January she returned to Islamabad, and again she was granted legal guardianship by the Pakistani courts.

Her reunion with Marina Grace was filled with joy. Gracy had grown remarkably. She was not talking, but she was walking tentatively. She was clearly very ill, burning with fever and suffering from scabies, malnutrition and severe bronchitis.

“She didn’t remember me, and she didn’t smile,” but despite all of that Baney said she recognized her little girl immediately.”

You know what they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, right? INSANITY.


She didn’t remember the PAP because the girl hadn’t formed a bond with her. To even state that means the PAP’s head is in the clouds about how the girl views this developmentally and practically-she was 3 months old when they met! Also, she didn’t smile likely because…she is ill! But this part somehow has to be all about the PAP and her lack of getting stroked and validated.

(8) “Those big brown eyes – they were all I saw. My heart just leapt because she was so much my child,” Baney said. “It was just a beautiful, beautiful experience. It was almost like she had come back from the dead to me.”

Oh my…

(9)”But Baney soon faced two new hurdles.

A Pakistani physician determined the toddler had hydrocephalus – a buildup of cerebral spinal fluid that causes the brain to swell – and she was severely tongue tied.

While surgery on the little girl’s tongue has helped free her speech, she needs a consultation with a pediatric neurologist in the United States to determine the best next step for her hydrocephalic condition, which does not seem to have slowed her mental development so far.

But Baney can’t get the child to a U.S. doctor because U.S. immigration officials have denied Marina Grace’s immigrant visa.”

Yea, it’s called a NOID . Nice try to make it sound like the the immigration officials somehow hate this sick girl. See #5 again about the affidavit-signing and proof of orphan status.

(10) “Both of Marina Grace’s birth parents are alive but have signed affidavits documenting that they have abandoned the child. If she isn’t adopted by Baney, she would be returned to an orphanage.

Baney’s immigration attorneys say she is being held to a higher standard than other Pakistan adoption cases – perhaps because the child-trafficking case was the first one ever uncovered by the U.S. embassy.

“The decision is extremely simplistic and clearly discounts the evidence provided,” said Grace Kennedy, an attorney working for Baney. “I’m absolutely disgusted with that decision. If the case were denied on its merits, then fine, but they are not even considering the evidence here.”

Baney has decided to appeal the decision, a process that could last two years.

She also is applying for a nonimmigrant medical visa, an unsure process, in part because of the earlier immigration attempt. That would allow Marina Grace to come to the U.S. temporarily to be treated.”

Who is going to pay for that? See #11.
(11) “She has been in Islamabad for nearly 250 days.

During that time, her family leave time ran out, she lost her job and her 8-year-old son has spent the better part of a year in the care of a relative, only seeing his mother on twice-a-day Skype visits.”

She has a child already who has been wholly neglected because she refuses to believe she has a trafficked child in Pakistan!

She now is unemployed. When you adopt, you have something called a homestudy that supposedly ensures that you have monetary means to take care of the child. Uh…she no longer does, so how is that going to help this situation or her son? Yet she plods on…

Despite her own assertions in the comments of the article that she has jumped through every hoop, orphan status is VERY specific and one must remember that BOTH legal and immigration processes  MUST be met. Comments in the article about the child “being abandoned again” are ridiculous! This girl has to be WITH someone first to be abandoned. She didn’t even remember the PAP.

Why isn’t the agency named? The journalist would be doing society a public service to name the agency so we all know who to avoid.


Why isn’t the agency being sued? These cases always amaze us here on how PAPs continue to defend the agency in these circumstances.

The child needs to be medically helped and the local government should be figuring out what the situation really is with the birthparents, but the EMBASSY’s job is not to be an adoption agency. They approve or deny visas. For more about adoption reform and how adoption is NOT an emergency, read Let’s Get Real: Adoption Reform.

Update: A new article has been written about Nancy Baney. Nancy Baney hasn’t given up.
[Tulsa World 12/31/11 by Wayne Green]

“The Tulsa woman has spent more than two years working to adopt Marina Grace, a Pakistani girl who is caught in a struggle with U.S. officials.”

It is not a “struggle”. This situation was of the STILL UNNAMED agency’s and Nancy’s making. They leave out important parts in this story such as a referral at 10 days of age, dead birthparents on the paperwork when they are alive and the out-of-nowhere, suspicious relinquishment 1 year after the corruption was revealed in the adoption (which is what happened with the Vietnamese Bac Lieu children-the agency sought out and found the birthparents and they miraculously relinquished). These are not tiny details. In fact, they now change the referral at 10-days-old part because even the uninformed would see that as a red flag and now talk about the child being 3-months old when “presented”.

“Sometimes, she said, she screams into her pillow, but then she takes a deep breath and charges ahead.

“You can shake your fist. You can stamp your foot, but it doesn’t really serve anyone,” she said.

Grace was born June 7, 2009, to Christian parents in Gorja, Pakistan. She was presented to Baney as a 3-month-old orphan, and things were moving smoothly toward an international adoption until U.S. embassy officials discovered that key documents in the case were forged and that both of the child’s parents were still alive.

Two Pakistanis were arrested.

Baney was cleared in the case, and Pakistan resumed the adoption process in 2010 after Grace’s parents made it clear that they didn’t want to be reunited with the child.

But Grace remains in immigration limbo.

After the earlier problem, the U.S. State Department rejected a visa for the girl, holding her visa status to a stricter standard than any other comparable case, Baney and her attorneys say.

The situation is complicated by two medical issues: Grace has a hydrocephalic condition that is causing her head to swell abnormally, and she has a tied tongue.

After nearly a year in Pakistan, Baney has returned to Tulsa for a holiday visit with her family, including her 9-year-old son Nicholas, whom she adopted from Russia.

Since September, there has been movement in Grace’s case, but no resolution.”

Visa issues

“Grace’s application for a medical visa was rejected almost immediately by the State Department.

Baney had a brief visa scare of her own. Her fifth visa extension practically expired and the U.S. embassy “highly recommended” she make plans for an immediate return to the United States.

On her visa’s final day, the Pakistani government gave her a sixth extension. After it was granted, she learned there was a 15-day grace period after her visa expired.

Despite her medical challenges, Grace is in good shape, Baney said.

“She a feisty little 2-year-old – always on the run,” she said. “It’s hard to get her to sit very long.”

An MRI on the girl’s head continues to point to a hydrocephalic condition, but Pakistan doesn’t have the kind of medical expertise needed to deal with the situation. At this point, the only evidence of a developmental disability is that Grace continues to be slow in using language skills, but that could easily be related to her other condition, the tied tongue.

Grace had surgery to correct the tongue issue in Pakistan, but it wasn’t done correctly and she remains as tongue-tied today as ever, Baney said.

While Baney is in the U.S., Grace is in the care of the guest house staff – she refers to the owner as “papa” – who have given her and Baney a loving, safe environment during their struggle.

Baney talks to Grace daily via the online videoconferencing tool Skype, but Grace doesn’t have a sense of how very far her mother is from her.

She keeps trying to look behind the computer screen to see where Baney is hiding.

“She can’t quite get how these people get in the computer screen,” said Baney, who plans to return to Islamabad in the coming weeks.”

Other child remained in US for a year

“She said her reunion with her son was joyous.

Because she was unsure about details in leaving Islamabad, she kept the trip secret from her family until she showed up on their doorstep.

“All of a sudden, I heard this, ‘Mama, you’re here!’ ” Baney said.

As she told the story, she looked at the Metro Christian third-grader as he played with an electronic toy. The memory made tears well in her eyes.

“It made Mama cry,” she said. “It was great. It was wonderful.”

Nicholas is doing well.

He is a Cub Scout, plays basketball, soccer and baseball, and is looking forward to football next year.

A cousin, Dalend Baney, has been taking care of Nicholas while Nancy Baney has been in Pakistan. She refers to her cousin as her “co-parent” and says he “has always been very, very supportive.”

Christmas was an odd but beautiful experience, Baney said.

The Pakistani guest house owner helped her give her daughter a Christmas experience in an Islamic Republic.

She had a decorated tree, a special dinner and presents, including a new doll, a Mickey Mouse cell phone, a desk and chair, and books.

Christmas came at 7 a.m. Tulsa time, 6 p.m. in Islamabad. But Skype tied it all together.

Nicholas would open a present in Tulsa, then Grace would open one in Pakistan.”

“Loaves and Fishes” Mentality Has NO PLACE in International Adoption

This is NOT in the best interest of the child and as we stated in the original post, one is supposed to have income in order to adopt. It is part of the homestudy.

“The financial strains of the situation are still a challenge, Baney said.

Legal expenses and supporting two households across two continents are sapping her finances. She does everything she can to reduce costs everywhere she can.

“I’m kind of a MacGyver in a way. Give me a rock and a shoestring and a paper clip, and I’ll figure out a way,” she said.

She has taken a “loaves and fishes mentality” to the money situation.

“My belief is when there is a pure willingness, you receive blessings,” she said.

Finances haven’t been Baney’s only challenge, and she says her faith has been essential in dealing with all of the setbacks.

Her technique: Continuing to believe in an ultimate solution through God’s grace and concentrating on the most-pressing problems at hand.

“Sometimes your best-laid plans don’t go the way you so painstakingly had planned them,” Baney said. “There are really blessings that have come out of it. You just have to kind of go with it.”

Relying on God’s strength and her own resolve, Baney remains certain that everything will work out.

“She is my daughter, and she will always be in our family,” she said. “We will bring her home. We will be together as a family.”

Update 2: Marina is granted Humanitarian Parole and is in the US. The agency still remains unnamed. Again they purposely do not discuss how she was referred at 10 days old. They use the “placed in her arms” at 3 months story.

““It’s a miracle. It’s nothing short of a miracle,” said Baney.

“It just doesn’t happen this way most of the time.”

After more than two years of struggles with the U.S. government  that left the Baney family stretched across the globe, Grace was         granted a humanitarian parole by the U.S. Citizenship and  Immigration Service in April.

The parole allows the girl to travel to the United States for  medical treatments for up to two years — long enough for Baney  to adopt Grace and set her on a path toward citizenship.

For the first time in a long time, Grace’s story seems likely  to have a happy ending.

The story that led Grace to Tulsa is complex. [Ha! “complex” all right]

She was born June 7, 2009, in Gorja, Pakistan.

When she was 3 months old, an international adoption agency put  her in Baney’s arms for the first time. The child’s Christian  birth mother was dead and the birth father was unable to care  for a newborn.”

“Baney’s efforts to adopt the girl went smoothly until Oct. 14,  2009, when U.S. officials discovered that the child’s birth  story was falsified.

The birth certificate and identity documents had been forged by  the adoption agency, which hired a Pakistani couple to pose as  the child’s birth parents. Four Pakistanis were arrested, but  Baney was cleared — she was the victim of the fraud, not its  perpetrator.

Officials in Pakistan were willing to move ahead with Baney’s  adoption, but U.S. officials balked. The situation was further         complicated when physicians in Pakistan found that the child had   a hydrocephalic condition, a swelling of her brain that could         portend dreadful consequences if not treated properly.

U.S. officials rejected Baney’s application for Grace to   immigrate to the U.S. for adoption and seemed determined not to  listen to her appeals.

Baney ended up living in two worlds. She lived for more than 16  months in Islamabad, bonding with Grace and worrying about the         child’s need for treatments that weren’t available in that  nation.

Meanwhile, Baney’s son, Nicky, 9, — also an international   adoption — was growing up in Tulsa under the care of Baney’s  cousin and “co-parent” Dalend Baney.

Skype and prayer held the family together, but Baney said it  was an ordeal filled with moments of despair.

The nadir for Baney came in March, when the Southeast Asia  regional office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service         rejected Baney’s appeal of Grace’s immigration visa denial.
It’s almost as if they hadn’t ever reviewed it,” she said.

“That was a very, very, very low point.”

For about three weeks, she said, she felt practically hopeless but didn’t give up.

“There was no point that I didn’t think there would be a way —  some way, some how — we just hadn’t found it yet,” she said.

Then Baney got a call from the United States in the middle of the  night on April 26 — the federal government had granted Baney’s       request for a parole to bring Grace home for medical treatment. [Someone needed to be re-elected, huh?]

“It was thirty seconds that changed our entire lives,” she said

“We finally found someone in the U.S. government … who saw a   little girl who needed help.

“I’m just so thankful for that.”

She ran to the room where Grace was sleeping, picked her up and  tossed her in the air in joy.

“It was a surreal moment, but it was one of rejoicing,” Baney  said.

Within days, they were on their way home

After 30 hours of travel, including 3½ hours in the Houston   airport immigration office, Baney and Grace arrived in Tulsa.

Her son met his sister for the first time.

Her mother held her granddaughter for the first time.

“I felt 2½ years of waiting was lifted off my shoulders,” she   said

Testing for the girl’s medical treatment will begin immediately.

After six months, Baney can apply in Oklahoma court for adoption.   A few months later, Grace will be eligible to apply for an       immigrant visa, which would begin the process of naturalizing  Grace as an American.

While nothing is guaranteed, Baney said she sees a clear path for  completing the adoption and making Grace a permanent part of the  Baney family and the American one.

While that process plays out, mother and child are adjusting to  life in the United States.

Baney has had to readjust to driving on the right side of the  road and the mammoth size of American retail centers.

Grace has had to get acquainted with the things in her new home,  including a big, initially scary dog and a child restraint seat.

“She is actually doing better than Mama,” Baney said with a  smile.

Grace cries out for more milk in her sippy cup and Nicky goes to  the refrigerator to get it for her

Baney smiles at the sight and says that she recognizes that the  finally united family is an answer to a lot of peoples’ prayers.

“I can honestly tell you, the thought of a three-, four-,   five-year process was overwhelming to me. That went through my   mind, night after night after night,” she said. “When I hit the airport here in Tulsa, Grace was in one arm. Nicky was in the  other arm. It finally felt real.”

What is confusing is the caption under the photo at this new article discussing that Baney “and her husband” want to adopt her. Say what? Her other child was being watched by a cousin, so where does this husband come in? How can only one married person adopt(if you aren’t Angelina Jolie, of course, who adopted as a single person while married to Billy Bob Thornton)

Struggle to adopt girl suddenly eases

[The Oklahoman 6/3/12 by Wayne Greene]

 

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update 3: Nancy Baney is suing her agency, which is named for the first time that we could find in the media-Lighthouse Adoptions, Inc. in Michigan. See their website here.

“Pakistan authorities charged an American with child trafficking because her Michigan adoption agency failed to fully investigate its partner program, she claims in court.

Nancy Baney says that she contacted Lighthouse Adoptions in October 2008 about adopting a child from Russia. After experiencing significant delays, however, Lighthouse president Lorien Wenger allegedly “recommended a new country program for the adoption of children from Pakistan.”

Baney says she was “hesitant because she had strong heart ties to Russia after having adopted her son from that country.”

“Defendant Wenger told plaintiff that she had been ‘working for a year’ to develop a Pakistani adoption program,” the complaint in Washtenaw County Circuit Court continues.

“Defendant Wenger told plaintiff that she had partnered with a Non-Governmental Organization in Pakistan for Christian adoptions.      “Wenger also promise to forward pictures of recent referrals who had been placed through the partner program she was using.”

Baney says that Wenger repeatedly spoke of her research on and comfort with the Global Adoption Services.

The adoption worker also allegedly detailed how a Swiss couple had successfully used the same program in Pakistan.

After Wenger offered Baney the chance to adopt a 1-month-old baby in 2009, Baney says she wired over $14,000 for the adoption and spent a nearly month in Pakistan as one of the first families for the Pakistan pilot program, according to the complaint.

“Plaintiff was to spend the time in Pakistan bonding with her baby daughter and visiting the birth city and to complete an IR-4 adoption immigration visa to bring baby Marina back to the United States,” the complaint states.

“On or about October 12, 2009, plaintiff was awarded a permanent guardianship for Marina by the Pakistan court.

“Two days later, on October 14, 2009, the US Embassy denied plaintiff’s application for an IR-4 adoption immigration visa for Marina. The denial was based on an I-604 investigation that confirmed that two (2) of Marina’s identity documents were forgeries.

“The US Embassy also confirmed for the plaintiff that Global Adoption Services [Pakistan] was a front for a large child trafficking ring located in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Faisalabad was the city of Marina’s birth.”

Ultimately, the complaint says “Marina was taken from plaintiff’s arms while plaintiff sat at gunpoint by the Pakistani Federal Investigative Agency,” according to the complaint. “Marina was placed in an orphanage while her mother, the plaintiff was investigated for child trafficking.”

Baney says that she was “heartbroken, scared and terrified by the experience in Pakistan. She feared for her life and the life of her daughter who she would not adopt.”

U.S. immigration authorities later cited the unresolved custody case when it rejected Baney’s petition to classify an orphan as an immediate relative, according to the complaint.

Lighthouse Adoptions and Wenger allegedly “became acquainted with Global Adoption Services and [its director] Sadeem Shargeel through unsolicited e-mails that he sent … offering his services.”

Baney says they “failed to perform a substantial part of the bargain by not investigating the in-country representatives who would receive the money for the adoption.”

The woman seeks compensatory and exemplary damages for breach of contract and fraud. She is represented by Joni Fixel in Okemos.”

Agency Blamed for Pakistan Adoption Failure

[Courthouse News 10/2/12 by Kevin Koeninger]

Pound Pup Legacy has information on Global Adoption Services Pakistan/Sardeem Shargeel (not to be confused with Joyce Sterkel of Ranch for Kids’ Global Adoption Services). See here and here.

Update 4: Another story that doesn’t ask any hard-hitting questions about the adoptive parent’s role or the referral of a 10 day old baby. According to Nancy, her court date for the adoption is scheduled for January or February 2013. Since Marina is here on Humanitarian Parole, the adoption must be approved in order for her to remain in the US.

“When Nancy Baney arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad on October 14^th, 2009, she thought she was there for a routine meeting to finalize the adoption of a Pakistani baby, Marina Grace.

Instead, police officers took Marina away and arrested the owner of the local adoption agency that had brought Nancy and the three-month-old girl together.

As it turned out, Marina’s birth certificate and her mother’s death certificate had been forged by the agency, Global Adoption Services. Police accused the man who ran it, Sadeem Shargeel, of child trafficking.

“I was stunned,” says Baney. “Here I am, a normal, middle-class person from Oklahoma. I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket in the last 15 years, and now I’m thrown into this very serious child trafficking situation.”

According to Pakistani law, only orphans and legally abandoned children can be adopted or, technically, taken under the guardianship of new parents, since Islamic law does not recognize full adoption. But Marina’s birth parents — members of Pakistan’s Christian minority — were alive and it’s not clear if they gave her up legally.

“They told me I had 30 minutes with Marina,” says Nancy, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “That’s when I crumbled. I fell to my knees and cried . . . I fed her a bottle and changed her diaper and I rocked her to sleep. Then a woman took her out of my arms and took her away.”

Nancy says embassy staff hustled her onto a plane to America before Pakistan could issue a warrant for her arrest too. It was the last time she would see Marina for nearly two years.

The wild west of adoption

Not many Pakistani children are adopted by Americans — only 404 in the last 15 years — but Marina’s case reveals wider problems in parts of the adoption industry where fly-by-night operators can take advantage of trusting parents.

One of the biggest problems is Pakistan hasn’t yet signed the Hague Convention, a global treaty that regulates inter-country adoption. That means American parents are on their own when they try to adopt Pakistani children.

Under the Hague Convention, says Irene Steffas, a lawyer from Georgia who specializes in international adoption, foreign countries must provide parents with the information they need to conduct a legal adoption.

“With Hague adoption,” Steffas explains, “there is a point person, a bureaucrat, who can tell you, ‘What is the law? Is this legal?’ That’s a big advantage: accountability, knowing who to go to. The process is more rigorous. When you’re dealing with a non-Hague country, it’s not as clear.”

And a lack of accountability can be dangerous in countries like Pakistan where child trafficking is a “serious problem,” according to Izmiat Ahmed, who works for the Pakistani children’s charity SPARC. Ahmed says that parents sometimes sell their children to strangers because they need money, and the government hasn’t done a good job of combating the problem.

An under-regulated industry?

When Nancy decided to adopt in 2008, she turned to Lighthouse Adoptions, a small agency in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Friends spoke highly of Lighthouse. In the adoption world, that’s pretty much the best reference you can get.

“It’s not like there’s a ‘better business bureau,’” Nancy explains. “An agency can be great one year and then within a few months something catastrophic can happen and the adopted parent might not know that.”

Nancy had adopted her first child, Nicholas, from Russia in 2004. But Lorien Wenger, Lighthouse’s owner, suggested Pakistan would be less expensive and more straightforward than Russia, where tensions with the U.S. over adoption were running high. Lighthouse had no boots-on-the-ground in Pakistan, so Lorien told Nancy she would have to work with a local agency or “facilitator.”

That turned out to be Sadeem Shargeel.

“Lighthouse absolutely did its due diligence, the same due diligence I’ve done on our Russian programs,” Lorien explains. “What would have happened if I had traveled to Pakistan and met Sadeem? Would I have been able to tell his faults just by meeting him? Would you? Absolutely not.”

But a State Department official not authorized to talk on the record says agencies should “meet [their facilitators] and run an in-person check. Ideally, they should have someone on the ground who can monitor their activities . . . If there is no monitoring, that’s when things can quickly get out of hand.”

Nancy is now suing Lighthouse for failing to properly vet Sadeem.

The potential dangers of non-Hague adoption aren’t a niche issue. Last year, over 4,000 children were adopted from Ethiopia, Russia, South Korea and Ukraine, the most popular non-Hague destinations for American parents. Congress is currently considering a bipartisan bill that would compel agencies working in non-Hague countries to gain Hague accreditation through the State Department.

In a statement to Latitude News, Sen. John Kerry, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, called the legislation a “common sense reform that improves the integrity of the international adoption process.”

Irene Steffas, the adoption lawyer, isn’t so sure. “Going through the process of accreditation is an excellent thing,” she says. “But do I think that in and of itself [this bill] will prevent fraud internationally? No.”

Lorien has since eliminated her Pakistani adoption program.

A long flight home

After Nancy returned to the U.S. without the daughter she had been promised, it took several months for Pakistani authorities to clear her of involvement in child trafficking.

In the meantime, the police had placed Marina in an orphanage in Islamabad.

Nancy, who is Christian, says she never gave up hope of being reunited: “My faith told me, this is a child that needs you. She needs somebody to advocate for her. And you can’t just leave her behind. I didn’t know where she would take me, but I said, ‘Okay, God, you’ve called me for a reason.

In January 2011, she returned to Islamabad.

“Marina was extremely malnourished, very sick,” Nancy remembers. “She had a 104 degree temperature . . .and horrible scarring on her legs, so bad I thought she had been burned.”

It turned out to be scabies. Doctors also diagnosed Marina with hydrocephalus, a dangerous condition that causes swelling of the brain. Nancy, desperate to get Marina better medical care in America, received legal guardianship from a Pakistani court on January 19^th.

Meanwhile, after 12 months on trial for child trafficking, Sadeem Shargeel was released without being convicted — even though his agency, Global Adoption Services, had forged Marina’s documentation. In an e-mail to Lorien Wenger, Sadeem said an associate fabricated the paperwork without his knowledge.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigative Agency, the country’s equivalent of the FBI, had arrested Sadeem and brought the charges against him. But Naveed Tareen, Deputy Director of the FIA, tells Latitude News that a court found Marina’s birth parents “willingly handed over Marina to Sadeem without any monetary benefits.”

On the Internet, Sadeem still claims  to run an adoption service and an orphanage for Christian children in Faisalabad (in Pakistan, non-Muslims are not allowed to adopt Muslim children). He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Barred from the U.S.

Once she became Marina’s legal guardian in January, 2011, Nancy assumed her long nightmare was over. Coming home would be easy.

It was anything but.

First it took 18 hearings for a Pakistani court to amend Marina’s guardianship order to the satisfaction of American immigration law. Then the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) denied Marina permission to immigrate to America. Nancy’s appeal of that decision was rejected too.

“Dealing with the U.S. government was a test of perseverance,” Nancy says. “I learned a lot about our government and it scares me as an American citizen because they can really tie you up for no reason.”

The USCIS does not comment on individual cases. But a USCIS document obtained by Latitude News suggests the U.S. was not satisfied that Marina met the legal definition of an orphan. The agency ruled that “a relinquishment or release by the parents . . . for a specific adoption does not constitute abandonment” under American law.

In other words, USCIS was worried that Marina’s parents had given her directly to Nancy instead of first placing her in an orphanage, as required by law. Nancy says she hired a team of Pakistani barristers to make sure Marina’s parents legally vacated their parental rights.

“I was not in it to take a child away from their parents,” Nancy says. “They gave Marina up to the orphanage.”

While all this was going on, Nancy came back to America just once, visiting her son for Christmas. She also lost her job in Tulsa, having spent a total of 16 months in Pakistan. Nancy’s mother and cousin took care of Nicholas in her absence. She and her son Skyped twice a day, but it wasn’t easy on the boy, who turns 10 in December.

“I had a really hard time being away from him,” Nancy says, “but for him it was even worse. So much worse. The physical absence of a parent is huge on a young child.”

Back in Islamabad, Nancy despaired. Pakistan was happy to let Marina leave — but the U.S. didn’t want to take her.

Marina’s last chance

Then, in September 2011, one of Nancy’s American lawyers recommended applying for a “humanitarian parole” on medical grounds for Marina. According to the USCIS, humanitarian paroles are “for use in emergency situations and allow temporary residence here for someone who wouldn’t normally be admitted to the U.S.”

This April, the application was approved. On May 21^st, Nancy and Marina finally came home to Tulsa. Now Nancy is applying to adopt Marina officially. She expects to have a court date in January or February.

“Out of all us,” Nancy says, “she’s doing the best, just being a happy little toddler. After we got her healthy, she flourished.”

If the court denies the adoption request, Marina — who’s now three years old — will have to leave the country.

Nancy isn’t worried.

“I know we’re only half-way there,” she says, “but I’d do anything for Marina. She’s my daughter.””

American mother caught in Pakistani child trafficking nightmare

[Latitude News 11/30/12 by Nicholas Nehamas]