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Members Adopting More Than Policy

Keller, Amy. Roll Call; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]29 Nov 2001: 1.

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"I think one of the purposes of the adoption coalition is to try to broaden the understanding -to bring to the American families' attention that there are these children that are waiting and eager to be adopted," explains Rep. Anne Northup (R-Ky.), a mother of two adopted children who are now grown, and a chairwoman of the coalition.

No one knows that better than Rich Masters, communications director for [Mary Landrieu]. Masters openly acknowledges that the addition of his 4-year-old son, Tema, to his family would never have occurred if it weren't for his boss.

[Kerry Marks Hasenbalg] had received a videotape from a contact in Kazakstan who worked in the international adoption arena. Such videos usually only contain images of available babies, but this particular tape included a segment featuring 4-year-old Temirlan, or Tema, as his parents call him.








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Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) gushes when he talks about his daughter - and it's no wonder.

At 27, Kara Delahunt is an undeniably attractive, athletic, intelligent, poised and successful young woman.

With a master's degree in Spanish and German from Middlebury College and a good job with a D.C. public-relations firm, she's the type of "kid" most parents only dream about having -and Delahunt knows it.

In one breath the Congressman proudly boasts how last month he ran the annual Marine Corps Marathon - or at least the last five miles of it, he admits with a chuckle -with Kara, an avid runner.

Seconds later, the 60-year-old Democrat, who represents the coastal region of Massachusetts' South Shore and Cape Cod, just as excitedly recalls the first time he laid eyes on his daughter.

"She was 4 months old at the time and there she was, this ragged little orphan that wasn't really very appealing," a grinning Delahunt recalls.

Born in Vietnam during the tail end of the war, Kara was delivered to the Delahunts by airplane in April 1975 in what was known as "Operation Babylift." Orchestrated by the U.S. government, the widely publicized effort involved the evacuation of 2,000 orphans from the war-ravaged country by the Department of Defense during the fall of Saigon.

Delahunt was serving as Boston's metropolitan district attorney at the time when he and his wife - who already had one biological daughter - decided to adopt Kara.

More than two decades later, Delahunt still gets choked up when he describes the anxiety he felt the day that the rosy-cheeked baby he'd only seen in a photograph left Vietnam to join his family.

"We turned the news on ... and what was leading the news was that the first plane carrying several hundred orphans had crashed, and half of them had been killed," Delahunt explains. "So for a period of some three hours, our lives were just suspended in disbelief."

At long last, the phone call they were waiting for came, and the Delahunts learned that Kara had been on a second plane and was safe and sound.

"Some 25 years later, here I am," Delahunt says, sighing, as he describes how blessed he's been.

"I always commend or recommend adoption to folks. It's such a reward you cannot adequately describe to people - you have to experience it.

"There's a clich about how children who are adopted are born in our heart, and that's really the truth," Delahunt adds.

Opening Their Hearts and Homes

In Congress more than a dozen other lawmakers have experienced the joy that Delahunt described by becoming adoptive parents.

Although no official statistics are available, a Roll Call tally found at least 17 current lawmakers who have adopted children, with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) being the latest to join the crowd of proud parents.

"There are a number of Members of Congress who have adopted," explains Kerry Marks Hasenbalg, the executive director of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. "We've tried to gather that list forever, but a lot [of Members] aren't very public about it."

For months they had kept it a secret, but in May, Hutchison and her husband, Ray, finally revealed that they had adopted a baby girl named Katherine Bailey. More recently, the couple adopted a 3-month- old baby boy they named Houston Taylor.

Among those who Hutchison, 58, sought advice from before adopting her children was Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), herself an adoptive mother of two.

In 1992, while she was serving as Louisiana's state treasurer, Landrieu and her husband, Frank Snellings - an attorney who himself was adopted from Ireland - adopted their first child, a son named Connor.

The couple adopted again shortly after Landrieu won her Senate seat in 1996 in the midst of a Senate inquiry into alleged voter fraud in that election. Although the Senate Rules and Administration Committee eventually dropped the matter, Landrieu wasn't about to let political wranglings slow her down when she was told a baby girl was available in Baton Rouge.

Mary Shannon is now 4; Connor is 9. And the family of four is enjoying living in their Capitol Hill home as Landrieu gears up for her first re-election contest in 2002.

Like Delahunt, a number of other lawmakers have adopted children overseas.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) has two adopted children from Korea.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) adopted a 2-year-old named Mark from Guatemala in 1999 and six months later welcomed a baby girl from China, Jennifer Joy, to the family. The Brownbacks, who have not said much publicly about the adoptions, also have three other children.

And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his wife, Cindy, adopted their 9-year-old daughter, Bridget, after Cindy found her in Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when she was just 10 weeks old.

"She has a cleft palate ... and the nuns persuaded me to bring her home, and Idid," Cindy McCain explained to NBC's Tim Russert during an interview last year.

"Literally on board the flight home from Bangkok to Los Angeles, not having spoken to my husband, Idecided Icouldn't let her go. ... She chose me," McCain's wife continued. "I came home and presented my husband with a new daughter that he didn't know he had."

"She got off the plane and I walked up and there she has this little baby, and she says, 'Say hello to your new daughter,'" Sen. McCain recalled in the same interview. "I said, 'Thanks for this long consultative process we've been through here.'"

Other lawmakers have gone through the adoption process, but under completely different circumstances - whether it be marriage or tragedy.

For instance, Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), who serves as a co- chairman of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, adopted his three stepchildren.

Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.) had three children of her own, but then adopted her six nieces and nephew after her sister died of breast cancer.

From Parenting to Policy

No matter what led them to adopt, lawmakers who've gone down that road seem to emerge changed, not just as people but also as lawmakers.

Craig, aides said, works "tirelessly behind the scenes" on adoption-related issues - not because he had a bad experience adopting, but, in fact, because he had such a positive one.

"The process was fairly smooth," a Craig spokeswoman explained, "because the mother of the children was his wife and their biological father approved."

Having heard so many nightmarish stories of difficult and costly adoptions filled with red tape, Craig has vowed to do what he can to make the procedure easier and better for all Americans.

The Congressional Coalition on Adoption - which has 162 members, many of them adoptive parents - is just one means by which Craig and others are trying to fulfill that mission.

Each year the group sponsors an "Angels in Adoption" program whereby Members of Congress can honor the "unsung heroes" of adoption in their own states and districts. Selected by lawmakers, those individuals are invited to Washington, D.C., and recognized at an awards banquet, although this year's gala, which had been scheduled for Sept. 11, had to be canceled at the last minute because of the terrorist attacks.

"They're making such an incredible impact," Hasenbalg says of the Members involved with the group. "They're making an impact domestically and internationally through legislation and through meetings. They're actually giving time in their schedules to people who are making a difference to children at home and abroad."

"I think one of the purposes of the adoption coalition is to try to broaden the understanding -to bring to the American families' attention that there are these children that are waiting and eager to be adopted," explains Rep. Anne Northup (R-Ky.), a mother of two adopted children who are now grown, and a chairwoman of the coalition.

Northup notes that while many of the members of the coalition are adoptive parents, many are also individuals who've "through their extended family seen how much adoption means."

"Beyond that there is a broad understanding that every child needs a home. They need somebody who knows what they like for dinner, who knows that spelling is hard for them. ... Day in and day out, year in and year out, that's something that only adoption can bring for many children," she explains.

Adoption was more of a secretive process when Northup and her husband, Woody, adopted their two children years ago.

"It was expensive and somewhat cumbersome legally,"she recalls. "No one told you how long it would take or what stage of the process you were in.

"I think we're hoping that public policy has addressed that issue," Northup continues.

Indeed, there have been some small legislative steps and even some milestones in recent years to facilitate adoptions.

Most recently, the 107th Congress passed the adoption tax credit, which increases the credit from $5,000($6,000 for children with special needs) to $10,000 for families who adopt. It also raises the income eligibility from $75,000 to $150,000.

And last year the Adoption and Safe Families Act gave financial incentives to states to increase the number of adoptions of children waiting in the foster care system.

The Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000, championed by many lawmakers and members of the coalition, granted the State Department authority to oversee the protection of children and families involved in the international adoption process.

And no one cheered louder than Rep.Delahunt when the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 went into effect, giving children born overseas and adopted by U.S. citizens automatic citizenship.

Delahunt, the main House sponsor of the legislation, said he still remembers the sting he felt when Kara was little and he tried to take her with the rest of his family to visit his in-laws in Germany.

"Kara couldn't go because she didn't have a passport, and I remember saying, 'This is just wrong,'" Delahunt recalls. "She was my daughter, but the fact that she wasn't automatically a citizen diminished her. I remember saying if I ever should have the opportunity to change this, I would."

Twenty-odd years later, he did.

Setting Examples

Lawmakers who've adopted children aren't just influencing legislation - they're also influencing others to open their homes and hearts to orphans.

"They've made a difference significantly in legislation, but they also make a difference in public awareness," remarks Hasenbalg.

No one knows that better than Rich Masters, communications director for Landrieu. Masters openly acknowledges that the addition of his 4-year-old son, Tema, to his family would never have occurred if it weren't for his boss.

"It really happened because I work for Landrieu," Masters says as he excitedly relates the story of how he became a father for the first time.

In fact, Hasenbalg - who at that point was working as a Congressional fellow on Landrieu's staff specializing in adoption issues - played an important part in his story as well.

Hasenbalg had received a videotape from a contact in Kazakstan who worked in the international adoption arena. Such videos usually only contain images of available babies, but this particular tape included a segment featuring 4-year-old Temirlan, or Tema, as his parents call him.

It seems that Tema had made such a fuss at the orphanage (known as a "child house" in Kazakstan) that his caretakers relented and taped him hosting an imaginary tea party with his dolls and teddy bears.

Hasenbalg's contact sent her the tape on the off chance that someone in America might see it and decide to make room in his or her home for the imaginative and loving youngster.

"They didn't know where to send it because no one was requesting 4- year-olds from Kazakstan," Masters says, explaining that it was by "sheer luck that it ended up in my office."

"I was going about my business and I walked in and thought this was the cutest child I'd seen in my life, so we called and put a hold on him, went and picked him up," Masters explains so casually that one might think he was talking about buying a new couch.

These days Tema attends preschool on Capitol Hill and is adjusting well to his new life and home, but Masters admits there were a few tense moments in the beginning.

In particular, he remembers how helpless he and his wife, Mary, felt when they brought Tema back to their apartment after knowing him for only two weeks and he realized he'd never see his friends and caretakers from the child house again.

Distraught, Tema began to wail and cry out for his caretakers. The couple tried their best to soothe their new young son, but nothing - neither toys nor talking - seemed to help.

Nothing, that is, until Rich went to the bathroom.

"I went and used the rest room and flushed the toilet, and he stopped crying," the media liaison recalls, laughing. "He had never seen a toilet before, and I showed him how to do it. We did that for an hour."

From Kazakstan to Moscow and beyond, off the new family went, flushing toilets all the way.

"All over Europe you flush toilets different ways. You push buttons, you pull chains,' Masters recounts. "He didn't know much English. He'd look at me say, 'Papa, flush!,' and he'd pull the chain and laugh out loud."

Tema was especially impressed when they landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, where the toilets flush automatically.

"He said, 'Papa, flush!,' and I said 'Son, you don't have to worry about that,' and the automatic flush went off," Masters recalls.

"America!" Tema proclaimed in delight.


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Copyright Roll Call Inc. Nov 29, 2001















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