A couple's adoption plans hit a regulatory brick wall

A couple's adoption plans hit a regulatory brick wall

June 09, 2008|Erika Hayasaki | Times Staff Writer

NEW YORK — The 3-year-old girl was found two years ago starving, abandoned and covered in lice in a countryside home in the northeastern European nation of Latvia.

Her name was Kristina. Her parents had abandoned her. Her grandmother, who had taken her in, had frozen to death. Latvian officials classified her as an orphan.

Soon New York residents Ilze and Laurence Earner heard about the girl. Ilze Earner is a nationally renowned child welfare advocate, and she also happened to be a distant relative of Kristina. She had occasionally wired the family money, and Latvian officials came across Earner's name and phone number on a Western Union receipt.

The Earners decided to adopt Kristina and began a two-year application process.

Last month they traveled to Latvia with their 10-year-old daughter, Maize, and Ilze's 88-year-old mother to bring Kristina home. But when they arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Latvia, they were told that international adoption laws had changed in April -- and Kristina could not be released.