Madam, - As an American mother of a child I adopted two weeks before the Romanian moratorium on international adoption (June, 2001), I feel I must correct a few misleading statements in Ann McElhinney's "Letter from Bucharest" in your edition of May 7th.
Firstly, it angers me to read the presumptive statement "wealthy American families". I am not wealthy. I saved for almost three years to be able to afford to adopt my daughter, who was almost three years old the day we left Romania. The vast majority of American adoptive parents are middle-class or lower middle-class (like myself). Many of them take second mortgages on their homes (if they even own a home - I don't), borrow money from their families or take out loans to pay for the adoption expenses. Some parents have been known to hold tag sales, bake sales, wash cars and receive donations from their church members.
Secondly, my adoption expenses totalled $12,500, including all fees, fares and expenses. I am outraged that the figure of $30,000 continues to be published in news reports about "wealthy Americans".
As to the "pipeline cases" your writer refers to - those are adoptions that were in progress when the moratorium took effect. Many of those children and their parents are still in limbo and waiting to be united.
Thank God our American politicians intervene on our behalf, but most importantly, on behalf of the children. Had my adoption been delayed any longer (I waited six weeks for a perfunctory stamp on my daughter's documents after our court date), we could have been one of the "pipeline cases".
And by the way, your reporter sat on a plane and watched an adoptive father supposedly screaming into his child's face and said or did nothing? I find that incredibly disturbing too. - Yours, etc.,
LINDA ROBAK, Wilton, Connecticut, USA.