Lack of reform costly for adoptive parents
Lack of reform costly for adoptive parents

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By Paula Burkes

Published: April 2, 2008

Oklahoma lawmakers this week missed a chance to help reform the state's adoption practices, which observers agree are often questionable and sometimes illegal.

House members last month unanimously passed a bill which would require full disclosure of adoption-related costs and expenses. But the measure — to the dismay of state adoption advocates — went unheard in the Senate Judiciary Committee, never making it to the Senate floor.

Advocate Crystal Drwenski, for one, is more than disappointed. Eight years ago, Drwenski had a daughter, whose adoptive parents were surprised to be charged $30,000, including numerous hours Drwenski spent talking with a caseworker and had no idea were billable to the parents.

A simple act of financial disclosure could have shed light on that and other issues, she said. "Oklahoma has a track record for lax adoption laws,” Drwenski said. "We're known nationally as a state that, for the right price, you can get an adoption facilitated.”

House Bill 3055, authored by Rep. Susan Winchester, R-Oklahoma City, would have mandated that a full written disclosure statement be provided to birth parents and adoptive parents, whose signatures would be required acknowledging understanding.

"Such a measure would protect the integrity of adoptions, preventing child trafficking and also adoptive families from being taken advantage of,” said Deirdre McCool, president of the Oklahoma Adoption Coalition.

A state grand jury in July 2006 criticized Oklahoma County adoption judges for permitting just that. They found some attorneys had, on behalf of adoptive parents, been allowed basically to buy babies, by paying birth mothers in cars, vacations and other hidden expenses.

Costs of domestic newborn adoptions in Oklahoma County averaged $26,838 in 2006, compared with less than $20,000 nationwide.

Senate co-floor leader Charles Laster, D-Shawnee, said there were some problems with the disclosure bill that needed further study. Laster wouldn't cite what the problems were.

However, he said the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to hear House Bill 2749 some time in the next three weeks. That measure, which the House already has passed, calls for a task force to review the state adoption law and code and make recommended changes.

"The idea (of adoption reform) isn't dead,” Laster said. "We just want to address it more comprehensively, and more thoughtfully, in a task force.”

Reform can't come fast enough for adoptive dad Randle Lee of The State Chamber of Oklahoma. Lee and his wife lost about $35,000 on failed adoptions with two separate Oklahoma County law firms. They're in their fifth year of litigation with one firm over fees involved, including buying a car for a birth mother and Wal-Mart gift cards that were used to buy cigarettes and beer rather than food. The birth mother is serving a prison term for child trafficking.

"Parents sometimes are so desirous to have a family they agree to anything they feel may help move the process along,” Lee said.

He and his wife eventually opted for an international adoption through the China program of The Gladney Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Their daughter, Zoe, is now 4½, Lee said. "She'll tell you she's 4½, with emphasis on "and a half,” Lee said proudly.

In the past several years, Chinese adoptions have become much more restricted, Lee, president of the Oklahoma Gladney Family Foundation, said. Adoptions have slowed down in Guatemala and all but stopped in eastern Europe.

"So, going international now is almost as cumbersome as a domestic adoption,” he said.

Related Topics: Culture and Lifestyle, Family, Adoption