Risks, rights in adoptions at center of scrutiny

By: LIZ FREEMAN

Naples Daily News

Her joy, after years dreaming of motherhood, became agony when she discovered adoptive parents can be at the mercy of birth parents and questionable practices of adoption agencies.

The Naples woman wants nobody else to go through the nightmare that she and her husband, John, have faced since the baby they planned to adopt, Joshua, was taken back by his birth mother after three months.

To that end, the couple plan to address the Senate Judiciary Committee this week in support of revising Florida's laws regarding private adoptions in a committee bill.

"When they took Joshua, I didn't want to live any more," said the 37-year-old Terrones, who is struggling with her faith in humankind after her ordeal.

Small photographs of the infant are displayed in her East Naples living room with other family portraits.

"I used to wake up and hear him crying," she said.

Since August, Florida's law for private adoptions has been scrutinized by the judiciary committee, chaired by Sen. Fred Dudley, R-Cape Coral. Two panel discussions were held with individuals from varied backgrounds in the adoption business for coming up with recommendations to revise the law.

The bill that was drafted now has 52 amendments, which some in Tallahassee say is evidence of how emotional the adoption debate has become.

As drafted, the bill would prevent a child from being placed in a prospective adoptive home until the birth parents' rights have been legally terminated. An amendment, though, would eliminate that prohibition as long as the court approves the child's placement.

Another provision in the bill would require early disclosure by agencies and attorneys to everyone involved in an adoption about the rights and risks of each party.

The Terrones say they weren't properly advised of the risks, which typically are that a birth father is located and asserts his rights or a court finds that a mother's consent was obtained under duress.

"If adoptive parents knew what the laws were, adoptions in Florida would go down," she said. "Nobody should have to go through what we did. Nobody."

The Terrones' attorney, Cary A. Cliff, who specializes in family law, says abuses occur within the adoption system, by birth parents seeking money and by adoption agencies, but he has no proof of it.

"I know there have been allegations," the Naples-based attorney said. "We need to make the law a lot clearer," he said. "People who desperately want to adopt a child get burnt."

The Terrones have filed a lawsuit against the private adoption agency in Tampa that they used.

The agency, Adoptions By Choice Inc., failed to get full legal consent from the birth parents, failed to advise the couple of potential risks and misrepresented problems that arose with the parents' consent, according to the lawsuit filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court.

"It's purely a lawsuit based on fraud," Cliff said, adding that the adoption agency may have obtained the mother's consent under duress. A birth father may have surfaced and refused to sign away his parental rights, he said.

The agency, which represents itself as a Christian organization, has declined to disclose what circumstances arose with the birth parents, he said.

"They (the agency) simply showed up one day and took the child away with no explanation," Cliff said. "This lawsuit is to find out what happened. To this family, they suffered the death of a child."

The agency's attorney, Tampa-based Gregory Boyer, did not return phone calls from the Daily News.

Adoption their only hope

When the Terrones married in 1985, they began saving for a family. Twelve years ago, they lost a newborn boy after premature labor. After two failed pregnancies, fertility specialists told the Terrones that adoption was their only hope.

A friend gave Susan Terrones a book that listed adoption agencies around the country. She browsed the pages until one advertisement caught her eye: Adoptions By Choice Inc.

The agency described itself as a Christian agency, and to the born-again Christian couple it seemed right.

They met officials with the agency and started the adoption process, which included attending monthly meetings in Tampa with other wishful couples.

Terrones said they complied with each of the agency's requirements. She even fixed dinner for the adoption coordinator when he did their home study in the summer of 1996. The home study cost $3,300.

Afterward, the couple began waiting for the telephone call that would make them parents.

"They don't tell you when," she said. "They just call you up."

The call came Oct. 28, 1996, to her husband's workplace on Marco Island.

"It was my husband's birthday," she said. "We got in the truck. We were, like, in shock."

They went to the bank -- the balance they owed the agency was $6,900 -- and drew up a cashier's check. They dashed to Wal-Mart and bought an infant car seat.

"You're like on Cloud 9," Terrones said. "It's the most exciting day of your life."

When they arrived at the agency, they were given a bevy of documents to sign.

"The baby was crying in the background. So here we are, signing all these papers. We had to sign a paper saying we would not sue them," she said.

She remembers asking about that document but can't recollect the response from the agency official. Her future son, after all, was crying in the next room and she couldn't wait to hold him.

"They handed him to us. We just started crying. He was so beautiful," she said.

The infant was 5 days old, and they choose his name. They were told the adoption would be finalized in six or seven months.

"We thought everything was fine," she said. "We started Joshua's college fund."

Happiness comes crashing down

A few weeks later, Terrones said they got a call from the agency and were told the birth mother wanted to meet them. They thought it was a nice gesture on the mother's part.

"The first thing she said to us was, 'I want my baby back,' " Terrones said. "She said she called the agency two days after she gave him up. They told her Joshua had been adopted out already. Well, we didn't get Joshua for five days."

The couple was assured by the agency that everything would be fine and that it wasn't necessary to hire an attorney, according to the lawsuit. Terrones remembers the adoption coordinator telling her the birth mother was probably blowing off steam.

"He was saying, 'She got the wrong counseling, so just go home and enjoy your baby,' " she said.

That same adoption coordinator and Boyer, the agency's attorney, came to the Terrones' home on Jan. 27, 1997. They said they needed the baby back.

"He (the agency person) said we could wait two or three years, but we would still have to give Joshua back," she said. "What were we supposed to do? I packed his stuff up and gave him back.

At-risk placement

Three months earlier when the Terrones were first got Joshua, one document they signed was an affidavit for an "at-risk placement" of a child, according to the lawsuit. That means the agency does not have a court order documenting that the birth parents' rights have been terminated.

It's a document that agencies are required to have perspective parents sign for an at-risk placement, but the lawsuit states the agency "owed a duty to the Terrones to adequately advise them" of the risks with Joshua's placement.

"They didn't tell us she (the birth mother) could come back," Terrones said. "It's nothing but business to many of them."

The agency promised to find the couple another baby but has not, the lawsuit said.

Attempts to get their money refunded have been unsuccessful, Cliff said.

The couple filed the lawsuit in November, seeking more than $15,000 in damages and a jury trial.

"I feel like I'm being tormented," she said. "Enough is enough. We want to get on with our life. We want a baby."