Villa Hope places older children from Peru with American families

Birmingham News (AL)

Author: JEFF HANSEN News staff writer jhansen@bhamnews.com

In the past 20 years,

has been in a building bombed by Shining Path Maoist guerrillas in Peru. ''All the window glass blew in,'' she says.

She has been tear-gassed in Ecuador when she walked though a protest. ''I needed to keep an appointment at the orphanage,'' she said. ''Unfortunately, they lobbed tear gas as I crossed.''

And she has made more than 120 trips abroad trying to connect adoptive parents in the U.S. with orphaned or abandoned children in other countries.

One group of children in Peru holds a special place in her heart, and in the heart of her adopted daughter, Anne.

Pat, international program director for the Villa Hope International Adoption agency, and Anne Baldwin, executive director of Villa Hope, call these children ''the angels that wait.''

In Peru there are 410 children waiting - and wanting - to be adopted by families, said Villa Hope volunteer Jennifer Evans.

These are not the babies that adoptive parents usually look for. The Peruvian children include 67 sibling groups (170 children), 75 adolescents and 10 other children older than 5. The rest are children with various medical or developmental needs.

''There is one 5-year-old little girl who prays every night for a family,'' Evans said. ''It breaks my heart to think of this little girl waiting for a home.''

That girl needs heart surgery, said Anne Baldwin. ''I've been trying to find a home for her for years.''

Peru is a good country for adoption, the Baldwins say.

A lot of the children have been in a family sometime in their lives, so they know how to bond. Peru has psychology and social workers who go into the orphanages, and the nation - under the guidance of the National Secretary of Adoptions and the Department of the Woman and Social Development - is careful about where it places children. All the non-orphaned children are legally abandoned, and so are officially considered orphans.

Prospective adoptive parents have to spend five weeks in Peru, with daily visits to the adoptive children. The social worker won't approve the adoption unless she sees bonding and attachment.

A number of other waiting angels have found homes in the U.S., and they seem to do quite well, the Baldwins said.

The adoptions include five siblings, ages 10 to 17, who were adopted by a Texas couple in 2003, and three older sisters adopted by an Illinois couple who already had three younger biological sons.

Early next year a young Colorado couple who had been missionaries expect to adopt five children, ages 2 to 10, whom they met in Peru.

Pat Baldwin follows the Peruvian children for four years after adoption. ''It's really amazing that these groups of children have turned out as well as they have,'' she said.

Families do face some challenges, said Anne. The children will be behind in schooling, behind in emotional development and will need to learn English.

''They're usually at least a grade behind,'' she said.

One family years back worried about their young adopted son, said Anne. ''All he wanted to do was play soccer, but that's pretty typical of a Peruvian boy. Now he is a pre-med student in college.''

Waiting angels who don't get adopted face a tough future.

''They will just age out,'' said Pat. ''At 18 they probably just end up on the street. If it's a good orphanage, it may try to help make a transition into a trade.''

A Peruvian adoption will cost an Alabama couple between $22,000 and $28,000, said Anne, which includes the trip, attorney's fees and immigration. That price range is the same whether one or several children are adopted.

A federal income tax credit is available to offset some of that expense.

Villa Hope is a nonprofit, fully accredited and state-licensed child-placing agency, and was the first licensed ''international adoption'' agency in Alabama.

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For more information, call Villa Hope in Birmingham at 870-7359 or toll-free 866-261-7359.