Mother & daughters work for the abandon babies left behind

Star Beacon (Ashtabula, OH)

Ashtabula County native setting up home for orphans in Guatemala

Author: CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com

WILLIAMSFIELD TOWNSHIP - If it were not for the bright patches of fabric imprinted with dynamic patterns, the hum of the sewing machine, the thought of shivering babies in Guatemala, winter would pass slowly on the Charles and

farm.

However, for Lucile, who turns 85 this week, January and February have gone by in a blur of color and furious activity. In that time, she has cut and sewn more than six dozen quilts destined for

, an orphanage in Guatemala.

The orphanage is the work of her daughter,

of Strongsville, who 18 years ago founded European Adoption Consultants (EAC), also located in Strongsville. Margaret, a 1965 Pymatuning Valley High School graduate, founded the agency after losing her 6-week-old daughter, Alicia, to sudden infant death syndrome and having the heartbreaking experience of being scammed while trying to adopt a child from Romania. Lucile says she still recalls Margaret walking into their farmhouse and announcing that she was going to start her own adoption agency and do it the right way.

The agency she founded has matched more than 7,000 youngsters from around the world with U.S. families. However the volume of adoptions has dropped 50 percent as a result of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, or simply "The Hague."

The complex agreement was developed to protect all parties involved in the adoption process. Participating countries must create or designate a central authority that will implement the regulations in that nation. In the United States, the U.S. Department of State is the U.S. central authority.

Margaret says the Hague has transformed adoption from being a mostly private transaction to one that is scrutinized and funneled through governments. Adoption times have been stretched out, more visits are required, and the cost has increased by 15 to 30 percent as a result of the additional travel and stays required. An intercountry adoption can cost as much as a sport utility vehicle, says Lucile.

The convention has made intercountry adoptions so complex, many agency directors shuttered their operations.

"They are telling me it's not fun anymore," she says. "The Hague made everything so complicated and expensive, only big agencies can do this now," Margaret says.

In her own agency, she has had to reduce staff to bring EAC's operation in line with the decreased number of adoptions. The agency also is branching into new ventures to deal with the implications of the Hague. For example, if a nation is in the process of implementing the Hague regulations, children cannot be adopted from that nation by citizens of a Hague-compliant country.

Margaret says the last day for initiating adoptions out of Guatemala, which has yet to implement the Hague, was Dec. 31, 2007. Without the option of intercountry adoption, babies and young children are piling up in the Central American nation with nowhere to go. Crunched by the recession, many of the orphanages have been forced to close.

"There are very few institutions there, and the ones that were there are closing," Margaret says.

She says babies are being abandoned because mothers simply don't earn enough to feed and clothe them. Newspapers carry stories of babies being abandoned at churches and in the streets. Some abandoned babies fall victim to dogs that roam the cities. Families live in the city dump and make money recycling plastic and metals out of the trash.

Aware of the tragedy unfolding in Guatemala, Margaret's clients are reaching out financially to help those children left behind. A donation of $30,000 got the ball rolling on an orphanage that will be licensed for 50 babies and toddlers. Margaret has been making monthly trips to Guatemala to lease a building, hire staff, purchase and set up furniture, and obtain the licenses. The orphanage is near Guatemala City but in the mountains, where nights can be cold. There is no heat in the building, so Margaret has been purchasing portable heaters and soliciting donations of warm sleepwear, coats, mittens, hats and blankets.

That's where Lucile's passion comes into play. A quilt rescuer, Lucile has at least 100 quilts that started out as abandoned tops and blocks that needed the finishing touch. In the process of finishing these quilts, she has accumulated a large stack of fabric.

"I sew all the time, and (the odd pieces) are all different sizes," she says.

Caption:

CARL E. FEATHER / Star Beacon

LUCILE COLE of Williamsfield Township is flanked by daughters

(left) and Margaret Cole as she holds a few of the 72 quilts Lucile made for the cribs and beds of an orphanage Margaret is starting in Guatemala. Margaret, founder of European Adoption Consultants, started the orphanage after the country closed adoptions to U.S. families.