Family Struggles to Bring Its Children Home

Chronicle, The (Centralia, WA)

Two 9-month-old children smile at William and Bonnie Pittman through photographs. The dark-eyed children, one with a rosy smile and one with a more reserved demeanor, are the newest members of the Centralia family.

But it's kind of hard to hold a baby that's nearly 3,000 miles away. Though the Pittmans have legally adopted the two, a snarled legal system forced them to leave their children behind, and to hope they may soon bring them home.

"It's heartbreaking," Bonnie Pittman said.

THE PITTMANS RETURNED to Lewis County Jan. 21 after spending about a month in Guatemala City, Guatemala. William Pittman owns Pittman Insurance Agency in Winlock and Bonnie Pittman is a stay-at-home mother who home-schools some of the six children living in their home right now. The Pittmans have 10 biological children and three adopted children. They have also been foster parents for about 25 years.

"It's probably what we were meant to do. We've always worked with kids," William Pittman said.

THE COUPLE STARTED working on adding to the family about one year ago with international adoption agency,

, which specializes in Guatemalan adoptions. Bonnie Pittman said their original intent had been to adopt twins. Then they heard about a little boy and girl of about the same age who were available for adoption.

"They were going to be the caboose on our family," Bonnie Pittman said.

They journeyed to Guatemala City on Christmas day of 2006 to meet the then 8-month-old children they have named Joseph and Natalie. The children had been living in two different foster homes prior to the adoption.

"We picked them up the first night and had a meeting with the embassy set for the next day, which we were told was just a formality," William Pittman said. "We expected to get their visas the next day. It usually works for everyone else, but it didn't for us."

The first visa application for their children was turned down, they later learned, because of an error in filling out the forms. The second go-round, they followed the instructions closely and were sure the issue would quickly be resolved. They soon found their visa applications had been referred for additional processing.

Through the office of U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., they heard the additional processing has something to do with the Homeland Security Act and may regard one of the co-sponsors on their adoption papers. The Pittmans are both veterans, and have children in the U.S. Army, Coast Guard, Air Force and Air Force Academy. They said they assumed their family's service to the nation would indicate their intentions are true.

"You don't anticipate having problems with the government saying 'We don't like your kids,' or at least they don't want them in the state," William Pittman said.

The Pittmans had originally expected to be in Guatemala five days and ended up staying four weeks.

WILLIAM PITTMAN spent hours each day at the American Embassy in Guatemala reading and re-reading rules, filing paperwork and asking questions. He said he vividly remembers the long lines outside the embassy where people spent hours just trying to get inside the building. Between their second and third week, Bonnie Pittman said, they recognized they may be at loggerheads with the government.

"The embassy kept telling us no," she said. "It didn't matter what William did, they would not give us the visas, and they would not even give us a guarantee we could actually get them."

The Pittmans then made the heart-rending decision that they needed to return to the United States for now and leave their children behind. Before doing so, they had to seek the assistance of a Guatemalan attorney. Because the adoption was already legal, they could have been charged with child abandonment if they left their children there, even if under the care of someone they had chosen.

"That made us feel really sad," Bonnie Pittman said. "That is the last thing I could imagine us being charged with. We're foster parents, and we would never abandon any of our children."

AFTER CLEARING THEMSELVES to legally leave their children, the Pittmans found a foster family through a missionary contact in Guatemala City. The missionary had asked some church friends to pray for an American couple having difficulty obtaining visas for their children.

"One couple said they were willing to do more than just pray about it, and they volunteered to (be foster parents)," William Pittman said.

"I can't imagine doing that here," Bonnie Pittman said. "Sight unseen, 'Let's help out these foreigners and take on the care of two babies.'"

The next day, the Pittmans spent a lot of time with the couple: going to their church; visiting their home; and getting to know them. They said they quickly felt in their hearts it was the correct match. They took Joseph and Natalie to the couple's home and said goodbye, though they did not know for how long.

"It took us several days to get out of country, but we didn't go back, because you can't go through that more than once," William Pittman said.

The Pittmans are now back home and waiting. They said they are in constant contact with Baird's office, which is serving as an intermediary for them. They are also in contact via e-mail with their children's foster parents. Bonnie Pittman said she finds it almost ironic that they, as foster parents, are now in the position of paying for foster care for their own children. Though there is no guarantee, the couple said they continue to be hopeful they will get the call that brings their babies home.

"I go to bed praying it will happen. The kids pray for it. This morning at the breakfast table, we had a devotion, and they mentioned praying to get the babies here," Bonnie Pittman said.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, the Pittmans said they brought back with them a newfound closeness in their marriage, and a renewed commitment to rearing their children the best they can. They were also impressed with the concern of the many people surrounding them in Guatemala, from church members who rallied around them to the employees of the hotel, and also people they saw every day on the street who constantly asked about their plight.

"The thing that really kept us from being totally devastated was that as people learned about this, they prayed for us," William Pittman said.