Home at last

[Times photo: Toni L. Sandys] After 40 hours of traveling, Abby James of Tampa takes a moment to relax and feed her new son Jackson as her husband, Art, bonds with Michael, 4, and Hannah, 3. After finalizing the adoptions late last year, the Jameses were unable to bring the children here from Cambodia until April. Sleeping at left is niece Emily Bosco, 2.

Open arms, empty cradles American families seeking to adopt Cambodian children endure an agonizing wait as the U.S. government tries to verify whether each child is truly eligible for adoption.

TAMPA -- Art James stood inside Tampa International Airport, a double baby stroller beside him. Every time another group of travelers got off the tram from Airside F, he craned his neck.

Where were they?

Finally he saw her: an exhausted-looking woman cradling a bundle of white, with two toddlers dancing around her feet. Art's eyes widened and suddenly he was in motion, moving toward them as fast as a man can move without running.

His wife. His new family. Home from Cambodia after a nearly 40-hour plane journey.

Abby James looked down at the children.

"Can you say hello to Daddy?" she asked, smiling.

In February, the Times visited Art and Abby James in their Davis Islands home in Tampa. Several months earlier they had become parents to three Cambodian orphans, a 6-month-old baby and his brother, 4, and sister, 3. Abby had scheduled maternity leave from her job last November, when they expected to travel to get the children.

Then the Immigration and Naturalization Service suddenly suspended all adoptions of Cambodian children by American citizens. The agency suspected that some babies being brought to the U.S. were not true orphans. Although human trafficking is a problem in several countries where Americans adopt children, this was the first time INS had shut down adoptions anywhere. Several hundred families, including some in the Tampa Bay area, were affected.

Abby James lobbied her U.S. senators and representative, e-mailed the White House, spent countless hours on the Internet, searching for solutions.

Finally, in March, under Congressional pressure, the INS began a "humanitarian initiative" to process some of the pending adoptions. Each case was investigated to make sure the children hadn't been bought or stolen from their birth mothers.

In early April, the Jameses received a call from the INS: They could go to Cambodia to get the children.

Deborah Burke of St. Petersburg also got a call, as did Kathy and Bill Torres of Plant City and Mike and Beth Burgess of Lutz. All of them, profiled in the Times story in February, traveled to Cambodia during April to pick up their children.

Now the new parents are dealing with such normal things as sleepless nights and wet diapers. All say the seven-month wait meant they missed milestones in their children's lives, but they're grateful to have them home nevertheless.

"Oh, my God, she is so worth the wait. She is an absolute joy!" exclaimed Kathy Torres about her 11-month-old daughter, Kalliyan, who started walking a week after she arrived home.

For about 200 other families, including a few in the Tampa Bay area, the wait continues.

In late April Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., held a press conference on Capitol Hill to criticize the way the INS is handling the situation.

Some children awaiting adoption have fallen ill. One, adopted by an Orlando family, developed pleurisy and had to have lung surgery. Another infant who was going to be adopted by a Sarasota family died in late December.

After about 80 parents demonstrated in early May outside the Washington, D.C., offices of INS and the Department of State, INS officials announced that they would process 110 more adoptions. In a hearing Wednesday before the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, lawmakers urged them to do it quickly.

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