Southern Baptist vs. Chinese Parents Adoption Case

[AmericaInWonderland]

Sorry if you guys have heard this one but it really pisses me off:

The case is now in the Tenessee Supreme Court. The Bakers using their money and power have managed to drag it out for 5 years. Can the Elian Gonzalez case be used as a precedent?

link: http://www.isthisamerica.com/details.htm

This story has many beginnings, but perhaps the most important occurred on January 28, 1999 when Anna Mae He was born. Her entry into this world was less than ideal from a medical standpoint as she was premature due to stress her mother endured when she was assaulted. However, she was welcomed with open arms by her parents, Jack and Casey He. The Hes were ecstatic to be blessed with a beautiful baby girl, but their hearts were heavy with financial concerns. With Anna Mae's difficult birth their situation was now even more desperate because of the sick little girl and a weakened mother.

Jack He had been a candidate for a doctorate at the University of Memphis when he was falsely accused of attempted sexual assault - an accusation that he courageously denied even after lawyer after lawyer dropped his case because he insisted on a jury trial. The University of Memphis, without apparent due process, revoked his full scholarship and his research assistant stipend, which essentially left him without an income and without a student visa. They eventually issued a suspension through a social discipline committee that put his dreams on indefinite hold and left him struggling as he fought the false charge.

Jack's criminal case took many strange turns, went through 3 prosecutors and he was eventually acquitted for lack of evidence 4 years later. During this time he was required to stay in the US and found work doing various jobs at Chinese restaurants. He was able to secure pro bono criminal and immigration lawyers to help him navigate the complex nature of his situation and to help him wade through the morass that is the American legal system for the average person. He eventually brought a new wife, Casey, from China to live with him in Memphis and their little family was on its way.

Anna Mae, bright spot as she was in her parents' eyes, was born into this confusion of 2 people from a foreign land trying to get back on the fast track to success they had once been on and had so violently and unfairly been removed from. Despite their work ethic and optimism, the reality of the Hes' situation was that they had a sick baby on their hands and her mother was weakened by the birth as well. The imminently resourceful Jack went to Juvenile Court to see what assistance he could get with his child, an amazing decision from someone from whom the American system was still fairly new.

At Juvenile Court, Jack was told that arrangements could be made for someone to care for their child while Casey got better and while he tried to stabilize his income. Trusting and desperate, they agreed that this might be a wise, temporary solution to their current problem. Jack & Casey were directed to Diane Chunn & Mid-South Christian Services, a private adoption and foster care agency whose role it is to counsel birth parents on their options and to help arrange foster care and adoption situations. Mid-South introduced them to Jerry & Louise Baker, a couple who had previously registered as foster care parents and who, according to a Juvenile Court officer, had expressed to Chunn (but denied by her) the desire to eventually adopt. The Hes and the Bakers entered into a 90-day foster care agreement, the maximum amount of time the Mid-South is allowed to participate in such an agreement.

Those first 90 days were fairly uneventful with Jack & Casey visiting and taking pictures. Perhaps the most important picture taken of Anna Mae was that of her passport photo, a picture that the Hes asked the Bakers to arrange so that at the end of the 90 days they could send her to China to live with relatives while they got their lives back together. Through press comments and their own testimony it is clear that the Bakers thought this common Chinese practice was abhorrent, with Mr. Baker calling it "callous". The Bakers convinced the Hes that they could continue their previous arrangement rather than send their daughter to China for a little while by entering into a temporary custody agreement. They promised the world, including health insurance, every American child's holy grail. It is important to note that Mid-South Christian Services helped arrange this using their own lawyer, Kevin Weaver, despite the fact that their involvement should have ended at the 90-day limit. Kevin Weaver would show up 2 days later representing the Bakers in the exact same proceedings that he had counseled the Hes about. It was revealed in testimony that Kevin Weaver failed to inform the Hes about many of the most important implications of such an order, including the 2 main points of law now being claimed by the Bakers: 4 months of willful abandonment and failure to pay child support.

...

The Hes walked this fine line with the Bakers for a while, trying to dodge their efforts to keep them at bay. In November 1999, Jack and Casey decided they weren't comfortable with the Bakers' actions and Jack approached Mr. Baker to thank him for caring for Anna, offered to pay them back and told him that they wanted their child back now. Mr. Baker refused and warned Jack not to mention it to the then pregnant Mrs. Baker because he could cause her to have a miscarriage. Naturally unnerved by this warning, Jack did not know what to do as the relationship continued to deteriorate through the spring of the next year.

In May of 2000 they were able to file a petition in court to have Anna Mae returned. Mr. Weaver, the same attorney who had counseled them on entering into the agreement and who had failed to fully advise them, showed up in court representing the Bakers. The hearing lasted all of 10 minutes with no interpreters for Casey who doesn't speak English and only 2 or 3 questions to Jack. The judge refused to allow Casey He to speak and quickly dismissed the case. They continued their weekly visits under much strain

On January 28, 2001, Anna Mae's second birthday, Jack and Casey kept their appointment with the Bakers to visit with Anna and to take her to a nearby portrait studio to have a family picture taken. However, upon arriving the Bakers claimed she was sick, needed to see a doctor and couldn't go with them. The Bakers had never bothered to call Jack & Casey and they were upset when they were given yet another excuse. They were especially upset that the picture could not be taken because family studio pictures are considered a special event. The Hes got understandably upset and the Bakers called the Police.

Another link on the mindset of these far-right wackos:
http://www.isthisamerica.com/blog/blog.htm

"Racism has metastasized within Southern Baptist life...Rickshaw Rally' represents yet another example of the moral blindness that insults a racial group and seeks to make a profit off of prejudice. ... Southern Baptists cannot address racism with easily forgotten resolutions while playing the race card to generate revenue." Robert Parham, editor of EthicsDaily.com and a frequent critic of Southern Baptist initiatives.

...

The Bakers have spoken over and over about their supposed Chrisitan values and how they're doing "God's work". It's important to note that the Bakers are Southern Baptists - a far-right, extremist, fundamentalist version of the mainline Baptist denomination most Americans grew up knowing (this writer grew-up in a mainstream Baptist church). The Southern Baptists have an acknowledged history of Racism; it was, in fact, a main reason for it's existence back in the day. Racism is so ingrained that in 1995 the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) actually had to issue a resolution about it. Anytime you have to issue a resolution, you've got a problem. Scary, to say the least.

Just to remind everyone, the Southern Baptists are the ones who believe that a woman should "submit herself graciously" to her husband. They also don't think that women should be pastors or deacons - it's man's work, remember. I think this is the most ironic part about the Bakers' backward argument about women in China. I'd rather be a woman in China than a Chinese girl living in an almost all-white, strict Southern Baptist life in Memphis any day of the week. As a Chinese girl living the Southern Baptist life Anna Mae can expect not only gender, but race discrimination as well. We could start accepting donations for her myriad therapy sessions now and the bill would still be astronomical.

more...

<do these guys look in the mirror before they speak?>

[shekina]

1. that's sad

really, it is. But not all southern baptists are discriminatory. I should know, I was raised in that environment. I only hope that this girl is accepted and loved by her peers, or else the "Christian" community will turn yet another person off to us.

[NewJeffCT]

2. sad tale

My wife is from China and it is almost routine among Chinese that retired relatives (usually grandmparents) will watch the baby while the parents concentrate on work full time. And, that is parents with an S at the end - many Chinese women wouldn't think of giving up their career to stay at home with the baby.

My mother-in-law is retired and speaks only a few words of English, yet dropped everything in her life, including her husband, oldest daughter and grandson (all of whom stayed in China) to come live with us for almost a year to help us raise our daughter after she was born. Thank goodness we had the Phoenix channel on satellite and were able to get a weekly Chinese language newspaper.

[mainer]

3. It pisses me off, too

They have stolen that baby from its parents, who never -- NEVER -- intended to give her up. Money and whiteness seems to trump parental rights.