Family Victory : Hard-Won Pact Assuring Medical Care, Adoption for Little Girl Hailed as Triumph for All Foster Children

Life for Tim and Lesly Bird has never really been normal, at least not in the decade since they moved to Orange County and began caring for foster children.

In all, more than 100 children have lived in their Yorba Linda home; two were eventually adopted by the Birds. But it has been their hope to adopt a third foster child, brown-eyed Brianna, that has kept the Birds in the news for the better part of three years.

This week, a monthslong stalemate among the state and Orange County officials and the Birds was resolved in Sacramento, finally giving the Birds the opportunity to formally adopt Brianna. The hard-won pact was hailed as “a victory” for all foster children in California.

Lesly Bird was in Sacramento this week to testify on behalf of a bill by Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) that called for the state to pay for Brianna’s medical costs after she is adopted. While she remained in foster care, the county was obligated to pay her $27,000 in monthly medical bills.

The agreement was announced before the mother returned to Orange County.

“We can now actually adopt her,” Lesly Bird said Thursday. “The bureaucratic nightmare feels like it will be over soon and we can be a normal family.”

The bill, in its original form, called for the state to assume all the costs for Brianna, and other foster children like her, once they are formally adopted. However, the state Department of Social Services had steadfastly opposed the plan.

Under the agreement, Brianna’s medical costs will be paid by state, county and federal funds. The key to the agreement was a portion directing counties throughout the state to waive administrative costs and pass all Medi-Cal funds to an adoptive child’s nurses and other aides.

“What this does is allow foster parents in these circumstances to go forward and adopt these children that they are caring for with the knowledge that the funding the child needs will be continued,” Royce said Thursday in Sacramento.

The amended bill, which was passed originally in the Senate in June, was approved unanimously by the Assembly Human Services Committee on Wednesday night and sent to the Ways and Means Committee. It is expected to sail through the Legislature by the end of this month.

Steve Bailey, the lobbyist for the state Department of Social Services, said the Health and Welfare Agency’s opposition was withdrawn after the focus was shifted to Medi-Cal and away from the state’s adoption assistance program.

“Everyone wanted to get to the point where this thing would work out,” Bailey said.

Born Prematurely

Brianna Bird, who will be 5 in December, was born three months prematurely and weighed only 3 pounds. The little girl, who has lived with the Bird’s since she was 3 months old, must be fed intravenously and hooked to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day.

The Birds have been trying to adopt her since early 1986, when a court permanently ended her natural mother’s parental rights. But the adoption was delayed while the Birds and county officials tried to negotiate for the state to assume Brianna’s medical costs.

William G. Steiner, executive director of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, who helped draft Royce’s legislation, said Thursday that the agreement had concluded “an exhausting process.”

“It’s a real victory for foster kids,” Steiner said.

Although the long battle has ended, Lesly Bird said Thursday that the family will continue as advocates for foster children’s rights. All told, the Birds have three natural children, two adoptive children and two grandchildren--plus Brianna.

Opens Door for Others

“I’m just glad this is almost over. And I’m glad that this will help other people . . . that it will open the door for other families to adopt (seriously ill foster children),” Lesly Bird said.

As Brianna squealed in the background shortly after Lesly returned Thursday from Sacramento, the mother was already thinking ahead to the other children she plans to nurture in her home.

“I’ve been thinking that after Christmas, we will take in some teen-aged foster children,” she said. “But I don’t think we will be taking in any more babies.”

Tim Bird said that he was relieved that one last important hurdle has been cleared to finally adopt Brianna. But he said his enthusiasm was “tempered” by the experience of three years of bureaucratic frustrations.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy. But when I see the governor sign this bill, then I will be a true believer,” he said.

Royce has said that he expects Gov. George Deukmejian to sign the bill and Tim Bird said he hoped that the governor would affix his signature publicly with Brianna in attendance.

“After all this, I think she deserves to be there,” he said.