Two Families Fight to Adopt Abandoned Tot

When a newborn baby was found abandoned on the front seat of a car in Covina three months ago, wrapped in a beach towel with a red shoestring tying his umbilical cord, he faced a bleak future as an unwanted drug baby.

Now, Baby Doe is desperately wanted by two different families despite health problems resulting from his addiction. A foster family that has grown attached to the boy they call Daniel is trying to block the county from placing him with another couple under a new speedy adoption program.

And the child’s temporary foster mother, Joyce Simmons of Eagle Rock, went into hiding with the frail, blond infant Friday. She said she will not emerge until a Duarte couple approved for long-term foster care can obtain a court order barring the county from removing him for placement with another family who expects to adopt him.

The situation underscores the demand for newborns, especially white infants, among the hundreds of prospective adoptive families who have applied through the county system and often spend years on a waiting list.

“From the very beginning, we were led to believe by the social worker that we would be able to adopt him,” said a distraught Randy Williams, an insurance claims supervisor who with his wife, Pam, has visited the child daily. They sat at his side during a recent hospitalization, kept him in their home for a week last month and were given final approval as long-term foster parents this week. “We were encouraged to bond with him, to name him, to spend as much time with him as we could.”

The social worker, Regina Gorree of the Department of Children’s Services’ Pomona office, could not be reached late Friday.

Said Simmons: “It’s a betrayal by the system. The Williamses were told he would be coming to them. They’ve watched him grow from seven to 13 pounds, heard his first cooing and held him when he shook as he went through (drug) withdrawal these past three months.”

However, Simmons, who has taken in children on a temporary basis for 20 years and adopted three herself, was notified earlier this week by a second social worker that the child would be picked up Friday for adoptive placement with the third family.

Will Abide by Court Decision

She and the Williams family, friends of hers, say they will comply with whatever the court decides but will not give up the baby without a fight.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Catherine Tracy, chief deputy of the Department of Children’s Services, “but we have a family who’ve been waiting for nine years to adopt who are sitting on pins and needles.” The prospective adoptive family was not identified.

She discounted the argument that parent-child bonding has already occurred and said it would be unfair to families waiting their turn if her department were to bypass them and give the boy to the Williamses.

Part of the problem stems from apparent misunderstandings within the department; part of it has to do with the county’s new IDEA program (short for early identification for adoption) implemented to speed up the adoption process. Adoptions that used to take several years can now be processed in a matter of weeks.

Wait for License

But neither Simmons nor the Williamses knew about that, and Williams said he thought he couldn’t apply to adopt Daniel until he and his wife had received their foster-care license.

Tracy said she hoped the matter could be resolved over the weekend, although the situation was still at an impasse after four hours of conversations with Simmons on Friday. She said she knows the baby is safe with Simmons and that Simmons will return home eventually where “my worker is waiting to pick up the baby. I may just take two deep breaths and wait.”

Whatever the outcome, there are no clear winners in the case--except for a 3-month-old baby who will have a home where he is definitely wanted.