CAMARILLO : Congressman Gets Visit From Big Supporter

Three-year-old Alyssa Suffern of Camarillo took a tour of the nation’s Capitol in Washington on Tuesday. But she was less impressed by the imposing dome than she was by the knowledge that she was seeing the place “where Elton works.”

“Elton” is Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who helped George and Shirley Suffern rescue Alyssa from an orphanage in her native Romania more than two years ago.

Shirley Suffern, in a phone interview from Gallegly’s Washington office, said it wasn’t until Alyssa saw the congressman that she knew where she was.

“We see Elton every other week in California,” Suffern said. “But it wasn’t until she saw him that she said, ‘Now we are in Washington.’ ”

The relationship between the Sufferns and Gallegly began in early 1991, when the Camarillo couple decided to adopt a Romanian child after seeing television reports about the plight of infants abandoned in orphanages there.

The Sufferns traveled to Tigru Mures in the mountains of Transylvania, where they found 7-month-old Alyssa in her bed, bound as the rest of the orphans were so they would remain still. Her legs were “like two noodles” and she wouldn’t make eye contact, the Sufferns said.

But after they legally adopted the child through Romanian courts, they ran into trouble with U.S. immigration laws.

“They met all the laws, they crossed the ‘t’s’ and dotted the ‘i’s,” Gallegly said.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service changed the regulations while the Sufferns were there. That left them stranded, desperate to get their malnourished child home to Camarillo.

Gallegly intervened with U.S. officials on their behalf, helping to cut the red tape that allowed Alyssa and 52 adopted Romanian children into the United States.

“From a strictly personal thing, nothing has given me more personal satisfaction. I’m like a doting grandfather,” Gallegly said of the unique relationship he has with his young constituent. “She’s just a special little angel and the Sufferns are remarkable human beings.”

For the Sufferns, however, the going has not been easy. George Suffern lost his job while waiting in Romania to get Alyssa to the United States. An attempt to start his own business “didn’t work out,” his wife said.

“But she’s brought us so much joy,” Shirley Suffern said. “She keeps things in perspective. George looks at her every day and says this was the greatest idea we ever had.”