Adoption Offers Are Coming in for Abandoned Girl

Neither the mother nor relatives of a newborn baby girl who was abandoned in the bed of a pickup truck Sunday have come forward to claim her, but dozens of people have flooded the Social Services Agency with calls--in vain at this point--seeking to adopt the child.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the agency had received more than 30 calls inquiring about the infant, said Mike McMichael, the agency’s program manager for child placement services. Anaheim Memorial Hospital, where the baby was taken after her rescue Sunday, also received a dozen calls, officials there said.

The infant was inside a plastic garbage bag in the bed of a truck parked underground at a building in the 500 block of Center Street. She was only 1 to 2 hours old when she was found by two people who heard her crying.

Officials attributed much of the interest in the child to published reports of her abandonment. They said that although the interest is heartwarming, the baby is not available for adoption. In accordance with state law, the Social Services Agency will first try to reunite her either with her mother or with other family members.

To that end, the agency petitioned Juvenile Court to be allowed to release the baby’s photograph for publication, hoping a picture of her might inspire someone to claim her.

“We’ve had abandoned babies where the natural mother came forward or who was identified by relatives--[they were] the classic cases of a teenage daughter or niece living with people who didn’t even know she was pregnant” and who abandoned the baby out of fear, he said.

In such a case, either grandparents or other relatives may care for the baby, Social Services Agency Director Larry Leaman said, while the mother is provided with counseling and parenting services for up to 18 months in preparation of the baby being returned to her.

If criminal circumstances are involved, the district attorney’s office decides whether to prosecute.

If no one comes forward to claim her, the baby abandoned Sunday will become one of about 250 children in the county who are available for adoption.

Although many of those children live with caretakers interested in providing them a permanent home, the county still has a shortage of adults willing to adopt older children, because most people want an infant, Leaman said.

“There is not a shortage of adoptive parents for newborn babies, and in a way with incidents like this, you get this false hope for other children because of the outpouring of people who want to adopt that child,” Leaman said.

“But then they find out that we have a waiting list of people and that they have to go through the bureaucratic process and they fall by the wayside.”

The baby remained in good condition Tuesday at Anaheim Memorial Hospital, said hospital spokesman, Chris Van Gorder.

The girl, who weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces at birth, was treated for hypothermia. The hospital is now awaiting the return of routine lab tests before transferring her to Orangewood Children’s Home, the county’s emergency shelter for abused, severely neglected or abandoned children, Van Gorder said.

“She’s an adorable little girl and she’s either been asleep or in the arms of one of our nurses who walks around with her, trying to replace the bonding she should be getting from her mother,” he said.