The number of Bermudian children coming up for adoption is growing but expatriate couples are not eligible to adopt them - even though they may be more than ready financially and emotionally to add to their family. For those couples that elect to move forward with an adoption while living on the Island, an overseas search for a child is the natural option. Over the past decade, residents of Bermuda have adopted children from China, Cambodia, former Russian republics, Romania and other countries. Recently the Azores has also opened up to would-be parents looking overseas for a child to love. While the new parents of five-month-old Baby A asked to remain anonymous in this article, they were happy to share their story with Royal Gazette reporter Tania Theriault in the hope of encouraging others to consider adopting a child from overseas.

@EDITRULE:

Colombia is a beautiful land in terrible turmoil. The country has been under a state of emergency since early this month when guerrilla groups fired mortars at the presidential palace as new President Alvaro Uribe was being inaugurated, killing 21 people.

Violent attacks are on the increase, more than two million people are internally displaced and long-standing rebel groups show no indication of giving up their fight in the near future.

But for one small, brown-eyed girl, the troubles of her birthplace are a world away as she lies comfortably in her Devonshire home.

War-torn Colombia has one of the world's most developed overseas adoption programmes and five-month-old Baby A was placed for adoption with a couple living in Bermuda shortly after her birth. Every year some 5,000 foreign couples apply to adopt from Colombia and the state - which oversees the process - approves 2,000 applications.

Mike and Pam (not their real names) already had one child naturally when they ran into problems conceiving a second.

While the couple originally considered fertility treatments, they soon turned their hopes to adopting from abroad.

"We decided there were so many children out there who needed parents, that we should really go out and adopt one," Pam said.

The Spanish expatriate, who is married to an American, knew there were few babies available in Spain but wanted to adopt a child of similar heritage.

An intensive Internet search eventually led the couple to consider adopting from Guatemala or Colombia.

Eventually they turned away from Guatemala, however, as the adoption process is largely handled by lawyers.

"We weren't sure what their (the lawyers) motives would be," said Mike. "Whether they would just be paying women for babies."

Alternatively, in Colombia, the adoption process is overseen by state agencies.

Baby A joined their family at three months old after a year-long process of paperwork and patience.

The couple travelled to Colombia to pick up their new daughter in person and visit the orphanage where she spent her first months.

"All the people at the orphanage and the agency were fantastic," Pam said. "The orphanage itself was beautiful and they kept detailed records of when she ate and what she ate and did through the day."

Selecting an agency to help identify a child is perhaps the most difficult stage of the process of overseas adoption the couple said.

"There are thousands of agencies in the United States," Mike said.

But because the couple are not residents in the US at the moment, only a handful of agencies would consider them.

In the end, they were very pleased with their choice.

"We went through an agency in the United States who place children from all over the world," Pam said.

The couple were provided with a medical history of the baby, her mother and her mother's family.

"We didn't find out about the father because the mother did not want that information disclosed," Pam said.

A social report on the mother's reasons for giving Baby A up for adoption was also provided - the baby had been unplanned.

On the other side of the adoption equation, to qualify as adoptive parents, Mike and Pam went through a long screening process in Bermuda which started almost immediately on their decision to adopt.

The Department of Child and Family Services began offering this screening service roughly ten years ago, The Royal Gazette was told, as overseas adoptions began to grow in popularity.

"Demand for overseas adoptions was shooting up, so we decided to add it to our services," Director Glenda Edwards said.

Last year, she estimates roughly a half dozen overseas children were adopted with the help of the Department's screening service.

Potential parents pay for a trained social worker to evaluate the family and offer feedback to affiliated overseas agencies.

"We had about six home visits as part of our evaluation," Pam said. The couple were also required to obtain Police records and other government information from everywhere they had ever lived.

"Make no mistake about it, it is a long and expensive process," Ms Edwards told The Royal Gazette. She estimates adopting from overseas costs at least $15,000 and often much more. "But generally the parents who decide to undertake overseas adoptions are very committed to it. Sometimes, it is the only option they have left."

In the living room of her parents' home, Baby A is quiet and sweet with sparkling black eyes and dark hair. She watches the reporter with a seeming calm curiosity. Her parents intend to tell her she is adopted as soon as she is old enough to understand and to encourage her to explore her Colombian heritage.

"People always say we've done such a wonderful thing for her," Pam said. "The way I see it, is that she is a blessing for us. To be able to love her and have her with us. We are very grateful that it happened this way."

@EDITRULE:

In tomorrow's final installment of The Royal Gazette's adoption series, Dawnette Bell talks of her daunting decision to adopt two Bermudian boys as a single mother and tells how motherhood has its own rewards - and they are irreplaceable.