Date: Fri 08-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Watts-Romania-adoption

Full Text:

The Watts Family Gets The Season's Best Gift From Romania

(with cuts)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

The Watts family got their best gift ever for Christmas, an infant from

Romania whom they named Gabriela.

Eric Watts, 31, the youngest son of Bill and Evie Watts of Hattertown Road,

and his wife, Michelle, 25, brought Gabriela to Newtown from their home south

of Burlington, Vt., for the holidays. Eric and Michelle, accompanied by Evie,

had been to Romania just a few weeks earlier to adopt the infant.

"Everyone in church was amazed at how beautiful she is and how alert," Evie

Watts said after the family took Gabriela to the Newtown Congregational Church

for Christmas services.

It was a happy ending to a story which began when Eric and Michelle met in

1993 in Vermont, where both were working in a restaurant. Eric had graduated

from Newtown High School in 1985 and studied restaurant management at SUNY

Cobbleskill and the University of New Haven. In 1989, he moved to Vermont to

work as a sous chef at a restaurant in Bristol.

Several years later, at another restaurant, he met Michelle, who was a working

as hostess there while she was completing her studies at Trinity College.

Michelle graduated from Trinity with a combined degree in early childhood and

elementary education and psychology, did her student teaching in a

kindergarten, and currently works in child care with toddlers.

Eric works for Federal Express and as a pastry chef at The Ice House

restaurant in Burlington, Vt. They were married on October 12, 1996, by the

Rev Steve Gordon of the Newtown Congregational Church.

When Eric and Michelle later began exploring the possibility of adopting a

child, Michelle's mother put them in contact with a friend who operates

Nobody's Children, an organization in Windham, N.H., that provides medical

care, clothing, toys, and other supplies for children in Romanian orphanages.

"She sent us to an agency, Adoptive Families For Children, Inc, in Keene,

N.H.," Michelle said. "It was their first Romanian adoption. The agency had

only handled domestic adoptions to this point and was just starting overseas."

By the end of May Eric and Michelle had filed all the required paperwork with

the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) office in Keene. They were

fingerprinted for a Federal Bureau of Investigation background check and a

social worker visited them to do a home study.

"Once we had done all that, the agency matched us with a child," Eric said.

"When we found out about [Gabriela], she was four months old."

The Legal Process

Next began the extensive paperwork required by the Romanian government.

"We had to get copies of everything -- our birth and marriage certificates,

bank records, passports, employment, education -- for the Romanian courts,"

Michelle explained. "Then there were three steps: We had to get clearance for

the adoption in Craiova, where she was in an orphanage. Then we had to apply

to the Romanian commission, then get a court date for the adoption. The date

was set for November 5."

The Wattses were represented in court by two lawyers, an adoption agent and a

social worker. Once the approval was given, the Watts' had 20 days to travel

to Romania, see the infant and decide whether to accept her for adoption.

"Of course we accepted her -- we had accepted her before we ever saw her,"

Eric said.

Evie Watts went to Romania with her son and daughter-in-law to get Gabriela,

who was now almost eight months old.

They left on a flight from Boston at 7 pm on November 26, had a four-hour

layover in Zurich, and arrived in Bucharest at 4 pm the next day. The

following morning, after a four-hour car ride to Craiova, they arrived at the

orphanage.

"The staff at the orphanage really likes to prepare the baby -- to put her in

the clothing you bring -- before you see her," Michelle said. "But one little

boy -- he was about three or four -- was so excited that he pushed Gabriela

out in a stroller before they had a chance to do it."

The orphanage held about 350 children whose ranged in age from newborns to

three-year-olds. Approximately half were available for adoption; the others

had been placed in the orphanage for custodial care because their parents

could not afford to keep them.

"There isn't any welfare," Michelle said. "But as long as a parent visits the

child at least once every six months in the orphanage, the child isn't

available for adoption."

There was one adult caregiver for each 20 infants and toddlers at the

orphanage, a ratio which doesn't allow for a lot of individual attention.

Gabriela was in a small room that held six cribs.

"A lot of the cribs had two babies per crib which I thought was awful at

first, but later I decided the companionship was probably beneficial," Evie

said.

But the lack of stimulation probably was the cause of the slight developmental

delay that Gabriela had when she was adopted.

"She doesn't crawl yet and has a hard time sitting on her own [unsupported],"

Michelle said. "When we first got her she didn't even know how to hold a

rattle -- she played with her hands and feet because that was all she had. But

she learned to eat from a spoon in one day."

Many Orphan Children

Before the Wattses left for Romania, they were warned that crime and violence

were rampant in the eastern European country located on the Black Sea north of

Turkey.

"I was sure I'd get bopped on the head, raped, and robbed," Evie Watts said.

"But I never felt threatened. It was clean, safe, and the people were

friendly."

But visiting Romania was like taking a trip back in time 100 years, she said.

"Bucharest is a city, but they didn't plow the side streets. When you get out

into the countryside, the little farming villages still have community water

wells. It is not unusual to see oxcarts filled with firewood or a wagon with

people going to market.

"The largest grocery store I saw in Bucharest was the size of the old A&P in

Newtown. But the food was wonderful, especially the desserts. In the city

there's a bakery on every corner, and another in between."

It was cold in Romania when they visited so the Wattses saw few of the orphan

children who live on the streets beg from passersby and eat from garbage cans.

"They sleep in sewers and subway tunnels," Evie Watts said. "These children

are now having babies -- that is why there are so many orphans."

Gabriela was abandoned at birth at a hospital, possibly by one of these

children. She spent the first six weeks at the hospital, then was sent to the

orphanage.

Once the Wattses had completed the Romanian paperwork, they went to the US

embassy in Budapest to apply for a visa and a green card for Gabriela.

"Because she was adopted by Americans, she got priority over other applicants

for immigration," Eric said.

The adoption agent that the Wattses worked with in Romania said she had

handled 32 American adoptions in 1998. The agency does ten interviews a day

for visas, Evie Watts said.

"Everyone was so happy that this baby was getting a home," she said.

On December 8, the Wattses packed up to come home. They had purchased some

gifts, including a very tasty wurst -- smoked sausage -- for Bill Watts.

"We had to go through immigration when we landed," Evie said. "I hadn't said

anything about the wurst. Suddenly we saw two dogs, one of which was sniffing

for drugs. The other was a beagle that was wearing a special jacket that said

`I am the official agricultural sniffer.'

"Of course, he was pointing at my suitcase so Bill never got his wurst."