The fate of 5-month-old Baby Tamia could be decided this week if a judge rules that the child, put up for adoption in Utah, belongs with her Chicago grandmother.
Maria McDonald has sued for the infant’s return, saying Tamia’s mother was suffering from postpartum depression when she handed over her baby in early December to an adoption agency in Utah. Speaking at a Sunday church service, McDonald said she was confident that Tamia would soon be back.
“Things have just started to happen, and they’ve continued to happen,” she said. “We’re this close, this close, and I believe [she will be returned].”
Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan has intervened on McDonald’s behalf, saying in a motion last week that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which must approve all interstate adoptions before a child changes hands, had not done so in Tamia’s case.
“Everything is supposed to be done in good faith,” DCFS spokeswoman Diane Jackson said. “That was not the observation we had about [Tamia’s adoption].”
McDonald’s attorneys said they hoped the motion would end the legal fight at a Thursday hearing in Cook County Circuit Court.
“[Illinois authorities] are saying they are not going to approve the adoption, so this case should be really over right now,” attorney Robert Fioretti said. “We’re hoping that the judge will issue the order to have the baby come back.”
He said that Tamia’s mother, 20-year-old Carmen McDonald, began to explore adoption before giving birth to Tamia on Sept. 10. She saw an ad in a local newspaper and called a number that led her to A Cherished Child Adoption Agency in Sandy, Utah.
Fioretti said the agency gave Carmen McDonald a one-way plane ticket to Utah. When she arrived Dec. 3, she was running a high fever, suffering from postpartum depression and feeling stress from her grandmother’s recent death, and she changed her mind about relinquishing her daughter, the lawyer said.
“The following morning, her words were, `I’ve decided I’m not going to give up the baby … I want to go home right now,'” Fioretti said. “They said, `How do you expect to get back?’ They weren’t going to give her a ticket if she didn’t sign away [her rights to Tamia].”
Carmen McDonald didn’t tell her family about the adoption, and soon after she returned to Chicago, she took a bus to New Orleans. Once there, she had herself committed to a mental hospital, and only then did her family learn what had happed with Tamia, Fioretti said.
Tamia is now living with a Utah family, who is aware of the legal wrangling, attorneys said. Officials from A Cherished Child could not be reached for comment Sunday, and the agency’s Illinois attorney declined comment.
Utah officials have said the agency ran into regulatory problems last year for failing to inform birth parents of their rights and violating procedure for interstate adoptions.
Carmen McDonald did not attend the services Sunday at Sweet Holy Spirit Church on the South Side, where her mother and attorneys talked to the media. Although Fioretti hoped a favorable ruling Thursday would mean Tamia’s swift return to her grandmother’s custody, he said appeals might keep the child in Utah for a while.
Maria McDonald said that while her first wish was for Tamia to come back, she also wants the case to spotlight Utah’s adoption laws, which her attorneys called the most lax in the country.
