Agency fetes families created by adoption

BANGOR – Three-month-old Kayin sat contentedly on his mother’s lap trying to fit his fist into his mouth, with mixed results.

Adopted a month earlier by John and Kelly Jaksa, Kayin is everything the Veazie couple had been hoping for in the 21/2 years since they first looked to adoption to start their family. It has been an emotional roller-coaster ride, to put it mildly, but one worth the wait and persistence, the new mother acknowledged Saturday at an annual reunion held at the Good Samaritan Agency to celebrate families brought together through adoption.

The Jaksas had been close to adopting a child before, only to have potential adoptions fall through. Anticipation turned to letdowns. Told on Sept. 4 of a healthy baby boy in Texas looking for a home, the Jaksas kept in contact with the baby’s foster family and flew out to Texas to pick up Kayin, although they feared that this too would fall through.

“We didn’t believe this was going to happen,” she said.

When Kayin was brought out to his new parents, the baby boy appeared hungry, made plain by his strong vocal cords. Feeling overwhelmed, the Jaksas say it wasn’t until they reached a relative’s home in Round Rock, Texas, that they began bonding with their new son. Now Kayin feels like a natural part of their family.

“Now that we have him, it feels like we’ve always known him, that he’s always been ours,” Kelly Jaksa said.

Kayin was the youngest adoptee at the gathering that included children who are now teen-agers. Each year the Good Samaritan Agency is responsible for 10 to 20 adoptions. It also reviews some prospective parents for the state, said Debbie A. Giguere, the agency’s executive director.

The agency has been around for nearly 100 years, and since 1907 it has matched parents with children from within Maine, from other states and even other countries. Adopting from outside the country tends to be more expensive, an estimated $18,000 compared to $5,000 for adopting within the United States, Giguere said.

Foreign countries have their own requirements that may include having the prospective parents visit the country, both as a way to assess the parents and in the hopes that they will pass along that culture to the adopted children who will reside in America.

Gary Inman, 46, and wife Lesley Rowse, 48, of Albany Township near Bethel became frustrated in their attempts to adopt American children. They were in their 40s, which raised concerns with some adoption officials, Inman said. And they had concerns of their own, including the fact that mothers giving up their children have three days after birth in which they can choose to keep the child. Inman said a birth mother-to-be began asking them to cover not only the costs of the childbirth, but also back rent and utility bills.

In 1997, they adopted their first daughter, Caili, now 5 years old, after spending about two weeks in China with other prospective parents learning about the culture. They returned two years ago to adopt their second daughter, Ani, who is now 3 years old.

In China, Inman said, residents often would stop them to check on the babies, making sure that they were sufficiently protected from the weather. In the face of language barriers, the residents resorted to a thumbs up to indicate their approval.

Regardless of what country they represented, Saturday’s reunion was a day for families to come together and update friends on what is happening in their lives.

Howard and Tracie Samiya returned again this year, along with 3-year-old Jacob. In the year that has passed since the last reunion, the Samiyas have moved from Presque Isle to Bangor, closer to family members who reside in Bangor, Veazie and Ellsworth.

Jacob has become more active, curious and ever interested in police officers, firefighters and trains. As the family sits at a table eating cake, Howard Samiya convinces Jacob to open his mouth for a bite of cake by saying “choo-choo.”

“Our world pretty much revolves around him,” Jacob’s dad said. It’s a role they gladly accept and one that may become increasingly significant in light of what is going on in the world. Jacob’s dad is in the Maine Air National Guard and has been called up for duty. At 3, Jacob doesn’t understand the complexities or consequences of Sept. 11 and the U.S. response, but he knows that his dad is working nights at the Guard base and not at his regular job.

Tracie Samiya said Jacob has seen footage of the burning World Trade Center towers, and while he doesn’t understand it all, he knows he’s sad.