Maine couple’s adoption final News ends monthslong attempt to bring baby home from Cambodia

WESTBROOK – A Westbrook couple say they are on their way home from Cambodia with the baby girl they have worked for months to adopt from an orphanage.

Greg and Kim Sferes told relatives in Maine that U.S. immigration officials have decided they can bring home the baby girl from the Southeast Asian country. The Sfereses have been in Cambodia for nearly four months trying to bring home their adopted daughter, Sorya.

Jeanette Sferes of Cumberland said she received a late-night call Friday from her son, Greg, saying immigration officials had changed their stance and would let them come home with Sorya.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service earlier had denied visas for Sorya and 11 other Cambodian children who were being adopted. Officials would not allow the children into the United States while they investigated reports that they may have been stolen from their birth parents.

“I am very happy,” Jeanette Sferes said after hearing the news that her son and his family will be coming home. “It will be the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”

The plight of the Sfereses and other couples has brought a whirlwind of publicity.

At first, U.S. immigration officials in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, denied Sorya a visa, citing faulty paperwork related to her birth records. Later, the INS came under attack after it wasn’t able to provide evidence of wrongdoing.

U.S. Sen. William Delahunt of Massachusetts, an advocate of international adoptions, appeared on ABC’s “20/20” Wednesday to plead the case of the Sfereses and other adoptive parents.

Delahunt said the U.S. investigation of adoptions was inadequate and that adoptive parents are being victimized by their own government.

“These are lawfully completed adoptions,” said Steven Schwadron, Delahunt’s chief of staff. “If there is no evidence of wrongdoing, then let the adoptions proceed.”

Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins also worked on the issue, writing letters and staying in contact with U.S. Embassy officials and the Sfereses’ attorney.

The Sfereses have spent about $30,000 during their stay in Cambodia, in addition to the $15,000 they spent on adoption fees.