Want to send this page or a link to a friend? Click on mail at the top of this window.

More Special Reports
Posted August 18, 2006
                
Return to related text
nytlogo.gif (3067 bytes)
  
ny times logo national.gif (579 bytes)
              
graphics ad.gif (46862 bytes)
                     

adopt 2.jpg (65093 bytes)

Mark Schiefelbein for The New York Times
Race was a secondary adoption factor; Maggie Mebruer's parents say.
                   

adopt 3.jpg (76190 bytes)

Mark Schiefelbein for The New York Times
The Mebruers did not explicitly set out to adopt a black child.
                             

adopt 4.jpg (55682 bytes)

Mark Schiefelbein for The New York Times
Emily Mebruer, a family doctor, said a judge's ruling that she and her husband were "uniquely unqualified" to parent a black child felt like "an indictment of us and our community.
                     

adopt 5.bmp (878454 bytes)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Mark Schiefelbein for The New York Times
Maggie Mbruer dances to the Australian children's group the Wiggles at the family's home in rural Labanon, MO.
                     

adopt 6.jpg (77980 bytes)

Sally Ryan for The New York Times
Martina Brockway, Mike Timble and Rumeur, 3. The couple is hoping to adopt a black child.
                             

adopt 7.jpg (69319 bytes)

Sally Ryan for The New York Times
Rumeur, the couple's bioligical daughter, is accumulating black dolls and black-themed children books in preparation for her new brother or sister.
       

adopt 8.bmp (437454 bytes)

Sally Ryan for The New York Times
The Liebel and Hilliard families adopted children from the same birth parents through the Cradle, Chicago agency that gives transracial adoptive parents extensive counseling.
                                

adopt 9.jpg (76855 bytes)

Sally Ryan for The New York Times
Lauryn Hilliard, Mtthew Liebel and Drayden Hilliard III are slibings beinb raised that way in two households by Katherine Liebel, rear; Matthew Liebel, on sofa, and Drayden Hilliard II and his wife.
                                
adopt 10.jpg (91363 bytes)

Sally Ryan for The New York Times
The two families have become friends and are raising the children as slibings, and getting them together about once a month.
                    

Reprinted from The New York Times, National, of Thursday, August 17, 2006.

                               
Wehaitians.com, the scholarly journal of democracy and human rights
More from wehaitians.com
Main / Columns / Books And Arts / Miscellaneous