Adopted children fight for documents: Utah couple won't give up proof of kids' identities
kippah...@hotmail.com
Adopted children fight for documents
Utah couple won't give up proof of kids' identities
By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
11/10/2008
Salvation Meauli, who now lives in American Samoa, says her adoptive
parents in Utah have refused to provide the documentation she and her
brother need to prove their identities and get passports. Meauli says
they are unable to leave the island. Found starving in a Romanian
orphanage, Salvation Meauli and her brother were brought to Utah as
babies - the first of several children adopted by Scott and Karen
Banks.
But at age 9, Meauli and her brother were sent to live in American
Samoa. The Bankses cited problems including failure to bond.
"I was actually excited and felt free for the first time in a long
time," Meauli, now 18, said of the move. "I am finally surrounded by
people who love and adore me for who I am."
Yet Meauli says the Bankses, charged in an unrelated matter with
arranging fraudulent adoptions of Samoan children, have refused to
provide documentation she and her brother need to prove their
identities and begin their adult lives.
With no birth certificates or adoption papers, the siblings are
unable to get driver licenses or passports. Although Meauli wants to
attend Brigham Young University-Hawaii, without a Social Security
number she can't even fill out an application.
"Right now we only want our passports done so that we can travel
and finally be normal," Meauli said. "I have not left this island ever
since I set foot on it."
Attempts to contact Scott and Karen Banks through their attorneys
for comment were unsuccessful.
The couple's history with Meauli became public at a 1st District
Court trial in February over whether they or another couple should get
custody of a 4-year-old girl from China. The Bankses, who already had
eight children - two biological, three adopted from Romania and three
adopted from Russia - wanted to add the child to their family.
But Curry and Mary Frances Kirkpatrick, of Overland Park, Kan.,
say they arranged to adopt the child through Focus on Children, an
agency operated by the Bankses. They say they placed her temporarily
with the couple when they needed respite care. The Bankses claim the
Kirkpatricks abandoned her.
Lawyer Steve Kuhnhausen, who represents the Kirkpatricks, argued
the Bankses' history with their adopted children - including Meauli
and her brother - made them unsuitable parents.
Meauli and her brother, named Auriel and Ethan Banks by the
Bankses, were sent to American Samoa in 2000, Kuhnhausen said. Then,
two years later, the other Romanian child the Bankses adopted, who has
cerebral palsy and is now 17, was placed in a care facility in Orem.
Scott Banks testified that the boy had become too big for Karen to
lift and help with daily living activities. He said Auriel and Ethan
had severe behavioral problems, including being abusive toward their
siblings.
At the time, the family was living in Wyoming and there were few
services available to help them with their specific problems, Banks
said. Neither Ethan nor Auriel bonded with him and his wife as they
got older, he said.
"We were naive thinking that love would take care of all
problems," Banks said.
He testified he and his wife sent them to American Samoa and
agreed to pay a friend $500 a month until they reached adulthood.
Karen Banks, who found the three Romanian orphans, testified she
has not seen or spoken to Auriel and Ethan since they left because she
didn't want to interfere with them bonding with their new family.
"They didn't have an attachment to me," she said. "They would have
walked away with anyone."
Judge Stanton Taylor granted custody of the Chinese child to the
Bankses but delayed allowing the couple to adopt the girl until the
criminal charges against them are resolved. The Kirkpatricks have
appealed that custody decision to the Utah Court of Appeals.
Cathy Cevering, a North Logan visitation supervisor who learned
about Auriel and Ethan through the 1st District case, tracked down the
two through an online search. She has spent months trying to obtain
their records for them but so far has been unable to find anything,
including a record of Auriel and Ethan's entry into the United States
or adoption papers, she said.
Meauli said Scott Banks recently e-mailed her a Social Security
number but she has never received the card itself. She and Cevering
have been unable to confirm that the number is really hers.
Meauli said she loves her American Samoan family and claims the
Bankses "never really showed real compassion towards us." She and
Ethan, who were born to different parents but whose adoption made them
siblings, are close, "like PB&J," she said.
Despite living in the Samoan culture for years, Meauli is a
typical American teen in many ways. She has a blog, loves Harry Potter
and likes hanging out with friends. With excellent grades, she's ready
to take the next step in her life.
"I want to be a vet when I grow up," she said. "I love animals so
much."
pma...@sltrib.com
Couple indicted in Samoan adoption case
A federal grand jury issued an indictment in 2007 charging Focus
on Children agency operators Karen and Scott Banks and five agency
employees with fraud and immigration violations. The indictment
alleges the defendants tricked Samoan birth parents into putting their
children up for adoption. The defendants have denied the allegations
and are free pending trial.
Salvation Meauli, who now lives in American Samoa, says her
adoptive parents in Utah refused to give the documents she and her
brother need to prove their identities.
rkb...@pacific.net.sg
kippaherr...@hotmail.com wrote:
> http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10945497
>
> Meauli said Scott Banks recently e-mailed her a Social Security
> number but she has never received the card itself. She and Cevering
> have been unable to confirm that the number is really hers.
I'm wondering why this is. It should have either her birth-name or her
adoptive name associated with it.
When we lost an SS card, it was as simple as going down to the SS
office, entering the number (which we had a copy of) and filling in a
form. The duplicate card was mailed in a week.