Couple tell of joy after four-year struggle to secure adoption

LORNA and Sean Fleming will never forget the moment they first held their Vietnamese adopted child Kiana-ha in their arms.

"It was June 18 last year, exactly 27 hours to the minute after we arrived in Vietnam," said Lorna yesterday.

"It was not until July 3 she was made officially ours but the moment we laid eyes on her, we both knew that there was no taking her back," she said.

Lorna, 29, and her husband, Sean, 32, who live in Castletownroche, near Mallow, Co Cork, had been trying to adopt a child for over four years. They knew from the experience of others adopting a child in Ireland was near impossible.

"Sean and I always wanted a family and it didn't matter to either of us whether we had kids of our own or adopted. We had tried in Ireland but there were no babies available so we did not waste time contacting the Southern Health Board," said Lorna.

At first, the Flemings tried to adopt a Chinese child, but that proved more difficult.

"We had all the paperwork to adopt a child in China but, in the end, they told me I was too young. The minimum age in China is 30 and at the time I was only 27. That was a big blow to us," said Lorna, who works for Sanmina-FCI electronics company in Fermoy.

Nevertheless, they pressed on and sent the paperwork at the Department of Justice to adopt a child in Vietnam one of a dozen countries whose adoption procedures are automatically given legal force in Ireland.

"Our first referral was for a 10-week-old baby on May 1 but that fell through and nearly broke our hearts," said Lorna. Both she and Sean, who is employed by Ronan Farms piggery in Glenville, had arranged to take time off from work and were anxious to finalise matters.

The only trouble they had with Kiana-ha was when they tried to get her a passport in the capital, Hanoi. "We had put her on formula milk and she had put on so much weight the authorities thought it was another baby."

Now, over a year on, baby and parents are doing well.

"I know that I could not love Kiana-ha any more if I had given birth to her myself," said Lorna.

The International Adoption Association's fourth National Conference on Intercountry Adoption is at the Sheldon Park Hotel, Kylemore Road, Dublin from 10am4.30pm tomorrow. It will also celebrate International Adoption Day tomorrow.

This year's National Conference: Adoption; Before and After, organised by the IAA, aims to assist and support people considering an adoption from abroad.

The conference will be addressed by Brian Lenihan, Minister for State with responsibility for Children. Further information is available at www.iaaireland.com