An eight-year-old girl taken from an American couple and returned to her Chinese parents after a seven-year custody battle faces another big adjustment -- moving to China.
Anna Mae He (賀梅) rejoined father He Shaoqiang (賀紹強) and mother Luo Qin (羅秦) in July under orders from Tennessee's Supreme Court. She grew up with an American couple who took her in as an infant to help her financially strapped parents and then refused to give her back.
Now, with the custody fight settled, Anna's family faces deportation, and her father says it is time to head home to China.
"Next month, we're going to do the paperwork with a federal immigration judge," He said.
He Shaoqiang came to Tennessee to attend graduate school. Anna was born in 1999 with her parents facing hard times. He Shaoqiang was accused of sexual assault by a female student, a charge that cost him his scholarship and student stipend though he was ultimately acquitted.
Jerry and Louise Baker, a couple with four children of their own, were introduced to the Hes through a private foster-care organization. They volunteered to take Anna in for a few months but decided later to adopt her, even though the Hes wanted her back.
The Bakers accused the Hes of being unfit parents and argued that Anna would have a better life in the US than in China.
In 2004, a judge took away the Hes' parental rights on grounds of abandonment, a decision that drew widespread criticism as being culturally and ethnically biased.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled the Hes thought they were giving up their daughter for a short time so she could get health insurance and lost custody largely because of an ignorance of US law. It ordered the family to be reunited.
He Shaoqiang was allowed to remain in the US because of the custody fight, which began in May 2000 and ended with the high court ruling in January.
"We always wanted custody to move back to China as a family," he said.
He said an immigration decision can come anytime now.
"If deported, we might never come back again," He Shaoqiang said. "With a voluntary departure, we don't get an order. We turn ourselves in."
He said he expects to return to China by the end of February.
The Bakers won a court order five years ago barring the Hes from any contact with Anna, so she is still just getting to know her parents and siblings.
Ashok Kara, a family psychologist working with the Hes on Anna's transition, said she is warming toward her parents and gets along well with brother Andy, 7, and sister Avita, 5.
"At least on the surface, things are moving in a very positive direction. She's happy. She talks. She laughs. She jokes," Kara said. "Although beneath the surface where things are not easily observed, we don't quite know what's going on."
One recent evening, Anna ignored questions about China or the pending move, focusing instead on TV and a book of children's poetry.
"She has been learning Chinese, but she's a little bit afraid of the language," her father said. "She told me it's very difficult, this language. But she's becoming more curious about China. She asks about the schools, the teachers, the children, what's the subjects that are taught."
Kara said he had hoped Anna would have more time to bond with her family before moving to a country with an unfamiliar culture and language.
"But the way things were set up, they were allowed to stay here until a resolution [of custody] and the resolution has taken place," he said.
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