Once the Nelsons arrived in Kenya, infighting between adoption agencies and lack of oversight by the Kenyan government's Children's Department meant that Mercy's future depended on one woman, Irene Mureithi. She is the executive director of the Child Welfare Society, a rival adoption "society" accredited to handle international adoptions.
The Child Welfare Society is a non-profit organization that has existed in Kenya for decades and operates as both a custodial agent for children who are awarded to the state and also as an adoption agency. For years it was the only organization able to conduct adoptions, but not anymore. Now there are at least two other agencies accredited. Little Angels is one, and there is rivalry, sometimes bitter, between them.
These adoption societies will often "send cases to certain lawyers or agencies friendly to the children's home they are dealing with," says Tonny Odero, of The Cradle, a children's rights organization in Kenya. "If the person doesn't choose the lawyer or agency they recommend, they will not get the baby."
In Mercy's case, she was placed under the care of the Child Welfare Society, and Mureithi refused to free her to be adopted by the Nelsons because she says Little Angels did not follow procedure.
"They should have written to us officially," Mureithi told ABC News. "We were responsible for the child." Nelson said that Mureithi pushed hard for another agency. The Nelsons did meet with the recommended agency, but because they were registered with Carolina, which has an exclusive partnership with Little Angels, they could not use the new agency.
Nelson said that despite multiple visits to Mureithi, she was unsympathetic to their dilemma. "I actually got on my knees and begged this woman, sobbing," says Nelson. "She wouldn't budge."
At one point Nelson says that Little Angels offered to give Mureithi a cut of the international adoption fee and let her be involved, but she still refused, allegedly telling them, "Unless I am able to get approved to do international adoptions and can get an agency in America to work with, then I am not helping you people in any way."
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