Delahunt Honors Bourne Adoptive Parents
WASHINGTON – As Scott and Terry Murphy of Bourne sat patiently in U.S. Rep. William Delahunt’s office Thursday, their only worries were figuring out the city’s subway system and about their 6-year-old twins left with Scott’s parents at home.
“Here’s my hero,” Terry Murphy said, rising to meet Delahunt as he entered the room.
Delahunt has known the Murphys since 2003, when they contacted him seeking help with an adoption that had become complicated. Their representative obliged, and this year he chose the pair to represent the 10th District at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s annual “Angels in Adoption” event, which honors citizens from across the country for their adoptive efforts.
In February 2001 the Murphys, having finally completed the dense paperwork required to finalize an adoption, visited Romania intending bring home a 2-year-old boy named Sammy.
When they arrived in Arad, they learned from an escort that Sammy had a twin sister named Emmy whom orphanage directors believed – incorrectly, it turned out – was autistic.
Despite feeling “shock” at learning Sammy had a sister, the Murphys said they wanted to bring Emmy home as well.
But the Romanian government, responding to accusations of corruption, had instituted a moratorium on international adoptions, a ruling that halted an already time-consuming process.
“All of a sudden the moratoriums came down,” Terry Murphy said. “We started running into roadblocks.”
After five days in Romania, the new parents left for Bourne with Sammy and began nearly three years of work to reunite the twins. While Sam adapted to Cape Cod, sleeping in a customized “boat bed” his father, a builder, had crafted, the Murphys added a second bedroom in the upstairs of their Cape in preparation for Emmy.
They also began writing government representatives, and in 2003 they received a call from Delahunt’s office.
On Nov. 20, 2003, Delahunt sat down with representatives from the Romanian embassy, some of whom he had known from his foreign relations work.
Less than a month later, the Murphys won approval to adopt Emmy. In January 2004 they brought her home to Bourne.
Delahunt, whose grown daughter, Kara, was adopted from Vietnam during the 1975 Saigon airlift, has established himself as one of the foremost legislators in the arena of international adoptive rights.
In 2000 he spearheaded the Child Citizenship Act, which conferred automatic U.S. citizenship upon any child adopted from another country. Previously, children arriving in the United States were subject to the same naturalization process as other immigrants, a step that prolonged an already lengthy process.
Sitting in Delahunt’s office, the congressman thumbed through photos of Sammy and Emmy and chatted with the Murphys about the twins. Sammy is a first-grader and Emmy, who has been in the United States for less than a year, will be home-schooled while she acclimates.
Scott Murphy said the two children were fast friends. “Right off the bat,” he said with fatherly grin, “It was like they never missed a heartbeat.”
According to Terry Murphy, Emmy’s a phonics whiz and both kids have fallen in love with Cape Cod. “They’re water babies for sure,” Terry Murphy said.
“I’m always looking at my watch, buzzers are always going off, there’s always another meeting,” Delahunt told the Murphys, explaining the rush of Washington life. “It’s moments like this that really make a difference.”
But the pleasure – healthy children Sammy and Emmy – was all theirs.
