Michelle and Andrew Ransavage, a couple from Minnesota, have been denied the ability to bring home the daughter that they named Mia and are in the process of adopting from China because of a conviction on charges of Driving While Impaired (DWI) against Andrew in January of 2007.

The adoption was approved by the adoption agency in 2007 but was stalled because of the conviction. While Michelle and her parents were in China to bring two and half year old Mia home in November, Andrew (who was at home in the US) received word that Mia’s move to the United States was denied by the regional office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (also known as CIS) because of the DWI conviction.

According to the article in The Independent, the adoption agency knew of the conviction and notified the Chinese government so all were baffled at the denial. After receiving the initial denial from CIS, the couple made a motion to have the case re-opened but that motion was also denied by CIS in December of 2007.

In the article, Andrew calls it a “terrible mistake” and is remorseful. According to Michelle, many people find this situation unfair and unjust and they are hoping the “right person” will here their story and be able to help them.

To make sure I completely understood what a DWI charge was (I’ve only heard it called Driving Under the Influence or DUI) I looked up the definition. When I looked that up, I learned that the terms DUI and DWI are interchangeable and mean the same thing.

Driving under the influence of alcohol, driving while intoxicated, drunk driving, drinking and driving is the act of operating a motor vehicle (and even a bicycle, boat or horse in some jurisdictions) after having consumed alcohol (ethanol) or other drugs, to the degree that mental and motor skills are impaired. – Source

I know that birthparents in international adoptions are usually not involved in the process of selecting adoptive parents, but I couldn’t help but put it in that context and think how a birthmother would feel if she knew her child was going to a family where the father had recently been convicted of a DWI.

Some may think I am too harsh, but as a birthmother I would not have knowingly placed my child with someone that I knew had a DWI or DUI conviction. Now if the conviction had been years ago, that might be a different story, but this was just a year ago! I would be fearful that he might do it again and this time have a child in the car!

So as it stands now, Mia is still in China and the couple has filed an appeal with CIS but have yet to hear word on it.