The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 79

1 pv impt 1 pi pT 1 0 LOS ANGELES TIMES MONDAY, JULY 22, 1996 B3 How to Reach Times Orange County Editors Circulationno paper (800)252-9141 Delivery Schedule 6 am. Mon-Fii 7 am. Saturday 8 a.m. Sunday Orange County Focus is dedicated on Monday to analysis of community news, a look at what's ahead and the voices of local people. Newsroom Edition Editor Managing Operations Managing New City Desk Business Calendar Design Editorials Fashion Focus (714)966-7700 Martin Baron 966-7439 Marty.Baronlatimes.com Topy Fiske 966-7848 William Nottingham 966-7760 Randy Hagihara 966-7714 Mike Young 966-5873 Tony Lioce 966-5820 Chuck Nigash 966-7885 Stephen Burgard 966-7579 Janet Eastman 966-7883 Deanne Brandon 966-5993 Graphics Life Style News Copy Desk OCLivd Photo Sports KrisOnuigbo Joan Springhetti George Foulsham Janice Page Colin Crawford Keith Thursby 966-5899 966-5782 966-5804 966-7789 966-5826 966-5858 1Trri ii T' I I 'I I i'i i I I li j' 'p' u.1 pi Los Angeles Times Santa Orange County II 5 Costa SOUTHCOASTOS J-v 8 SAN MEOO fWY.

O.C. Bacfc lwue 966-5682 Advertising Classified 966-5600 Display 966-5719 City Desk Hotline North County News South County News County Govt News 966-7715 239-1100 248-2150 543-2660 Los Angeles Times Orange County 1375 Sunflower Ave. Costa Mesa, CA 92626-1697 Times In Education 966-7744 Agenda HI PERSON A i. 1 Jt i Vh. fe." I 1.

a. Issues Coming Up County of Orange Board of Supervisors meeting What: Deciding whether to appoint Darlene Bloom as clerk of the board. When: Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. Where: Hall of Administration, 10 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana. Information: (714 834-2206.

Anaheim City Council meeting What: Considering a proposal for architectural and engineering services to expand the Convention Center. When: Tuesday, 5 p.m.. Where: Council charrlbers, City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd. Information: (714)254-5100.

Cypress City Council meeting What: Seeking public comment on live entertainment at Via Maria Restaurant, 9969 Walker St. When: Today, 7 p.m. Where: Council chambers, 5275 Orange Ave. Information: (714) 229-6688. Dana Point City Council meeting What: Discussing whether privatization of the Orange tt.

CHRISTINE COTTER Loe Angeles Times 'She's worth everything we went through. I never gave up," says Shari Rosen with husband Neil of adopted daughter Julie. A Grueling Journey to Parenthood After Shari Rosen's Many a Young Daughter ByRUSSLOAR SPECIAL TO THE TIMES Shari Rosen was not destined to become a mother. That she is was an act of pure will. After three failed pregnancies, Rosen and her husband, Neil, took cash in hand and entered the murky world of private adoptions.

The experience was shattering. After two potential adoptions fell through, the Rosens adopted a newborn baby boy in June 1995. But 10 weeks later, the birth mother changed her mind and the Rosens had to return the infant they had come to love as their son. "This was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. I just had a pain inside me for a long time.

We did a lot of crying on each other's shoulders. I felt like we were being tested," said Rosen, a 36-year-old Placentia resident. Rosen's Odyssey began when she became pregnant with twins in 1991, but miscarried after four months. The Rosens then sought help from the UC Irvine Fertility Clinic, but two' additional pregnancies ended unsuccessfully. They also tried in vitro fertilization without success.

"We went away to Palm Springs for the weekend, just to get away. We went into a restaurant and they put us at a table between a pregnant woman and a couple that had a newborn baby. And Neil and I just sat there and looked at each other. I said, 'Well, this is just part of the County adoption officials told them it could take years to adopt a healthy infant, so the Rosens contacted a private adoption agency in Los Angeles. "They sent us literature.

Neil and I went to a workshop and it was very impressive. They had a couple come in who had adopted a child through them to tell us how wonderful they were. So we decided to sign up." Agency representatives made no guarantees, but told them most couples adopted a baby within 16 months. The Rosens paid the agency $7,800. "We never got a single lead from them.

We got connected with a birth mother through our own networking. We sent out these 'birth mother letters' with pictures of Neil and I. We sent them to everybody and anybody we knew." Profile: Shari Rosen Hometown: Utica, New York Moved to Orange County; 1985 Residence; Placentia Family: Married to Neil, a middle school counselor; a 6-month-old daughter, Julie Education: An associate of arts degree in human services, with a specialty in developmentally disabled children, from Mohawk Valley College in Utica, New York Occupation: Member services director for the East Orange County Assn. of Realtors On adoption: "Because we had to give our baby back, it scares people away from adopting, because they're afraid of having the same thing happen to them. I always tell them, 'Don't let what Neil and I went through deter you from adoption, because it's the only way you're going to get that After sending 6ut 1,500 letters, they received a response from an unmarried woman in Ohio who was pregnant with her fourth child.

They asked the adoption agency to investigate. The Rosens ended up paying for the woman and her sister to fly to California after the woman said she was afraid to fly alone. They also paid her mother $100 to stay with her own grandchildren in Ohio during the trip. After she arrived in California, the woman confessed she would not be able to give up her baby. The Rosens signed up with another private adoption agency and placed an ad in a national magazine, offering themselves as loving parents.

After a few prank calls, they heard from a young pregnant woman who was serving time in a Norfolk, prison. By the time the promised adoption fell apart two weeks before the baby was due they had discovered the woman was a prostitute and a cocaine addict. "She was a con artist, and she was good. She was really good. She would send us these wonderful, wonderful letters.

In all the letters, it was always, 'your not her baby. She got our money for six months." Rosen would not give up, despite her husband's misgivings. After sending out another wave of letters, the Rosens were contacted by a rabbi who knew of a young unmarried Orange County woman who wanted to find a family for her baby. The Rosens paid part of her living expenses for three months leading up to the baby boy's birth. They took "Steven" home from the hospital a day after he was born and kept him for 10 weeks.

The birth mother had 90 days to change her mind. "We got a call from the attorney who was handling the adoption, saying that she changed her mind. Neil and I got on the computer and wrote her a letter, telling her how we felt and how much we loved him, and that our doors would always be open for him if things didn't work out for her. "We met her at the attorney's office. It was very tearful for body.

When we got home, we packed up all of Steven's things and put them away." After a local newspaper columnist told the story of the Rosen's loss, the mother of a pregnant Costa Mesa teenager contacted the family. The two families met, they liked each other and another adoption was soon arranged. "The first thing they said was, 'We don't want any money from I thought: 'Oh gosh, here's somebody who's not just out for our money. These people actually care about what's going to They took Julie home a day after she was born. "She's worth everything we went through.

I never gave up." As Julie, now 6 months old, grows up, the Rosens say there will be no secrets. "Open adoption was sort of the farthest thing from my mind. I didn't know if that was what I really wanted. But after meeting with them, we just felt very comfortable. I just want her to be brought up with a positive attitude toward adoption.

She'll grow up knowing her birth mother." Rosen's "roller coaster" experience in trying to adopt a child has left her believing there is a need for stricter regulation of private adoption agencies to protect would-be parents. The Rosens figure they spent about $25,000 on their three-year search for a baby. "There should be uniformity in all the states. There's a lot of people who adopt from other states and the laws are totally different. If a birth mother is.

not sure if she's able to keep her child, the child should go into foster care until she can make a decision, and live with that decision, instead of placing a child with a family and then taking it away. "I tell people not to give up and not to be discouraged by my experience. If you have a dream, if there's something you want bad enough, just keep on going. It was a tough few years we went through, but it really was worth everything." PERSPECTIVE To Some, El Toro's Future Gan't Compare to Past County Marine Institute will be on the November ballot, When: Tuesday, 5:30 p.m. Where: Council chambers, 33282 Golden Lantern, Suite i 210.

Information: (714) 248-9890. Huntington Beach City Council meeting What: Reviewing city finances. When: Today, 8 p.m. Where: Council chambers, 2000 Main St. Information: (714 536-5227.

Irvine City Council meeting What: Reviewing a report on the feasibility of pulling city libraries out of the county system. When: Tuesday, 5:30 p.m. Where: Council chambers, 1 Civic Center Plaza. Information: (714 724-6000. Los Alamitos City Council meeting What: Considering whether to buy four vehicles two police patrol cars and cars for the city manager and police chief.

When: Today, 7 p.m. Where: Council chambers, 3191 Katella Ave. Information: (310) 431-3538. Tustin Board of Education meeting What: Discussing a plan to reduce class sizes for grades -one, two and three. When: Today, 9 a.m.

Where: Boardroom, 300 South CSL, Tustin. Information: (714)730-7301. Villa Park City Council meeting What: Seeking public comment on a proposal to change the city's investment policy. When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Where: Council chambers, 17855 Santiago Blvd.

Information: (714) 998-1500. This column is designed to provide information about upcoming public meetings. To learn more about events in your community, call your local government office. COMPILED BY SHELBY GRAD, ALAN EYERLY, BILL BILUTER, KWIBERLY BROWER, DEBRA CANO. RUSS LOAR, LORI HAYCOX AND JOHN POPE right to look at what we went through." He and other veterans express bitterness over what they perceive as a lack of concern for the past among those crafting a redevelopment plan for the 54-year-old base.

"Everyone wants to take a piece of El Toro," Hubbard said. "I don't think there is any room in their plans for a museum." County business leaders and government officials want to build a commercial airport there, along with residential and industrial developments. Some veterans hope the plans will preserve the museum, as well as the El Toro Officers Club and other historic base buildings. They have lobbied Pentagon officials and tried to drum up support in veterans newsletters. But so far, the federal government has shown little interest.

The base closure plan calls for the museum to move to Miramar along with air squadrons and more than 4,000 Marine personnel from both El Toro and the Tustin Marine Corps Air By SHELBY GRAD SPECIAL TO THE TIMES With El Toro Marine Corps Air Station set to close at the end of the decade, government officials and nearby residents have focused their attention on the future of the valuable land once the military pulls out. But a few retired Marines are concentrating instead on the past. Against difficult odds, they are fighting a plan to move the El Toro Command Museum out of Orange County. "It seems like the American way to throw things away and forget about them," said J.T. "Birdie" Bertrand, a retired colonel who lives in Newport Beach.

The military "is part of our history Orange County should preserve it" Under the Pentagon's closure plan, the museum, considered one of the nation's top military history centers, would move from its site on the base to Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. Members of Orange County's feisty contingent of retired Marines argue that the plan COLIN CRAWFORD Loe Angeles Times Backers object to moving the El Toro Command Museum, which features a MIG-1 5. "I would say 90 of people today don't know it was ever there," said Alvin Pinkley, a former Costa Mesa mayor who owned a drugstore near the base. "It's a shame." I The El Toro Command Museum's exhibits offer a rare glimpse at the era of flyboys and war bonds. Opened in 1991, it has one of the nation's best collections of military Station.

Curator O'Hara expressed surprise at the lack of private-sector interest in creating an aviation-themed attraction in Orange County, noting that private air museums elsewhere are thriving. Santa Monica's Museum of Flying, for example, serves as both a historical resource for aviation buffs and as a fashionable location for dining, private parties and conferences. "They've combined history with a profit center," O'Hara said. Some preservationists are resigned to the museum's move, But they hope some testament to Orange County's rich military heritage will remain. "A great amount of Marine Corps aviation history occurred at El Toro," Bertrand said.

"I would just like to see something that says something happened at El Toro." would remove one of the last reminders of local military heritage, and they are rallying to save the museum. Despite El Toro's popular annual air shows and its central role in international conflicts ranging from World War II to Operation Desert Storm, preservationists fear that the base will fade from memory in much the same way as another once-famous Orange County airfield. That facility, the Santa Ana Army Air Base in Costa Mesa, was one of the nation's busiest military outposts during World War II, training more than 125,000 Army Air Corps cadets. It became part of pop culture in 1944 with the release of 20th Century Fox's film "Winged Victory," which was set at the base and starred Lee J. Cobb and Jeanne Crain.

The base closed after the war, and the land wae divided among the Orange County Fairgrounds, Orange Coast College, the Costa Mesa Civic Center and Costa Mesa High School. aviation memorabilia, from the torpedo bomber George Bush flew in World War II to a 1950s-era Soviet MIG-15. In all, the museum has 30 restored aircraft as well as aviation books, photographs, miniatures, reference manuals and the world's largest collection of Marine Corps patches, said Col. Tom O'Hara, the curator. Retired Brig.

Gen. Jay Hubbard, who helped found the museum, said it gives a sense and appreciation of how things were. "The U.S. Marine Corps and the Air Force belong to the people of this country," he said. "They have a.