April 6, 2009 / fdlreporter.com
The biological father of a Samoan girl adopted by Fond du Lac's Patti Sawyer heard his daughter's voice recently for the first time in almost five years.
With tears streaming down his face, Upega Isaia, 59, of Tufulele, Western Samoa, told 9-year-old Jayden Sawyer in a telephone call to the United States on March 22: "I love you."
The telephone call was arranged by Samoa Victim Support Group, according to the Samoan Observer, the newspaper that covered the story. Melei Isaia, Jayden's biological mother, was unable to be present during the phone call due to illness.
Jayden is the youngest of the Isaias' eight children and was adopted by Sawyer in 2004. The young girl's story made national news and was featured on "Good Morning America" when, earlier this year, a federal judge convicted members of the adoption agency, Focus on Children, of crimes involving an adoption scam.
The agency told Samoan families their children would be educated in America, correspond through e-mails and phone calls, return home for visits, and come home for good when they reached age 18. Adoptive families in the United States — Sawyer among them — were unaware of the deception.