CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A mother who has been trying to adopt a little girl from Romania for more than two years is hopeful that that country’s new president will pay attention to her case and others around the world, in spite of a new law restricting international adoptions.

“I’m psyched that it’s a new year, a new beginning, a new government,” Allyson Schaaf of Stratham said Saturday. “Now it’s time to get it rolling again, make contacts, re-establish ourselves and get the kids home.”

Romania’s new president, Traian Basescu, defeated former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase in a runoff election Dec. 12. Basescu said he wants to overhaul the way the country is governed, saying the former communist elite’s grip on the state must be broken. He also said he wants to consolidate ties with the United States.

Schaaf and her husband, Michael, started the process of adopting Natasha, who turns 3 in March, in October 2002. They successfully adopted a boy, Iain, in 2000, who turns 5 this month.

But the political climate in Romania changed, due in part to the nation’s desire to join the European Union and that organization’s criticism of some of the country’s adoption practices. Romania ordered a moratorium on international adoptions. The moratorium and the new law were designed to end the selling of babies.

Last year, Romanian legislators approved a bill severely restricting adoptions of Romanian orphans by foreigners. The law, which took effect Saturday, limits international adoptions to biological grandparents. Romanian children also can be adopted by foreigners if the search for Romanian adoptive families has failed. Children under the age of 2 will not be allowed to be adopted abroad.

The Schaafs are among about a dozen New Hampshire families waiting for word on their pending adoptions.

Schaaf and others who were assigned children from Romania went to Washington, D.C., several times, pleading their cases with the Romanian president, prime minister, foreign minister and ambassador. They also received help from Rep. Jeb Bradley and Nobody’s Children, a Windham-based group that assists Romanian orphans.

In July, President Bush raised the issue with the Romanian leaders on behalf of American families seeking the release of over 200 children to adoptive homes in the United States. Schaaf said she believes there are about 2,500 Romanian adoption cases pending worldwide.

In October, Nastase accepted a proposal from the French prime minister to review in-process adoptions jeopardized by the moratorium. Since then, contact has been limited because of the election.

“I’m very, very hopeful that he (Basescu) will process the pending cases and hopeful that they will improve their whole adoption process,” Schaaf said.

The Joint Council on International Children’s Services, an umbrella group of nonprofit adoption agencies based in Alexandria, Va., said it met Dec. 17 with State Department representatives and learned that Jack Dyer Crouch, the U.S. ambassador to Romania, had discussed the pending cases with Basescu before the election. The conversation indicated support for the processing of cases, the council said on its Web site.

The discussions also mention talk about a commission of “objective advisers who will offer technical advice of how cases can be processed in an equitable, transparent and ethical manner. France has taken a leadership role in this matter,” the council’s Web site said.

“I really feel that the new government in Romania will be the voice these children need,” said Elaine MacEwen-Yourtee, executive director of Nobody’s Children, which runs a home in Romania for children in need of adoption.

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On the Net:

Joint Council on International Children’s Services: http://www.jcics.org/

Nobody’s Children: http://www.nobodyschildren.org

AP-ES-01-01-05 1457EST