But on May 14, the municipal court rejected the adoption, saying the orphanage had not shown Noah to enough local families - there had been two - before making him available to foreigners, as required by law, according to the court record.
To Compton and Meyer, it seemed that they and, worse, Noah were being penalized for someone else's error. They said that the law does not state how many local families must first be approached, and that they had been told that two or three was normal.
Several calls to the Kazakh Embassy were not returned.
While adoptions are progressing normally in other parts of the country, no new applications are being taken while Kazakhstan implements the Hague Adoption Convention, an international agreement to safeguard intercountry adoptees, said Welcome House.
A State Department spokesman called the Hague Convention, which prevents the abduction or sale of children and emphasizes local adoptions, "the most important change in international adoption."
Compton and Meyer, now on their second appeal, said they would fight all the way to the Kazakh Supreme Court if necessary.
That could take months. Compton needs to return to the United States in August for a week when her visa expires, the first time both will be away from the boy for more than a day.
"He's bonded with us," Meyer said. "He cries when we leave him. . . . Honestly, I think he's going to forget me."
Home in Haverford, he tries not to walk past the "depressing empty baby room," with its blue walls, bookshelf filled with stuffed animals and bright new toys, a stack of baby clothes that Noah is fast outgrowing, and a quilted ark handed down from his wife's late grandmother.
But the couple is resolved not to give up, even if Kazakhstan's highest court rules against them. Said Compton by phone from Kazakhstan, "We're committed to him like any parent is committed to his child."
Contact staff writer Kathy Boccella at 610-313-8123 or kboccella@phillynews.com.
