Judge Orders Twins To Live With Indian Relative

Twin 1 1/2-year-old girls have been ordered taken away from their adoptive parents and given to their grandmother under a federal law designed to preserve Indian communities.

Jim and Colette Rost of Columbus, Ohio, emerged from court weeping Wednesday after Superior Court Judge John Henning ruled that Bridget and Lucy must leave the only parents they’ve known to live with members of the Pomo tribe.

The judge said there was no other option under the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act.

The girls’ grandmother had sued for their return and will initially get custody because the judge found her more financially stable than the biological parents.

“I’m beyond the grief-stricken stage to the determined and angry stage,” Colette Rost said. “We are not going to let this drop.”

Karen Adams of West Covina, the grandmother, said a loving home awaits the twins. “I know the pain (the Rosts) feel, because I felt the same pain when I realized I had two granddaughters I didn’t even know.”

Before the twins were born, the Rosts signed an adoption agreement with Richard Adams and his girlfriend Cindy Ruiz, who later married. The couple said they didn’t tell the Rosts they are part Indian because their lawyer advised against it.

Three months after the girls were born, Adams told the Rosts he wanted to rescind the adoption.