3/2-Year-Old Jessica Starts A New Life

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Taken away from the only home she has known, 2 1/2-year-old Jessica begins a new life with virtual strangers: her biological parents.

Screaming and crying, the dark-eyed toddler left the couple who raised her to be united yesterday with Dan and Cara Schmidt, who had fought a fierce legal battle almost since her birth to win her back.

"Mommy!" Jessica cried as she was carried swiftly from Jan and Roberta DeBoer's front door in Ann Arbor, Mich. The weeping DeBoers reached out one last time to the little girl, but friends inside the house restrained them.

"I want my Dad. Where's my Dad?" Jessica said on the way to meeting the Schmidts, according to the DeBoers' lawyer, Suellyn Scarnecchia.

Jessica was taken by van to a police station, where she was handed over by court order to the Iowa couple.

Within the hour they were on a chartered plane, flying toward a new life. The plane landed at an undisclosed location, dropping the Schmidts off. Their lawyer, Marian Faupel, flew on to the scheduled landing spot - Cedar Rapids - to speak to the hordes of waiting reporters.

The new family went into seclusion rather than return to their home in Blairstown, about 25 miles west of Cedar Rapids, she said.

"It will take a while to cement this relationship," Faupel said.

The Schmidts' home in Blairstown sat empty, wrapped in a yellow ribbon and decorated with a sign proclaiming "Welcome Home Anna." Below "Anna," in smaller letters, was "Jessica."

The Schmidts have said they will call the girl Jessica, at least for a while. They arranged for a therapist to help with the transition if necessary.

DeBoer said today that the preparations for Jessica's departure were "excruciating."

"We did the best we could to tell Jessi that she was going away, and by the time that she had left, she knew exactly what was going on," he said on the television show "Good Morning America."

"She knew that our hearts were broken, and she kept saying `It will be OK, Mommy. It will be OK, Daddy."'

It wasn't known if the DeBoers would be able to visit Jessica, Scarnecchia said.

Jessica, who is calling the Schmidts by their first names, never asked about the DeBoers during the trip, Faupel said.

"We had a happy, safe flight," the lawyer said. Jessica slept and opened presents.

The Schmidts had been meeting with the DeBoers the past three weeks to get acquainted with Jessica. The DeBoers sent along a few toys and a list of the girl's bedtime and bath routines, Faupel said.

"On the last visit, Jessica got out a blanket and invited Dan to lie down with her," the attorney said. "It was clear she feels safe" with the Schmidts.

Mrs. Schmidt gave up custody of the girl shortly after giving birth in 1991 in Cedar Rapids. She was single at the time.

The DeBoers planned to adopt Jessica. But Mrs. Schmidt, who initially named the wrong man as the father, changed her mind. She informed Schmidt in 1991 that he was the father, and the couple began trying to get their daughter back.

The Schmidts were married in 1992 and had another daughter in June.

Iowa courts awarded Jessica to the Schmidts, and the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in July that the DeBoers must abide by the ruling. Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the transfer.

The Iowa Supreme Court yesterday rejected an emergency request to stop the transfer. The news came just five minutes before Jessica's last ride away from her Michigan home.

The DeBoers maintained it would be in Jessica's best interests to stay with them. But the Schmidts said they had a right to raise their own child.

"Thirty-four judges have heard this case in two years in two states, and 29 have decided in favor of Dan and Cara," Faupel said. "I think it's time for us to move on."