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But the Schmidts' supporters insist that the courts have indeed considered the child's best interests by restoring her biological ties. "The law starts with the good presumption that it is in the best interests of children to be with their families, unless for some reason the family is inadequate," says Carole Anderson, vice president of Concerned United Birthparents, which is trying to restrict adoptions and strengthen the rights of birth parents to regain custody of children they have released. To reward the DeBoers' intransigence by letting them keep the child, Anderson says, would put all families in jeopardy. "If a noncustodial parent can come along and take a child in defiance of a court order," she says, "and get to another state and get a different order, we would have chaos for everyone."
Following public outcry over such notorious cases, the legislatures in many states are taking the lead. "If the law works to the disadvantage of the children," says Howard Davidson, director of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law in Washington, "it's incumbent upon the legislatures to change the law. The courts can't change the law."
The Michigan legislature, having come under increasing pressure with each ruling against the DeBoers, is considering altering the state laws to weigh children's interests more heavily. Public opinion in the state is running 81% in favor of adoptive parents, like the DeBoers, in custody battles with birth mothers. They took their case to the public, since the wrenching image of transferring a child between families was bound to aid their cause. Last week they shared with TIME the letters they have written for Jessica to read in the future. "Often you have comforted me," Robby writes, "calmed down my fears and taken away my tears . . . But when the tears begin to fall and you look at me for reassurance and say, 'Mama's heartbroken,' I will not be able to console you with my loving kisses and say, 'It will all mend.' " And then mother turns on mother. "It will never mend, Jessi. It is Cara and the law that ((have)) broken you into a thousand pieces . . ."
$ Though they have made the rounds of papers and morning shows, the Schmidts in Iowa have been less visible than the DeBoers in Michigan. Moreover, the Schmidts' lawyer Pam Lewis says the couple "believe it's never in the child's best interest to be flaunted in public. It's not the trauma of the transfer that they're concerned about. But when she's 15 or 16 years old, she'll see the made-for-television movies about the case, and the terrible things that were said in the press. Can she have a normal life if her entire existence has been flaunted like a media doll?"
For all the clouds gathering over her, Jessica seems cheerfully unaware of her situation. When photographers descend to capture these last days, she holds her parents by the hand and breaks into the Barney theme song. "I love you, you love me," she sings, as her parents chime in gamely. "We're a happy fam-i-leeee."