Evanston Couple Gives Up Adoption Fight With South Korea

(CBS) – An Evanston couple is ending their fight to keep a South Korean baby they were trying to adopt.

Christopher and Jinshil Duquet realized they could prolong their legal fight, but they couldn't win it, CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports.

U.S. immigration officials would not let them keep the child, Sewah Kim.

So, they've decided it would be best for Sewah to give her up now because the longer they keep her, the more difficult the separation would eventually be.

Sometime this week, the nine-month-old will be returning to her native South Korea.

Christopher and Jinshil Duquet used a private lawyer, not a licensed Korean adoption agency, to process Sewah's adoption. When they got to the states, they discovered her documents were invalid.

The Duquets received guarantees Sewah would be adopted by a South Korean family, not placed in an orphanage.

They say that makes the coming separation a bit more tolerable.