"Come on George!" she yells as he deftly heads the ball away from an opponent.

Fund-raiser

The International Adoption Center will host a fund-raising luncheon and children's fashion show, "Passport to Forever," beginning at 10:30 a.m. next Tuesday. Tickets are $50. Reservations: (513) 636-5664 by Friday. For more information on services of the International Adoption Center, including classes for parents who think they might want to adopt: (513) 636-6754 or www.cincinnatichildrens.org/iac.

Before adopting

If you're thinking about adopting an international child, Dr. Mary Staat suggests these tips: Do research to find out which countries might be best for your adoption. Some countries don't allow adoptions to unmarried couples, for instance. Develop a plan to finance your adoption. Most international adoptions average $15,000 to $25,000 per child. Attend classes to learn more about potential health and cultural issues.

International children

• According to the U.S. State Dept., the number of international adoptions in the United States has increased from about 7,000 in 1993 to about 20,000 in 2003. The number is expected to increase to nearly 24,000 adoptions this year. • Most international adopted children that come to the U.S. are from China, followed by Russia, Guatemala and South Korea.

As director of the International Adoption Center, which she started in 1999, Dr. Staat studies medical records, photos and videotapes of children from other countries up for adoption, searching for signs of disease and developmental problems. She delivers health assessments of the children to prospective adoptive parents, giving them information they need to make a decision on whether to adopt.

Often, when parents travel to other countries to adopt, they have last-minute concerns. When they call, Staat is ready to answer their questions. And when the children arrive at their new home, she makes initial and follow-up physical evaluations.

"I didn't feel like life began until we got through that first clinic with her," says Julie Strasser of Colerain Township, who with her husband, William, adopted 2-year-old Mary and 15-month-old Will from Russia in July.

Although it caused no problems, Staat quickly determined baby Mary was five months younger than her Russian medical records indicated.

One of only a dozen of its kind in the country, the International Adoption Center has helped 1,300 families adopt children from 37 countries. The center will celebrate its fifth anniversary at a fund-raising luncheon next Tuesday.

"She is the next best thing to sending a doctor there to see the child," says Kate Furlong of Hyde Park, who with the help of Staat, adopted her son, Joseph Juan, age 6, from Guatemala in 1998.

Staat can spot signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, hepatitis B, other diseases and conditions. But her experience as a single mother of three adopted international children - George; Emily, 10, from Colombia; and 9-year-old Katie from Ecuador - is invaluable.

"As a mother and an adoptive parent, she understands the emotional side," says Emily Griggs of Florence, who with husband, Jason, adopted 8-month-old Tae from South Korea last month. "She understands what we go through."

Staat went through a lot just to get to George's soccer game on this Thursday afternoon - leaving work early to buy supplies for school projects, picking the girls up from soccer practice at St. Agnes School in Fort Wright, zipping home to Park Hills to get George, then driving off in search of the Miamitown soccer field - only to miss her exit and end up near Milan, Ind.

Finally she found the field, where she cheered George and his teammates on to a scoreless tie, while quizzing the girls on spelling and state capitals. When the game ends nearly two hours later in chilly darkness, she packs the kids in the van to head back to Park Hills to finish homework and start Katie's elaborate light-blinking project on the solar system. By 11:30 p.m., everyone's in bed.

"I used to be very career-driven," Staat says. "My kids changed me."

Grew up in Erlanger

One of six children growing up in Erlanger, young Mary's ninth grade biology teacher at Lloyd High School encouraged her to go into medicine. She went on to small George Williams College in Chicago, where she was struck by the diversity of the student body.

"That's where I fell in love with Latin American culture," she says.

While studying at the University of Kentucky Medical School, she served in the National Guard and made several missions to Bolivia to staff medical clinics.

"Despite the poverty in South America," she says, "I saw how happy the people were with what they had."

In 1993, after earning her medical degree and while working on her master's in public health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Staat and her husband, Ed (they divorced in 1999 and share custody of the children), decided to adopt a Latin American child.

"I had seen so many kids in need on my missions," she says. "I guess I always thought they'd be my kids."

They brought George home when he was 21/2. Two years later, when they were adopting Emily, they learned the 17-month-old suffered from a heart defect.

"We were told it wasn't that serious," Staat says, "but when we went down there (Colombia), someone at the orphanage said she needed a heart-lung transplant."

Staat first reacted like any parent. She already loved Emily as her own - what were they going to do?

She called cardiology experts at Johns Hopkins, who suggested more tests for Emily. The tests showed the child only needed relatively minor surgery, easily performed in the United States. Nine years later, Emily is now a healthy soccer player who takes classes in jazz dance and ballet.

This experience spawned the concept for the International Adoption Center.

"I realized other parents need the same kind of support we got from Hopkins when we adopted Emily," Staat says.

She pitched the idea when she was interviewing as a pediatrician at Children's Hospital in 1995. Her new boss told her to pursue it.

In 1999, after convincing other superiors, Staat opened the Adoption Center with one nurse practitioner and one administrative assistant. (Now she has two administrative staff assistants.) Since then, she's learned much about fund-raising, business plans and other things they don't teach in medical school.

'She's wonderful'

In an examination room at Children's Hospital, wearing a pumpkin-colored blouse, stethoscope draped around her neck, Staat leans over nearly to eye level with 2-year-old Zoey to watch her toddle across the floor.

Her new parents, Gail and Mont Adams of Eastgate, brought home Zoey - jolly with dark hair and beautiful long lashes - home from Ecuador three weeks earlier. They're concerned about Zoey's possible lactose intolerance and her legs, which they think may be bowed slightly.

Impressed with the baby's weight gain, Staat assures the couple there is little need for worry. She cleans Zoey's ears, eliciting only a few tears, and suggests more tests and follow-up.

"She's wonderful," Gail says when the doctor leaves the room. "Talking to her is not even like talking to a doctor."

Of course to most, she's much more than a doctor. She's a mom.

E-mail: cmartin@enquirer.com.