WASHINGTON — As far as Steve and Julie Carroll can tell, their adopted daughter is thriving for now.

Just a month shy of her first birthday, little Madelyn Grace is in good hands with a Vietnamese family that is caring for her while the Carrolls battle the U.S. government for permission to bring her to her new home in Ventura County.

The Camarillo couple said they believe they and their daughter are caught in the middle of a protracted diplomatic squabble between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments — one that has not only been emotionally wrenching for them, but one they fear could also take a toll on their infant daughter in the long run.

"The only consistent thing our child has had in her life since she has been born is a pink blanket that we have given to her," Julie Carroll said. "What is this going to do to her development?"

Case goes to Washington

The Carrolls and two other families who are in the same situation brought their case to Washington on Tuesday, where they enlisted the support of California's two U.S. senators, Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

"Everything we know says the State Department is frankly using these babies as a tool in a battle that has nothing to do with these families or the children themselves," said Boxer, who pledged to intervene on the families' behalf.

"This is, to me, inexplicable," she said.

For the Carrolls, the ordeal began in September, when they went to Vietnam and adopted two baby girls.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, however, approved a visa request for only one of the girls, whom the couple has named Lillian Rose. The other child, Madelyn Grace, or Maddy Grace as the Carrolls call her, has been in foster care in Vietnam since October while the couple fights for the right to bring her back to Southern California.

Initially, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, told the Carrolls that a visa for Maddy Grace would be denied.

But late last month, the federal agency concluded that the case met the necessary criteria for a visa to be issued. The State Department, however, refuses to grant the visa.

So far, no one has been able to get the State Department to give an explanation about why the visa has been held up, said Sean Moore, a Boxer aide who has been working on these kinds of cases for several months.

But beginning in October and November, there was a noticeable increase in the number of families who had been informed by the U.S. government that they would be denied visas for children adopted from Vietnam, Moore said.

Adoption deal set to expire

The spike in such notices comes as the United States is quarreling with the Vietnamese government over the renewal of an agreement that authorizes adoptions between the two countries.

The agreement is set to expire Sept. 1. But the U.S. government, citing the need to protect children and families in the adoption process from being exploited, says the pact is unlikely to be renewed in its current form.

Boxer and attorneys representing the families suspect that the State Department may be holding up the visas to convince the Vietnamese government that the current system is flawed and in need of improvement, even though Citizenship and Immigration Services found no problems with the adoptions.

"None of this makes sense," said Boxer, who has asked Moore to accompany the families to a meeting with the State Department today.

Boxer will enlist more help

If the visa problem remains unresolved after that meeting, Boxer said she will call Assistant Secretary of State Maura Hardy on the families' behalf and ask to meet with her personally if necessary. Boxer said she also plans to bring up the matter next week during a meeting with a top-ranking official from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.

Feinstein also promised to help.

"My heart goes out to these families, who have been trying to adopt but have been held up through no fault of their own," she said. "My office will continue to try to help these families and see that the children can be placed in good homes."

For the Carrolls, who have two other children, sons Jeremy, 6, and Grayson, 5, the long wait to bring Maddy Grace home has placed a strain on the whole family.

"It is by far the most excruciating thing we have gone through," Julie Carroll said. "And the worst part of it is we are missing out on going on four months of our daughter's life, all of those milestones in her development."