ACT OF LOVE: A MOTHER'S UNSELFISH GIFT TO HER DAUGHTER, STRANGERS

For a couple in the midst of an adoption, every step in the long process is

filled with anxiety, from filling out the first application to getting the

phone call that a baby -- their baby -- has been born.

For Walnut Creek couple Robert Temple and Alette Coble-Temple that call

never came. After paying thousands of dollars to a woman who had promised the

couple that they could adopt her baby, they discovered that she wasn't

pregnant. The couple lost both their savings and their hope, and the woman has

been charged with felony theft.

On April 18, a Eureka woman who had given birth to a baby girl remembered a

television news story about the Temples. With the help of a Humboldt County

adoption worker, the woman contacted the couple.

A few days later Robert Temple was holding the infant in his arms, and last

week, the adoption papers were signed. The birth mother, who, according to

Coble-Temple, could have used the money, refused the couple's offer of

financial assistance. ''She never, ever wanted the baby to think that she had

sold her,'' said Coble-Temple.

In one unselfish act of pure love, this anonymous woman created a family

where there once was an empty cradle -- and restored one couple's faith in

humanity.