David Siegel, a lawyer for Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He, said the Chinese parents did not understand the legal consequences of what they were doing when they left their infant daughter with an American couple while facing financial and legal problems.

Jerry and Louise Baker, residents of a Memphis suburb, have raised Anna Mae He since she was just under a month old and say the Hes wanted them to raise her. The Bakers, who are trying to adopt the girl, say they are the only parents Anna Mae has ever known.

The Hes are appealing a May ruling by Circuit Court Judge Robert Childers of Memphis that took away all their legal rights to Anna Mae. He ruled that the Hes were emotionally unstable and had abandoned their daughter by having no contact with her for four months.

Anna Mae was born on Jan. 28, 1999, when her father, then a graduate student at the University of Memphis, was accused of sexual assault, a charge for which he was ultimately acquitted.

The following month, the Bakers took Anna Mae into their home on a 90-day foster care arrangement worked out privately with the Hes. In June 1999, the Hes signed Juvenile Court papers giving custody of their daughter to the Bakers.

Anna Mae's parents have been trying since May 2000 to get their child back.

Qin Luo He broke into tears as she left the courthouse, saying in broken English that her only desire is to "take my daughter and go back to China."

Lawyers with the Child Advocacy Clinic at the University of Memphis, Loyola University in Chicago and Vanderbilt University in Nashville filed a friend of the court brief arguing that Childers was wrong to compare the parenting skills of the Bakers and the Hes or to consider whether Anna Mae would have a better life in suburban America than in China.

Larry Parrish, the Bakers' lawyer, told a three-judge panel of the Appeals Court that the Hes, who entered the United States on temporary visas, have fought to regain custody of Anna Mae in hopes it would help them stay in the country.

The appellate judges did not say when they will issue a ruling.

Leaving the courtroom, Jerry Baker described Anna Mae as an ordinary, happy child who does not completely understand the legal fight surrounding her. Baker said he disagreed with the university lawyers that Childers' decision may have been affected by cultural bias against the Hes.

"I personally think a lot of these friends of the court are friends of the Hes," Baker said.

The Bakers have four children of their own. The Hes have had two other children, a boy and a girl, since Anna Mae's birth.