Over another hurdle

Well, today we are through the 30-day appeal process!  Praise the Lord!!  It feels so good to be checking off another milestone in this crazy process we call adoption.  Our daughter is now OURS!  Now we wait some more for our agency to translate the documents (adoption decree, abandonment report, etc...) so that we can include them with the I-600.  So maybe in about 2-3 weeks we can mail that in.  Once it's approved, then the investigation begins, and the longest wait of all.  At this point she is ours.  OURS!  So close, yet so far is how I feel.  Ugh!!

We consulted an Adoptive Medicine Pediatrician at the University of Washington as we want to know the way ahead with our daughter's ttuberculosis.  We discovered this service through the Sparrow Fund.  If you have your child's medical report and would like it looked over, consider doing this.  Maybe you already have.  When we received Addison's, my awesome cousin who is a PA read it for us.  The Tb thing really scared us and we wanted to know what would be the course once she returned home.  Could there be something that we could take to her when we travelled?  She is very thin!  That now seems to be a bigger concern that the Tb.  They will be sending us with vitamins, antibiotics, scabies treatment, pink eye treatment, and antibiotic cream so that we can address those issues if they exist for Addison.  They also provided a list of over-the-counter meds that we should take with us.  The staff will be on call for us when we travel and will provide help by phone if Addi is ill when we arrive.  It's a cool service!


I guess I will end it here.  Have a great week!!

One Giant Step For Addison

I'm sorry it has been a while since our last entry.  Life keeps us busy.  We did however, receive Addi's adoption decree!!  BIG NEWS!!  We were expecting a court date to arrive any day.  Then on Tuesday of last week, I opened my email and there was Addi's adoption decree which was signed on January 25th!  So, now we are in the 30 day appeal process, then the documents will be translated and then we can file the I600!!  Whoop!!  Whoop!!  Then the 3-6month investigation process begins!

I must say, that I was absolutely floored when I opened the email.  It was not what we were expecting.  Of course, the document was all in French, so I have a soccer-mom friend who is an attorney and fluent in French to decipher if for us.  In a nutshell it says that "it is the judgement of the court that Addi be awarded to us, dated 25 January 2013."  So exciting!!

I also forgot to do a post about Created For Care - January 2013!  Holy cow!!  IT WAS AMAZING!  If you have an opportunity to go next year, I highly recommend it!  I will be there for sure!  Us Congo Mommas need to meet up!

We also received six more pics today.  I have asked a doctor to go in and check in on Addi.  To our knowledge, it has been over a year since her last exam.  I am anxious to get her measurements to know her size, among other things.

Have a great week! 

Bureacracy

Some or all of you may have discovered a carefully worded email today from your agency about Embassy investigations going on in the DRC.  Ours read:

Dear Clients in our Democratic Republic of Congo program,

The US Embassy Deputy Chief of Missions, in honor of a team from Washington led by the chief of the Office of children's issues on Intercountry adoptions, held a meeting with adoption professionals in DRC a few days ago. 

From this meeting it was shared that for the year 2012 - 200 Congolese children were adopted to families in the USA. This is up from a little over 10 children in 2010.  For the team, this increase raises a number of questions. They said their mission is to garner an  understanding on how the adoption process works in the DRC.

As part of these discussions they stated that to avoid any issues of fraud, the Embassy will have to be more thorough in their investigations; which they suspect are on the rise.  As a result, we heard yesterday that adoptive families should anticipate a 3 to 6 month lag time from the I-600 submission until the visa is issued.  We are still waiting on the official notification of the embassy.

Additionally, the United States just passed what is referred to as the “universal law”.  This law now requires anyone providing international adoption services to be Hague Accredited (even in non-Hague convention countries).  It is believed that the passage of the universal law will also help lessen the risk of adoption fraud.

While this is extremely frustrating as it will mean the children will have to remain in the orphanages longer, we all want to see adoptions completed properly.

We are hopeful that these more thorough investigations will show little or no fraud and that we can see the length of time taken to complete the investigations reduced in the near future.  In the meantime, we do want to support every effort to eliminate any/all adoption fraud.

This totally and utterly stinks!!  I have a few other choice words that I think would be more appropriate, but I will hold myself back!!  I get it, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it!!  And why aren't these things being investigated prior to the I600 being approved!?!?  Some families have already waited 12+ months to bring their child home.  It just doesn't seem fair. . . . . .

I know the road of adoption is difficult.  I GET IT!  But, like I said earlier, it doesn't mean that I have to like it.