Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Our adoption status

It is with great sadness and regret I announce that due to very difficult circumstances we will not be adopting the three children from Ethiopia that we committed to adopt.

We hired Celebrate Children International (CCI) to facilitate our adoption. However, as time went on we became increasingly concerned and uneasy about the lack of answers we were getting, the defensiveness of the agency, and mostly, the fact that the agency was so heavily involved in the relinquishment process, when this is clearly a conflict of interest according to every other reputable agency we contacted.

We terminated our contract with CCI, hoping we could find some answers through a private investigation. We were able to find someone who could go to the orphanage personally to interview the children and their mothers. We were told by our investigators that both mothers claimed CCI had approached them and encouraged them to place their children for adoption to the United States. We also have video of the director specifically telling the mother that she could easily find a new family for her child.

· Abandonment Requirements: When a child is abandoned, by law it comes into the custody of the Government. MOWA places abandoned or orphaned children in orphanages or foster homes, pending adoption. When a child is found to have two HIV/AIDS-infected parents, or one living HIV/AIDS-infected parent, the Government routinely declares that the child is an orphan and assumes legal guardianship of the child. Many AIDS-orphaned children adopted by Americans come from the HIV/AIDS hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity in Addis Ababa.

Waiting Period: It is common for the Government of Ethiopia to require that a child be resident in an orphanage for three months before they can be adopted.

http://adoption.state.gov/country/ethiopia.html

e second person I want to mention is the director of one of the
orphanages we visited today. Zewditu Yashu founded the GIODFSA (Gelgela
Integrated Orphans and Destitute Family Support Association) orphanage
in 2004. The mother of twelve children, Zewditu and her husband owned a
hotel in southern Ethiopia. Along the way, two of her children, and then
her husband passed away. Zewditu was a single mother of ten children
while running the hotel.

Child-adoption reforms deserve support

Opinion

MONDAY, 08 FEBRUARY 2010 20:03

THIS week starts the observance of National Adoption Consciousness Week, with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) taking the lead, as it advocates a better appreciation of the law—enacted last year—that laid down firmer safeguards to prevent abuse and illegal trafficking in children, while at the same time ensuring that children who need adoption most will, indeed, end up with families who deserve them and can raise them as good persons.

The DSWD has put special focus, in this year’s observance, on the perils of simulated births where, instead of a legally documented adoption, a child is made to appear as the biological offspring of another person not his/her parents. But beyond the perils of simulation, legal adoption should really be supported, both for the sake of the children and the parents, adoptive or biological.

Weisung vom 4. März 1998

Adoption von Kindern aus Haiti

Die generelle Situation in Haiti hat uns im April 1997 veranlasst, keine Einreisebewilligungen mehr für haitianische Kinder zur Adoption in der Schweiz zu erteilen. Mit Blick auf das bei der Adoption vorran-gige Kindeswohl hat dieser beim Erlass gerechtfertigte Entscheid in der Praxis zu unbefriedigenden Resultaten geführt.

Unser Amt hat deshalb zusammen mit dem Bundesamt für Justiz und mit Vertretern des Eidgenössi-schen Departements für auswärtige Angelegenheiten (namentlich dem Generalkonsulat in Haiti) die Situation neu geprüft.

Nach Rücksprache mit den betroffenen Dienststellen haben wir folgenden Entscheid getroffen:

Court process for adoptions not tedious

2010/02/07

THOSE who want to register adoptions in court should not fear the process.

Lawyer Andrew Suresh Thanaraja says the perception is that the court process is a long, tedious and public affair, but it is not true.

"Contrary to popular belief, the adoption procedures in courts are conducted in a very relaxed manner in chambers. It is very private.

More Haitian orphans coming to Utah

By Brooke Adams

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 02/06/2010 07:26:41 PM MST

Another 10 children from a Haitian orphanage are on their way to the U.S. with the help of a Utah adoption agency.

Continuing efforts to bring our children home

February 5th, 2010

There have been monumental efforts by many to bring our children home from Foyer de Sion. This effort continues and it looks like additional children will be flown to Miami this weekend to awaiting families. The exact number is still undetermined but we anxiously await notice of which children will be coming home.

In the interim we invite you to read the following articles:

Utah Hospital Task Force: http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/100205life.html

THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006

Amazing Brazil Adoption

I had a great 10 day trip to Brazil. I could recount the great beauty and diversity of the sights I saw, but the most interesting part was on the flight home from Rio where I sat next to an energetic woman from New Jersey who was traveling with 9 children and her husband. She had just spent 2 months in Brazilfinalizing the adoption of 7 siblings.

<>When asked why she did this seemingly insane thing, she quoted the bible, something about helping widows and orphans. I thought that was a proofreading term, but apparently there is more to it than hanging words on a page. Since that was the first thing she said to me, I prepared to be converted to the faith, but she never came back to it, only to say that she was pleased that the one sight they got to visit in Rio was Corcovado, and to see Jesus up close. Since I also saw that sight, I paid no further heed to her potential Christian fundamentalism. Her second reason was that she was told that it was impossible to adopt children from Brazil, which made her more determined, because that is the type of woman she is. <>

The 7 children (5 boys and 2 girls) have 3 other siblings who were old enough to care for themselves, and were already settled in their mountain village with job training and getting on with adulthood. The remaining 7 being adopted range in age from 6 (a toothless cutie who was infatuated with the plane's headphones) to 14 (a boy crazy cutie swaggering around the airport).<>She was traveling with 2 of her 4 children. Which means, yes, that she now has 11 children between the ages of 6-15. Her youngest natural son, age 7, was on the plane, playing his gameboy and suffering from terrible ear pain, and not getting the attention he craved for such discomfort, both in his ears and in his new life.

Zwei Kinder sitzen in Chile fest, weil ihre Adoptiveltern nach dem Erdbeben sofort helfen wollten.

Von Romina Lenzlinger | Aktualisiert um 00:48 | 07.02.2010

Eigentlich sollten Talia* (1) und Samu* (3) heute Nachmittag im Flugzeug nach Zürich sitzen. Doch jetzt stecken die Geschwister aus Haiti mit ihrem Schweizer Adoptivvater in Chile fest – weit weg von ihren leiblichen Eltern in Port-au-Prince und weit weg von ihren vier älteren Geschwistern. Aber auch Tausende von Kilometern entfernt von ihrem neuen Zuhause im Kanton Zürich.

Den beiden winkt eine schöne Kindheit in der Schweiz. Ein Ehepaar aus dem Kanton Zürich will sie adoptieren. Die leiblichen Eltern von Talia und Samu waren damit einverstanden: Sie haben zu wenig Geld, um sechs hungrige Kinder zu ernähren.

Zunächst nahm alles seinen geordneten Lauf: Im Mai 2009 begann das langwierige Adoptionsverfahren in der Schweiz und in Haiti. Im November reisten die Schweizer nach Port-au-Prince und verbrachten mit den Kindern zwei intensive Wochen.