Our Adoption Journey – Part 4

We’ve not shared our story publicly up to this point but now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak, I am going to share the process here, with names and numbers. I’ve journaled sporadically but have at least kept track of the important stuff. Some of this is pretty close to my heart and I ask that you, the reader, handle my feelings with care and gentleness. Everyone comes to adoption differently. This is our path.

Our story:

Part 4:

Our Adoption Trip:
June 10th, 2011

Luke Leonard from The Family Network gave us a couple of places that his office works with regularly and I began to call them. I called Adoption Network Law Center and, after speaking to someone who asked a couple of questions to pre-qualify us, I was put on hold and then through to Teri Miller, an adoption consultant. I made it clear early in our conversation that we are Canadian and her response to that was that non-citizens cannot adopt domestically in the US. She was unable to give a concise answer as to why but vaguely implied that the Canadian government would not allow it. She also referred to The Hague Convention which governs the international adoption of children. The US has been a partner in the Hague Convention since 2007. (It’s still relatively new to US adoption workers and not necessarily well understood.) She felt that it clearly stated that we would not be able to adopt or that we would need to return to Canada in order to have all of our assessments done there. I have read through it (yay – fun reading!) and nowhere did it state this.

Taken from Citizen and Immigration Canada:

The Hague Convention’s main goals are to:

• protect the best interests of adopted children;
• standardize processes between countries; and
• prevent child abuse, such as trafficking in children.

What you need to know about the Hague Convention:

• If the child you want to adopt comes from one of the countries that follow the Hague Convention, the adoption must follow the Convention’s rules. Canada and all its provinces and territories follow the Convention. Check the list of other countries in the Related Links section at the bottom of this page.
• The adoption authorities in your province or territory will explain the rules of the Hague Convention to you.
• Before a child can be adopted from one country to live in another, the Convention requires that the governments in both countries agree to proceed with the adoption.
• Canada does not allow adoptions that are arranged privately if the child’s home country follows the Hague Convention