The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, known as "the Hague Convention" is an international agreement between countries that is designed to protect children adopted across national boundaries. This is a fantastic agreement to help stop child abductions and child trafficking - however it's downside is that it is steadily decreasing the number of international adoptions. With more than 75 countries as members, the tighter restrictions, greater amount of paperwork and red tape, and the higher cost of the overall adoption is deterring prospective adoptive parents. Our problem for the past several weeks has been trying to determine if we would be required to follow Hague requirements or non-Hague requirements for our adoption. We are American citizens (a Hague country) living in South Korea (a non-Hague country). We wanted to adopt from the United Sates but believed that we would have to follow Hague requirements which would involve our adoption following not just U.S. guidelines, but Korean ones as well. We decided to try going for an international adoption with Ukraine (a non-Hague country) so we would only have to follow Ukraine's adoption policies. (Do you see the headache yet?) The problem that arose with Ukraine is that they have several of their adoption policies before Parliament right now, including an age limit as to how young a child could be for an international adoption. We weren't comfortable with the possibility of adopting a child older than our biological daughter so we were back at square one. We sent emails to several agencies and advisors, we called agencies, we called a lawyer, none seemed to have any concrete answers for our specific situation. Then finally we were given the name of a very experienced social worker from Texas-so we emailed him, and guess what??? He was in Korea, but we didn't have a chance to meet with him personally. However he has assured us that we can infact adopt an American child while living overseas and it isn't even considered an international adoption! Thank you Randy Barlow. He will be returning to Korea in September, at which time we can either meet with him or have him complete our some study. I am not sure that we will be able to get all our medical, financial, and criminal (background check) paperwork in order as well as having the $1000+ for our first payment installment -so we will most likely just meet with him. Either way, please pray that God will continue to guide our steps and those with whom we will be working.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Hague Headache
The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, known as "the Hague Convention" is an international agreement between countries that is designed to protect children adopted across national boundaries. This is a fantastic agreement to help stop child abductions and child trafficking - however it's downside is that it is steadily decreasing the number of international adoptions. With more than 75 countries as members, the tighter restrictions, greater amount of paperwork and red tape, and the higher cost of the overall adoption is deterring prospective adoptive parents. Our problem for the past several weeks has been trying to determine if we would be required to follow Hague requirements or non-Hague requirements for our adoption. We are American citizens (a Hague country) living in South Korea (a non-Hague country). We wanted to adopt from the United Sates but believed that we would have to follow Hague requirements which would involve our adoption following not just U.S. guidelines, but Korean ones as well. We decided to try going for an international adoption with Ukraine (a non-Hague country) so we would only have to follow Ukraine's adoption policies. (Do you see the headache yet?) The problem that arose with Ukraine is that they have several of their adoption policies before Parliament right now, including an age limit as to how young a child could be for an international adoption. We weren't comfortable with the possibility of adopting a child older than our biological daughter so we were back at square one. We sent emails to several agencies and advisors, we called agencies, we called a lawyer, none seemed to have any concrete answers for our specific situation. Then finally we were given the name of a very experienced social worker from Texas-so we emailed him, and guess what??? He was in Korea, but we didn't have a chance to meet with him personally. However he has assured us that we can infact adopt an American child while living overseas and it isn't even considered an international adoption! Thank you Randy Barlow. He will be returning to Korea in September, at which time we can either meet with him or have him complete our some study. I am not sure that we will be able to get all our medical, financial, and criminal (background check) paperwork in order as well as having the $1000+ for our first payment installment -so we will most likely just meet with him. Either way, please pray that God will continue to guide our steps and those with whom we will be working.
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James, I wouldn't give any money yet. We paid a few "starter" adoption fees to agencies who "promised" us that they would be able to help us adopt -- all to find out that, oops, they were wrong. I believe they genuinely thought they could help us adopt, but they had never navigated the extremely complex waters of adopting a child while living abroad. Before you fork up any cash, you should ask to see specific cases he has worked with and if possible to talk with some of the other adoptive parents. No way would I give any money to someone who hasn't navigated several adoptions for US citizens living abroad. Sorry, we just lost several thousand going down that road.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say, don't pursue adoption. I think it's great, and I genuinely hope it works for you. I'm just saying that you're going to need an exceptional expert to make this happen for your family.
ReplyDeleteExcellent advice. We don't want to be anybody's first. Thanks Josh, your and Sarah's counsel has been truly invaluable.
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