Monday, September 18, 2006
Picnic and Adoption News
Yesterday we attended the annual picnic that our home study agency puts on for all the families it has worked with in the surrounding area. They have aided adoptions from countries including Russia, Bulgaria, China, Vietnam and India. When we first arrived at the picnic, which was held at a very large beautiful park in Sunnyvale, I was blown away by how many people were there! There may have been close to 500 people. This picnic was a BIG deal! They had face painters, balloon artists, a magician, and an inflatable caterpillar for the kids to climb through, not to mention the parks two playgrounds and fountains to play in. Our kids had fun. I enjoyed the potluck aspect of it. The tables were overflowing with food.
Most importantly, we were able to finally meet the director of our placement agency in person. When we started our adoption process back in January, our Home Study agency referred us to the placement agency in San Diego since they only handled the home study and post-placement report aspect of the process. The placement agency has their own picnics and family reunions down in the San Diego area, but it's a long way for us to go for an afternoon picnic. So we introduced ourselves to the director, and in the process met a couple of families that had recently returned home from Russia with their children. I was able to glean a few more data facts from him:
- the agency's accreditation is almost completed. One more signature to obtain, any day now.
- I asked about the Hague Convention initiative that I recently read a comment on in Laura's blog. While I still know virtually nothing about it, the director said that the impact of it would not affect us so much as other smaller fly-by-night international adoption agencies. There will be additional fees required of the agencies to be accredited, but the fees would probably only trickle down to prospective adoptive parents in a minor way. The additional paperwork requirements have already been in place at our particular agency, but may affect other agencies that have been running independently. He mentioned that one of the countries that may be really affected by these changes would be Guatamala... and that adoptions out of Guatamala may cease because of it. But the purpose of it was to get all countries participating in international adoption to abide by a set of standards to prevent abuses of the system... child trafficking, for example. For more information about the Hague Convention, click here.
- again, he is incredibly optimistic about more referrals starting to come through in the next few months. He explained to me again the reason behind the slowing adoptions to America from Russia. The federal government in Russia was under pressure by Russian citizens who reacted to the sensationalized reports from the media concerning the abuse and murder cases last year of Russian adoptees by their American parents. The government did not stop adoptions to American couples, but the regional governments slowed the number of adoptions to American couples significantly, because they did not want to attract any negative attention to themselves from the federal government that they were sending too many children to the untrustworthy Americans. We are all hoping that these sentiments in Russia have faded, and that adoption rates will increase now that the media rage has ceased. The orphanages are very very crowded and there are many children waiting.
- we briefly talked about the waiting stage we were going through right now. I didn't put any pressure on him for details (e.g. "Where are we on the list???) because he wouldn't know. He was fielding questions single-handedly at a picnic 500 miles from home. But I did remind him that there 7 families ahead of us waiting for an infant-girl referral back in July. Without making any promises he mentioned that if we were interested, he could give us information about possibly registering with the Yekaterinburg region. He said that this particular region presented it's own unique challenges, but if we were up for it, it may prove to be promising.
Is anyone familiar with Yekaterinburg as a region? What are these particular challenges that we may face?
And lastly, today I finally got around to doing those two things:
1) I mailed the SIGNED visa applications to our agency
2) I signed up for FRUA.
Most importantly, we were able to finally meet the director of our placement agency in person. When we started our adoption process back in January, our Home Study agency referred us to the placement agency in San Diego since they only handled the home study and post-placement report aspect of the process. The placement agency has their own picnics and family reunions down in the San Diego area, but it's a long way for us to go for an afternoon picnic. So we introduced ourselves to the director, and in the process met a couple of families that had recently returned home from Russia with their children. I was able to glean a few more data facts from him:
- the agency's accreditation is almost completed. One more signature to obtain, any day now.
- I asked about the Hague Convention initiative that I recently read a comment on in Laura's blog. While I still know virtually nothing about it, the director said that the impact of it would not affect us so much as other smaller fly-by-night international adoption agencies. There will be additional fees required of the agencies to be accredited, but the fees would probably only trickle down to prospective adoptive parents in a minor way. The additional paperwork requirements have already been in place at our particular agency, but may affect other agencies that have been running independently. He mentioned that one of the countries that may be really affected by these changes would be Guatamala... and that adoptions out of Guatamala may cease because of it. But the purpose of it was to get all countries participating in international adoption to abide by a set of standards to prevent abuses of the system... child trafficking, for example. For more information about the Hague Convention, click here.
- again, he is incredibly optimistic about more referrals starting to come through in the next few months. He explained to me again the reason behind the slowing adoptions to America from Russia. The federal government in Russia was under pressure by Russian citizens who reacted to the sensationalized reports from the media concerning the abuse and murder cases last year of Russian adoptees by their American parents. The government did not stop adoptions to American couples, but the regional governments slowed the number of adoptions to American couples significantly, because they did not want to attract any negative attention to themselves from the federal government that they were sending too many children to the untrustworthy Americans. We are all hoping that these sentiments in Russia have faded, and that adoption rates will increase now that the media rage has ceased. The orphanages are very very crowded and there are many children waiting.
- we briefly talked about the waiting stage we were going through right now. I didn't put any pressure on him for details (e.g. "Where are we on the list???) because he wouldn't know. He was fielding questions single-handedly at a picnic 500 miles from home. But I did remind him that there 7 families ahead of us waiting for an infant-girl referral back in July. Without making any promises he mentioned that if we were interested, he could give us information about possibly registering with the Yekaterinburg region. He said that this particular region presented it's own unique challenges, but if we were up for it, it may prove to be promising.
Is anyone familiar with Yekaterinburg as a region? What are these particular challenges that we may face?
And lastly, today I finally got around to doing those two things:
1) I mailed the SIGNED visa applications to our agency
2) I signed up for FRUA.
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8 comments:
I hope the "only one signature" thing goes quickly. I want to be optimistic, but please do prepare yourself for that one little signature to take forever. My agency was in the "next batch" to be accredited in July 05. They weren't accredited until March 06. There were no problems -- they passed every inspection with flying colors. It was just delay after delay after delay. Sorry. I don't mean to be a downer, I just want you to know the possibility. Your agency has no real control over this. They could be accredited quickly, or it could stretch out over a long period of time.
As for regions, I was in Tyumen which isn't too far east of Yekaterinburg. But I don't know anything about how Yekaterinburg works.
Hi Sandy,
Thanks for the info. My son is from Yekaterinburg. Do you mind if I e-mail me privately? I am still on the Ekat yahoo group. To be honest, right now, if i was given a referral for Ekat (Yekat), I would have to turn it down. Our friends are still waiting for trip # 2 from Ekat, it has been 7 months, and another family just returned after 1 1/2 years inbetween trip 1 and 2. It is a really difficult region. The judge is impossible. Just something to think about. Feel free to e-mail me too. I love the region, but it is really difficult.
Like Margaret said, I also don't want to be a downer, but Frank pulled out of Ekat last year and the MOE begged them to come back.
Thanks for the Hague Conv. clarification!!
Laura
THanks for the info on Hague. It's all so confusing some times.
Reading what Laura said on Yekaterinburg I would ask your director what makes it so difficult. YOu for sure don't want to be waiting that long for trip 2. Good luck and I hope that last signature comes quicker than expected,
Considering what the others stated, that region may not be the best choice. check out other options. do you have a choice?
YIkes Sandy, I wish I had some good advice. Sorry it is so long for you. It kind of discourages me over all to see you and others go through this. I guess my friends got lucky in '04 (a full two years ago) started Jan. got referral in Aug. and traveled then and then went back Christmas that year and finished within the year. Two boys 2 and 3. From reading, it was an easier time then, pre the media attention and stories lately.
On a lighter note, Thanks for the word up about your twins too! I had commented and have read - I had to get my nerves up to write up a little. We have to keep up with this. And ditto here too - the Twins so miss all of their big play time. I am so glad they had that for 5.8 years - to get to be kids and play. They are loving the Kindergarten experience so far. I still miss them. It is easier to do most things that I have done the past 5 years with a child on each hip! :/ Right!
p.s. my example above was the Yakenb. region. '04
Sounds like more info is needed. I don't know anything about this region. I know the region we switched to after we lost our first referalls required a LOT more paperwork- almost 30 papers more, all notarized and apostilled. It was a rat race doing it all, but proved to be successful in the end.
About the wait between trips: We were told a month's wait between trips in both scenarios. In fact, in Russia they told us a month because we had everything ready. It ended up being 3 months between trips because of the court being booked up and other factors that weighed in. Always think longer, then it isn't so disappointing.
I'll be anxious to hear what you decide.
Interesting article, added his blog to Favorites
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