A lot has happened this past week, and thought you'd all like to know a little bit of what has gone on...
A petition was written and signed by several families adopting from the same orphanage as us. The petition was a list of questions requested to be answered, and was sent to the board of directors of the organization. It was also posted to the Yahoo Groups that I follow, and since then we've all seen many days of heated discussion and lots of bickering and mud-slinging back and forth, that I have been careful to not become a part of. I feel that the purpose - or if not the purpose, definitely an unfortunate result - of the petition being posted publicly was to encite fear and anger in those of us that were unaware of what was going on. I must say it worked. We were unaware of the reasons behind the questions that were asked, but there were a few that really concerned us. I'm not going to go into too many details (so please don't ask me), except to explain to you what of these issues affects us and our adoption process.
When we started this adoption, we knew that different agencies, orphanages and facilitators have different criteria for families to meet to be eligible to adopt. Some of this criteria we fit, some of it we do not. Many adoption programs from many countries, including Haiti, have varying requirements, such as age, length of marriage, number of biological children, etc. The organization we're adopting through, all along has had their criteria posted on their website - married couples must be 28 years of age, and married for a minimum of 5 years. Even two years ago when we first started looking into adopting from Haiti, we contacted several agencies and facilitators about the fact that different agencies had posted different requirements. I remember at least three responding, all with different answers. One told us that they would not accept us into their program, and one told us that they wat it would be a gamble. Then we were assured - by our facilitator that we did fit the criteria. That made us feel much better about proceeding with them. I'm not sure I gave it as much thought as I am now, but I'm certain that I though - OK, it's Haiti - it's a third-world country with an unstable government - it probably depends on who you know...
Now, we know that Haiti's government has had laws in place, dating back to 1974, governing adoptions. These laws state that adoptive parents must be 35 years of age, but if married, one parent can be less than 35 years of age if they have been married for 10 years. It is now our understanding that, for many years, these adoption laws have been either not followed at all, or exceptions have been very easily afforded. We've been aware of the possibility that fertility problems that result in a couple not being able to have biological children was a very easy exception to obtain. We know many families that are either in the process, or have successfully brought their children home from Haiti, that do not fit within the criteria these laws. This, combined with our facilitator's requirements of 28 years of age and 5 years of marriage, we felt very comfortable moving forward with adopting from Haiti, and using this facilitator.
The question on the petition - and I don't have it in front of me right now - was if our facilitator was aware that IBESR (Haiti's government social services agency) is planning to again be enforcing the 1974 adoption law, starting this September. Now, I'm not sure how this enforcement will work, but the worst possible scenario(from our perspective) is that they will no longer be accepting any files into IBESR that do not strictlly meet this criteria - no exceptions. I do not know if this is what will happen, but we - along with many other families - are waiting for an answer. Remember: our current status in this adoption process is that we are waiting for our orphanage's processor to have the children's paperwork gathered (which could take a while longer) to be combined with ours so that it can enter IBESR.
We are of course praying that there will be a possibility for exceptions to be made, that would allow us to proceed with our adoption. We clearly do not fit the requirements of the 1974 law - we are currently 32 and 30, and have been married for 8 years - and are very concerned for the children, and for this entire adoption process. Please pray that we will have an answer soon, and that we can accept whatever news we receive. We are of course hoping that we will be allowed to bring Ralph and Celena home, but are troubled by the uncertainty of this. We are also praying for the many, many children that this enforcement would affect. I can't help but think how much longer a child would have to wait to be a part of a family that is able to love and provide for them, if so many families no longer qualify to adopt. Perhaps it is even a possibility to pray about, that the government would change the adoption laws. That to me seems an impossible feat to accomplish after 34 years in force, but I'm reminded that "With God, nothing is impossible." (reference) Please cover us with your prayers - all families involved, the children of Haiti, the agencies, orphanages and facilitators, and the Haiti government.
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