Well, tomorrow marks the day that will change International Adoption (at least for many countries..China and the U.S. included) in a pretty significant way. After tomorrow any seeking to adopt a child from a country who signed the Hague Treaty, oh so many years ago, will need to be working with a Hague accredited adoption agency. Anyone who is already in the process of adopting will need to be working with an accredited agency in order to complete their adoption.
Towards the end of February a list of approved Hague adoption service providers was released and surprisingly our agency, Children's Hope International, was not on it. They had apparently been placed in a "pending" status by the COA (Council on Accreditation). Although they have been working, and will continue to work, diligently to become accredited it is appears that it will be months (maybe as late as early fall) before they will be in a position to request that the "pending" status be removed and approval given. If, at that time, they are not approved, we will be "transfer ed" to an agency that has already been approved in order to complete the adoption. At least that's what we are being told at this time. Many, many things are still up in the air...including whether or not our agency will continue to receive referrals for their clients while they are "pending". There is also the issue of families being able to renew necessary documents while their agency is pending. Only time will tell how all of this will be worked out and how it will effect our adoption, if at all.
I spent a great deal of time last week researching all that I could think to research, making tons of phone calls, sending tons of emails...trying to do anything I could to secure our position. Sadly, there's was little, in fact nothing, I could do to help our situation. So, I am forced to just "let go" for now. I have to trust that the Hague committee, USCIS and the CCAA will come up with a plan that will be in the best interest of all the children who are waiting for their family to come get them and the families who want so desperately to bring their child home. There has been so much change in the world of international adoption in the past few years that it is hard, almost impossible, to feel confident that all will OK. But, we are not alone and the chances that the adoption of so many people (our agency alone has 800 families logged in in China) will be ruined by policy changes, or the like, is probably pretty small. So, for now, it's time to sit back and see where all the cards will fall. We were told 2 1/2 years ago at our required course on adoption that, "International Adoption is very rewarding, but IT IS NOT EASY". The "not easy" part I get...I can't wait to see the reward!
P.S. On a funnier note...the boys and I were over at my sister-in-law's house on Saturday night and her daughter wanted to watch Annie the movie....so needless to say we were all sitting around watching it. I totally got emotional watching it!!! You know you are going through a bad spell when "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" song gets you misty!! I'm still laughing at myself about it....Hopefully it was just the wine, otherwise I'm turning into a total sap!
