January 2010

This is a late update for those out there still following our progress. 
The holidays were difficult for us as you can imagine and I did not want to post anything I would regret, thus the reason for the long time between posts.

Earlier this month (Jan 8), we  sent an official request letter to ICBF that our file be sent back to the main office in Bogota. It had been in the Norte de Santander regional office since April 2009 and was there for close to 9 months.  Our agency and other agencies have said the normal protocol is that once a file is sent to a region, a referral is normally forthcoming within 1-3 months.  But for one reason or another, there were no sibling groups of two meeting the criteria in our request in that region.

We’re very hopeful that the review committee in Bogota will be made aware of our long wait in the region and maybe have pity on our situation.  We’ve asked our agency for information about the process for how files are handled once they’re returned back to the main office.  Hopefully, if we can’t get details on the process, we’ll at least be given a timeframe on how much longer we’ll have to wait for a referral. 

One other step we took this month was having our local social worker do an addendum to our Home Study to specify again our age request at 0 to 6 years old.  Our official adoption request letter to ICBF did state 0-6, but we want to make sure our USCIS immigration letter states exactly the same age range to avoid getting a referral for kids older than the requested age.  

In December, there were a flurry of referrals to families requesting sibling groups of three, and to families who agreed to accept a referral of siblings that were split up from a larger group.   Right now, there are four families from our agency in Colombia picking up their children.  It’s wonderful to know that forever families are being created, but we haven’t seen any movement in the 0-6 natural sib group of two category–in terms of referrals to our agency–in a year. We’re wondering what this means…

U.S. International Adoptions – Top Countries

Do you know every time I mention to someone that we’re adopting internationally, they assume we’re adopting from China?   That assumption is understandable because it seems most everyone knows someone personally who has adopted from there.  

The reality is that China is not the number one country for U.S. international adoptions last year.  Guess which country is (or was in 2008)?

It was Guatemala!  In 2008, there were 4,122 adoptions to the U.S.

China was a close second at 3,911.

The other country stats:

Russia: 1,857

South Korea: 1,065

Vietnam: 748

Ukraine: 490

Kazakhastan: 380

India: 308

Colombia: 306 

So Colombia made the top ten list and yet I’m surprised at the low number given just the amount of placements through our agency in 2008 and I know there are at least three or four other agencies that work with Colombia.

To check out these stats for yourself, go to:  http://adoption.state.gov/news/world_map.html

Do you know it’s impossible to get statistics for domestic adoptions? States aren’t required to report them to any national aggregator and no one’s counting all of the private and social service adoptions!  The last attempt to compile numbers was in 1992.  That seems like important information to me.

Adoptable children statistics

Thank goodness for transparent government agencies.  It is nice to have some sense of the number of people waiting for their referrals, but the information is not complete and I have so many questions about the legal and referral process.   The statistics below are excerpted from the family welfare institute report as of October 30th 2009.

It shows that there are only 205 Colo**ians on the wait list and 3,544 foreigners waiting to adopt. I’m assuming we’re counted in the 3,544 number. But is the number representative of all non-finalized adoptions including those waiting in the region? I don’t know…

It also says that through Oct 30th of this year, 2,174 children were given up for adoption–909 to Colo**ians and 1,265 to foreign families.

The section I’m interested in is the number of siblings ages 0-7. The report shows that there are 1,319. These are not special needs. Update: Oops, I had that wrong.  I found out from other bloggers that these numbers are only the special needs numbers. (Apparently, there are over 8,200 special needs children on the list. Adolescents and sibling groups of 3 or more are considered special needs too.)

So we really don’t know how many children in the category we’re adopting are already legally available to adopt.    

Why would a dossier be sent to a region if there are not children already available for adoption? I could not find the number of available children by region. That information may not be public information.

Anyone can access the report (and translate it) through Google.

I’m not aware of the internal processes in country, but some of you working with other agencies may be. Please share if you have any insights on this.

November news

like sands through the hourglass...

The third round of FBI fingerprint clearance and medical clearance is now completed. Now, if I can only remember what has to be notarized and apostilled…Anyway, I’m thankful to check that off the list!

I haven’t posted in awhile because we’ve been on email and the phone a lot this past month trying to find out when a referral is likely to happen. *****WARNING****The following will seem like a former post. It is not your imagination. This is repetitive info.

Unfortunately the only information we have for you is that we have been encouraged to wait in the region because there are children in process that are intended to be matched with us. BUT…

in a few weeks, we’ll have been waiting NINE MONTHS in this region. We never imagined it would take this long to be matched with two siblings up to six years old. It is very unlikely we’ll get any news before the Colombian offices shut down for the holidays around Dec 15 and through mid January. Heavy, heavy sigh.

For those who are curious, we have not turned down a previous referral and we haven’t requested a specific gender or age.

It’s understandable that no information can be shared with prospective adoptive parents regarding the children whose status is still being determined by the legal process. What we’ve been trying to get clarity on though, is the actual step-by-step process and timeframes for getting children through the process and to the referral stage. Specific details on the process are sketchy. If any of you who have adopted from Colombia or are currently adopting do have info from your agency about the process, please let us know.

It would make such a difference to know for certain that we have been matched and it’s just a matter of weeks (not months), until the referral.

We’re trying to be thankful for what we have and keep hope alive that we’ll have children soon.

What’s that? News? Oh never mind.

Just got off the phone with our agency rep.

Bottom line #1: It will take another month to resolve some paperwork issues for the kids that are currently in process.

Bottom line #2: We still don’t know if these children will be our “referral” or if the paperwork issue will be unresolvable.

Bottom line #3: We are definitely not traveling to Colombia to meet our kids this year.

For other adoptive families…You have to stay on top of your agency and they need to stay on top of their in-country liaisons.

We’ve learned that the ICBF staff aren’t necessarily calling the agency contacts with updates or news such as problems like this that come up. We would still be waiting for a referral–thinking it was coming in early November– if we hadn’t called. The reality is you have to be your own advocate. So, now we have to move forward with the third round of medical and fingerprint updates because they expire every six months and ours expire in December.

Our Stats

When we started the paperwork process in early 2007, the wait for a sibling group of older kids (over 4 years) was only four-six months. Then, the wait time was extended to six-nine months, then 12 months, then 18 months.

12.07–Dossier Submitted for sibling group of two children ages 0-6

04.08–Dossier Approved (no follow-up questions or changes required!)

04.09–Regional Assignment!

09.09–Where in the world are our kids?

Bad news and good news

So we spoke with our agency rep after her return from Colombia.  We learned that the sibling groups that were “in process” turned out to either not be adoptable–meaning some family members requested guardianship–or they were actually a sib group of three instead of two.

While we were approved for three, we’re still requesting just two siblings right now, so our file remains in the region we were assigned and hopefully we’ll  be next in line when the next group comes up in the system.

Some good news is that we’ve recently made connections with local contacts in the city where we’ll meet and bond with our kids.  So, we’ll have people to hang out with and friendly help in addition to the agency staff and interpretor.

Update: There’s No Update

I think that pretty much says it all.   Surprisingly, the referral we thought was coming, hasn’t. No idea why.  Our agency hasn’t been able to give us a status or provide any specific details for us either about when we could expect it.  The program director is actually in Colombia through this week though, and we’ll be following up with her for the status when we can reach her.  We’re very curious about recent referrals that have happened quickly and we wonder if some prospective adoptive parents are able to adopt outside of the government agency’s timeline and process by going directly through private orphanages.  We’ll let you know what we learn.

Window Boxes!

This is just a break from adoption stuff to show you how great our window boxes look

Approved But No Time For Pleasantries

I have to say I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the FBI and The Department of Homeland Security U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices.  

Both offices are accessible by email and are very prompt about answering questions about our application.  BUT, THEY HAVE NO TIME FOR PLEASANTRIES as this reply message from them today shows:

“A reply to this message, including “thank you” or other such notification, is discouraged due to volume of messages received.

Your application for renewal was approved and an approval Notice (Form I-171H), indicating an extension until 11/13/2010 has gone out in today’s regular mail.”   Love it.