The Hague Convention New Rules 2007 The hot news ...

The Hague Convention
New Rules 2007
The hot news in international adoption at this juncture is the implementation of the Hague Convention Treaty set up to safeguard international adoptions. Major Advantages of the Convention and Its Implementation as per the State Department website states:

Provides, for the first time, formal international and intergovernmental recognition of intercountry adoption.
Recognizes intercountry adoption, as defined and treated by the Convention, as a means of offering the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family has not been found in the childÂ’s country of origin.
Establishes a set of internationally agreed minimum requirements and procedures uniformly to govern intercountry adoptions in which a child moves from one Convention party country to another.
Requires that countries party to the Convention establish a Central Authority to be the authoritative source of information and point of contact in that country, to carry out certain functions, to cooperate with other Central Authorities, and to ensure effective implementation of the Convention in the United States.
Provides a means for ensuring that adoptions made pursuant to the Convention will generally be recognized and given effect in other party countries.
Facilitates the adoption by U.S. adoptive parents of children from other party countries through an expanded category of children, safeguarded by the Convention, who will qualify for immigration and automatic naturalization in the United States.
Certain countries have already been apart of this treaty, however to date the United States was not.
That meant that international adoption previously was conductedthroughh the foreign country and the United States had very little to do with the adoption except with regard to INS approval. Now agencies who have previously worked only with foreign governments to procure these adoptions need to deal with the US government as well.
What does this mean to the average adoptive couple? Another layer of government has been added to the mix,bringing with it the usual additionalbureaucraticc requirements and additional paperwork andproceduress not yet outlined. Chances are this new wrinkle will slow down adoptions somewhat as agencies and the new governmental agency will need to feel there way through uncharted waters for a while until they have established a firm policy.
The good news is of course, there are many more safeguards in place for the adoptive family enabling them to recoup lost money in the event an adoption falls through and in fact make it such that adoptions should no longer fall through the cracks. As the agencies scramble to insure that all goes smoothly with theirclientelel the actual additional requirements will not be known for a while. The best advice is to find an agency already accredited internationally and begin the application process as soon as possible. There is a good chance that applications in process may be exempt from the new additional paperwork, but that is yet to be seen. I will keep an eye on this and keep you posted.

So A Couple Came Into My Office Today.... And I ...

So A Couple Came Into My Office Today....

And I believe I talked them right out of Private Domestic Adoption. God forgive me if I have done them a disservice but the thought of representing any party again in a private adoption had me ready to hand in my happy law credo and dive back into my divorce trenches. This positively nice couple came in with all intentions of placing an 800 number in the paper and housing and meeting a frail young pregnant woman who wanted her child to have a better life. They were absolutely rosey in their concept of the how this was a wonderful idea of the young woman who may have found herself in a jam and the poor infant who would otherwise have a very difficult childhood. As I forced myself to not start screaming about how you couldn't be sure who to trust and who not to trust and the fact that they could very well be walking right into a con; helping a woman who actually had no intention at all of giving up her child but wanted financial help throughout her pregnancy and then conveniently changes her mind when the infant is produced. Or perhaps just some gold digger who wants to play "How much for that Baby In Utero?" Oh, don't worry, I stopped myself before I lost control and ran screaming from the room. I just very calmly started listing the cons of entering into this time of "agreement" though it is far from an agreement in this country where the baby is the one truly unprotected. I stressed the fact that the relinquishing of the child could not be made until the child was born and that they would have already made a hefty financial and emotional investment by that time. I then segue into the forum of International Adoption. I proceeded to advise them that in this type of adoption the children were usually already free for adoption and there would be no dealing with birth mothers. There are no open adoptions internationally, nor are there negotiations as to fees or expenses. Forgive me I said if I feel very strongly here, but I recently represented a birth mother who is in the process of suing for the child back and has implemented me in the course of this saying I forced her into this process. Of course that is the furthest thing from the truth and in fact, I believe that I was the one duped in all of this. I firmly believe this was a hoax from day one and that myself and the adoptive parents were pawns to this addict (no, I didn't know she was an addict at the time)and I had no plans to put myself in such a position again. International adoption was much more agreeable to me in that my experience was by far the happiest and most rewarding time of my life. This couple left with a new idea and lots of websites and warm fuzzy feelings. Be it China, Russia, Guatemala or the Ukraine anyplace but the United States is the place to go for adoption....Yup just ask my girl....She'll tell you.

International Adoption is Never A Bad Idea My da...

International Adoption is Never A Bad Idea

My daughter has long blond hair and green eyes. She was 16 months old when we adopted her and was shortly on her way out of the infants hospital we had found her. The chances of adoption after the age of 12 months drastically drops in countries such as Russia, where only healthy infants are desired by the Russian people. Many cannot even afford to take in another child. Once a child in Russia reaches the age of 16 they are turned out into the street to find their own way. Most of the girls turn to prostitution and the boys turn to drugs. China has a similiar story to tell, with the one child rule, the Chinese are unable to adopt their own due to the violation of their country's laws.
Where then, do these purported advocates of these children come off telling everyone including CNN that maybe international adoption is not in the best interests of these children and that perhaps they are better off in their communities. Who is there to raise them in these communities is the questions? No one is the answer. These children are left to beg for their own well being.