Well, the last few weeks for us have been a roller coaster. It started with our current adoption agency sending us an email saying that Kazakhstan adoptions were going on hold soon. The reason being that the country of Kazakhstan has decided to sign the Hague Treaty, which is an international treaty for adoption standards. It is a good thing for the orphans there, overall, but for the time being adoptions will be placed on hold. Our agency told us that they think the hold will happen fairly soon and that they weren't sure whether or not our adoption file would be processed before the hold or not (but it wasn't looking good). They also told us that they had no idea how long the hold would be for. They were thinking around 8 months but said it could be longer. So...that would mean that all our paperwork would be on hold, along with a boat load of money we would have sent them, and more than likely, we would have to redo a lot of our paperwork again. Basically, after a long couple weeks of praying and talking to adoption professionals, we decided to shelve the international adoption for the time being.
We don't, however, feel that we should stop the adoption process altogether. In the beginning of March as well, through a series of people, we were introduced to a birth mother who was looking to make an adoption plan for her baby. Long story short, she chose us to adopt her baby but in the end, changed her mind. The whole process was a whirl wind and a roller coaster but really got us thinking and praying about domestic adoption.
After more researching, prayer, calling references, etc...we decided on a new agency in which to pursue domestic adoption as our other agency did not do that. We are happy with the new agency and are excited to start moving forward again. Some good news is that we really didn't have to have much paperwork redone! We sent in our application with the rest of the paperwork last week and are now just waiting to hear back from them.
This journey has definitely had a lot of ups and downs but we have a peace that we are doing what God wants us to do. Please keep praying for us as we continue on this path!
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4 comments:
Robby and Emily -- My prayers continue to be with you as you move forward with the new agency. Praise God for the peace that He has given you! Love you guys :)
So nice to see your blog posts here. What a legacy to leave for your child...God's pre-planned journey to unite parents with child. Praying for you! Love, Miel
I just googled 'kazakhstan adoption to close for Hague' and got nothing back.
I wonder why no-one else seems to be discussing this on the internet.
Has anyone else heard anything about this? I know that Kaz wanted US Agencies to be Hague Accredited, but that's as far as I know. This delay would affect a lot of people, so why aren't more people talking about it? Are you SURE that it's not just YOUR agency that is saying this? Maybe it is your agency itself that is not accepted by Kaz as Hague??? Maybe another agency would be. I'd double check with other agencies to see what they say.
Our agency told us that the bill for Kaz to sign the Hague Treaty had passed through the first level of parliment and needed to get through the second then signed by the Pres. Our in country coordinator was guessing that would happen within 3-4 months, which for us would probably not be enough time to our paperwork through. The agency then said that once they signed the Hague Treaty, they would have to place adoptions on hold to review all agencies working in Kaz for adoptions and that time line is unknown. They were guessing not longer than 8-12 months but who really knows. That is the info we were given and made our decision based on that. Our agency is not closing adoptions but just saying it would go on hold sooner than later. Hope that helps.
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