Let's get down to business.
Why does the Haitian ratification to the Hague Convention cause me physical distress, you may ask.
You see, it's like this -
Orphanage directors in Haiti have been urging the president NOT to ratify to the Hague at this time.
"But I thought that the Hague Convention worked to protect children and orphans from corrupt practices in adoption."
Uh huh.
See, there are children in orphanages in Port-au-Prince that are literally starving to death. Some of these children have potential adoptive families, but the red tape is such that orphans are being buried before leaving for their new homes.
Orphanage directors have been trying to encourage the new president to solidify the government (like appointing individuals who actually remain in their positions for longer that a few months at a time), who can work to complete the stacks of backlogged files that exist, before accepting more responsibilities that cannot be handled with the current system.
In theory, joining the Hague Convention will not only provide clearer and much, much more consistent guidelines to which adoptions will be processed, in addition to bringing in some additional revenue for the country. It also exponentially increases the paperwork, red tape, and workload of those applying and processing adoptions. Which, for us, is very bad.
In the long run, will being part of the Hague Convention benefit orphans and orphanages in Haiti? That's the idea. In the long run.
It will ultimately put an end to independent adoptions, making agencies more accountable for maintaining accurate and legal documentation of children processed. It will force smaller, privately run orphanages to align with agencies or have no hope of their children being placed with forever families. Families will hopefully be able to feel more confidence in knowing that their paperwork and funds are being handled ethically and appropriately, rather than wondering why money went out, but no progress is being seen for months and months on end.
Will families / dossiers be grandfathered into the new system?
God knows I hope so.
Our family, for example, delivered our dossier to attorneys in Haiti (U.S. State Department endorsed attorneys, mind you) on October 21, 2011. Months and months of emails and inquiries on our part, did nothing but remind those handling our files that dust was indeed gathering on their desks. Recently, the IBESR (Haitian Adoption Authority) stopped accepting "new" dossiers in order to focus on the ones already stacked up in their office. This is great for families who had been submitted to IBESR; not so great for us, who did all we could, but are at the mercy of those representing us.
Now, we wait.
Some more.
Supposedly, the IBESR will once again accept dossiers on July 30th.
But someone has to be interested in doing the submitting.
As our orphanage is very remote in the mountains and run by a group of nuns, we are adopting independently. We have no other choice than to rely on our attorneys to act on our behalf.
We have two sons in Haiti.
For 16 months, these boys have been our sons.
Are there obstacles? Oh yeah.
Does that change anything? Hell no.
Are we going to keep fighting? You bet your boots!
Am I physically ill over the delays, the costs, the worry? What a silly question.
So, that's the scoop, in a nutshell.
It's a lot to worry about . . . to pray over.
There are a lot of mountains in our way and a lot of uphill trudging along the journey.
Someday, it will all be worth it (repeat, over and over again.)
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