• adoption-related events overseas
• educational seminars, new books and resources
• program changes or new document requirements
• adoption events, camps or celebrations

Email us using the Contact Form and we will include you on our email list. You do not need to be an ICF family to be included.

We appreciate hearing from families and colleagues about upcoming events or recommendations for books about adoption, child development, foreign culture and history.

This is a sample Adoption News from July 2006:

29 July 2006

Dear Families & Friends,

It is hard to believe that it is almost August! For some of you waiting to get go-aheads from Guatemala, this is disappointing because the process has been slow. For those of you waiting for referrals from China, it's good news, because it is another month under your belt. Families adopting from Vietnam have the great news of a new province added to the program -- now there are agreements with both Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces!

I look forward to Saturday mornings to writing the updates. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to let you know what is going on, and to make a record of events overseas. Sometimes I get distracted by phone calls and paperwork, so the updates don't get sent until Sunday afternoon, but I do have a commitment to keep you informed. Office hours are Monday-Friday 10am-6pm and Saturday 10am-2pm. As many of you know, we often respond to emails in the evenings, as well.

I'll be heading to Guatemala myself mid-September. If anyone has things that you would like me to take, let me know -- for your children or for the foster home.

Please remember to recommend us to your friends, for home studies or adoption. We can help with home studies for all kinds of adoptions -- international, domestic, step-parent -- and if you have an unusual situation, let us know, and we'll research it.

COUNTRY UPDATES

CHINA
Marcy Gitt has scheduled a China Workshop through FCC (Families with Children from China) for this fall. Marcy is one of our home study social workers and has worked with families adopting from China since 1994. She is also an adoptive parent of Asian children. She is a national speaker on trans-racial adoption. She just returned from escorting 21 families on a Birthland Tour of China. Don't miss it!

PREPARING TO ADOPT FROM CHINA
Sunday, October 22, 2006; 1:30-5:30 p.m.
Email us for the Registration Form. Fee $35 for FCC members; $40 for non-members.
*Preparing for your trip to China
*Understanding the impact of orphanage and /or foster care
*Nurturing development and attachment
*Caring for your child, and yourself, in China
*Helping your child adapt to new parents and a new home
*Adoption and Race… how to tell the story, respond to questions and comments, and help your child develop positive self-esteem.Take the loop 101 North. Exit at Cactus Road travel west turn Left.) Turn Right on Tatum Boulevard. Turn Left on Marilyn Road (the next side street just past the traffic light at Acoma). Temple Chai will be on your left about one block up.

Please contact us for our reading recommendations for China adoption, prepared by Jennifer Bouton, home study specialist and soon-to-be mother of a daughter from China!

GUATEMALA
Thank you to the families who sent letters to Senators and received responses. May I suggest... that you send another letter thanking your Representative for their consideration, and promise that you will send them a photo of yourselves with your child as soon as your adoption is final.

Guatemala is being pushed and prodded to speed things us. Keep in mind that this prodding is happening in the midst of a record level of adoptions -- so you might imagine the staff in the US and Guatemala offices feel like they are being given an impossible task.

We have a PGN approval for one family from last week (HURRAH!!) and we are hoping for a couple more over the next week. The PGN is the most critical segment of your adoption, because it is the most unpredictable and essentially controls the outcome, but it is not the very last step. Your attorney needs to do more legal work. First, the Protocolo is prepared and the birth mother signs her final consent. Then this document is filed with the Archivo de Protocolo. Voila -- this make your child legally yours under Guatemalan law. But, not over yet...

The attorney presents documents to record the adoption at the Civil Registry and requests a new birth certificate to record the adoption and change the child's name to your surname. With this accomplished, the documents, including the new birth certificate, are submitted to apply for the child's Guatemalan passport, and the child is again fingerprinted to confirm identity. Then, the attorney presents the case file with the child's passport and new birth certificate to the US Embassy. The file is reviewed, and a "Final Document Approval" (pink slip) is issued. Please -- the US Embassy advises -- do not plan your travel until you receive the "pink slip" and are given an interview date.

As for the PGN, the average wait time is now 80 days.

KAZAKHSTAN
Welcome to two new families who are adopting from Kazakhstan!

RUSSIA
If you are looking for information on birth parent searches, and a variety of other topics relating to Russia adoption, check out Karen's Adoption Links... www.karensadoptionlinks.com/regions.html She has links to regional groups, including Bryansk, Kursk Oblast, Novgorod Oblast, Velikiy Novgorod, Novosibirsk Oblast, Kuibychev, Orel Oblast,Tatarstan, Republic of (Kazan),Vladimir Oblast and Pokrov.

Also, if you are interested in Birth Parent searches, try...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BirthParentContact or http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/postadoptbirthparentseek

Last, but not least, World Links has received their NGO certificate, and I believe this is the first agency to be so awarded! Contact us for a list of currently accredited agencies.

UKRAINE -- Quiet.

VIETNAM
A we mentioned above, there are now agreements with both Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces! Please let us know if you are considering Vietnam -- we will send more information! Vietnam is open to singles and accepts families under age 30 and has less stringent requirements than China. Worth considering!!!

Contact us for our list of resources and books for Vietnam adoption!

FYI -- Link to US CIS Adoption Application Process: http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/adoption_process.htm

MISCELLANEOUS
THE HAGUE
27 July 2006
U.S. Closer To Implementing International Adoption Convention
Issues proposed rules, decisions on accreditation of adoption service providers
By Louise Fenner, Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States has moved closer to its goal of ratifying the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption with the publication of proposed rules related to adoption and custody proceedings, and with the designation of two entities to handle the accreditation of adoption service providers.
The State Department has named the Council on Accreditation and the Colorado Department of Human Resources as entities responsible for accrediting nonprofit agencies or other providers to handle adoptions between countries that have implemented the Hague Convention.
Full Story:
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=July&x=20060727132106xlrennef0.275387

The Department of State reminds us that Congress, in passing the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000, took the situation of adoptive families in-process when they wrote Section 505(b) of the Act. This states that neither the Convention nor the IAA (and its implementing regulations by implication) shall apply if the application for advance processing of an orphan petition (I-600A) or petition to classify an orphan as an immediate relative (I-600) is filed before the date the Convention enters into force for the United States. The date of the Convention's entry into force will be posted on the State Department web site well in advance.

FAMILY LEAVE
As an adoptive family, you are legally entitled to 3 months of leave when you adopt your child. This is due to the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act. (Company must have more than 50 and you must be employed for more than a year.) Your employer must honor this and cannot terminate you for taking the time. They are not required to pay you. You are also entitled to take time off partially. See http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/

Have a wonderful week!
Jackie

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