Blog: Baby Trafficking (China)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Baby Trafficking

What a horrible day (sob).

The next step in Lili's adoption is to do a "re-adoption". Basically all it is is a formality to get a US issued "Certificate of Foreign Birth" so anytime Lili needs to show a birth certificate in the future, she can just show the Certificate of Foreign Birth, since she doesn't and won't ever have a birth certificate from China (the biological parents don't abandoned the children leaving their birth certificate with the baby).

So, I had tried to find an international adoption attorney in this area (the Middle of NoWhere, Oklahoma), but no one seemed to know how to do it. So, going off other adoptive families experiences I decided to do the re-adoption "pro se" or representing myself. At least by doing it myself I would save approx $2000.

I carefully prepared all the paperwork and went to the courthouse today to file to get a court hearing date. I just went in jeans and brought Lilibug along with me to get on the judge's schedule. I was completely shocked when I was asked to go into the judge's chambers and stand before the judge to explain what it was I was trying to do.

I was a little nervous going in since I've never been to court for anything other than my own US Citizenship when I was twelve. I thought that at least the judge would be sympathetic to what I was doing, since adoptions are usually a fun, celebratory experience according to my friends.

All of a sudden the judge started scolding me, very firmly accusing me of baby trafficking. He saw my exhibit "C" with all our adoption expenses and said the expenses were unjustified. The judge was questioning what agency we used and how they got away with selling babies. He wondered how we ever found such an unethical agency. He declared he won't allow any baby selling in his court. He told me when we come again to our court hearing we need to have someone from our agency there to explain how this is all legal. He said he's not even certain he'll approve this adoption, since we "bought" Lili.

I barely made it out of his chambers before sobbing. I didn't know what to say to his accusations. He made our adoption of Lili, our beautiful daughter, out to be something dirty and immoral. Like we had taken advantage of Lili and bought her. It just feels so horribly terrible.

The judge didn't realize the adoption was handled completely above board, 100% legally and it is 100% completely finalized. The Judge isn't supposed to decide whether we can adopt Lili or not. He's just supposed to aide us in getting the proper paperwork done for Lili. But how could I tell him that when he's saying everything we did was illegal?

I've never had an experience like that. It really was horrific. I tried to defend myself, but I'm not an attorney and didn't feel it was appropriate to argue in this situation.

I'm not certain what I'm going to do to prepare for our court date. I'm simply terrified now.

When the judge started asking about the finances I naively thought he was going to be sympathetic that international adoption is so expensive. Ironically, now I'll probably need an attorney to defend us, and it'll cost us even more.

Do I need to explain why I hate Oklahoma?? Only in Oklahoma would you run into such an ignorant judge.

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2009

Gotcha Day is set

My adoption agency, Great Wall, said our gotcha day is set and confirmed to be 16 August. That's only 18 more days. WOOHOO! Can hardly stand this wait. We're still waiting to get confirmation of our Consulate appointment so we can book our airline tickets (and completely wipe out our savings account). Still hoping for that 14 August departure.

Well, now that the quilt's done, I find myself wasting time on the computer. Lots of nervous energy while waiting. Washed my exterior windows this morning (I think it's about to rain, naturally).

Lance and I are going to figure out how to hang the quilt this evening. That will really change the look of Lili's room.

Got a package in the mail from my dear friend, LaNae for Lili. Thank you, LaNae, for the bed rail. Hopefully this will keep Lili from falling out of her enormous bed.