Weekly Update (Adopter from US - THE SYSTEM EXPLAINED)
March 1998
3rd March 1998
First off, welcome to Des and Ann to the Weekly mail-out, although I am beginning to have fun remembering everyone!
We shipped all our documents by FedEx to Philadelphia on Thursday and had great fun tracking its progress via their Web Site. Excellent service.
Bob at International Families phoned us last night and said that it looks excellent and said that he wished all his families were as efficient as we are, what he really means is as Carol is. Whilst I did some of the work, Carol simply excels at organising, so I was more than happy to let her get on with things. (Good job I'm at work, hopefully Carol will have calmed down after reading this, by the time I get home!).
Gabi, who is over in Romania at the moment has seen Cristina and says she "looks great" and has taken pictures and video of her, although by the time she gets back to the US and sends us copies, we will probably be on our way to Romania anyway. Gabi goes back to the orphanage in the next day or so to follow up on Cristina's medical/legal paperwork and we are hoping to speak to her on Thursday to get an update on her health and timescales to legal abandonment.
Pretty much what is left to do now is wait and prepare things back home. To that end, at the weekend, we redecorated the bedroom and the bedframe arrives on Thursday. Once it is fully set up, I'll email a picture to you all (just to bore the pants off you).
As well as telling us that our paperwork was fine, Bob quizzed us with regard to what we know of the adoption system in the UK, (albeit that we aren't using it), since he is keen to start working with UK families and International Families has no experience dealing with UK Social Services.
We set the scene for him and it is clear that he enjoys a good challenge, since we haven't put him off!
Timing is now pretty much in the lap of the legal system in Romania, (aka The Gods), albeit that we have yet to get confirmation from the American INS department that they approve our paperwork, but this should be a formality. Famous last words, our fingerprints are with the FBI at the moment, so who knows what that might unearth! As soon as the FBI confirm that we are not wanted criminals, INS in London will give the go ahead to the US Embassy in Romania. This is likely to be approx. 6 weeks away.
Once this has happened and assuming Cristina is legally abandoned in the next few weeks, as expected, we are looking at a May/June timeframe for collecting her.
Whilst Carol and I are both going out on the 26th March, depending on what the timetable is, we want to keep some holiday time (5 days or so) so that we can all travel to the USA within 4 months to complete US INS regulations so that our child can claim US citizenship. If the process drags on a little then we would go to the US in October over half term, otherwise it will either be August or September. [Any interested relatives, please apply now!]
We have been looking at childcare/playgroups/preschool, etc... and whilst the initial reaction is that it is almost cheaper for Carol to not work, all the information we have says that it is vitally important for an adopted child to be with other children. Carol's school have been really helpful, allowing her to give up some of her lessons from September (the ones she hates!) and this should mean that she will go back to a 3-3.5 day week, depending on how things are arranged.
In addition, despite being part time and therefore not automatically entitled to it, she is being given paid maternity leave. 6 weeks at 90% and 6 weeks at 50% pay. If the timing is right, i.e. if the adoption is completed in either late May or June, then she might have 6 weeks at 90% and the rest will fall into the Summer holidays and be irrelevant.
It's nice to have an understanding employer at the right time, especially after the duds in the last few years.
Well, I had better wind this missive up and tidy up what's left of the day. (Probably more decorating when I get home this evening!)
11th March 1998
Dear all
It's been a busy week (work wise) hence the delay in sending this week's update.
The one thing of significance was that we spoke to Gabi in Romania last Thursday. Cristina is looking fit and well and is very friendly. Gabi says that she has put on quite a bit of weight, which we got the impression is slightly unusual. (I have asked the question as to whether Cristina is bullying other children out of food or simply putting on weight?!)
We got a fascinating insight into how the orphanage system works over there. Apparently, the staff are employed on the basis of how many children are in the orphanage, so the more children they have, the safer their jobs are. Yes, you have guessed it, at this orphanage alone there are no fewer than 27 children who should have been put through the courts abandonment procedures.
Gabi has an extremely colourful grasp of the English language and she called the director of the orphanage a number of words that were new to me! She reported the director to Social Services who have threatened him with a small fine - 6 months salary! All of a sudden things are moving!
The next stage is that social workers visit Cristina's family and village and report back on her social background. What we do know is that her parents put her in the orphanage because they don't have the money to support her. Carol was pretty upset about this, but I take the view that she must clearly have parents who loved her enough to recognise that if they tried to support her themselves it would have made matters worse.
Whilst Cristina's papers have now been filed at the court, she does not yet have a court date. Once a date is set, the judge will turn up and adjourn the case for two weeks, to give family members one last opportunity to claim her. From there it is approx. 8 weeks until our adoption agency will be able to petition the court on our behalf to complete the adoption under Romanian law, which means waiting for a further court date and then... we have a daughter.
What this all means is that (hopefully) within the next 3-4 weeks we should know whether Cristina has been declared abandoned in the courts and from there is should be simply a matter of time, medical and other reports notwithstanding.
The orphanage where Cristina is located is right on the Romanian/Russian border, pretty much due east of a place called Birlad, which should be on most world atlas maps. Getting there sounds like it can be interesting - possibly car, possibly train, possibly both. We have been told to take simple things as gifts - coffee and chocolates for grownups, lollipops for the children.
The area is very poor, even by Romanian standards, but the children are apparently in much better health there than in the orphanages in the cities, largely because of the environment and more fresh food and milk in the country.
We have started putting the finances in place, since we have been told that ideally we should take US$6-7,000, approx. half the outstanding fees, to Romania at the end of the month. I know that having children is an expensive occupation, but it feels as though we are getting a three-year-old by spending similar amounts had we had her ourselves and brought her up, except that we are spending it all in one go!
I had better close at this point, Carol is waiting for me to get home and cook supper!
20th March 1998
(Better late than never)
Another busy week at work and not all that much to report this week.
The Irish Justice department have put a slight complication into the process. You may recall that our intention was to travel to Ireland from Romania with new daughter in tow, thus immigrating into the EU and from there fly back to the UK.
Carol sent a letter a while ago to them requesting information about what we would need to do this and had received no response. Last Thursday she called them and was told (a) they had not received her letter and (b) they could not pre-issue an entry clearance (which was what we were looking for) to Cristina without appropriate documentation from the Adoption Board. Carol then phoned the Adoption Board and was told that they could not issue the letter to the Justice Department because we do not reside in Ireland.
The logic of this was starting to look like a Chinese finger puzzle, in that they were saying that they would issue a passport, they just wouldn't issue entry clearance. To an extent I can understand why the different departments are saying this, in that an entry clearance is actually an acknowledgement from the State that they would support the child in the event of disaster. They don't issue this to just anyone, so they require that the Adoption Board confirm that the child will actually be our child.
This is where the problem arises, in that the Adoption Board can only say that they don't see a problem with the adoption, but since they haven't done the Home Study and all the other checks they are relying on us immigrating into another country and then applying in that country for an Irish passport. None of them had apparently considered carrying out an adoption in the way we are doing it. What is really bizarre is that were we to fly from Romania to the US, completing US INS regulations, we can then fly into Ireland and they would welcome us with open arms.
Carol was not very happy (slight understatement), on the basis that simply by living in another country she appeared to lose some of her rights as a citizen. Anyway, she told her father what had been going on and John promptly says that he has a contact in the Irish Foreign Affairs department and he will see what he can do to enlist some help. About an hour later 'Liam' calls and Carol explains her tale of woe to him. "Doesn't sound right to me, let me look into it and I'll call you back tomorrow evening", says Liam. Sounds good to us.
Friday came and went, as did the weekend and Monday. Tuesday was St. Patrick's day so we assumed that he had taken a long weekend and hence the lack of response. Not a bit of it, Liam phoned us on Tuesday evening to apologise for not getting back to us earlier, but that he had more of a problem with it than he first thought. He now thinks that the easiest route may be to issue a single-entry visa, (which could be pre-issued), assuming Cristina has a Romanian passport, enabling us to get her into the country. All this goes to prove "It's not what you know, it's who you know". Thank you John and Liam!
We should know more on this score shortly.
Our trip to Romania (at the time of sending this email) is now less than a week away and Carol is getting very nervous about the whole thing. Simply put, she wants certainty in the process and I can't blame her. The problem is that the way in which our agency is operating means that we have been suggested a child before she was abandoned in the courts. We are therefore going out to see a child who may not actually be available in a month's time. The way that the agency gets around this is that they want us to see some other children, just in case Cristina falls through, for whatever reason.
Neither Carol nor I are terribly happy with this concept, but I can't see that we have much choice. Cristina was meant to have gone through the courts already, but as I explained last week, because the orphanage has been delaying things... Ho hum.
Our agency is trying to persuade us to take more than one child, but they just don't understand that in this country, unlike in the US, non-recurring expenses incurred in an international adoption are not allowable against tax. (i.e. it's a lot cheaper in the US). Much as I would love to take two children in one go, since it would be significantly cheaper than getting a second at a later date, I just can't see how we can generate the additional money, unless our numbers come up in the Lottery!
That's it for this week, I hope to send another email before we travel next Thursday.
25th March 1998
Dear everyone
This week was always slated to be an emotionally draining one, but we had not expected to receive the following email that arrived on Monday morning:-
-------------------------------
THERE IS A TERRIBLE EMERGENCY CRISIS TRANSPIRING AT THE ROMANIAN ADOPTION COMMITTEE (RAC) RIGHT NOW--and the result is, unless something is done before Tuesday, March 24, there is a 2/3 chance (66%) that you not be receiving the assignment of the child that you have been waiting for (if you have been waiting for a specific child from last year), and a 100% chance (if you are just waiting for an assignment of a "new" child) that your agency will receive only 1/3 of the number of assignments of children that they otherwise would have been programmed to receive!
Here are the problems:
1. Many cases that were begun last year have still not reached the stage of a formal assignment having been made from the RAC to the foundation that in turn assigns the child to an agency, and then to the family that (if it is one of the "old" cases) perhaps has already seen the child in person, or has received info about the child for 7-12 months, and has fallen in love with the photo on the refrigerator door, as it were. Yet, RAC has made many commitments, both this year and last, and both to the foundations as well as to the US Consulate in Bucharest, that those children would be held for the specific families that could show that they had some connection with the child. THOSE COMMITMENTS ARE ABOUT TO BE BROKEN.
2. Many people would like to be able to adopt from Romania, and they have become involved starting at the end of last year, when it seemed that a new and honest and clean RAC was taking over from the old and supposedly corrupt RAC. These pre-adoptive families became clients of agencies in the US, Canada, and elsewhere, that had just formulated agreements of professional cooperation with the newly-approved child protection foundations in Romania. Those foundations have in turn done their homework in various provinces in Romania, and have lined up children that they would be requesting from the RAC; then the foundations have told the international adoption agencies with which they are working how many assignments they could expect over the next few months, and in turn agencies are probably telling clients how long they would have to wait for a placement. BUT NOW EACH FOUNDATION--except one--IS GOING TO LOSE 67% OF THE PLACEMENTS THAT IT HAD EXPECTED. That means that each foundation will have only 1/3 the number of children to offer to the agencies that make the placements. Who knows how much longer the waiting lists will become for that terribly reduced number of children!
Here’s why--
Last Thursday afternoon/evening RAC met and decided to
a. revamp the system by which foundations are "rewarded" for doing various child protection activities; the result is that one foundation (which has the most interesting personal connections to Dr. Cristian Tabacaru) will (starting this Tuesday, March 24) get approx. 2/3 of ALL assignments of children. And the word ALL means "all"--including new children and old children that had been on hold.
b. cancel all the commitments that had been made to families, to agencies, to foundations and even to the US Consulate, to hold or keep in reserve the children whose cases had started last year, i.e. the cases that have not yet come to the point of a formal assignment, usually because of some hang-up in the abandonment process. BY CANCELLING ALL THE COMMITMENTS, RAC CAN GIVE THOSE CHILDREN TO THIS ONE "SPECIAL" FOUNDATION WHICH WILL GET APPROX. 2/3 OF ALL ASSIGNMENTS OF CHILDREN.
Now, who is this newly favoured foundation, and why is it going to get such favourable treatment?
1. In Romanian, there is a foundation called "Copii Fericit" (The name means "happy child"--what irony!) It’s founder and director is Bogdan Ivanescu. He apparently was the best university student friend of Dr. Cristian Tabacaru, who now is head of RAC. Copii Fericit and Mr. Ivanescu have one of their principal contracts of cooperation with a French adoption agency called "Cera" and "Sera" or something spelled closely like that. Guess who Dr. Tabacaru used to work for, before he started to work with RAC? He apparently worked with/for Sera/Cera! Nice coincidence, huh? For the moment, we don’t know who Mr. Ivanescu used to work for in the past--it seems to be a secret for some Secure reason....
2. Copii Fericit is going to be given the right to have 2/3 of the listings of all assignable children in each Judet (province) because it has just been given a very very high score (125) on the scoring system that each foundation is subject to at the RAC. (The scoring system depends on the score that the foundations receive in each Judet where it works, and then points are added or subtracted based on how many contracts of cooperation that foundation has, how many special needs cases it has done, how many adoptions within Romania it has done, etc.). The next highest score, for any of the remaining 76 foundations, is somewhere between 40 and 60. Now, how did Copii Fericit manage to get such a high score? Well, if your best friend has an interest in seeing that you get a high score, and if your best friend can dictate the rules of the scoring, then its probably not too hard!
3. Now, who decided that just because one foundation got a score of 125, and then next 30 scores were in the range of 30-60, and the rest 0-30, that the top foundation should get 2/3 of all listings, and the other 76 foundations should have to share the remaining 1/3? (For those of you who like numbers, this means that out of every 1000 listings, Copii Fericit will get 667, and the other 76 foundations will have to divide up 333, for an average of 4 each! Nice ratio, 667 versus 4.) The answer as to who it was who decided--well, if you want to know, why don’t you call and ask:
Dr. Cristian Tabacaru 011-401-222-9384 or 011-401-614-3400ext. 1135 or 1447 Mr. Cristian Bizdoaca (Dr. Tabacaru’s chief assistant, with the same phones)
If you don’t want to make an international call, instead you can call the Ambassador of Romanian in the USA, in Washington DC: The Honourable Mircea Dan Geoana, at 202-387-6901 or 202-332-4848. The fax number at the Romanian Embassy is 202-232-4748 and the e-mail address is romania@embassy.org
You may even want to tell the US Consul General in Bucharest, Hon. Stephen R. Pattison, at 011-401-210-0149, how you feel. Remember, it was the Consulate that had received assurances from Dr. Tabacaru that the cases would be held for the families connected to specific children until the children were ready to be formally assigned to the various foundations. The e-mail address of the Consulate is ilinca.marcu@dos.us-state.gov
By the way, if you are into telegrams, you can send one to the
Comitetul Roman Pentru Adoptii
Guvernul Romaniei
Piata Victoriei Nr. 1
Bucharest, Romania
AND THEN THERE’S THE QUESTION OF ROMANIA JOINING NATO. Why did Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland get a provisional OK, whereas Romania was told to wait another year to re-apply? Many reason, to be sure.
One of those reasons has to be connected with the question of whether Romania can truly be trusted a as friend and partner in the world community, whether it is reliable, and whether it is predictable.
Well, how reliable and predictable is Romania when it cancels commitments to LITERALLY HUNDREDS of adoption agencies and families the world over, about specific children that were being held for families that have fallen in love with them, bonded with them and (in some cases) even visited them in Romania, and instead gives the children on a silver platter to the best university-days friend of the head of the RAC?
Let us hope that Romanian President Emil Constantinescu finds out about this incredible ugly scandal and puts at end to it in time, before it destroys the dreams of hundreds of families--and before it puts a permanent black mark on the reputation of Romania in the world community, in NATO, and at the US Senate (Senator Trent Lott--are you reading this?, and if not, would everyone who reads this posting, and who has a moment or two, please call Sen. Lott at 1-202-224-3121, and please while your at it, call Ambassador Geoana, at 202-387-6901 or 202-332-4848).
--------------------
Needless to say, the trip on Thursday was put in severe doubt by this news and I sent an email to our agency asking whether we should cancel our flight. I had a phone call back within about 10 minutes from Philadelphia (about 5.30am their time) telling us to hold off until the following day, since it was unclear what would happen. I was also advised to contact the Romanian Embassy in London and put in my opinion on the moves by the RAC.
I got hold of the cultural attache who was very helpful, but completely ignorant of the situation and said that she couldn't understand what I was saying because the British government had just signed a new agreement with the Romanians to make adoption easier. She suggested that I call Michael Brennan at the Dept. of Health, who is THE man as far as UK adoptions are concerned. He signs off anyone applying for adoption going through the UK system (which we aren't).
The number I was given by the cultural attache proved to be Michael Brennan's direct line! I explained the gist of the email and he asked me to fax it on to him, since he is not online. What seems to have happened is that he contacted the British embassy in Bucharest who made some polite'ish enquiries as to what was happening and reminded them that the agreement that Michael Brennan signed just last week was effectively abrogated by this move by the RAC.
Our agency tells us that we may have been instrumental in the rapid change of heart by the RAC that occurred on Tuesday! It is not all good news, but it looks like the RAC are rethinking things, at least as far as children already committed to a foundation, which is the situation we are in. Quite what will happen for the future is still up in the air.
Tuesday evening also provided an additional shock. We have been given the additional $6,000 that we would need to adopt a second child at this time. To say we were stunned is putting it mildly, Carol was in tears, I wasn't much better off. The result of this gesture is that we will probably also be adopting a little boy called Danda, (likely to be rechristened Daniel) and should be seeing him during our trip.
The additional expenses are going to be tough to handle, as will dealing with two children simultaneously, but doing it now means that we would save probably about $10-15,000 were we to try to do a second adoption later, if we could raise the finances a second time.
What an emotional roller coaster.
.