I have been keeping an eye on the news stories from Sri Lanka, but haven't seen anything new with regards to the Mother Teresa convent arrest.
So I want to offer this post as an opportunity to share our information. We have quite a few silent readers from around the world. I'm assuming some are waiting adoptive parents. Please leave a comment to this post to share with other waiting parents any information your agency has given you.
Even in a little while, when this post starts getting a bit older, I would love to know when one of you first hears of a post-arrest child match from Sri Lanka!
After all, we're all in the same boat!
The convent was cleared of all charges in a courtmeeting on dec 8th.!!!! YAY!!
ReplyDeleteOur agency expect the adoptions to continue after New Years as normal.
I found a short article on BBC - the minister apologize! That's huge!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/12/111208_convent.shtml
All the best, Mette - also waiting for a child from SL <3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16193415
ReplyDeleteGreat news: The nun was released and cleared of all charges. The court has stated that nothing illegal had happened at the convent.
I'm still anxious to hear about the next child placement...
I just spoke with my agent. She got a letter from the Sri Lanka child authority requesting a report on every placement they have done in the past few years.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the child authority is trying to do its due dilligence. They said there may be changes in the process.
In the meantime, my agent was told that all international adoptions were temporarily on hold.
Anybody has heard of a placement since December?
According to our agency, as of May 5, 2012, government run homes are now allowed to place children internationally! Private homes (charity orphanages) are still waiting for the new procedure to come out, so that's not a complete reopening of the program, but we may start seeing some referrals again!
ReplyDeleteWe don't know yet how much that will slow down the program. All the details are in the post titled "Finally" in May 2012...
We have received a letter from the Department of Probation and Child Care dated early July, ackowleding receipt of our Dossier.
ReplyDeleteThe letter states that foreign adoptions take a long time and that many families are waiting (nothing new here). It however says that a child will be assigned to us, in some time.
There is nothing in there about foreign adoptions being on hold. I think this confirms what our agency has told us. I however believe private orphanages are still not allowed to place children internationally.
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous, July 22, 2012 2:42 PM
Hi,my name is Moira and i'm italian,i'm sorry but my english is very bad, but i would like to know more about Sri Lanka. I explain why. In november 2011 we had a combination proposal whit a 8 months old baby girl. Obviously we were so happy and we accepted. But evrything stopped because of the problems in the orphanage, so we are in stand by since then :-(((( Unfortunatly we are not alone, there are other parents in this situation. Now we are still waiting and we have not any news from Sri Lanka, our agency says that we must have patient, but we are looking for information, so if you have some news about it please give us! Thank you and excuse again for my english...
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DeleteGen, July 22, 2012 8:41 PM
Hi Moira,
I'm so very sorry to hear that you're one of the most direct victims of this whole adoption ban! It has been hard on all of us, but I can only imagine the torture of knowing that your little girl is waiting for you...
For as much as I know, the ban is partly lifted now:
1- Our agency has been advised by their in-country agent that children could be placed again, but ONLY FROM GOVERNMENT RUN HOMES. If your girl is in a private orphanage, it may take longer.
2- The picture in this post is from a letter we received this week from the Department of Probation and Child Care Services. It is dated early July. It acknowledges receipt of our dossier and says that a child WILL be assigned to us, but that it will take some time. It doesn't mention anything about a foreign adoption ban.
I am in touch with a few waiting families in different countries. Since the ban was lifted, I still haven't heard of any new referral, or of families being allowed to travel to pick up their waiting child.
If it can be of any reassurance, one women I am in touch with has visited orphanages in SL and she said that the children there seemed to be well cared for. I know this is not much, but I hope you can find some strenght in knowing that your little girl is treated well.
I wish I had some better news for you... My heart goes out to you guys. I wish you a very quick resolution.
In the meantime, I'm going to maintain this post whenever I hear any news at all: http://cinnamon-baby.blogspot.com/2011/12/any-news.html
Have a look every now and then. And when you hear anything new, please leave a comment there too! I think you can suscribe by email to the post comments...
All the best,
Gen
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DeleteAnonymous, July 23, 2012 6:51 AM
Thanks you are very kind! We will keep in touch!
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous, July 26, 2012 8:27 AM
Hello, we are a married Swiss couples and waiting for a child proposal from Sri Lanka. We received the letter by the Department of Probation and Child Care 15 months ago. We have not heard from them since then. It appears, however, that the forme Commissioner has been replaced in the aftermath of the Prem Nivasa matter. The new Commissioner communicated that all pending files should be scrutizined and that priority should be given to national adoptions. We were further informed by our agent that Sri Lanka does no longer accept new international applications, but this may have changed in the meanwhile. Anyway, I am grateful for any news you may have on these issues.
Best
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DeleteGen, July 26, 2012 9:14 AM
Hi there,
Thanks for your comment. Please have a look at my comment to Moira, above. That's all the information I have...
Sri Lanka is now accepting new applications. I know this for a fact, because they have accepted ours early July.
The children have always been offered domestically before being matched internationally. That's in the Hague convention. I am hopeful that once the new procedures for private homes are up and running, referrals will start coming again. Who knows, we may even get a surge in proposals, since no kids were placed internationally in the last 9 months!
I'll be sure to update this blog if I hear of any news at all...
Please leave a comment if you hear something, too!
All the best
Gen
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DeleteAnonymous, July 31, 2012 2:14 AM
Hi Gen, You are right with your comment re Hague Convention, however I understand that the priority of domestic adoptions has not been strictly enforced in the past. This might change now although the problem seems to be that Sri Lankan residents often do not fulfill the conditions for an adoption (in terms of salary, living conditions etc.).
All the best,
Simone
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DeleteGen, August 6, 2012 1:26 PM
You are right on this...
I guess we'll just have to "wait and see", althought that's easier said than done!
Gen
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ReplyDeleteMette, July 27, 2012 7:14 AM
I made this photo [of the Sri Lankan official letter of acknowledgement] also for our blog when we recieved it in late december - it was dated when the program was closed so they never rejected aplicants.
I live in DK and are also waiting to hear news - our agency just told ud they don't know when the program will pick back up - in a week or in a year :-(
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DeleteGen, July 27, 2012 7:45 AM
Hi Mette,
It's good to hear from you!
Thanks for the info. Our agency had told us that SL was not accepting new applications during the ban. Maybe you guys slipped in just before they asked foreign agencies to stop sending files? I hope we were not the only family holding on to our Dossier during this time!
Let us know if you hear anything!
All the best,
Gen
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous, July 31, 2012 2:11 AM
Hi Gen, Do you have an idea how the allocation process with state owned orphanages works? Is it the agent's responsibility to "find" a child or is the commissioner deciding on the allocation. I ask because our agent so far only worked with certain (private)orphanages and I therefore wonder if we have a chance to be allocated a child from a state owned orphanage at all. Generally speaking, communication with our agent is not so easy... Thanks and best,
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DeleteGen, August 6, 2012 1:16 PM
Hi there!
I wish I had an answer for you...
From what I understand, under the Hague Convention, the government should be allocating children. They have all the applications and can match kids properly. Agencies are not supposed to be able to "find" children.
I really don't know if it happens this way in the real world, though... I'm guessing agents do have some influence on allocation of children.
One thing I know for sure is that our agency didn't have an agent in Sri Lanka until last year. It's a really small program and they only placed a few children per year, but they still placed children without anybody in country to "find" them...
All the best,
Gen
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous, August 13, 2012 3:23 AM
Hi there, I just got some (not so good) news from Sri Lanka through our Swiss agent. Apparently, since last week, Sri Lanka is again refusing new international applications because of the high number of pending files. Placements are taking place though, however mostly within the country. Private homes placements are still not possible, which may however change soon (it apparently depends on a government approval which is still pending). In this case, the chances for a child proposal in the not too distant future would increase. This being said, although our file is in Sri Lanka since May 2011, the chances of being allocated a child still this year are not so great.
Hope to have better news next time...
All the best,
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DeleteGen, August 13, 2012 8:01 AM
Hi,
Thank you for sharing this bit of information!
It's not surprising that they have a backlog of pending application, with no international placement since November 2011!
It's going to take some time for them to recover.
I have also heard that private homes are expected to start running again as soon as the new procedure gets approved. I wonder how long it will take!
I can only hope that there will be a surge in available children once the program is fully open again, as so many available children were not placed during those months!
Let us know if you hear anything else!
Gen
Hi there, unfortunately, no news from Sri Lanka. Have you heard anything/do you know if ther ahs been any progress on the private homes procedures? going through a hard time with all the waiting, so any bits of news is helpful. best.
DeleteHi there,
DeleteNot much over here either... All I hear is rumours... I'm hopeful that we'll see referrals start again in the coming months.
It's a very difficult situation, hard to cope with the uncertainty!
Hang in there!
Gen
I like your optimism and I truly hope you are right! we are all in the same boat and that gives me a little confort ;-). And thanks for having created that blog, it really helps people like me!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you find the blog helpful. It has alloed me to connect with lots of great people...
DeleteBe sure to let us know if you hear anything!
In the meantime, let's stay hopeful....
Hello, I had a status call with our agent today. Unfortunately, no (good) news on the adoption front. While domestic referrals and referrals to Sri lankan nationals domiciled abroad are up and running, our agent does not expect any international referrals by the end of the year. He however "hopes" that we will be referred a child in 2013. I asked whether Sri Lanka could possibly reject/send back pending international applications due to the current situation. Our agent does not expect this to happen but has not completely exluded this scenario neither. He said that he should have more information by the end of this year. Needless to say that I'm anxious about the situation and yearning for any kind of positive news.
ReplyDeleteI have received an email from my agent. She says one Canadian family is going to court in SL in November.
ReplyDeleteRead more about it on this post: www.cinnamon-baby.blogspot.com/2012/10/some-hope.html
I don't know this family, but I hope everything goes smoothly for them!
Gen
Still no new information on our end. I have summarized averything that I know on this post, if you'interested:
ReplyDeletehttp://cinnamon-baby.blogspot.ca/2012/12/a-summary.html
Gen
Well, it seems like the new procedure for Charity Homes to place children internationally is coming soon... Have a look here for the latest from our agent:
ReplyDeletehttp://cinnamon-baby.blogspot.ca/2013/02/some-news-from-sri-lanka.html
Gen