Love, love, love it! It is beautiful in so many ways. Visually yes, but most importantly what it means to you and Pablo on this journey. Have a good weekend, Elizabeth
HI Gen, We had our first interview with the social worker on friday and you are right it was no big deal. She put us at ease and also said that these things gets rejected only if you have a very bad criminal/drug/abuse records. She will have a home visit on August 7th.
I just have few questions to you. Was it a Sri Lankan requirement to have interpol clearance?
Do you have a copy of the health certificate? Just wondering what it looks like. We already got one for the homestudy agency. Was wondering if its the same.
Hi Ruv, I'm so glad your interview went well! There's really no reason to worry, but that's easier said than done :-)
The Interpol clearance is not a SL requirement per se. However, we were a bit worried that bureaucrats would raise issues when they realize that Pablo has lived in 2 or 3 other countries for extended periods of time since his majority. Because of this, it seemed safer for us to do both the regular Canadian checks and the Interpol checks. This way, we've covered all our bases and we won't have a nasty surprise when a child is waiting for us in Sri Lanka... If you only lived in the US since you're adults, you're probably fine with just the regular fingerprints checks. I would check with your agency what they think, though...
Our medical form was just a questionnaire for the doctor to fill out. It had questions such as "Has the applicant had a history of Psychological Disorders? Diabetes? Heart Disease?" ect. Because this is required for the Home Study, this form is agency specific. If you'd like to get a copy of our form, I'd be happy to send you one. You can leave your email address as a comment here.
You're soon off to SL! Lucky you! I hope you have a wonderful time there! Gen
Thank you so much for the info. Ok thats good news about the interpol. WE too had the similar medical form with questions as yours that was done for the homestudy. So I think I got that covered then. Its so exciting to see the whole thing is moving.
CAn't wait till all these gets done. We opted for a baby girl. I am hoping to visit an orphanage or two in SL this time. But we'll see. THanks I am hoping to have a good time too. My email is ruvinip@hotmail.com. Send me your email may be I can send you some picts when I get back. Happy Monday!! Ruv
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...
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...
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.
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
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,
I made this photo 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 :-(
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
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,
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
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.
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
I have copied most of the comments on this post to that one: http://cinnamon-baby.blogspot.ca/2011/12/any-news.html
There is a really good discussion going on here and I want to make sure the information you all have shared here is easy to find for others. The "Any News" post was dedicated to rumors and information about the ban.
Please keep sharing anything that you find out. We're all sailing under the same (inclement) skies!
Hi, I just got the letter acknowledging that they received my application for adoption in Nov of 2012. So I guess they haven't stopped taking the applications yet. But the letter says it will take a long time before we get a placement. We are Sri Lankan born but US citizens considered as foreign applicants.
Love, love, love it! It is beautiful in so many ways. Visually yes, but most importantly what it means to you and Pablo on this journey.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend,
Elizabeth
Thanks Elizabeth :)
DeleteHI Gen, We had our first interview with the social worker on friday and you are right it was no big deal. She put us at ease and also said that these things gets rejected only if you have a very bad criminal/drug/abuse records. She will have a home visit on August 7th.
DeleteI just have few questions to you. Was it a Sri Lankan requirement to have interpol clearance?
Do you have a copy of the health certificate? Just wondering what it looks like. We already got one for the homestudy agency. Was wondering if its the same.
Thanks for your help.
Ruv
Hi Ruv,
DeleteI'm so glad your interview went well! There's really no reason to worry, but that's easier said than done :-)
The Interpol clearance is not a SL requirement per se.
However, we were a bit worried that bureaucrats would raise issues when they realize that Pablo has lived in 2 or 3 other countries for extended periods of time since his majority. Because of this, it seemed safer for us to do both the regular Canadian checks and the Interpol checks. This way, we've covered all our bases and we won't have a nasty surprise when a child is waiting for us in Sri Lanka...
If you only lived in the US since you're adults, you're probably fine with just the regular fingerprints checks. I would check with your agency what they think, though...
Our medical form was just a questionnaire for the doctor to fill out. It had questions such as "Has the applicant had a history of Psychological Disorders? Diabetes? Heart Disease?" ect.
Because this is required for the Home Study, this form is agency specific.
If you'd like to get a copy of our form, I'd be happy to send you one. You can leave your email address as a comment here.
You're soon off to SL! Lucky you! I hope you have a wonderful time there!
Gen
Hi Gen,
DeleteThank you so much for the info. Ok thats good news about the interpol. WE too had the similar medical form with questions as yours that was done for the homestudy. So I think I got that covered then.
Its so exciting to see the whole thing is moving.
CAn't wait till all these gets done. We opted for a baby girl. I am hoping to visit an orphanage or two in SL this time. But we'll see. THanks I am hoping to have a good time too. My email is ruvinip@hotmail.com. Send me your email may be I can send you some picts when I get back.
Happy Monday!!
Ruv
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...
ReplyDeleteHi Moira,
DeleteI'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
Thanks you are very kind! We will keep in touch!
ReplyDeleteHello, 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.
ReplyDeleteBest
Hi there,
DeleteThanks 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
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.).
DeleteAll the best,
Simone
You are right on this...
DeleteI guess we'll just have to "wait and see", althought that's easier said than done!
Gen
I made this photo also for our blog when we recieved it in late december - it was dated when the program was closed so they never rejected aplicants.
ReplyDeleteI 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 :-(
Hi Mette,
DeleteIt'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
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,
ReplyDeleteHi there!
DeleteI 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
It is indeed not so easy to cope with these uncertainties. It's good to know that there are others in our situation out there, though. Take care
ReplyDeleteHi 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.
ReplyDeleteHope to have better news next time...
All the best,
Hi,
DeleteThank 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 all,
ReplyDeleteI have copied most of the comments on this post to that one: http://cinnamon-baby.blogspot.ca/2011/12/any-news.html
There is a really good discussion going on here and I want to make sure the information you all have shared here is easy to find for others. The "Any News" post was dedicated to rumors and information about the ban.
Please keep sharing anything that you find out. We're all sailing under the same (inclement) skies!
Thanks to all,
Gen
Hi,
DeleteI just got the letter acknowledging that they received my application for adoption in Nov of 2012. So I guess they haven't stopped taking the applications yet. But the letter says it will take a long time before we get a placement. We are Sri Lankan born but US citizens considered as foreign applicants.
Ruv