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Go the Distance
Exploring International Adoption
Part Two
By Michele St. Martin
Meanwhile, the INS will have had you come in for a fingerprint appointment. They will by now have a copy of your completed homestudy, and they will send your fingerprints to the FBI. If you've ever committed a crime, even a minor one, it will likely come up on your FBI check. If it isn't mentioned, with an explanation, in the homestudy, the INS may withhold their approval until the homestudy is amended to their satisfaction.
After you've received the INS stamp of approval, some countries require you to go to their local consulate for approval. After that, it goes to your adoption agency, and then to the government of the country from which you're adopting. Now comes the hard part: waiting for the referral of your child, and for permission to travel to bring the child home.
When Erica Olson* of Boise, Idaho, 48, a former medical librarian turned full-time mother, and her husband, Dale Gervais, 45, decided to adopt, international adoption topped their list. Unfortunately, Olson and Gervais learned the hard way that in international adoption, international politics and internal country issues can have negative effects on uniting children with parents. They looked first at adopting from Korea, as Olson's sister had successfully adopted from the country 10 years before, and they thought that a shared cultural background would be good for both children. Unfortunately, the Korean program was temporarily closed.
They next looked to another Asian country. "We chose China because it was a new program that encouraged, even required 'older' parents, 'guaranteed' a girl and was the speediest program," Olson says. But that wasn't their experience. "Just a few weeks after we began our doption journey, China closed their doors (supposedly just for a month) to rewrite their adoption laws," she says. "A month became just short of 10 months, which is why Abby was so much older when we got her." Olson and Gervais have two daughters from China; Abby was placed at 11 months, and Emily was placed at 5 months.
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