Since the earthquake, an estimated 1000 adoption cases were short-listed and said to be approved in the near future. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is currently seeking assistance from the Haitian government in order to unite these Haitian children with their anxious Canadian parents. Mr. Kenney, stated, “We are contacting the Haitian authorities to see if there is a streamlined way we can get their approval to extract these children.” Furthermore, he is ready to take the exceptional step of “issuing temporary resident permits to allow the Haitian children to enter Canada before all the legal steps are completed in their adoption.”

However, Minister Kenney is willing to take caution and avoid shortcuts to deter “unscrupulous people” from engaging in the human trafficking of these young children, given Haiti’s current state of vulnerability.

During a news conference in Quebec yesterday, Mr. Kenney stated that, “I know there’s a lot of Canadians who want to help Haitian orphans, and over the long term, we’ll consider how we can work with international organizations to help these orphans in terms of perhaps adopting them in Canada.”

Ottawa granted approximately 5,000 Haitians the opportunity to immigrate to Canada in 2010 alone.

Currently victims of the earthquake are not eligible to apply for asylum in Canada as refugees, because earthquake victims do not meet the international criteria.

Thankfully, Canada has no plans of deporting the 1,900 failed refugee applicants already in Canada nor deport another 8,000 should their request for asylum get denied.

On a positive note, Ottawa, has granted provisional stay to approximately 1,000 temporary residents, including student, workers and visitors by assuring them that they will not be sent home once their visas expires. Approximately 6,000 Haitians will be allowed to come to or remain in Canada.

For aditional information on how to adopt a child in Canada, please make sure you check the links attached.

Alexandru Wolf is like any other British teenager, preparing for his exams and thinking about life after school. Known to his friends as Lex, he spends his spare time listening to music and practising his break dancing skills. Few people would believe that 10 years ago the only life he had ever known was inside a Romanian institution. Lex was eight years old when he was adopted by Della Wolf, who had built a special bond with him during years of volunteering at an institution in Bucharest.  ”Deep inside I always hoped I’d be able to go and live with her,” he said.

In 1995 Lex boarded a flight to the UK – and has never been back.

“I was so happy when I left. It was sad to leave my friends, but I knew I had something much better to look forward to,” he said. Once in the UK, he took some time fitting in – he was bullied at first in a school in Brixton – but now he has completely settled into British life. ”I don’t feel Romanian any more. I feel English,” he said.

Like Della Wolf, many other Westerners adopted Romanian children in the 1990s – often motivated by television scenes of malnourished babies staring listlessly from cots in the years after Ceausescu’s overthrow. But sadly, not all adopted children have fitted in as well as Lex, and many continue to suffer emotional and behavioural problems. One British woman, who did not want to be identified, said that looking after her two adopted Romanian children was much more difficult than she had anticipated. The elder child was 10 when she came to the UK, and “it was like having a 10-year-old one-year-old,” she said. “She had no knowledge of how to wash or eat, and she’d run in front of cars all the time.”

“Many of these children also have problems forming attachments. I’ve heard of people whose adopted children just walked out of the house as soon as they turned 18, and have never been in touch again,” she said. When they first arrived in the country as babies, more than half the 165 children he studied showed severe delays in development compared with their British counterparts. But he found that, even at the age of 11, many of these children had not caught up.

“Contrary to popular opinion at the time, we found there were definite long-term effects from being in an institution,” Prof Rutter said – effects which were more pronounced the longer the child had spent in institutionalised care. According to Thais Tepper, co-founder of the US-based Parents’ Network for the Post-Institutionalized Child (PNPIC), the problem is an international one. In the US, the PNPIC estimates that 30% of children adopted from Romania have severe problems – some of whom, ironically, are now ending up within the American institution system.

Keep in mind that Romania stopped all international adoptions after 2007.

The Highest number , no wonder , China – leading “exporter” of adopted children, not surprisingly because of its huge population. But its numbers have dropped by almost two-thirds since its peak in 2005.

Indeed, with the exceptions of Ethiopia and Vietnam, most countries have seen large declines in the number of children sent abroad for adoption in the past seven years.

In a survey of the top 23 countries that received the most children through international adoption between 2003 and 2009, Canada placed fifth, with 13,291 adoptees, or 4.8 per cent of the total.

The top five — the U.S., Spain, France, Italy and Canada, in that order — accounted for 229,433 international adoptions during that period, 84 per cent of the total.

These numbers are compiled from individual governments as well as submissions by most of the participants to the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

Looking at the same numbers over a longer period, Selman has found that over 120,000 Chinese children were sent to new homes in 17 receiving countries between 1992-2009.

Top 5 countries on the international adoptions origin between 2003 – 2009 :

1. China 69,667
2. Russia 44,471
3. Guatemala 24,013
4. Ethiopa 17,822
5. South Korea 12,184

In that period, the U.S. was far in the lead, adopting 74,142 children. Spain was second (13,495) and Canada third (11,471).

A very interesting story coming from Ireland made some waves a while ago . The Director of the Adoption Authority of Ireland has warned prospective adoptive parents not to enter into any private arrangements in Mexico.Mr. Geoffrey Shannon said while some particular states within Mexico allow private adoption, none sanction private inter-country adoption.The warning comes after Mexican police said they were planning to question 11 Irish couples following the discovery of an international child-smuggling ring. Seven babies were taken away from the couples after the arrest of three local women accused of buying them from their mothers. Another two babies were removed from a mother accused of selling them.

The babies, aged between two and two years and eight months, have been put into care. Local papers reported the birth mothers were paid 70 euros (approx $100)  a week plus medical expenses while pregnant.The Irish couples are expected to be questioned in Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco.

State attorney Jose Coronado said some of the Irish couples had the babies with them because they were told living with them “was part of the process they needed to go through to adopt”.

No formal accusations have been made against the Irish couples, and investigators said they wanted to determine if they were duped into thinking they were taking part in a lawful process.Mexico is a signatory to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

The Mexican authorities had stated there was only one system of intercountry adoption within Mexico: a public and statutorily regulated system. No children under five should be proposed for intercountry adoption, with the exception of children with special needs. And all documentation for intercountry adoption must be sent by the Irish authority to the Federal Central Authority.

The Embassy or Consulate schedules the final visa interview once all required documents have been provided. The Department of State is committed to processing immigrant visas for adopted children expeditiously. Keep in mind, however, that the time required to issue your child’s visa will depend on the specific circumstances in his or her country of residence.

Such visa application can take a long time, so start early and as soon as possible. It’s an exciting time to you and your spouse, but bringing your baby home is a long process and journey. Many loving parents waited months to get their baby home. The advice is plan ahead and start early.

Source: the Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. State Department

International adoption is becoming more and more regulated and prospective parents need to learn as much as possible before beginning the adoption process. You don’t want to be hit with big surprises when you’re falling love with the child in a foreign country.

The Hague Adoption Convention generally forbids prospective adoptive parents from having any contact with the child’s birth parents, and/or the child’s legal guardians before the country of birth determines the child is adoptable according to Convention principles and refers the child for adoption to a family.

Source: the Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. State Department

1. Adopt a child from a different country than your own through permanent legal means; and
2. Bring that child to your home country to live with you permanently.

Through intercountry adoption, the legal transfer of parental rights from birth parent(s) to another parent(s) takes place. Over the last decade, U.S. families have adopted on average approximately 20,000 children from foreign nations each year.

Many families in other countries adopt U.S. children. Intercountry adoption is governed by both the laws of the country in which the child lives and the country in which the adoptive parents live. Under U.S. law, there are two distinct intercountry adoption processes: the Hague Convention process and the non-Hague Convention process. Which process you will follow will depend on whether or not the other country involved is also a party to the Hague Convention.

Source: The State Department

The total cost of adopting varies from $0 to more than $40,000, depending on a number of factors. The chart below outlines some general categories of adoption and costs associated with the services provided. The wide range reflects the multitude of factors that may affect costs, including the type of adoption, the type of placement agency or facilitator, and the child’s age and circumstances. The best way to find out the detailed costs, talk to the adoption agency. The chart below can offer some sample costs.

Source: Child Welfare Information Gateway

Normally adopted children don’t have the urge to start questioning until they reach adolescence. A time that’s challenging even with your birth children. Parents are often tempted to escape perhaps by abandoning their teenagers who are having toddler-like tantrums, but you and your family will benefit more if you remain calm, stand up for the values you have taught, and continue communication efforts.

For some adolescents, searching can be useful, while for many, the urgent activities and decisions of daily life are so pressing that they feel uninterested in or unable to confront such a heavy emotional undertaking. Waiting till they have reached adulthood when their lives will be more settled may be better for the latter group.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

If you feel overwhelmed and see behavior problems, seek help. You can get help from organizations, support groups, other adopted parents, and grandparents. Talk to other parents and teachers.