Nona is a single woman who has the means and the love that is needed to create a loving, permanent home for an adopted child. Adopting has been her goal for several years, but she's still waiting - as are many others.

"A federal court has given D.C. two weeks to come up with a plan to fix its adoption system or risk it going back into receivership. Child welfare advocates demanded the court intervene, saying the system is broken."

Statistics seem to support those claims: The adoption rate decreased dramatically from 2005 to 2006, as did the placement of children with permanent guardians. The city won't comment on the state of its adoption system, or whether it intends to abide by the federal court's demand. Source: WJLA Channel 7 News

Labels: frustrations, adoption_system

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Several months ago, the Iowa Press-Citizen ran a story about an area woman who was caught in the unfortunate and frustrating red tape of international adoption. With paperwork and home studies completed, Karla boarded a flight to Vietnam to complete the process and bring her daughter home.

"On the day [Karla] arrived in Vietnam - Oct. 25 - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that because of 'growing concerns about irregularities in the methods used to identify children for adoption in Vietnam and the resulting difficulties in classifying those children as orphans,' a field office in Ho Chi Minh City now would decide all I-600s, which is a form that classifies an orphan as an immediate relative and expedites the visa process."

Karla's story is a difficult reminder that snags can happen at any point in the adoption process. Though it shouldn't stop people who are considering adoption, it will hopefully persuade them to diligently cross every "t" and dot every "i". Source: Iowa City Press-Citizen

Labels: international, frustrations

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