Where’s the balance?

Aside from the obvious fact that I’ll have my child home with me, know why I am so anticipating being finished with this adoption?  Simply because I don’t want to be part of the negativity in VN adoptionland.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve “met” some really smart, interesting and funny PAPs and APs out there, and I’ve gathered more information on this process than I possibly could have without this network.  I’m worn down from the nastiness on the Yahoo! groups.  Clearly, I could stop reading them, and I do try.  I find myself getting sucked in time and time again (not participating, of course, less someone attacks me, too).

I fear these fights are going to continue to worsen with the negotiations that will soon begin.  I’m frustrated with being told repeatedly of the unethical agencies with all of their NOIDs, almost all of which have been cleared.  When someone counters with that fact in defense of an agency it is almost always met with the statement that these APs are fighting the poor over-burdened US government with the APs fancy high-priced attorneys.  What?  I’m astonished at the fact that people (most of whom I would imagine loathe the current administration) characterize CIS and the DEPARTMENT OF STATE as the underdogs in these fights.  Why is this not the case?  They are the US government.  The final decision lies with them.  If they had a basis on which to deny a visa, they would do it.  Clearly this is what they wanted to do when they issued a Notice of Intent to Deny.  I find myself wondering whether those who think our poor little government doesn’t have the wherewithal to fight these things have ever gone up against a government agency?  I’ve seen it from the government’s side.  They have the resources.

I’m also tired of this I-600 debacle.  I don’t begrudge USCIS and DOS the right to investigate to ensure that the children adopted from VN are true orphans.  I understand that we might not necessarily do that in all countries, but here, where there is a history of corruption, I think that if these agencies feel there is truly wrong-doing, they should check it out.  The important thing here is that children who are truly available for adoption find homes, not that people who want kids get them.

What I worry about is the apparent presumption that all adoptions are suspect.  It creates the environment of a witch hunt, searching for anything in support of that presumption.  Taking this position results in every adoption being investigated.  Doing so in a timely manner is simply not feasible with the number of employees that have been allocated to the task.  I believe these people are working; there are just too many applications and too few employees.

The fall-out from this is that children (many with special needs and many of whom, while not being classed as special needs, have medical conditions that will worsen over time without treatment, which they’re not getting) who should have been released from orphanages (many of which are without electricity and heat during this, a winter of record cold) into the arms of loving parents are still stuck there, growing more attached to the caregivers from whom they will be separated and growing more likely to have an attachment disorder because of their lengthened residence in an institution.

Something has got to be done about this.  I don’t believe our government is evil (far from it).  I don’t believe the employees of these agencies in HCMC and Hanoi want to keep these children from finding homes.  I believe that the basic premise of this new system, to ensure that these kids are true orphans, is of extreme importance.  I just believe that perhaps the implementation of this new procedure was a bit reactionary (and possibly motivated by matters not entirely disclosed to us).  USCIS could have issued a notice that it was going to put a hold on adoptions from the problematic provinces and given itself additional time to implement the new process.  Doing so could have prevented the process from seemingly grinding to a halt.

Just as last fall’s problems with paperwork must be fixed, the bottleneck that USCIS has unintentionally (I hope) created with this new procedure must be remedied.  I’m concerned, though, that while a lot of PAPs support the “Orphan’s First” process (just not the extreme delays), our government does not share our desire to balance that process with the interests of these children in finding their forever families.  I hope I’m wrong.

February 14, 2008 - Posted by Oscar and Etta's mom | accountability, Adoption, Vietnam, Waiting