Thursday, October 16, 2008

Sound Familiar?

Here's an international adoption story:

It took 18 months for me to adopt says La Plante

Lynda La Plante has criticised adoption laws after revealing that she had to wait 18 months to bring her young son back from [a foreign country].

The crime writer, who became a mother at the age of 57, has spoken of her anger at the long delays and bureaucracy which hold up the adoption process for infertile couples. . . .

In an interview with Woman's Weekly, she said: 'I wasn't allowed to bring Lorcan back to the UK for 18 months, while all the paperwork was sorted out. 'That meant he missed a year and a half of my mother's life, and she died two years ago. It's all wrong.'

As part of the adoption process, she had to satisfy both British and [the sending country's] adoption authorities before applying to immigration officials to bring the child into the UK.

British families adopt around 300 children from abroad every year. . . . [A]dopting in the [sending country] can be costly, with some agencies charging up to £25,000 [about $40,000].

Have you guessed the country from which Ms. LaPlante has adopted? It's the U.S.

Click here to read more.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been going back and forth to this article.

There's a sentence - two, exactly - that reek of entitlement.

I thought it was maybe just me (as I like to give these sorts of articles the benefit of the doubt), that I was being overly sensitive as I am wont to feel these days, however... I've been lurking around other adoptee blogs and I was not wrong.

There was entitlement in this article. Quite a bit of it. And I didn't originally want to comment and raise the hackles of your lurkers, but I just have to sum up my reaction with one thing:

"The crime writer, who became a mother at the age of 57, has spoken of her anger at the long delays and bureaucracy which hold up the adoption process for infertile couples...."

Is this article about the adopted child, or more about the would-be adoptive parent? (Rheutorical question)

Jeff and Madeline said...

I agree with the above poster. I think so often we get caught up in our wait, our want that we fail to see that it is not about us. It is about the child and the sending countries need to make sure all efforts in country have been exhausted and that all criteria has been met by the prospective AP's.
There are circumstances that we think the bureacracy is ridiculous, but others are not. For me, if the child is ill and needs a surgery/medication they are not receiving than something must be done and fast--again, about the child, not just for the AP's need to have them (and I was in the long wait due to a paper mix-up so I know how it feels to be passed by).