What's the Hague Convention? As travel has become easier and borders easier to cross, and families multinational, the issues of jurisdiction over child movement has needed advancement. The Hague Convention is an agreement that has been developed and improved upon over the past century to provide for a country both to protect its children and have jurisdiction over their movement as well as provide common language and pathways for countries to work together on a child or family's behalf. In the past 25 years there have been three Hague Conventions in order to further improve the convention and its protections for children.
When Marilyn, our dossier specialist, offered me reassurance that it's okay that the delay in the Federal document processing means that our dossier won't quite get there on the 29th but will be there by the 3rd of February, I was relieved. Apparently the deadline exists so families don't dilly-dally taking months to do their paperwork while a child awaits their adoption. For families that have been diligent and are actively working through the process, a few days is fine.
Good news is good news. As you have learned by reading our posts, the next piece of insight into the process often shines light on something previously completely unknown. After Marilyn let me know that all is well with the dossier and deadline, I asked about the next steps. I had blocked out my work schedule for May and June in preparation to travel to receive Lulu.
Marilyn quickly walked me through time, basically like this: mid-Feb. - dossier will be logged in by China. China gets up to 4 months (now we are in mid-June) to process and review the dossier before we are allowed to pester them. If approved, we will be sent a formal offer to adopt Lulu, we respond by accepting the offer formally. Then, it will take 10-14 days for the US Government to process the I-800 in order to determine that Lulu may be adopted by us (both countries have to agree that she is truly free to be adopted and meets the criteria for our approval to adopt), then we wait for the invitation to travel. It's about August by now on Marilyn's timeline. We could travel anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks from the invitation to travel depending on the appointment we are given by the US consulate in China. Most likely, it will be September when we travel. If something goes more quickly than usual, we could get lucky and travel in August.
Sorry to bog down in the details but "When?" is the most common question we ask ourselves or are asked by loved ones. There are many opportunities to ask this question of ourselves. Often I look at an adorable 3 year old girl in my office or at a store and imagine us with our daughter. The next, I am thinking through the steps I need to take to keep the process moving forward. I hadn't at all anticipated waiting until September. June. July. But not September. September, huh?
I am trying to keep it positive. We need to remember that is will still be less than 12 months for the entire process. Perhaps even 10 months if things go really smoothly. It's like a gestational period. Plenty of time to nest, study, prepare, imagine. There are some wonderful books to read out there on adoption and international adoption. Additionally, there is time for completing the school year, enjoying the boys, and taking a vacation or two before we prepare for China. As Sara Smeby says, "it's a paper pregnancy" and also a pregnancy of the spirit and of the imagination. We can't wait to know her but we can certainly work on ourselves and continue to love life while we are waiting.
Single Square Picture: A Korean Adoptee's Search for Her Roots
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