We're a few weeks into this process, so here's a quick overview. My husband and I decided several months ago to begin the process of adopting a child from China. Although I had done much research a few years ago, we quickly discovered that it is now a whole new ballgame with the new Hague laws. What would have been an arduous process a year ago, will now be many, many times more difficult.
My husband and I moved to a small Gulf country in the middle east 4 years ago. This country, like all the countries blessed with lots and lots of oil are growing quickly and have many foreigners living here.
We have two beautiful little girls, ages 2 1/2 and 1. Why adopt then? Well, for a long time we have felt God leading us in that direction, like our family is not complete without our daughter from China.
We feel a bit like the guinea pigs in this entire process. First, most adoption agencies have stopped working with expats because it has become more difficult with the new Hague requirements. So, finding an agency was a challenge. Then, the new rules for homestudy providers were made more stringent, so finding a qualified HS provider was an other challenge. I believe we found both and after many many emails back and forth with this agency, they still could not guarantee that we would be able to complete the process. But, having lived in the middle east for these years we have learned to be comfortable with uncertainty and decided that we knew as much as we were going to know. So, we put our money where are mouths were and put down the agency deposit. As for the homestudy providor, previously people living overseas could use a social worker who just happened to be living in their country. Now, the HS provider must be associated with an agency that is approved for Hague adoptions. There are two guys who live in Germany (different companies) who travel around the world doing HSs. We're going to have to fly one of them out here. He's been very helpful, but again, since he has not done a Hague adoption yet, he cannot gurantee us 100%.
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