my nemesis

I guess it’s time to introduce my nemesis….the Hague Treaty. (I would link to this document but it’s incredibly long and a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo). This little document has potential to cause major issues for Canadians planning to adopt children from the US. The Hague Treaty is an international set of laws and guidelines that are ultimately designed to protect children from child trafficking and other atrocities that have happened in the past with international adoption. The Americans signed the treaty some time ago but it was ratified in the US on April 1, 2008. The Hague is a vague set of guidelines and generally each country interprets them on their own. Well, the Americans have interpreted it in a few ways (that seem completely ridiculous) that will present challenges for future inter-country adoptions and out-going cases from the US. In March 2008 we found out about the ways the Hague was to be implemented in the US and after much thought, prayer, and phone calls to everyone and anyone who would talk to us about this, we decided to apply with our Provincial agency as well as an American agency before April 1, with hopes to be grandfathered into the system. There is a whole lot of confusion in the US with the Hague laws and no one really seems to know what is going on. We were assured that everything was good to go but then recently the Hague has come back to haunt us. We are now not so sure where we stand and if we’ll be able to be grandfathered into the system. We have some hope and are working with the lawyer of our American agency to figure out our next step.

But this causes some extra stress around our household. It’s the stress of anticipating and planning for a family when every day poses a real risk that this will not happen. I’d really like to kick some Hague Treaty butt!