Thoughts and info on the Imagine Adoption fiasco

Random info gleaned from various other blogs
An on-line petition is “circulating” (or whatever things do on-line) to ask the government(s) to step in and assist families affected by the bankruptcy to complete their adoptions. Apparently, the government is promising to help for families who have received referrals, to complete the court process for those still waiting for court, and to speedily process immigration visas or citizenship for those whose children are already legally theirs (see this article). However, that still leaves in limbo anywhere up to 300 families who were at the beginning of the wait, either waiting for a referral or with files still awaiting approval by the Ontario Ministry. The petition asks the government to “facilitate and complete ALL of Imagine Adoption’s active files affected by this bankruptcy filing” (emphasis added). If you are at all interested in signing the petition, you can access it here.

A family in Addis reports that a lawyer from BDO, the Canadian agency handling the bankruptcy investigation (from a bookkeeping and money point of view), met in Addis with the families who have gone there to claim their children. He reported that an anonymous corporate donor has stepped in and promised funding to support the Transition House (the facility where the children live in Ethiopia while waiting to be referred to their new parents and while the adoption process is completed) until all children waiting for court or for visas are united with their parents. This is excellent news; some people had started fundraising to support the TH, but that is no longer necessary. The family reports that children who have not yet been referred are being sent back to their orphanages of origin, and the baby house has been shut down to save on costs (I think that refers to the second house at a different location – presumably all babies there would have been taken to the TH is Addis if already referred). Additionally, the lawyer met with the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi, which has promised to rush through the visas for the children at that stage of the process.

This particular family was fortunate to have successfully completed the court process just days before the bankruptcy (after an extremely lengthy process – about 9 months from referral to successful court – not sure what the issues were, but that’s far far longer than the usual 1-3 months). The mother has gone to Ethiopia to claim the children and look after them until they receive their visas. They are hoping it will be relatively quick, what with extra effort on the part of Nairobi to process these visas, although they need first to obtain the final court documents and get their daughters’ Ethiopian passports to send to Nairobi, which could take a few weeks. The father has remained at home, so he missed the initial meeting with their twin girls, but is getting regular reports. He plans to go to Ethiopia after the August long weekend to spend time with his wife and daughters. They hope the visas will arrive while he is there so they can all return as a family of four. If not, he will return while his wife and daughters stay there to wait out the immigration process.

Another family I know (single Mom) has gone to Ethiopia to check things out. Her daughter’s case was to go to court on the Wednesday after the bankruptcy; she did not know if that would still happen or how she might find out, as Imagine’s Canadian offices are now closed. So she left on Friday to spend one week there to assess the situation, find out if court was successful, determine how her daughter will be cared for during the next few months of the process, and generally try to find some clarity in this mess.

Meanwhile, the families here in Canada affected by this bankruptcy have started united blog called the United Families of Imagine Adoption to stay informed and elicit support (emotional and “active”). I expect that, as the majority of the families were still at the early stages of the process, they may focus their efforts on trying to find a solution for the families who were still waiting for referral, as the other families have already been sort of taken care of, or at least have already had support promised as well as extra government action. It’s the families waiting for referral who stand to lose everything.

Random thoughts on the situation
One of the things about this that I find hardest to swallow is that this agency billed itself as a Christian adoption agency. To my mind, an agency or business that plays the Christian card had better make sure that its actions live up to its words. It should have exemplary behaviour as a business (and on the part of the staff) and if business failure is looming, the owners or directors should do everything possible to avoid it.

I have no knowledge of the details of why this bankruptcy occurred. I just know that there are many other Canadian adoption agencies, and none of them has gone bankrupt despite challenging times in international adoption. Mayhap there were other factors. Yet the rumours abound about unethical, even criminal behaviour on the part of the owners of Imagine (and certainly there are a few things on the balance sheet filed by the bankruptcy trustees that do not look so good), as well as unethical behaviour (from a Christian standpoint at least) in their private lives.

Apparently the agency’s license was renewed in October. One wonders how things could have changed so drastically in the last nine months. Yes, yes, the world economy has gone into a tailspin in that same period, and thousands of workers even here in Canada have lost jobs. But the adoption agency has received fees from prospective parents, and I can’t see that costs in Canada at least would have risen so drastically (though I do hear, via completely unrelated sources, that costs in Ethiopia of basic commodities have been increasing at alarming rates – but if that were the sole cause I would think the agency would have been able to justifiably increase rates so as to cover costs), so one would think that the agency’s bottom line would not have been unduly affected.

In my opinion, one of the best outcomes would be for the agency’s outstanding files to be transferred to another international adoption agency to handle. But that is much easier said than done, particularly as the transfer of files would have to be accompanied by a transfer of financial resources, of which there are apparently not enough.

On a more personal level, I can only compare what families must be experiencing to when I almost lost Mustang – before I even got her. It was December 2004; I had received the preliminary approval from China and was starting to relax. Children’s Bridge (CB) said the final approval usually followed within a few weeks. Then China wanted clarification as to my health status. Not to worry, CB said, this was not uncommon and should be easily resolved via another letter from my doctor. But I was uneasy, and with good cause: a few days later China came back with a negative response. They were not going to approve me – though if I could get political support they might change their minds.

This was a week before Christmas. It was hell. I felt like I was dealing with a death in the family – or on the verge of a death. For the next two weeks I prayed like never before, and put all my efforts into contacting my MP, getting letters of support from everyone I could think of in a position of influence, whether political or not. Not easy when offices everywhere were closing down over the Christmas break. What really made the difference, to my mind, was that we had two old family friends who were sitting Members of Parliament at the time and who both agreed to write letters of support for me, as did my own MP. In the end I had about twelve support letters, ranging from the three MPs to my cousin, herself adopted from China, who wanted to help out. And it paid off. The Chinese government relented and agreed to let me adopt Mustang. Two months later I was in China to pick her up. (And the rest is history…!)

So, God can accomplish mighty things. Let us hope and pray that He will respond and see that the efforts of affected families bear fruit, that children are united with parents, and that new families are formed – even those still at the beginning stages of the process.