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.

DragonRam Doodles

As previously mentioned, our newly acquired Labradoodle, Lovely, is expecting puppies. She was bred prior to coming to us, and the due date is approaching in little over three weeks! We are all getting a bit excited...

We're going the whole nine yards - registration as a breeder with the Australian Labradoodle Association of America (pending), getting all the health testing done (well, it was actually done before we bought her, but I plan to keep it up as we may want to breed her again)... I have developed a website for this breeding operation (term used loosely...) at DragonRam Doodles, to help promote sales of the puppies.

(Here you see Lovely practicing her mothering skills on our guinea pig!)

I chose the name DragonRam as our "kennel name" to honour my kids: Mustang was born in the year of the Dragon, and Button in the year of the Ram. (As for Lovely, she's a Rat and I'm a Tiger!).

Let me know what you think of the website... (and, hey, if you want to buy a puppy, let me know that too!)

Shock in the Canadian international adoption world

Imagine Adoption, the agency I used to adopt Button (then known as Kids Link) filed for bankruptcy yesterday, amidst speculation and rumours of fraud and embezzlement. Around 500 families are in limbo. Many of those who have successfully gone through the court process (making the children referred to them legally theirs) have gone or are going to Ethiopia to take custody of their children and handle the immigration paperwork themselves. The other families - those who have received a referral but were still waiting to pass through the Ethiopian court system, and those still waiting for a referral - are not so fortunate. Those with referrals have no idea what will happen to their children. Those still waiting for a referral have no idea whether they will get any of their money back (as much as $15,000 paid to the agency - supposedly "in trust" - for necessary expenses) or what will happen with their dream of becoming parents via international adoption. Programs for adoption from Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, and Ecuador are all affected, with the former having the largest number of prospective parents.

Another Ontario agency, Children's Bridge (which has its own Ethiopia adoption program, run in partnership with CAFAC out of Winnipeg). has reportedly requested a meeting with the Ontario Ministry of Community and Youth Services. The intent of the meeting is not known (to me) - whether to advocate for the families, to discuss possibilities of taking over Imagine's operations or case files, to advocate for international adoption in general...

Please pray for all the famlies that are affected, for the children in Ethiopia whose care is in jeopardy (lack of money for operations), for the Ethiopian staff who are responsible for their care, and for the Canadian staff who are affected by something they may have had no control over or part in or knowledge of until it hit them too.

Today's edition of the Globe and Mail has a short article about the bankruptcy.

We would all like answers and more information about what has really happened. Unfortunately, that my take months, if not years, to uncover.

Puppy!!!!!

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in far too long. Not that stuff hasn't happened. In fact, that's probably why it's been so long... so much HAS happened!!

The biggest thing is that we got our puppy today! Well, she's not a puppy - she's 16 months old and will be a mother in just 2 months. She's a beautifuly black Labradoodle and I'll call her Lovebug, because we love her! She flew in from a distant city and when we picked her up at the airport, she was nervous and frightened, but she's already settling in quite well. A chance to drink, eat, and explore the house has helped her to feel more at ease. Now she's in bed for the night and I'm just taking a minute to post a few pix.




A few other hightlights of the past month:

• 2 birthdays
• goodbye to Nanny, who left three weeks ago for another position (a bit earlier than I had hoped, only because it meant that I'd need to fill in for childcare, but it's working out okay). Nobody really misses her - I miss the laundry getting done and suppers being on the table when I get home, but I can't say as I miss Nanny as a person as she had very little presence in our house. The kids are having far more fun with the young adults I've hired to fill in until the end of school, no doubt about that!
• beginning of soccer for Button, including 1 tournament
• swimming lessons galore
• Mustang doing lots of really good art at a new art school she's attending

and lots more...

Back soon I hope!

Natural scientists

As those of you who know her are aware, Mustang is intensely curious about the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it. Button follows her lead. Walks through the local little forest, and trips to the pond, are daily favourites come springtime. There, we observe the birds, catch butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers, and frogs (and even a praying mantis, two summers ago), chase squirrels, catch glimpses of rabbits and fox, see the ducklings swimming with their mothers and daddies, and generally have lots of fun.

Who would have thought you could do all this in one small patch of urban forest?

Yesterday, when I arrived home from work, I was greeted by enthusiastic cries of “Mommy! Come look! You’ll never believe it!” So of course I had to go look RIGHT AWAY.

At a trip to the pond with Nanny, the kids had caught two frogs and two toads. Not just any old two toads, but a female and male toad locked in a mating clutch. Upon spotting the toads, Mustang had at first been confused, not recognizing that there were two of them but thinking it was rather odd-shaped. But upon distinguishing the two separate creatures, she had immediately recognized it for a mating pair.

They had brought all these creatures back to our house and put them in an empty sand box-cum-swimming pool filled with pond and rain-water. (I have impressed upon them when collecting frogs’ eggs last and this year that they should not use tap water with these creatures, as the chlorine in the tap water could kill them.) Into the pool went a small tree-trunk cross-section and a plastic container for “islands,” and into the plastic container the children placed the mating toads – “because they’re land creatures.”

This morning, immediately after getting dressed, they had to go say hi! to the critters.

Lo and behold, a string of eggs was hy the female! Mustang promptly took and put it in the big container of frogs’ eggs sitting on our patio table (collected this past weekend - and some have already hatched!).

This has been an occasion of much learning already:

• that males can be smaller than females. At first they thought the toad on the bottom was the male, as it was bigger, but this morning Mustang asked me “Where do the eggs come from?” She was puzzled that they were hanging from the larger toad, the one on the bottom. So they learned that, while in the mammal world the male is usually bigger, in other species – likes these toads – the female is often larger.
• how fertilization occurs in amphibians. Mustang noticed that the toad on top was “squirting some white stuff” onto the eggs. I said the white stuff was the sperm (also known as spelt) and that this was how the eggs were fertilized.
• the proper environment for toad eggs. Since toads are “land creatures” Button wondered whether it was okay to put the toad eggs into the bucket of water with the frogs’ eggs (at least we presume they are frogs’ eggs!). I said that toads, like frogs, are amphibians, meaning they hatch and grow first in water, then move onto land. Frogs generally live in or near water even when grown, but toads tend to leave the water environment permanently once they reach adulthood.

Last spring we took a bunch of tadpoles from the pond in late May but didn’t have the opportunity to observe them grow and develop as we were gone for almost two months on holidays starting in mid-June. This year we will be taking only short holidays, mostly long weekends, so I hope that we will have the opportunity to see the eggs hatch into tadpoles and the tadpoles develop into frogs.



I have told the kids that we will keep some of the toad’s eggs but should return some of them to the pond, to ensure that at least some of the toads have a chance to hatch and grow there, in case ours suffer any mishap or don’t grow properly for any reason. We will also return the frogs and toads themselves, either today or tomorrow. They are accepting of this. (It helps, I think, that we have already had a wild creature or two die in our “care” from over-handling…)