KATIE'S BIRTHDAY

Katie, my niece, celebrated her 7th Birthday at our house on Saturday.  It was the first time the whole family (Granny, her 7 children, their spouses, as well as all 9 grandchildren) had been together in a long time.  It was a great weekend.  This is the cake we made at Katie's request.  Can you guess who it is?  We just can't wait for my little one to join us and enjoy family days like the one we just had.

Dossiers sent directly to Bulgarian Agency before 1st November 2010 - enactment of the Adoption Act 2010.

As my dossier was sent to Bulgaria before the enactment of the Adoption Act on 1st November 2010, I was unsure as to how things would play out when it came to the referral stage.  I sent a quick email to the Central Authority here in Ireland to check if there would be any potential issues at the time of referral.


This is the reply I received:


Persons proposing to adopt from a Hague Convention State after 1/11/2010 should satisfy themselves that their adoption complied withe the terms and conditions of the Hague Convention i.e.


- that the Article 15 Assessment Report should be sent from Central Authority (CA) to Cantral Authority (or a designated Accredited Body (AB))


- the the Article 16 Child Study Report should be from CA to CA (or a designated AB)


- that the Article 17 Approval Notice should be sent from CA to CA (or a designated AB)


- that the final Article 23 Certificate should be issued by a CA (or a designated AB)
As my Assessment report was sent directly by me to the Agency in Bulgaria I was also told that a question may arise if / when I go to seek an entry in the Register of Intercountry Adoptions as  to whether the adoption was effected under the terms and conditions of the Hague  Convention as the adoption was not finalised before 1st November 2010.

There is no provision in Irish legislation for the  recognition of an intercountry adoption from a Hague Convention State that has  not been carried out in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Hague  Convention.

In order to achieve a successful outcome, I was told that I should at least  ensure that the Hague Convention applies to the process from here on in i.e.  that the Article 16 Child Study Report (Referral) is sent by the agency in Bulgaria to the Central Authority here in Ireland for approval.  



This is just something to bear in mind so that we are not faced with unnecessary heartache at the time of referral.  What I take from this is that we just need to make sure that our Agency sends the referral directly to our central authority so that at least from this point on our adoption complies with the Conditions of the Hague Convention  

ONE YEAR TODAY!!

Today it is exactly one year since I was registered with the Ministry of Justice.  One year closer to bringing my little one home.

A lot has happened in that year - my sister and her husband had a little boy in December of last year and my brother and his wife had a little boy in April of this year.  I'm looking forward to experiencing the various milestones in the first two years of these little boys lives as these are the things I will not get to experience with my own little one.  We now have 9 cousins waiting to welcome my little one home.

I hope the rest of the waiting time continues to pass quickly and that we see more young children being referred.

Referrals of Children under the age of 2.

The MOJ meeting results for 8th April were published yesterday and it was very encouraging to see that 3 children under the age of 2 had been referred.  This is the first time I've seen children this young being referred from Bulgaria.