REFORM Talk Notice-Uganda February 13, 2012 UPDATED

Since DOS doesn’t seem to be issuing warnings or closures in a timely fashion or ever in some cases, I figured, why shouldn’t we do it?

Adoptive parents on the ground in Uganda are reporting unethical practices at several levels of the process. This is very much like what we have reported about Ethiopia.

See Rileys in Uganda for the warning signs on unethical adoption agencies, lawyers and children’s homes and what type of information you should be DEMANDING from your agency.

How the children are being relinquished and how long the child has been in the orphanage before placement are key questions that you should have answers to before completing the adoption.

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Satisfying a “customer” order for a child is not what international adoption should be about.

1. Reports that US adoption agencies are making donations to existing orphanages to thwart efforts at family reunification;
2. Reports of harvesting of children from intact families in order to provide more “adoptable” children for intercountry adoption (children screened for suitable health, gender, and age);
3. Reports of extensive bribes paid to local officials by US adoption agencies and/or their local facilitators;
4. Reports of bribes paid to local officials by US adopting families;
5. Failure of the Ugandan government and US government to demonstrate a commitment to transparency and honesty in addressing concerns over the slowing of the process for approving Ugandan passports for adopted children;
6. Recent reports that US adopting families are being advised to take children into Kenya for processing Ugandan passport applications. We are concerned about this practice and the possible repercussions of US citizens flying undocumented children across international borders.”

The Brentwood couple was in Uganda in November trying to adopt Eden Hannah, an 8-month-old orphan, but ended up mired in bureaucratic red tape from two countries. It had been three weeks since they resubmitted a visa application to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as legal guardians, and this time, they hoped that including the biological mother’s diagnosis of severe mental illness would make a difference.

It didn’t. Their request was denied. They would come home from Africa alone, and they’re still at home, still waiting, still praying.

We had provided them everything that they had asked for,” said Ryan Doyle, youth pastor and Bible teacher at Christ Presbyterian Church and Academy. “We were devastated, thinking that our chance at bringing her home had just slipped through our hands, and the wait to be with her had to continue.”

Their case demonstrates challenges American couples face in trying to adopt from Africa — a web of paperwork, conflicting government policies and financial strain. There’s been a sharp decline in overall international adoptions in recent years, from nearly 23,000 in 2004 to 9,320 last year, said Corey Barron of the St. Louis-based Children’s Hope Adoption Agency.

“These protective measures ensure there isn’t any child trafficking going on, and that is a very good thing,” he said. [Think again on that!]

But Barron also criticized some cumbersome U.S. policies that pile paperwork onto too few immigration workers and slow down legitimate adoptions.

“They have overwhelmed the infrastructure of adoptions,” Barron said.

“It looks like Immigration has one office for all of Africa.” [Maybe if there were not so many major paper discrepancies like birthmother DISAPPEARS, they wouldn’t be so overwhelmed!]

No adoption agency

The Doyles aren’t using an agency and instead are doing an independent adoption. Their story began in March 2011 in Uganda, when concerned relatives removed newborn Eden Hannah from her biological mother, who suffered from untreated schizophrenia, and took her to the Masindi police station.

The authorities gave her to two American nurses from South Carolina working with the Palmetto Medical Initiative, a hospital in Masindi.

“We got the reputation of people who were willing to take care of unwanted babies,” said Mandie Joy Turner, 25, one of the nurses who cared for Eden Hannah and six other orphans.

The nurses gave the baby medical care but also reached out to America, hoping to find an adoptive family.

The baby weighed 4 pounds, was drug addicted and bore a tribal name meaning “cursed.”

The nurses renamed her the more cheerful Eden Hannah, which partially means “delight.” After enduring weeks of screaming and sleepless nights with the drug-addicted infant, Turner wondered about that choice.

“She was anything but a delight,” Turner said. “We gave her that name in faith.”

In May, a Nashville couple who had adopted twins from the nurses ran into the Doyles at a school piano recital and told them about Eden Hannah.

The Doyles have four young children, the youngest a boy adopted from Uganda in 2009, and had been praying to add a girl to the family. Lindsey Doyle works from home for a family business.

Turner texted her a picture of Eden Hannah during the piano recital, and tears sprang to her eyes.

“When I saw her picture for the first time, I was overjoyed, even giddy,” Lindsey Doyle said. “We had been praying the Lord would lead us to our next child. As I looked at her picture, I hoped it would be us that would be chosen to love her forever. Now, that moment seems like years ago.”

She was on a plane to Uganda by October to care for the baby while her husband and other relatives watched the children back home.

For seven weeks, she rocked Eden Hannah. With no cribs available, they slept in the same bed.

Joy, disappointment

In November, Ryan Doyle joined his wife in front of a Ugandan judge. Eden Hannah’s uncle and the nurses who cared for her all signed irrevocable releases on behalf of her biological mother — who was ruled incapable of understanding the legalities at hand — and granted legal guardianship to the Doyles.

Then everything unraveled. [Actually, they just didn’t seem to comprehend what the definition of “orphan” is from immigration law.]

Days before Thanksgiving, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied their application for Eden Hannah’s visa. The baby’s biological mother, a patient at Butabika Mental Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, had escaped. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

That’s a serious development, Barron said, because in cases of mental illness, the U.S. Embassy requires clinical documentation to verify a child’s orphan status. That office, in Nairobi, Kenya, has denied the Doyles’ application twice, citing a need for more evidence and an official signature from the biological mother relinquishing her rights.

“They never asked for her signature until now, now that she is gone from the hospital,” Lindsey Doyle said. “Even if she signs it, the U.S. Embassy could deny it on account of her mental condition.”

On Tuesday, the Doyles’ Ugandan attorneys obtained a document that may satisfy the requirement.

The release, which used English wording to more clearly sever all parental rights, was signed by a Ugandan judge on behalf of the biological mother.

The Doyles hope the inclusion of the release with their third visa application will confirm Eden Hannah’s status as a true orphan, and they finally will be able to bring her home.

Trapped in a legal conundrum, the Doyles say, they need a miracle. They have been showered with spiritual and financial support through their church, Christ Presbyterian in Nashville, but still, they can’t bring their daughter home.

“We never imagined our own government would prevent sweet Eden Hannah from coming home,” said church member Dana Keck, whose family adopted a son from Uganda in 2009. “Our hearts break with the Doyles because we know what it feels like to be separated from your child.”