February 29, 2012
Dear Moldova Families,
We are glad to announce that our facilitator has notified us that the agency has been officially registered with the Ministry of Justice and we have also received agency accreditation for 2012! We recognize that this program is becoming increasingly frustrating due to the lack of moment. Let me share what we know to date.
Our facilitator has had the opportunity to meet individually with the authorities who confirmed that there will be changes in the adoption process and dossier requirements. The officials at the Ministry have not made any official announcements as to what the changes will be. They are considering changes to adoption process regulations adopted in May of 2011, as they are realizing that the present regulations may be too restrictive and not meet the best interests of the children. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection will have a committee which will match families and children. The official list of available children is not completed at present time; therefore, no matches may be made. We have been told that priority will be given to requests for older children and sibling groups. Our greatest urgency is for the 4 families whose dossiers had been submitted to Moldova some time ago. We do not anticipate any significant movement with these families until April or May. We remain concerned about submitting additional dossiers as the document requirements may change, the process may be different and the processing time frames are unknown.
It does seem that Moldova is experiencing many of the same issues as other countries that have international adoption programs; changes in policies, fewer children available for international adoption, increase in age of children being available for adoption and delays in processing adoptions. Our facilitator will continue to meet with the authorities to get further clarification regarding changes in the adoption process in Moldova. At the present time it anticipated that the program will continue to move at a very slow pace. Families who are not prepared for a longer wait may want to consider another program. CAS will waive the country transfer fee to another program if families decide they would like to switch programs. At present time, we will not be accepting new applications to the program until further notice. If you would like to discuss your family’s situation, please contact me directly and we will set a time to talk about it.
Sincerely,
Tania Griasnow
Moldova Program Coordinator
To sum up, this is good news & not so good news. The good news is that the agency is now accredited & registered in the country of Moldova! Yeah! Other good news is we are one of the four families mentioned that will be (hopefully) in the first set of referrals! Double yeah!! The not so good news is that March will probably not be the month they begin giving referrals, which we hoped for. (It's not really "not so good news" as much as it is "not the news we were hoping for.") The real not so good news is that many of the other families have dropped out of this program, so there are less families waiting to adopt these kids. Also, adopting from Moldova will have longer waiting periods. :(
We are in the process of finalizing & updating paperwork, physicals, immigration forms, etc. so we are 100% ready when we finally do get the call. (Technically we were 100% ready when we submitted our dossier to Moldova last Jan. but, things were beginning to expire & therefore, had to be redone.) We also had to redo some paperwork & clearances since our originally local agency closed & we had to start again with a new agency. We have decided to expand our age range now to request a girl between the ages of 3-7 years old. This may help us get a referral since it includes a larger age range & an older child.
Lastly, I would like to thank each & every person that has asked us about our adoption. I realize many people are unsure whether they should bring the subject up. Please know that we feel fortunate to be able to talk about all of adoption's ups & downs. We are very blessed to have the support of so many friends & family, especially those who have been down this road before. We can't wait for the day to be able to share great news with all of you! Right now, we are just dreaming of that day & hoping that we might be filling up our summer with lots of travel!
