Under new law

HI, We are adopting a 2 1/2 year old boy from central Bulgaria. We met him January 17th and are awaiting the MoJ signiture which will get us a court date. He is precious and his siblings and new parents are anxious to get him home.

I thought....under the new law the court case must be heard within 2 weeks after you go see and accept the child. So does this mean that they are not only slow with referrals they are also slow with what comes after as well?

The court date comes as soon as the MoJ signs the document. No one can force him to do this and I believe he does not care or know about this timeline. I have been told that everything else will come as scheduled. 4-5 days to a court date (from signiture) and then up to one week for a new birth certificate and then no more than 14 days for a new passport. My agency says that she may be able to improve the last 2 things but has no control on getting the MoJ to sign this document(application). I will let you all know as soon as I know something. Mary

Actually I spoke this afternoon with the attorney that is representing me in Bulgaria. She used to work for the MOJ and knows the Minister of Justice. What she says is that it is not so much his reluctance to sign or not caring about the deadlines. The situation is that they are having to make sure that everything has been done "right" and no stone left unturned so that parents are not being toyed with (her term). I think as they start making things more concrete (which is apparently being done from other friends in my area that are also having to jump through hoops I didn't have to jump through) things will improve with the Minister of Justice. Also, the Prime Minister (who was the King of Bulgaria before WWII) has realigned his Cabinet of Ministers so I think everyone is on notice to start doing a better job. We'll see. Good luck Mary! I am still awaiting the phone call with my referral. At least the attorney is starting to ask questions for me! Dana

...The situation is that they are having to make sure that everything has been done "right" and no stone left unturned so that parents are not being toyed with (her term)... Not to be a cynic and I am not trying to pick a fight but this whole situation makes me VERY angry because I feel like I have been defrauded and totally mislead. And I know of several other people who feel just as strongly as I do about this situation. I have been hearing that same line about how everyone is trying to be so careful from our lawyers since last September (starting on month 7 now!) and I would believe they actually mean that if I was seeing at least some action coming out of Bulgaria. However, since nothing is happening and has not happened in a very long time other than 2 special needs cases that I know of....I really think Bulgaria's credibility and reputation as a country who genuinely wants to place its orphaned children is in serious jeopardy. Especially since it is not like they are new to adoptions. They did adopt children under the old laws and I would imagine they had to fill out paperwork then as well. And remember--these new laws changed in 2003. It is now 2005! Unless the MOJ and the orphanages are being run by a bunch of idiots--and I HIGHLY doubt that--they really should have had their act together long before now. I mean--don't you think they researched adoption options to decide what would be best before creating/changing laws? Did they just get up one morning and say Hey--let's change our adoption laws!--without some sort of thought and planning ahead of time? Although we all know how inept governments can be I have a hard time believing they--Bulgaria--are that screwed up. Because if they really are that screwed up then they are extrememly stupid for making changes to a system without planning out how they were going to do it ahead of time. And I am tired of being strung along. Each month I hear--oh, the lawyers are saying that the MOJ is going to blow out a lot of referrals next month. I have been hearing that for 7 months. I stopped listening to them when I was told that in January and February the MOJ would be releasing huge numbers of referrals. Since it is now March and none of these mythical referrals have materialized.....I think they have "cried wolf" for far too long. And if I could figure out what to do about it believe me I would! Really a sad situation because I think Bulgaria is a magical country and I was really looking forward to adopting my daughter from there......I was going to call her Irena Sophia and was going to teach her all about her homeland....but that dream has faded away with the mist of broken promises...

jlync1, I am so sorry for what you have been through. Bulgaria for us has many, many question marks behind it. We are still in the research phase. I have been reading Bulgarian news and learning just how corrupt their country is; one of the most corrupt. One of the reasons for the change in adoption law is that Bulgaria desires to join European Economic Union. They signed the Hague, causing the centralization of referrals whereas, in the past, the attourney found the referrals. Bulgaria is trying to get its act together and it is far from being a reliable adoption source. Tammy

I was talking to a co-worker today who suggested those of us who feel Bulgaria is not trying to keep their end of the bargain-(come on - all those meetings and new laws and new hirings and not one single healthy referral to show for it?) could contact senators, congressmen, and or TV shows like the news or 20/20 or Dateline etc. maybe Bulgaria will be afraid of all the negative publicity. I'm not sure though- isnt bad publicity what caused Romania to shut down completely? ?

Well, taking actions like that will probably upset Bulgaria. And then, all the healthy matches will go to applicants from other countries. I do not recemmend it. kay

Please remember that we have had our paperwork checked and rechecked x 7 most probably and there is no further or (probably even initially) need for the actual minister to check any paperwork but just to sign. We had everything in place to see and accept our referral and have paid the fees and submitted every document(updated as well). I agree with Kay that there will be very little help from a 20/20 show................just because we are the US does not mean that we can control another government.

I agree. Bulgarians, like the Romanians, have deep national pride that few Americans can understand. The threat felt by a 20/20 show would be devestating to the international adoption climate in Bulgaria. The main reason for the shut down in Romania is due to their desire to become part of the European Economic Union. Because of the pressure from Western Europe, Romania shut down their "baby selling" business and now only allows a limited number of special needs adoptions to be placed out of the country. I think it would be wise to apply the rules of what is known to the unknown. Even though Bulgaria says they are open to international adoption, there may be a secret agenda within their government to do the same as Romania. I think Bulgaria may be trying to appease Western Europe, preserve their deep nationalism, and appease the US. Bulgaria says they allow international adoption but are they going to do what they say? Time will tell.

This sure makes sense when we consider the things many of us are hearing or being told by our agencies like, " consider making a formal statement that you would consider a mild medical /special needs child, or consider other programs." Are the Bulgarians trying to please western Europe in their hopes to join the European Economic Union and also allow international adoptions to go through by labeling most of the children mild medical/special needs? I don't know what is going on. Frankly, it depresses me. We have been told/heard that no referrals for healthy children have gone out and that the database is not up. Told that there are still only special needs referrals being worked on. Are all the referrals going to be considered special needs? I don't know/care, I just pray they find a way to bring these childeren out of institutions and into families who love them. Hopefully, Maria