Social Affairs. I decided to kill two trips with one tuk tuk and ask about adoptions. The meeting at the Ministry was not super eventful. I asked about the rumors of new laws in March and what happened with all that, she said the same thing I already heard, that the U.S. said they would not accept adoptions granted to families with foster care currently. She also said that foster care has been shut down, but it is not in lieu of granting adoptions to those with foster care. I asked if there was anyway that she could give us an adoption as if we were Cambodian, since we have had the girls as foster children through the Ministry for almost eight months now, and most Cambodian families are encouraged to adopt after only six. She said that it was not possible. I then asked if there was any way that the Minister could make an exception for our case, because of Abby's eye, and she said that the Minister does not want to give any exceptions right now, because he is afraid it will open the flood gates--which I completely understand. At this point, I asked Dina what she thought about us going ahead and looking into getting a local court adoption of the girls, so we have some way of fighting for the visas we want, and she said that she was not sure that we would get them, to which I said, "But we can try." She then gave me contact information for a lawyer, who I have a meeting with on Monday morning at 10:00 (Sunday evening at 10:00, Missouri time). I have some paperwork to gather, and a lot of praying to do. This route is going to cost money, and we want to be sure that this is what God wants us to do right now. Please pray for wisdom for us, as we begin this process. Pray that the lawyer's heart is softened to our case. Pray that the judge will have mercy and that we will have favor. Pray that we will guard our hearts well, and not get our hopes up too quickly. Pray for God's will to be done. Pray that this works, and we get adoptions, and even pray that after we get adoptions, they work for our visas. I will give an update on how the meeting went later. I just wanted to make sure everyone began to pray now.
There will also be an update about settling back into Cambodia, but right now, we are still settling, and exhausted! Thank you to everyone who encouraged us while we were in the States, and also for all the generosity from the churches that we spoke to. It was great seeing/meeting all of you!
BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.
UPDATE 5/14/2015
I spoke with the lawyer, and he told me a few documents that I needed to collect. Things like a lease agreement, visas, ect... One thing he also noted was that he needed to have a counsel meeting with the mother of the girls. I have known this whole time that Srey Ron would help us with this, so I was not worried about it. Before the meeting with her, we needed to get her ID and the family book from the province. I got both of those things yesterday, and we are scheduled to meet with the lawyer on Tuesday at 9:30 AM, which is Monday evening the same time in Missouri (for all of you who would please pray for us). It is looking like just a couple more weeks and we will have everything to turn into the judge and await the trial, but the lawyer was concerned about the fact that the biological father's name is not on the birth certificate, but is in the family book. Please pray that this is cleared up and will not cause any trouble later. We filled out all the paper work for our lease agreement, and are just waiting for the sangkat to approve it--the sangkat is like the local office. Once that is in my hand, I will go and renew our visas (ten days, usually), and after that I can meet with the lawyer again to sign the final papers, which will include an agreement on the fee. That is up in the air right now, because everything is negotiable in Cambodia. He told me at first that they charge $3,000 per case. I thought, great, because Abby and Lily are sisters, that means one case, one judge, one set of paperwork. But then he back tracked and said, but we also charge $3,000 per child sometimes, so not sure. When I go into that negotiation meeting, I will get it as low as possible, and we will most likely have to pay a percentage of the cost up front. This is why I was wary to go the court adoption route--it gets expensive. Kelsi and I have enough savings from our time in the States (thank you!) to pay the initial part of the cost, but will need some help with the rest--all you people who have been saving change get ready! :) Thank you to everyone who has been praying and also for all the generosity toward our family. We are blessed with a great group of supporters. I will post an update on Tuesday, after the meeting, to let everyone know what the lawyer said about the family book and birth certificate situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment