IAAP Newsletter - Updates
October 17, 2008
In This Issue
Zhang Qi - He will be missed...
Dark Day for Vietnam Adoptions
Children Affected by Adoption Suspension
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New Web Site- Children Updates
 
We are working on a new easier to use web site for Bringing Hope to Children.  We are placing updates on the children in our Siping Foster Care Center on the new site.  They are not all up there yet but we hope to have them all there in a couple of days.  Other parts of the site are not yet functional so you will need to still use the old site if you wish to make a donation.
 
 
 
Important Articles Below- PLEASE READ ALL
We have several very important articles below concerning adoptions from Vietnam and our Siping Foster Care Center in China.
 
Please read all these articles.
Zhang Qi - He will be missed...
 
Zhang Qi I have started this "letter" several times now; I just can't seem to find the right words. There is no easy way to tell those of you who have followed Zhang Qi's remarkable recovery from the malnutrition that nearly claimed his life as a tiny baby. Our "miracle baby" QiQi has passed away.
 
QiQi came to our Center on November 29, 2007, after Hannah had asked his orphanage director how he was doing. Hannah knew he was at the orphanage, but had not seen him, and the director had not asked for our help. The director said he could not eat and was not doing well at all, so Hannah sent one of the nannies over right away. She was shocked at what she found. QiQi was so malnourished that every rib could be seen. She called Hannah, and they decided to take him right then and there. After several days at the hospital, and many tests, Dr. Frank found that the feeding problem was simply that the orphanage staff was not taking the necessary time to feed a small baby with a cleft lip and palate. It just took too long, so they did not do it. He had been slowly starving to death.
 
QiQi came to live at our Center, where he received all the formula he could hold and all the love the nannies could give. And love him they did. It was decided to wait until he had more weight on his little body to plan his cleft lip repair. Last May, he was big enough. But he began having seizures...some were intense enough that he would stop breathing for a while. He was sent to the hospital for a CT scan in late June, which revealed some fluid around his brain, but not enough to require a shunt. Medications slowed the seizures, and everyone waited and watched. QiQi seemed to be better.
 
On October 9, he began having seizures with a fever. By the 11th, the fever continued, even with medication and he had six seizures that day. Dr. Frank sent him to the hospital where a CT scan showed a congenital abnormality of his brain. On the 12th, the fever continued. And on October 13, the seizures began again and little QiQi passed away at 10:00.
 
QiQi always reminded me of Gandhi. In every photo he looked old, wise, and very thoughtful. It was as if he knew so much that he wanted to tell us, if only he could. The nannies said he never smiled on his own. But they said he brought them peace, strength and confidence day after day. This tiny boy will never know how many lives he has touched....and how many hearts have been broken by his death.
 
Cheryl Graham
 
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Dark Day for Vietnam Adoptions
 
The United States has reversed its position on Special Needs adoptions from Vietnam and has issued a statement saying that they will not allow any Special Needs referrals after September 1, 2008 from Vietnam until such time as a new MOU is signed with Vietnam or Vietnam implements the Hague agreement.  Both of these could take years. It took the United States 14 years to implement the Hague after it signed.
 
We are appalled by this decision.  It clearly does not take into account the "best interest of the children".  I would like everyone to understand that agencies did not start giving referrals of special needs children without some guidance from the DOS (US Department of State) and the DIA (Vietnam Department of International Adoption). We participated in a conference call with Gerry Fuller and others at the DOS in August about special needs adoptions. We also presented to them a proposal as to how a special needs program could be structured to address their concerns. We were told at that time that yes, Vietnamese law does allow special needs adoptions and since the US does not require an agreement with Vietnam to do adoptions, the US would process any case presented to them as they do any other case. We were cautioned that we must be sure these cases would indeed be special needs cases and that agencies should not try to sneak a child through with "a scratch on their knee." We all agreed to this.  There was also a meeting of adoption agencies in Hanoi in August where agencies asked questions about special needs referrals after September 1 and were assured by Embassy staff and USCIS staff that this would be permitted.

We then had a conference call with Dr. Long at the DIA. He also agreed that special needs adoptions could and should continue after September 1. He encouraged us to proceed and told us that since agencies would no longer have a license in Vietnam then agencies would need for their staff to have a power of attorney from them to be able to represent them in Vietnam.

I am telling you this to let you know that agencies did not embark on Special Needs adoptions without first doing our home work. The US has blindsided us all with the announcement. I must believe that there is more about the circumstances that lead to this than we now know.

Why must all adoptions be shut down on the possibility that there could be problems? Could it not also be possible that there will be no problems or very few? Is that not an equally possible outcome along with the certainty that many special needs children will find homes? We had referred two special needs children.  Don't these two children and hundreds of others like them deserve a chance? Why is there no interest in trying to define a process that will work for those children that need homes now rather than take the easy road and just stop them all?
 
We will be working in concert with other agencies and groups to formulate a course of action to get this decision overturned.  As the plans come together we will keep you informed and hope you can support us all in these efforts and for the sake of these children.
 
This is a dark day for adoptions and especially for the special needs children of Vietnam.


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Child Affected by Adoption Suspension from Vietnam 
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We would like you to meet Nguyen Van Hai.  He has a family here in the United States that want to adopt him but can't.  The US has stopped all special needs adoptions from Vietnam until a new agreement is signed with Vietnam.  No one knows when this might happen.  The last time adoptions were suspended it took two and one half years to reach an agreement!
 
Nguyen Van Hai has two deformed hands, a club left foot, no right foot, both eyes are crossed, and he has speech difficulties.  We have a family that will adopt him.  They have adopted several special needs children with burns, missing hands, and albinism.  They would give this boy not only a wonderful home but also the medical care he needs to grow up to be a healthy adult and live to his fullest capacity.  He has been in the orphanage his entire life and is now 5 years old.  He knows there is a family waiting on him.  The US says they are only working for the "best interest of the children".  As he gets older he will begin to have more physical problems without help.  Who will be there for him later in life to explain again why this was in his best interest? 
 

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