Adoption ARK - Bulgaria

Have You Considered Bulgaria?

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Congratulations, VanRoekel family!!! This month they brought their little 2 year old son home from Bulgaria. Look at that adorable face!! Read about their story here.

This year more and more adoptive parents were attracted to a small county in Eastern Europe that became their number one choice in international adoption. Bulgaria is a Hague Convention country that offers a lot of options to adoptive parents. In previous years this program was very often overlooked due to its long timeframe but recently with international adoption world changing its rules and requirements, many families choose Bulgaria for its multiple advantages that all together make it worth the wait. Even though it might take adoptive parents 2-3 years to finalize their adoption, it is very hard to find a disadvantage to this program – short travel time, simple dossier, low fees, extended information on the children referred to families, possibility to adopt a child as young as 2 years old.

These are only a few of the advantages to this program. Every family who went through Adoption Ark’s Bulgarian program was amazed at how wonderful everything was organized in Bulgaria. No program offers so much hand holding in the foreign country as Bulgaria. Adoption Ark was able to establish a great working relationship with a non-profit organization in Bulgaria, who are always happy to help every qualified family, who want to open their hearts and homes to a child in need.

Another great advantage of this program is Bulgarian flexibility towards adoptive parents. Many countries put multiple restrictions on adoptive parents in regards to their age, financial situation, medical conditions, etc., so a lot of families who were not able to qualify for many other countries, were welcomed into Bulgaria program. Single moms and married couples up to the age of 60 yo can apply for Bulgarian program (however, if you are over 50 you will need to be open to a slightly older child or a child with some special needs), there is no restriction on families’ income level and many medical conditions can be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Another big problem in international adoption is the lack of information provided by the foreign countries on the children referred to US families. This may lead to uncertainty, hesitation and even problems in the future. This is not the case in Bulgaria. Ministry of Justice provides every adoptive family with full medical, psychological, social, emotional, educational (and many others) evaluations on their future children, carried out by professionals. Adoption Ark and our families cannot be any happier with the amount of information we receive on every single kiddo referred to our clients.

Bulgaria is a great alternative to all non-Hague countries that very often fail to answer additional questions of adoptive parents about medical conditions or history of their future children.

This year Bulgarian Ministry also opened a new “Waiting Children” program, where referrals for older and special needs children are issued to accredited agencies directly asking to find families for these kiddos. If adoptive families can be open to an older child (7-11 yrs old) or a child with some medical conditions (missing digits, vision or hearing impairment, etc), they can even find their future children through this special program that may allow them to finalize their adoption process in only a matter of months, not years. To learn more about waiting children in Bulgaria, please contact us.

by
Marina Snazina
Adoption Ark Consultant
marina.s@adoptionark.org
Sign up here to receive Adoption ARK's Newsletter.

Bulgaria Special Needs Adoption Program

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:13:00 +0000

There is more than a thousand available children with various types of special needs from Bulgaria who are desperately waiting to be adopted. Adoption Ark has designed a program to help you to find the child who is right for your family. We offer you, the perspective adoptive parents, a way to choose the types of special needs you are open to. Then we will submit the paperwork to the Bulgarian officials and they will provide you a referral on a child according to your request.

Wait times for non-special needs child's referral can take up to 2 1/2 years or even more from the time of the dossier submission to Bulgaria authorities, but for special needs children the wait times are drastically cut in more than half!!

Many children have minor or correctable needs and others have more significant needs but we can help you to find the child who is best for you!

Bulgaria is a great Hague adoption program that requires two very short trips, or even the possibility of an escort instead of a second trip (if permitted). Fees for the program are as low as $17,900.

To receive more information on this program go to http://adoptionark.org/public/pag15.aspx and register with the code BULGARIA SN in the comments section of the form.

One of our consultants will immediately contact you ,send you information and talk with you about this incredible program.

Adoption Tax Credit Form

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:35:00 +0000

The Adoption Tax Credit can be confusing. Please visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQryETwRziA for more information on the
qualifications and filing instructions. You can also view the form at
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8839.pdf

Adoption ARK's Report Card

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:40:00 +0000

Adoption ARK is very excited to share with you our latest survey results. Our “Report Card” reflects our commitment to orphaned children and the clients that we serve. International Adoption is not just a job; it’s a calling. At Adoption ARK, we are honored to assist you in adopting a child and we thank you for choosing us as your international adoption agency. Thank you to all the clients that participated.

View Adoption ARK’s Report Card at http://www.adoptionark.org/upload/adoptionarkreportcard_87895.pdf

Sincerely,
The Team at Adoption ARK
(847) 215-2755

Follow Adoption ARK on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/adoptionark
Visit our YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/user/AdoptionArk

Adopting one child won't change the world; but for that child, the world will change.

Bulgaria Strives to End Plight of Abandoned Children

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:40:00 +0000

By Vessela Sergueva (AFP) – 1 day ago

SOFIA — Kuna, a pretty eight-year-old girl, lives in an orphanage in Bulgaria, abandoned by her family, but her Roma origins mean her chances of adoption are almost nil.

"Kuna's features do not reveal her origins, but her documents dissuade adoption candidates," said Nadya Dzhunova, director of the Slaveykov children's home in Sofia.

Indeed, Bulgarians are still highly prejudiced against the poor Roma minority, suspecting them of abandoning children at a young age only to claim them back when they are old enough to earn money.

At Slaveykov, Kuna lives alongside 61 abandoned children aged seven to 18, including six who are handicapped.

Her parents only kept two of their seven children but they refused to give up their parental rights over the little girl and four of her siblings, meaning the children could not be put up for adoption and would have been condemned to live in orphanages until adulthood.

But a new law that came into force in October means children who have spent more than six months in institutions and have not been taken back by their parents can now be put up for adoption, without the parents' approval.

This has already allowed Kuna and her four siblings to make their way onto adoption lists.

The practice of leaving children to the state's care due to poverty or a child's disability goes back to communist times and Bulgaria now has one of the highest rates of abandonment in the European Union, with some 6,730 children left to the care of state institutions.

"The problem is difficult to solve after 50 years during which the state readily placed in an institution any child at risk," deputy social minister Valentina Simeonova explained.

This was the case for eight mentally disabled teenagers, who after years in a dilapidated children's home in the remote village of Mogilino in northeastern Bulgaria, recently moved into their own house in the western village of Glozhene.

Confined to a wheelchair, 20-year-old Sergey can neither walk nor talk. Blind since birth, he was often tied to his bed at Mogilino to keep him still, according to the nurses at his new home in Glozhene.

Sergey and several dozen other children and adolescents with disabilities lived at Mogilino behind "a barbed wire fence and barred windows," cared for by unqualified, indifferent staff, according to Branimira Pavlova, head of a daycare centre in Teteven that temporarily hosted the eight youngsters.

The utter misery there sparked a nationwide fund-raising campaign, supported by UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, and private bTV television, to build new homes for the children and eventually close down the orphanage.

The government now plans to shut by 2013 all 27 remaining institutions for children with serious disabilities. Most of these facilities are situated in poor remote villages.

Meanwhile, it is encouraging the creation of daycare centres like the one in Teteven, where teams of nurses, psychologists and teachers can take care of children with disabilities during the day, allowing the parents to go work.

This would help battle high abandonment rates, Pavlova said.

Almost 98 percent of abandoned children in Bulgaria still have parents somewhere and social workers are seeking to encourage them to take their children back or place them in foster care.

Some 1,200 children aged 12 and above, or with grave disabilities, have been put on a special list for adoption abroad, mainly in the United States, Canada, Sweden and Italy, where families are more open to adopt these children.

Authorities are also seeking to limit the number of abandoned babies, aged three and under, which currently number 2,300 in all of Bulgaria.

In 2009, 536 Bulgarian babies were adopted domestically and 103 abroad, including 23 percent who had some sort of disability.

"If we manage to do away with abandonment at birth, we will manage to reverse the high number of children in institutions," Simeonova said.

USCIS Centralizes Processing of Orphan Adoptions Change will Streamline Processing

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:46:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced
that on April 1, 2010, it is centralizing processing and adjudication of all
new orphan (Non-Hague) petitions with the agency's specialized adoptions
team in Missouri.
Prospective adoptive parents will continue to file their Petition to
Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative (Form I 600) and Application for
Advance Processing of Orphan Petition (Form I 600A) with USCIS' Dallas
Lockbox facility. The Lockbox will forward the case to the Orphan Unit at
USCIS' National Benefit Center (NBC) for processing and adjudication. The
applicant will receive a receipt notice with the NBC address and contact
information for follow-up correspondence.
While this takes place behind the scenes, adoptive parents will benefit
because it allows USCIS to:
* Process applications and petitions more efficiently,
* Streamline and standardize work processes, and
* Offer more consistent service.
Parents will also benefit from the specialized skills and experience of the
NBC Non-Hague Adoption Unit, based on the NBC's implementation of the USCIS
Hague Adoption Convention program in 2008.
USCIS has dedicated a toll-free NBC Adoption telephone line, 1-877-424-8374
and published an Orphan Home Study Tip sheet (Form M-760) to aid adoption
service providers and prospective adoptive parents.
Local USCIS field offices in the United States will continue to accept
requests for extensions and change of circumstances for approved Form I-600A
applications in accordance with the current filing instructions. Overseas
U.S. citizens may continue to file Form I-600 at a U.S. Embassy, consulate
or USCIS office abroad that has jurisdiction to accept the petition.
However, in order to file a Form I-600 petition abroad, the petitioner must
have an approved Form I-600A and be physically present in the adoptive
child's country.
Prospective parents who reside abroad may continue to file the Form I-600A
with an overseas USCIS office or the Dallas Lockbox facility.
For more information on orphan adoptions visit:
http://www.uscis.gov/adoptions.

Free Seminar "Parenting Children from Haiti and Other Hard Places"

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:07:00 +0000

Adoption Learning Partners is pleased to bring you this webinar in cooperation with The Evan B. Donaldson Institute and the Joint Council on International Children's Services.

Dr. Karyn Purvis will spend one hour answering parents' questions on parenting their children from Haiti, and other "hard places" (which she will define). Feel free to ask questions about attachment, sleep issues, behavior challenges, family dynamics, or any other challenge you are facing.

Questions should be submitted in advance by completing the form below (please include your child's age). They will be read to Dr. Purvis by our moderator. We'll get to as many questions as time allows.

Dr. Purvis is co-author of the book "The Connected Child," and the Director of the Institute of Child Development at TCU. Her focus is on research based interventions for vulnerable children. She travels extensively, providing training and consultation for families and professionals working with at risk children.

Please register at http://www.bluestreakwebinars.com/AccountManager/RegEv.aspx?PIID=ED50DD8985

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:53:00 +0000

Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for Best Actress last night for her role in the movie ‘The Blind Side.’ If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it is about Michael Oher, a homeless, traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick after being taken in by a caring woman and her family. In her acceptance speech Sandra said, “what this film was about for me, which are the moms that take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from." Adoption ARK couldn’t agree more! Today, on International Women’s Day, Adoption ARK would like to say thank you to all the mom’s that have loving cared for adopted children. Please remember…Adopting one child will not change the world; but for that child the world will change. The world changed for Michael Oher and countless other the day their moms took them in their arms and began a life-long pursuit of loving them unconditionally.

FW: Great Story Written from an Adoptee Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Adoption Ark) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:54:00 +0000

The article, The Case for International Adoption, is a wonderfully written, very informative example of why International Adoption is such an important aspect of our society. Written by Jeneen Interlandi, an adoptee from Columbia, the article tackles the issue of adoptees being able to develope a cultural identity within a family of a different ethnic background. In the end Jeneen concludes , what matters most is not where a child is from, but whether or not that child is well loved and well cared for by a responsible family—regardless of race or nationality.

Click here to read The Case for International Adoption by Jeneen Interlandi