[Senate Hearing 114-876]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
. S. Hrg. 114-876
NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH: STORIES OF
SUCCESS AND MEETING THE CHALLENGES
OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 18, 2015
__________
Serial No. J-114-40
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Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
www.judiciary.senate.gov
www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
52-544 WASHINGTON : 2025
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa, Chairman
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Ranking
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama Member
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
JOHN CORNYN, Texas CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
MICHAEL S. LEE, Utah RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
TED CRUZ, Texas SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
DAVID PERDUE, Georgia CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
THOM TILLIS, North Carolina RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
Kolan L. Davis, Republican Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Kristine Lucius, Democratic Chief Counsel and Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Grassley, Hon. Charles E......................................... 1
Prepared statement........................................... 63
Leahy, Hon. Patrick J............................................ 2
Prepared statement........................................... 65
Cornyn, Hon. John................................................ 3
WITNESSES
Bond, Michele Thoren............................................. 4
Prepared statement........................................... 32
Responses to written questions............................... 67
Craig, Nicole.................................................... 19
Prepared statement........................................... 46
Horton, Katie.................................................... 16
Prepared statement........................................... 49
Hutchins, Christine.............................................. 21
Prepared statement........................................... 55
Wilkerson, Rick.................................................. 13
Prepared statement........................................... 59
APPENDIX
Links to items submitted for the record.......................... 93
NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH: STORIES OF
SUCCESS AND MEETING THE CHALLENGES
OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS
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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2015
United States Senate,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., in
Room 226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Charles E.
Grassley, Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Grassley [presiding], Sessions, Cornyn,
Tillis, Leahy, and Klobuchar.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. GRASSLEY,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF IOWA
Chairman Grassley. I better turn on the microphone. Before
we give our opening statements, Senator Leahy and I, we're
hearing rumors of a vote at 10:15, so I'll talk to Senator
Leahy and other Members about whether or not the Committee
adjourns for just a few minutes and then we come back, or
whether we keep it going and we take turns going over to vote.
The family is the foundation of American society. For
millions of Americans, the season of Thanksgiving gives us an
opportunity to count our blessings and give thanks for the
hearth and home. The safety, stability, and security of a
permanent, loving home reinforces a strong foundation of
support that hopefully lasts a lifetime.
But not every child gets to experience these benefits.
Millions of children around the world are orphans, without
parents or family, and those are the people that would support
them. Not only do they lack families, many are subjected to
life in subpar State orphanage systems hazarding their health
and development. They will never know what it is like to have a
loving family, sibling rivalries, and the confidence that comes
with family support.
Despite the efforts of host countries to find extended
family members and domestic adoptions for their children, there
are still thousands of children who need help. Next Thursday,
approximately 6,000 children from around the world will
celebrate Thanksgiving in America for the first time. This
month, they will experience all the bounty and opportunity
America has to offer, in addition to the permanence of a
family.
Today, in the spirit of National Adoption Month, we want to
celebrate American families who have opened their hearts and
homes to children around the world. America leads the world in
foreign adoptions. Not long ago, in 2004, our families welcomed
over 20,000 foreign children into their homes.
As every parent knows, raising children is hard work. Today
we can reflect on the incredible rewards of our continuing
efforts to reform and improve the adoption process. We'll get
to hear from families how adoption has changed their lives and
the lives of their children. It is a great privilege to see
that our efforts to overcome barriers to adoption have such
direct and lasting impact of course, on those people that we
are serving.
We will hear from an Iowan today as an example. He's a
person whose family has had an immeasurable impact on children
at home and abroad. This person's name is Dr. Rick Wilkerson.
Wilkerson--Dr. Wilkerson has adopted three foster kids, a
fourth child from Cambodia, and a fifth one from Haiti. After
visiting Haiti, Dr. Wilkerson started a nonprofit organization
dedicated to giving back and supporting orphans in that
country.
Yet, despite the successes and the positive impacts, there
are also challenges. There have been barriers for some families
as countries face internal conflicts and struggles. Today we'll
hear the heartbreak of one adoption that was disrupted because
of Russia's suspension of international adoptions.
We will also hear about the struggles that over 400
families are currently facing in bringing home children from
the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Families are rightly
confused and frustrated over this situation in that country.
Their adoptions have been finalized by the home country as well
as the United States. Yet, despite the fact that the parents
must provide financially and emotionally for their children who
are physically in Congo, they cannot bring them home. They love
these children. They are committed to protecting them,
providing for them, and bringing them home. But their hands are
tied until the Congo resolves their internal issues and moves
forward.
I am going to call on Senator Leahy at this point, and then
I will introduce the Assistant Secretary.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. LEAHY,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF VERMONT
Senator Leahy. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
for having this hearing.
You know, the Chairman mentioned about us gathering next
week for Thanksgiving. My wife and I will with our children and
our grandchildren, and we give thanks for the blessings that
we've received and they've received. Of course, that's a
tradition from the time I was a little boy growing up in
Vermont.
But it's fitting that this month we also recognize National
Adoption Month because that honors the adoptive families who
selflessly open their hearts and homes to children from the
United States and around the world who are in need of a safe
and loving family, and those parents and their children will be
able to give thanks on Thanksgiving because of the love and the
dedication and the sacrifice of those parents.
But we also have to raise awareness, as the Chairman has
said, about some of the barriers to international adoption. We
have got to recommit ourselves to improving the international
adoption system. I think we have to unite as families and
communities and policymakers to find permanent, loving homes
for all children, as we have done in our little State of
Vermont.
I know we are going to hear inspirational stories of
international adoption. Senator Grassley has talked about those
from Iowa, but I am honored to welcome Christine Hutchins from
Cambridge, Vermont, which is not far from where we live. She
and her husband, Jonathan Hutchins, welcomed their son, James--
and I actually got a chance to hold James earlier--from Sierra
Leone last year. I would also like to welcome Christine's
sister-in-law, Jennifer Smithers, and her husband, Gregory
Smithers. They adopted James' twin sister, Grace. And if you
wonder how siblings work, you should watch the two of them
running around Kristine Lucius' office earlier today. But their
journey to parenthood for them is one of courage and
perseverance, and they represent many other Vermont families
who have opened their hearts to a child in need through
international adoption. I find it inspiring, but I am happy
that Vermont is not alone in reaching out to children across
the globe.
Senator Grassley mentioned last year American families
adopted 6,441 children through international adoption, and they
came from 99 different countries. It's not as though it's just
one place. And we know that this kind of adoption is unlikely
for the vast majority of orphaned and abandoned children in
countries. So, let's work together to see what we can do to
strengthen them. We are going to hear about the delays during
the adoption process, some because of corruption in the
countries of origin. There are others cases where governments
have suspended international adoptions as a result of reports
of abuse.
But we want to hear what we can do to make it better for
those who want to become a forever family. A forever family, to
have these children grow up and know that they have the love
that--all that so many of us experienced as we were growing up.
So, Senator Grassley, thank you very much for having this
hearing. I think it is extremely important. And if we start
having votes, I can slip out, and we will slip back and forth,
whatever you want to do.
Senator Grassley. If you will do that, that is the way we
will do it, then. Senator Cornyn.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN CORNYN,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS
Senator Cornyn. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just will
be very brief. First, I just want to welcome all the families
who traveled here to share their stories. And I thank
Ambassador Bond for representing the State Department and the
crucial role that you play in support and guiding American
families who are adopting internationally.
I note this afternoon there is a bipartisan meeting with
the Ambassador to the United States from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, and, of course, we are going to ask a lot of
pointed questions about why those children have been detained
in spite of meeting all the legal requirements.
I wanted to just note, Mr. Chairman, that apparently I am
advised that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service was
invited to participate today but decline and express my concern
that the Federal agency involved in this process simply refused
to participate in this--in this hearing. And I think we could
have learned something from their participation, and I am just
perplexed why they would decline.
But having said that, I look forward to hearing everyone's
testimony, and thank you very much for convening the hearing,
Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Grassley. Their excuse was the 2-week notice we
gave them wasn't long enough notice to appear.
Senator Cornyn. That strikes me as ridiculous.
Chairman Grassley. Yes. I had a little longer statement,
and I am going to put the rest of my statement in the record.
Now, I will introduce our Assistant Secretary. Ambassador Bond
was sworn in August 10th this year. She has a big job of
leading a team of 13,000 consular professionals in almost 300
locations around the United States and around the world.
Ambassador Bond had served as Acting Assistant Secretary since
April 2014, having joined the Bureau as a Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary December 2012. She previously served as
U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho and before that as
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizens Services,
Bureau of Consular Affairs. She is a career member of the
Senior Foreign Service. Ambassador Bond has more than 38 years
of diplomatic experience in three different continents--Europe,
Africa, and Latin America.
Go ahead, please, and welcome.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE MICHELE THOREN BOND,
ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, DC
Ambassador Bond. Thank you, Chairman Grassley, Ranking
Member Leahy, Senator Cornyn. I appreciate this opportunity to
highlight the Department of State's efforts to support
intercountry adoption.
First, I would like to thank you personally for your
leadership on the Adoptive Family Relief Act of 2015. We
already are implementing this law. In my written statement, I
discuss the central policy role of the Bureau of Consular
Affairs in intercountry adoptions. Today, I will highlight a
few key points from my written statement, which I request be
entered into the record.
I have traveled to Kinshasa twice this year to engage the
Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo on adoptions,
and I met in Kinshasa and in Washington with some of the
families affected by the DRC's indefensible decision to
request--refuse exit permits for children with finalized
adoptions. Although the DRC Government recently agreed to allow
14 children legally adopted by American parents to leave the
country for the United States, that is a cruelly small number.
The Bureaus of Consular Affairs and African Affairs and the
Department's senior leadership will continue to press the DRC
Government until all children are united with their loving
families.
As you mentioned, November is National Adoption Month. Over
the past 15 years, U.S. families have welcomed more than
250,000 adopted children into their homes from more than 100
different countries. Although our endeavors continue year-
round, we use this month to highlight the tremendous effort and
hard work of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the entire team
here and at our posts overseas, to provide permanency to
children all over the world.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs is the central authority for
The Hague Adoption Convention. We work diligently to maintain
intercountry adoption as a viable option for children
throughout the world. We pursue solutions to problems that
American families face during the intercountry adoption
process. This is one of our highest priorities, and it is an
issue I have focused on throughout my career.
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Leahy, the Bureau of
Consular Affairs continuously engages countries around the
world on this issue. Thanks in large part to my team of
extraordinary, dedicated, and talented consular professionals,
dozens of whom work specifically and exclusively on adoption
issues, we have made measurable progress to create a more
transparent, accountable process for intercountry adoption. But
we are not satisfied with where we are, and we are absolutely
focused on finding ways to make the process more transparent,
more accountable, and more efficient and rapid. I am very proud
of the work that we do every day to support the children and
their families as we continue our efforts to get it better the
next day.
Our efforts have resulted in progress in some specific
countries. To highlight just a couple of examples, in Haiti,
now a convention country, we have found a cooperative partner
working constructively with us to resolve lingering issues.
Many levels of the U.S. interagency team engaged closely with
Haitian officials prior to Haiti's accession to the convention,
and we continue to do so to promote smooth adoption processing
and provide technical assistance.
In Vietnam, we recently established a special adoption
program for children with special needs, older children, and
children in sibling groups, all of them the hardest to place
and children who desperately need homes.
Intercountry adoption binds nations together to support the
best interests of children. It reflects our country's history
as a Nation of immigrants made stronger by diversity.
International adoptions, when conducted under appropriate
guidelines, offer an incredible life-changing opportunity to
unite parents with a child who needs a home.
While many of our efforts have proven successful, there is
much work still to be done. Our embassies and consulates abroad
and our staff here in Washington are committed to work every
day to support intercountry adoption, to advance it as an
option for children throughout the world, and to serve
Americans who are seeking to provide loving homes to children
who need them. Thank you for inviting me here today, and I look
forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ambassador Bond appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Grassley. Okay. The order of the people that are
present would be me and Senator Leahy, and then Senator Cornyn
and then Senator Klobuchar.
We know that you and your Department have tried to relay
our desires to help the Congolese Government resolve
outstanding issues on the suspension, and then we've had this
devastating news this month that these adopted children will
not be allowed to go until Congo implements a new law. Do you
know the status of that new law being considered by Congo?
Ambassador Bond. Yes, sir, we are told that it is in final
draft form and that they are ready to present it to the
Parliament. They have been saying that, though, for a long
time, so it's hard to know for sure just how close they are to
moving the draft through the Council of Ministers and then on
to Parliament.
Senator Grassley. That is further disappointment from that
government. Has the Congo assured you that the new law would
not be retroactive? Or do American families have reason to fear
that all their efforts could be reversed with this new law?
Ambassador Bond. Regrettably, the government has not given
us any such assurance, and they haven't said specifically one
way or the other. We do have good contacts with members of
Parliament in Congo. I have met with them on both of my visits
to Kinshasa, and, of course, the embassy is regularly in
contact. We're going to be urging them to ensure that whatever
legislation they pass makes it clear that already finalized
adoptions are not affected by this law and should move forward
immediately and not be relegislated or reconsidered under the
new legislation.
Senator Grassley. I suppose there are 400 different answers
to my next question, according to the families involved, but
could you shed any light on what is happening to the children
who have been formally adopted by U.S. parents but still remain
in the Congo? Are they living in foster homes or orphanages?
And is the Congo Government providing for them?
Ambassador Bond. Their parents provide for them. Their
parents are sending money every month to cover their living
expenses. The different children are in different
circumstances. Some live with foster families. Some are in
orphanages. And I had the opportunity to visit two--one of them
right in Kinshasa and one a little bit out of town. I wouldn't
want to have a child spend very much time in either place. They
were being kept safe. They were being fed. They aren't going to
be hurt there. But there was no stimulation. There wasn't a
piece of chalk to draw on the wall with. The total stimulation
for those kids consists of playing with each other. And the
food that they received at the two places I visited, the diet
was completely inadequate, very, very limited. It's not going
to give children the nutritious range of things that they need
in order to grow and in order for their brains to develop as
they need to. As you know, these are critical years. So, I
would say based on what I have seen, the care the children are
receiving is not close to adequate.
Senator Grassley. Okay. And how many American adopted--how
many American adopted children have died in the Congo since the
exit permit suspension in 2013?
Ambassador Bond. Sir, I know of several children who have
died. I don't have a specific number, but not one of those
deaths can we say was not preventable. If those children had
been allowed to join their families, they would not have died.
Senator Grassley. Okay. In your testimony, you mentioned
the financial strain on families who adopt from abroad,
especially families who have children from the Congo. This
Committee passed the Adoptive Family Relief Act, which was
signed into law to allow your Department to waive visa renewal
fees for families who are unable to bring children home due to
the exit permit suspension. I understand that some parents have
chosen to move to the Congo to be closer to their children and
to personally care for them. Could you elaborate on the
financial strain that many families are facing because of the
Congolese exit permit suspension? And then I will go to Senator
Leahy.
Ambassador Bond. Senator Grassley, it's true that some
families have been able to establish temporary residence in
Kinshasa so that they are living with their children. That has
exerted a tremendous strain on them, however. In some cases,
they have children who are left behind in the United States,
sometimes with the other parent or with grandparents, in order
that a parent be able to be with the child or children that
they are adopting from the DRC.
As for the families that are not in a position to live in
the DRC, many of them have traveled regularly, as frequently as
they can, in order to see the children and maintain the bonds
that have been developed. Some families are not able to travel,
and that--that imposes a burden and a pain of its own, the fact
that they can't go.
Families are paying a range of fees around $400 or $500 a
month, month after month, to sustain these children, and they
really don't have any way of knowing exactly how much of the
money that they are providing is used for the children and how
much of it is going somewhere else.
Senator Grassley. Senator Leahy.
Senator Leahy. Thank you. Ambassador Bond, I think the
Chairman has asked a number of the questions that I would have.
First off, thank you for going to Congo. Thank you for not just
looking at it in the abstract from your office but actually
going there and seeing. I wish you were seeing better things,
but thank you for doing it and bringing--bringing the evidence
back here. It is helpful just as it is heartbreaking.
I would just simply ask this: What can Congress do to help
the State Department or USCIS so that more American families
can get through this more quickly? Because I worry about--I
understand their desire to help, their willingness to send
money overseas. You always wonder who's going to siphon off
some of that money if you are talking about children sitting
there with none of the normal stimulation that we would expect.
So, what more can we do to help you?
Ambassador Bond. Sir, we are working, as I mentioned in my
statement, to try to shorten the process. I'm not exactly sure
whether your question is related specifically to the DRC or
more broadly.
Senator Leahy. Well, more broadly. I mean, is it money,
changing the law, whatever? Feel free. You do not have to run
this through OMB or anything else. Just tell us what you think.
Ambassador Bond. Praise the Lord.
[Laughter.]
Senator Leahy. I thought you might like that.
Ambassador Bond. So, as I mentioned, we want--we want to
make the process more efficient and more transparent. We
recognize there is a lot of paperwork, and it is a necessary
fact that both governments, ours and the other government, want
to be sure that the people who are adopting these children have
been carefully vetted and are people who are going to provide a
safe and secure and loving home for the children that they
adopt. And there are also elements of the process that are
designed to make sure that the children themselves are really
orphans and have not been somehow, you know, bought or
maneuvered into a position of being described as children who
need homes when they are not.
One of the explicit goals of our adoption strategy which we
have recently revised and refocused is to, for example, map the
adoption process in individual countries, to know step by step
what their process is so that we can identify steps that we
think perhaps could be eliminated or conflated and make the
whole process faster, and some of that we might be able to
control, or we can work with the other government to try to
make that so.
In June, I led the U.S. delegation to The Hague Permanent
Bureau's gathering. They meet every 5 years, and I led our
delegation in 2010 as well. All the member countries, more than
100 of them, were there, and the focus was on how can we
communicate better, how can we work better, both in the
countries that are receiving children who are being adopted and
those who are sending. The United States is both, as I am sure
you know. We prioritize visas, adoption visas, so that when
we're at a point where we can issue that visa, it is the next
thing to happen in the consular section; those families do not
have to wait.
So, there are a number of things that we are doing that are
within our control, and we work very closely with USCIS. They
are outstanding partners on this and equally committed to
finding ways to make this whole process more efficient.
In terms of what Congress can do, Senator, I would--I would
point to a request that is in the Department's 2016 budget to
consider broadening the way that the fraud funds that are
currently collected could be used not only to address and
identify potential fraud for H visas and L visas, which is the
way the law is currently written, but to broaden that so that
we could use it for anti-fraud work and investigations for all
types of visas, including adoption visas. There are places
where we would be able to enable more children to be eligible
for adoption if we had the resources we need to clearly
demonstrate that they are eligible to be adopted. So, I would
ask that you and others take a look at that proposal in the
Department's budget.
Senator Leahy. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman Grassley. Senator Cornyn.
Senator Cornyn. Thank you, Ambassador Bond. You've answered
a lot of the questions that I had, asked by those who preceded
me. I know that the State Department and everybody involved in
an adoption involving an intercountry--intercountry adoption
takes a lot of care to make sure that the safety of the child
is considered foremost, the child is going to be supported
adequately once the adoption takes place, and protected from
any sort of exploitation or harm.
Would you describe perhaps at a 30,000-foot level what sort
of background checks and screenings are overseen by the United
States Government, including, as I understand, a home study by
the Citizenship and Immigration Service, in order to protect
these prospective adoptive children?
Ambassador Bond. Yes, Senator. At a 30,000-foot level, the
focus of the home study is to ensure that the parent or the
married couple that are applying to be approved to adopt a
foreign-born child are stable, that they--that they have a
stable income, that they aren't people who have a history of
mismanaging their finances, that they have the medical ability,
their health is such that they are able to adopt, that they
have no criminal record, that there is no suggestion of discord
in the marriage. You can imagine situations where people say,
``Gee, we fight all the time. If only we had a baby, then it
would be better.'' Right? That would not be a good choice.
So, that's the idea of the--a social worker actually visits
the home on more than one occasion. They talk to the parents
about their own experiences growing up and their understanding
of what it means to be a parent and their approach to
parenthood. They look at the home where the child will live and
if there are any other adults living in that home. Sometimes
there could be a grandparent or one of them might have a
brother or sister. Anyone else is going to get the same
screening to be sure that they are also people that a child is
safe living with.
Senator Cornyn. Thank you for your answer.
I know we've focused on the Congo, and there is going to be
a meeting, a bipartisan meeting, this afternoon. I know Senator
Klobuchar is going to be there and others to talk to the
Ambassador to try to get a better answer than you have been
able to get so far, and we're hopeful of that. And, of course,
we have pictures of some of the children reflected here in the
audience who have already been adopted, and they have done
everything that has been required of them, and yet the
Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has simply
refused to honor those--those adoptions.
It's not just the Congo, as you know. I have a constituent
who I think may be here in the audience today, Ruth Sheehan,
who has been trying to adopt a child from Guatemala and
encountering all sorts of corruption and other problems. And,
unfortunately, her adoptive child has been subjected to
physical abuse and has been placed in an underfunded orphanage
subject to perhaps some of the similar conditions that you
described earlier in some of the orphanages that you visited.
But let me come back to what I consider to be the entirely
appropriate sort of background checks, the screenings, and home
studies that--to which prospective adoptive parents are
subjected and just express to you a concern. And this is not
directed at you, but it is directed at the United States
Government and the administration more generally.
In FY 2014, there were 68,445 unaccompanied minor children
that came to the United States from Central America. In Fiscal
Year 2015, there were 39,970 unaccompanied minors who came from
Central America into the United States. Because there has no--
has been very little cooperation to try to deal--try to address
this challenge, these children are being placed with people
here in the United States that have not undergone a background
study--a home study, that have not undergone a background
check, and have not been screened, certainly not to the extent
that prospective adoptive parents have.
And so, I fear that the appropriate steps that are being
taken on these inter--intercountry adoptions, entirely
appropriate steps, are being denied to these tens of thousands
of unaccompanied minor children who are streaming across our
border and are being placed with people here in the United
States and being subjected to potential problems relative to
their safety, their financial support that they would need in
order to flourish, and potential exploitation. So, I would just
note that contradiction. Some might call it an irony, but I
think it's worse than that.
So, as I said, I am not directing that at you, but I do
think we need to think about and do more to address the
potential concerns with regard to safety, support, and
exploitation of these children who have streamed across our
border and apparently with no real effort made to followup and
make sure for their well-being. I see my time is up. Thank you
very much.
Chairman Grassley. Senator Klobuchar.
Senator Klobuchar. Well, thank you very much, Ambassador
Bond, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important
hearing during National Adoption Month. Senator Blunt and I
actually are going on the floor in about an hour with our
successful resolution in support of Adoption Month, and we have
more than 30 Senators on it, and growing. So, I think you know
there is bipartisan support for adoption issues.
I actually took Senator Landrieu's place on the
Congressional adoption--Coalition on Adoption, and Senator
Grassley is involved in this, and many others. And so, as you
know, we have worked really hard in the last few years to try
to resolve some of the problems with international adoptions.
We were successful with Senator Sessions' and Senator Inhofe's
help in passing the bill which allowed older siblings to be
adopted if a younger sibling had been adopted, allowing
thousands of families to be reunited, including a family in
Minnesota where they had adopted nine children from the
Philippines, and it was like the Philippines ``Sound of Music''
to meet with them.
We--also, Senator Blunt and I have been working on other
issues with international adoptions as well as supporting
adopting families with the post-adoption support, which we know
is sometimes lacking in certain States.
So, I think I would just start in general, and a lot of the
Congo questions, I obviously have families in Minnesota that
have been just tragically awaiting these children that they
want to see, and we are looking forward to the meeting this
afternoon. But I thought I would focus on just, in general,
what is going on with international adoptions. Why has it been
so hard to bring these children in beyond the Congo problem?
Ambassador Bond. Our experience shows very clearly that the
work to encourage and promote adoptions as an option for
children, it really depends on the country that you are working
with. And that's part of our job and part of the advantage of
the fact that we have people who are in those countries,
working in those countries, often speaking the language, and
able to work directly with whatever ministries in those
countries are responsible for their children in foster care or
in orphanages to identify what--what more we could be doing in
order to enable more children to be considered for placement
with foreign families, including American families.
So, it really depends. For example, in China, a country
where many Americans have adopted children, and we've been
getting questions over the last few weeks, since China has
announced that they will now----
Senator Klobuchar. Their new policy.
Ambassador Bond. Right, that they will allow a second
child, and we have been asked, will this affect the
availability of children who might be adopted by Americans? We
actually anticipate that it won't, because it has been true for
some time that most of the children that are adopted from China
are older or they have special needs and they're not anymore
the infant girls that made up the majority of children some
years ago.
So, in different countries, whether it is Ethiopia or
others, you name it, Lesotho, the situation and the receptive
approach of that government to the idea of adoption or their
understanding of how to do it right really varies. And what we
have been focused on is first identifying the countries that
are perhaps most likely to be willing to be more open and make
sure that we are focused there, but also to offer the technical
assistance that some may need in order to understand how to set
up an appropriate screening process and how to--how to
establish the kind of data base that would ensure that children
don't kind of fall through the cracks, that if they are----
Senator Klobuchar. Yes, I think part of this is we had to
put legal--there are legal requirements that countries are
putting in place, and we're in this time of transition. But
it's been hard on a lot of families, obviously, to adopt.
Ambassador Bond. It absolutely has.
Senator Klobuchar. The Russian adoption ban I don't think
we have talked about, and that has been heartbreaking in my
State for families that have maybe adopted one child and
thought they were going to adopt the second child, and for they
were literally political pawns, made political pawns. And, can
you talk about the scope of the human impact on this ban and
just if there is any chance of lifting that ban and what you
have heard?
Ambassador Bond. That is a completely heartbreaking
situation, especially when you think of the children who have
met their parents and thought they were joining a family. I was
in Moscow last week for annual bilateral discussions, and the
subject was discussed, but there is no indication from their
side that they are prepared to change their position at this
time. We will not stop raising it.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you, and I know there is going to
be a witness on the second panel that focuses on Russia.
And my last question is really we also have to remember
that there are so many U.S. adoptions. I ran the county
attorney's office in Minnesota, and we spent a lot of time on
those adoptions and speeding up the time for domestic adoptions
and the time from foster care to adoptions. And one of the
things we have learned is that these families, as I mentioned,
don't get the kind of pre- or post-adoption support after they
adopt a child, and we have had some really disastrous issues
with a kid being sent back, as you remember, to Russia and
other things. Could you talk--we have a bill that would try to
get at some of that. And, could you talk about this issue and
how it affects adoption?
Ambassador Bond. Well, I think one of the reasons that
those relatively rare but tragic situations occur is that some
of those parents are not aware of the resources that are
available to them, which they may be able to access by working
with their adoption agency, for example, because those folks
are experts in the field, or by turning to the State offices
that assist families with--with troubled kids and are able to
identify the resources that are available.
So, I think that what you often see is that the cases that
get all the notoriety and attention and that are, thankfully,
rare but they are still tragic, involve people who didn't turn
to the resources that were available. And I agree with you that
it would be good for States to be looking for ways to make more
resources available to all parents. But, I believe, in some of
these cases there were resources available and the children did
not benefit from them.
Senator Klobuchar. All right. Thank you very much.
Chairman Grassley. I have one question, and then we'll let
you go. The vote is starting, but I think Senator Leahy is
going to go vote, and then for the second panel, we will be
able to continue.
This is following up on Senator Klobuchar bringing up
Russia. I know a lot of families have been devastated by that,
so, specifically, what options has the Department proposed to
China? And what has been their response to your suggestions?
And then kind of a status on the 250 children that were in the
process of being adopted, and then do those parents know their
children's whereabouts?
Ambassador Bond. There are some cases where the parents
have been able to maintain contact with the children,
primarily, I would guess, those are older children who have the
ability to, you know, stay in touch. I think the parents of
very young children probably are not able to maintain contact
or even get information because based on the reports, including
from the mother who will testify later, the Russian officials
have not been willing to provide information and to be
forthcoming.
That's a tragedy because these are officials who know very
well just what the kids have lost. I was responsible for
adoptions in Russia for 2 years and served in the embassy
there, and the people who are running those orphanages, they
meet the parents, they see the post-adoption reports, they know
exactly how lucky the children are who have been adopted by
Americans and others. And they know what a tragedy it was for
this to be cutoff without warning and without recourse.
We will continue to push the Russians to reconsider, and
the other thing that we are doing in individual cases is when
the parents are in touch with the children, we will do what we
can to help them try to assist those kids, maybe by helping
them get a better education than they might otherwise or have
access to other kinds of resources, even though they do have to
remain in the foster care or the orphanage system in Russia.
Chairman Grassley. Thank you very much, and I know you are
working hard. Continue to work hard, and particularly with
Congo and Russia. Thank you very much. So, you can go now. Or
you can stay if you want to stay.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Grassley. Would the--would the next panelists come
while I am introducing you, please?
You have already heard me talk about Dr. Rick Wilkerson of
Spencer, Iowa, father of nine children, three of which were
adopted from foster care and two from abroad. Dr. Wilkerson and
his wife visited Haiti in 2010 earthquake situation for a
medical mission trip. At that time he visited an orphanage and
saw children in need, some of which he has since adopted. He
began a nonprofit, ``Love Takes Root,'' dedicated to helping
children in Haiti.
We next have Christine Hutchins of Vermont, adopted her
son, James, from Sierra Leone, and you heard Senator Leahy talk
about this. She happens to be a graduate of Trinity College and
has been employed in the Human Resource Department at
champagne--Champlain College for 15 years.
Katie Horton of Virginia a mother of a 9-year-old daughter
who was adopted from Russia in 2008. Ms. Horton was on track to
adopt a second child from Russia in 2010 before that country
halted all adoptions. She previously worked with those of us on
the Senate Finance Committee and is currently a professor of
the Department of Health Policy and Management at George
Washington University.
And then Nicole Craig, of Wisconsin, is one of 400 families
who is waiting for the Democratic Republic of Congo to issue
exit permit for American adopted children. Nicole started this
process over 3 years ago so she represents the voices of many
families--and I guess we can number them at 400--who want to
bring their children home.
So, I think--I usually say we are going to do it the way I
introduced you, but we will go with Dr. Wilkerson and then Ms.
Horton and then Ms. Craig and then you, Ms. Hutchins. Okay?
Have you voted?
Senator Sessions. No.
Chairman Grassley. There is a vote. You better go vote. And
then Senator Leahy is coming back, and I will go vote. Would
you start our, Mr. Wilkerson--Dr. Wilkerson.
STATEMENT OF RICK WILKERSON, D.O.,
SPENCER, IOWA
Dr. Wilkerson. Good morning, Senator Grassley. First I
would like to go ahead and thank you and the other Members of
the Judiciary Committee for the opportunity to visit this
morning and provide testimony on my experience with
international adoption. I also would like to thank the Members
of the Committee who are part of the Congressional Coalition on
Adoption for being involved in this very important bipartisan
caucus, which, as you know, is the largest caucus in Congress.
And for those of you that are not a Member, I would recommend
you consider becoming one.
From the brief biography I think that the Members of the
Committee have already seen, my wife and I are already the
proud parents of nine children, five of whom have been adopted,
two through international adoption. The child that I would like
to discuss the case of this morning was our child, Junior, who
was adopted from Haiti.
In 2010, following the earthquake disaster in Haiti, I was
given the opportunity to go to Haiti to work in the
humanitarian effort to provide care to people in Haiti by the
Orthopaedic Trauma Association. I arrived in--at the Hopital
Adventiste d'Haiti in Carrefour, which is right on the
outskirts of Port-au-Prince, in June 2010. It was really the
only functioning operating hospital at the time in the center
of Haiti, and upon arrival there, it became quite obvious what
the degree of devastation was as a result of the earthquake.
Once at the hospital, I was surprised to find that I was
the only physician there to provide care for the patients for
the next 3 weeks, and luckily I was provided with an excellent
Haitian health care staff which gave me great assistance.
Shortly after arriving there, I was almost run over by an
8-year-old child on a Razor Scooter by the name of Junior, who
at the age of 4 had the misfortune of losing his mother, and
then just 3 days before I arrived lost his father. Junior had
no remaining family members to provide care, so had basically
been living in the hospital hallway.
During my workday, I would be doing surgery and seeing
clinic--making rounds, and maybe able to spend time with Junior
helping him with his English and playing some games. It was
very soon after that we formed a very strong bond, and I also
learned that, unfortunately, Junior had a very serious medical
condition that was not being cared for really at all at that
time.
As I looked into this situation, I was surprised to find
that, despite the efforts of the World Health Organization in
providing treatment for many of the serious conditions around
the world, much too often those donated medications and forms
of treatment are actually diverted from the needy patient and
is sold on the marketplace in an other than honest way.
Upon leaving Haiti, I returned to Iowa and discussed with
my wife and other children the prospects of bringing Junior to
the United States for medical care, and we all agreed that that
would be something that we would look into. After about 10
months and many thousands of dollars and many hours by a large
number of people volunteering assistance, Junior did
successfully arrive in the United States, and then 2 years
later was adopted here in the U.S. by my wife and I. I am glad
to report that he is quite healthy today as a result of the
medical care he received and is doing very, very well, just
finishing his football season in the eighth grade and getting
ready to start wrestling, which, as you know, is the backbone
of Iowa.
As a result of this international work, my wife and I have
now formed a charitable foundation called ``Love Takes Root,''
with our first mission being to rebuild the orphanage school
which was kind enough to take Junior while we were waiting the
paperwork drill of getting him here to the United States.
We moved the project to the rural area of the southern part
of Haiti and have built an orphanage with two cottages for 65
children, a dining room and kitchen. We have completed our
primary school and medical clinic, which we staff 1 week per
month throughout the year, and then also is staffed the rest of
the time with a Haitian physician and nurse. Right now we are
in the process of building a secondary school which should be
completed by June 2016. We have not only our 65 Haitian
children in the school, but also 100 kids from the neighborhood
who have also taken advantage of the school being there.
The efforts to bring Junior here to the U.S. made me aware
of many things I had not been aware of, partly through my
introduction to the Congressional Coalition for Adoption
Institute, and one of those is the difficulty that many people
in the U.S. have not only adopting overseas but also locally.
As you know, there are many caring, loving families that would
love to adopt a child. In the U.S. alone right now, there are
over 108,000 children who are in the foster care system
awaiting adoption.
Unfortunately, Ms. Bond, Secretary Bond, mentioned about
the home study, the many things and the hoops that an adopting
family must go through, all of which incur an expense. And many
of these adopting families, unfortunately, do not have the
means to go ahead and afford that. Therefore, we have 108,000
kids waiting for adoption in the U.S.
I think one meaningful step that could be taken to help
resolve the situation not only for international adoption,
which has a different form of cost, but also for in-country
adoption, would be passage of Senate 950 and H.R. 2434 to
provide an actual tax credit to those going through the
adoption process to help clear the financial hurdle.
The second issue I wanted to briefly discuss was the
situation that I have become all too familiar with, which is
the difficulty in navigating the Immigration and Naturalization
Service. When seeking assistance from INS, it is all too often
that the adopting families are met with a pervasive attitude of
resistance as opposed to assistance to the people that they are
supposed to be helping, which makes the task of international
adoption either impossible or at least very, very difficult. I
think that this very well may at least partially be due to the
lack of information that some of these employees actually have
about the different options.
I came to this conclusion as a result of my case, which
initially was applying for a temporary----
Chairman Grassley. Dr. Wilkerson, I have to interrupt, not
to stop you, but I thought maybe Senator Leahy would be back
here. I have got 3 minutes to go vote, so you finish your
statement when he comes.
Dr. Wilkerson. Okay. Very good.
Chairman Grassley. I am sure he is on his way back, but I
have not missed a vote in a long time.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Wilkerson. And we appreciate that in Iowa.
[Whereupon the hearing was recessed and reconvened.]
Senator Tillis [presiding]. Ladies and gentlemen, we are
going to go ahead and, in the interest of time, continue with
the testimony. So, Mr. Wilkerson, you can continue, and then
we'll just move down the line.
Dr. Wilkerson. Thank you, Mr. Hatch. I am almost done. The
last suggestion I had----
Senator Tillis. That would be an upgrade, by the way. I am
Tillis. I forgot to put my name----
Dr. Wilkerson. Oh, sorry.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Wilkerson. I was going to say, you did not look like
Mr. Hatch.
At any rate, the last suggestion I had actually was that
due to the fact that we have many people to facilitate the
process for international adoption, too often I have found that
they are either overworked, don't have the education necessary
to really adequately assist us, or are unwilling to. And this
came to light as a result of my own case when I tried to bring
Junior here under a temporary visa for a medical purpose and
found that, despite having been advised by INS that that was
the proper procedure, I found that it was denied. And it was
only through the assistance of a Senate staff person, Ms. Emily
Winterson, who at the time was a staffer for Senator Scott
Brown, that I became aware of humanitarian parole. And it was
through her knowledge and efforts and assistance that we were
able to get Junior here, which, if we wouldn't have, I am sure
he wouldn't be with us at all today.
I would recommend that in some way we find a method to
appropriately train INS so they are familiar with all the
different options for international adoption for families and
they also be trained in maybe how to be more facilitative as
opposed to obstructionist. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Wilkerson appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Tillis. Ms. Horton.
STATEMENT OF KATIE HORTON,
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
Ms. Horton. Senator Tillis and honorable Members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
this morning. My name is Katie Horton, and I am a research
professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at
the George Washington University. More importantly, I am the
mom of a wonderful 9-year-old little girl named Emma who I
adopted from Russia in 2008. With Emma's permission, I would
like to share our story with you.
After much thought and consultation with family and
friends, in 2007 I decided to pursue international adoption in
hopes of finding a child in Russia. After many months of
waiting, I was matched with Emma, who was located in a baby
home in Samara, Russia. I do believe that God had a hand in
matching this amazing little girl with me.
Sorry. This is hard.
The second I saw her picture, I knew she was meant to join
my family. I was given little information about Emma other than
she was born very prematurely to a birth mother who was quite
ill, she had been in the orphanage for 14 months, and had been
labeled ``Failure to Thrive.''
I secured my visa and booked a flight as quickly as
allowed. When I was finally allowed to meet Emma at the
orphanage, they brought her into a small playroom where my
sister and I waited, and I instantly fell in love. She was
incredibly small for her age and pale from little time outside,
but she was feisty, funny, and loving. I knew instantly she
would join my family.
Emma was 22 months old when she and I arrived back in the
U.S. There have certainly been challenges and adjustments along
the way, as there are with any family. After not having a pair
of shoes in the orphanage, she kept her new pink sandals on
every night until she was nearly 4. Because she had been so
tiny, she had been placed with the infants in the orphanage.
She wouldn't leave the house each morning until every baby doll
in the house had been kissed and tucked in bed.
Despite Emma's difficult start in life in the orphanage,
she is thriving today. She is loving, spunky, fiercely
independent, and strong in faith. She is currently enjoying
third grade and doing very well socially and academically. True
to her Russian heritage, Emma excels at ballet and gymnastics.
She will be performing next month in the Washington Ballet's
Nutcracker as a snow angel. Emma has more family, friends, and
neighbors than I can count, each of whom loves her with all
their heart.
I am not so naive to believe that our family's challenges
are all behind us. Like any family, we will have our ups and
downs, and I will reach out for help and support when needed.
What I do know is that Emma is a kind and loving little girl
who has adjusted beautifully to life in the United States. She
is happy, and she is loved more than she will ever know.
I would like to share a second part of my international
adoption story with you--one that does not have a happy ending.
Enjoying motherhood more than I could have imagined, I once
again started the international adoption process in 2010. In
early 2012, I was matched with a beautiful 6-month-old little
girl named Polina Ostapova in Apatity, Murmansk.
I traveled to Russia and spent many days with Polina,
bonding and imagining the wonderful life ahead for my growing
family. I signed the notarized Russian petition to adopt and
other commitment papers and returned to the United States. I
was told a court date would be sent to me shortly and that
Polina would likely be home with my family for Christmas.
In December 2012, Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, a law
intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death
of a Russian lawyer. Shortly after, the Russian parliament
passed a bill which was widely regarded as retaliation for the
Magnitsky law. This bill banned all Americans from adopting
Russian children.
At this point, the tension between the United States and
Russia became very personal to approximately 230 American
families and 300 Russian orphans. We were told by Russia that
all of our adoptions had been terminated, leaving little hope
for many of these children to ever find a loving and permanent
home.
For the families involved, in our hearts these children
were already our sons and daughters. We had bonded with these
wonderful children and made promises to them that we would be
back to get them. Many were in need of urgent medical care.
The families fought valiantly to complete their adoptions,
meeting with U.S. and Russian officials, the press, and anyone
who might help bring our children home. As you know, our
efforts were not successful. It is heartbreaking. Most of these
children remain in an orphanage today. We know this from
personal reports of individuals the families have worked with
for years. And what happened to Polina? For about a year after
the ban, I tried to check in on her frequently. As time
continued, it became very clear that it was getting more and
more difficult, and even dangerous, for people in Russia to
share information about the children caught in the adoption
ban. In early 2014, I was told that Polina had been moved from
her orphanage but not yet adopted. To this day, I cannot find
her.
Some final thoughts. I will forever be grateful to Russia
for giving me the most precious thing in my life, which is
Emma. Sorry. This is really hard. But I am angry and frustrated
at Russia's leaders, and, frankly, some in our own country for
not being able to find a way to bring these children to their
families. It is inexcusable that some sort of humanitarian
solution could not be reached for these children, including
Polina.
There is no doubt that it is possible to provide a loving
and permanent home for children in need, regardless of their
country of origin. There are thousands of stories about U.S.
families adopting successfully from other countries and raising
happy, healthy, and well-adjusted children. Being born in one
country should not limit a child's right to a safe and
permanent home.
Emma is proud of her Russian heritage, and she is equally
proud of her American citizenship. We talk about her birth
parents, her family back in Russia, and often read about Russia
and its culture. We praise her birth mom for having the courage
to allow another family to raise Emma when she could not.
I am blessed to have a wonderful home, a supportive family,
and many friends as a strong support system. I am especially
blessed to have one gifted daughter. But I will never
understand why politics prevented Polina from joining my
family. I will forever pray that Polina is safe and happy
somewhere, even if she cannot be here with my family now.
Thanks for the opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Horton appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Sessions [presiding]. Ms. Craig.
STATEMENT OF NICOLE CRAIG,
GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
Ms. Craig. Members of the Committee, I am deeply honored to
appear before you today to share the story of our family's
adoption of Elisabeth Grace from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo--DRC. On behalf of the hundreds of American families
whose children are waiting to come home, I am humbled to have
this opportunity. I would like to take the opportunity to
recognize my mother, brother, my husband, Kevin, and the other
waiting adoptive families who have traveled here with me today,
and also to thank our three boys for their unwavering love and
support throughout this process. It certainly has not been what
any of us expected when we began the adoption process 3 years
ago.
It was actually 3 years ago this week when we accepted a
referral of a 5-month-old baby girl named Elisabeth Grace. We
satisfied every legal requirement in both the United States and
DRC. On April 8, 2013, we were legally declared her parents by
a Congolese court. We thought she should be home soon after.
On September 25, 2013, during the time our case was being
investigated by the United States, the Congolese suspended the
issuance of exit permits for adopted children. This meant that
our daughter and hundreds of other children could not leave
DRC, and yet we had all the legal responsibility to provide for
her.
Three years and five U.S. visa renewals later, we still
eagerly wait for Grace to be united with us, her forever
family. We have provided financial support for Grace but have
yet to give her what every child deserves: a permanent family.
We exchange photos via email and Skype when she has
electricity. She asks for her brothers, she sings songs to us,
and cries for us when we disconnect. We watched and celebrated
her first steps, three birthdays, and holidays through photos.
Bittersweet to say the least. She likes to see pictures of her
bedroom and our home. She is too young to understand why she
can't be united with her family, and as an adult, I don't fully
understand it myself.
Still, she asks whenever we talk to her when she is coming
home. The lump in my throat swells as I have to say, ``Soon.''
We send clothes, school supplies, vitamins, and everything else
she may need upon request. Imagine a phone call in the middle
of the night and your child is having seizures, and you are
8,000 miles away. It's terrifying knowing she has very limited
access to subpar health care and is an exit permit and a plane
ride away from the best health care access, diagnosis, and
treatment. She knows she has a family that loves her. A piece
of our heart remains separated for reasons we are unclear, and
we are a family--we as a family are completely broken.
Grace is not an orphan. Grace is our daughter, a sister, a
granddaughter, a niece, a cousin. Grace is our family. I am
certain that this is not just our story, but the story of many
waiting adoptive DRC families from around the country and the
globe.
We have waited for more than 3 years now, and there is no
real end in sight. On November 4, 2015, the Department of State
sent an update to waiting families that 14 U.S. children were
to be granted exit permits. Of the nearly 1,300 cases, DOS told
us that only 99 had been reviewed by DRC officials. We were
told that the other children, including Grace, would need to
wait for new adoption laws to be passed in DRC which may or may
not be even written or retroactive. It seems we are further
away from bringing our daughter home now than we have ever
been.
Our Congolese adoption decree states, quote, ``That this
adoption is requested in the greater interests of the child,
who will thus regain a family who will take charge of her
development and care by offering her an environment and life
full of love and affection, which will contribute to her well-
being according to the wishes of the law,'' unquote.
Our dossier details were listed in this adoption decree to
include: our home study, criminal records, health and mental
status reports, income, USCIS conditional approvals, birth
certificates, marriage licenses, all with dates, and verified.
They even listed State of Wisconsin license numbers.
It is clear that concerns of my daughter's well-being and
our family was thoroughly reviewed and vetted by DRC courts. It
is clear that DRC wants the same for these children as the
families that have adopted them. The Congolese court found that
our adoption was in the best interest of Grace, yet we are not
able to fulfill our obligations to her. Grace is being denied
access to educational opportunities and superior health care
standards that people from other nations, including DRC, seek
access. Grace is being denied the love of a family--a family
that has been waiting for 3 years to provide her the love,
affection, and care we promised.
I believe we have reached an impasse in this adoption
crisis where literally an act of Congress is necessary and
respectfully requested. Congress must urgently engage with
Congolese decisionmakers to find a solution, much more than
what has been done in the past 2 years to resolve this crisis.
I am very grateful for the efforts of Congress to compel DOS to
find a solution, but diplomatic engagement has so far been
proven ineffective. The time is now for more active involvement
of Congress. I would ask that a congressional delegation be
sent to DRC prior to their December 15th parliament recess. I
would ask that Congress swiftly pass any legislation for my
child and the hundreds of other children waiting in DRC to give
to them the rights being denied by the exit suspension.
Imagine for one moment that this is your child or
grandchild. Imagine that for more than 2 years you are actively
prevented from parenting your child, from holding her when she
is scared, from filling her belly with food, from tucking her
in each night and kissing her forehead each morning. Imagine.
And then tell me what you would be willing to do.
Every day matters for these children. Every day my daughter
and the hundreds of others are kept from us is an injustice.
These children deserve a solution now. Please help us find a
way to bring our children home. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Craig appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Grassley [presiding]. Thank you, Ms. Craig. Now,
Ms. Hutchins.
STATEMENT OF CHRISTINE HUTCHINS,
CAMBRIDGE, VERMONT
Ms. Hutchins. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and
give testimony of my family's international adoption story. We
are honored to have been invited by Senator Leahy and Chairman
Grassley. Thank you.
Senator Leahy has introduced my family who are here with
me: my husband, Jonathan, and our son, James; my sister-in-law,
Jennifer, and her husband, Greg, and their daughter, Grace. We
were together throughout the entire process as James and Grace
are twins.
Our adoption story began in April 2014. I had just come out
of a meeting with a colleague, with tears in my eyes, saying,
``I will never be a mother.'' After nearly 10 years of
infertility trials, it seemed my husband and I would not ever
have the child we dreamed of. When I sat down at my computer
after that meeting, I opened my email and saw a message from a
friend of the family. I opened the email to see pictures of
these beautiful babies, just about 15 days old.
We had never thought about adoption primarily because of
the expense. But our friend Ruth Search, a missionary in Sierra
Leone, had been contacted by a father whose wife had just died
from malaria only days after giving birth to James and Grace.
Part of Ruth's program supports families by providing infant
formula when needed, but requires the family to continue to
care for their child. The father, who desperately needed help
feeding the twins, said he thought his sister-in-law would be
able to care for them.
The next day, he came back to Ruth's with babies in arm,
riding on a back of a motorcycle. He handed the two infant
babies to Ruth and said, ``Please, take my children, my sister-
in-law cannot care for them and I cannot afford to raise them.
I want them to live.'' He is a very poor fisherman, paid in
fish, and he is also supporting an 8-year-old daughter. Sierra
Leone has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the
world; one in five children do not live to the age of 5.
In Sierra Leone, it is seen sometimes as a weakness to give
up a child. Usually, a family unable to care for a child would
leave the child for dead rather than find the child a home. We
feel that James and Grace's father, Papa Alusine, as we call
him, did a huge act of love in wanting his children to live.
Our friend Ruth had never helped with an adoption before,
though she and her husband had adopted their daughter 7 years
ago from Sierra Leon and knew the process. She sought out a
lawyer in Sierra Leone and then reached out to my family
through my mother-in-law. She knew that Jonathan and I had been
struggling to have a family and that Jen and Greg had also had
difficulties. My mother-in-law instantly said, ``Yes, contact
them.''
The email asked if one couple wanted to explore the
adoption of both twins or if each couple wanted to adopt. Papa
Alusine's requirement was that the babies grow up knowing that
they are brother and sister, but not necessarily having to be
adopted together. And I tell you, they are brother and sister
in every sense of the word.
We are very close to Jen and Greg and live only 10 minutes
away from them. So, within a few hours, we decided to take a
huge leap of faith and pursue this together. In the meantime,
the babies lived with Ruth and her family in Sierra Leone with
hired nannies in a very safe environment. They were never in an
orphanage, which was very comforting to us.
Our first step was to immediately get our home studies done
and for Ruth to take care of the paperwork on the Sierra Leone
side--making sure the affidavits were signed and the 6-month
fostering period were required and approved.
A few months after we started the process, the Ebola
epidemic hit western Africa. Ruth and her family wanted to
leave to keep themselves safe, but did not want to leave our
children behind. We tried to do the adoption by proxy, but that
was not allowed. We tried many different avenues so that there
was not unnecessary travel to Sierra Leone where Ebola was
taking its toll.
As a last option, our friend decided to try to petition the
U.S. Embassy for a visitor visa for the babies to come to the
U.S. to stay with us and be safe during the epidemic. Then we
would return to Sierra Leone with the babies once it was safer,
to finalize the adoptions. The visa petitions were accepted,
and on September 23, 2014, James and Grace arrived in New York
City into their mommies' and daddies' arms for the very first
time at 5\1/2\ months old.
During this entire time, we were dealing with paperwork
with USCIS, filing first the I-600, then learning that we
should have filed the I-600A first. We were going back and
forth with our USCIS officer to figure out what evidence they
needed to approve our petitions and not to mention the
countless calls to Senator Leahy's office to help us navigate
this windy road that is international adoption.
As promised that we would do, we went back--went to Sierra
Leone in April of this year to finalize the adoptions. On May
4th, James became officially James Anson Hutchins, and Grace
became Grace Sierra Smithers, and we officially became their
parents.
While in Sierra Leone, we had to wait for several steps,
including getting the judge to write the court order, the
country to register the adoption, and then having to email the
paperwork to our husbands who had left 2 weeks earlier, to
snail-mail information to USCIS Missouri, and then wait again.
Then for the National Visa Center, then to the--I am sorry, the
National Benefits Center, and then to the National Visa Center,
and then finally the U.S. Embassy/Department of State. We were
finally on our way home on June 25, 2015, 2 months and 6 days
after we started our trip to finalize our adoptions and make
our children U.S. citizens.
In some respects we feel that our case went quickly through
USCIS after the adoption was final. We provided the documents
we needed to prove orphan status. There could have been an
investigation done by the embassy after receiving the paperwork
to verify orphan status. Why can't this step be done up prior
to the adoption, to make sure that the children are orphaned
before the emotional pain and time takes its toll and you fall
in love with a child that you call your own? We understand that
there are many checks and balances in the process. We want to
make sure our children are legitimately orphaned. But this
should be done prior to an adoption.
In addition to the emotional struggles, international
adoptions can be very expensive. For many, there are few, if
any, employer-paid benefits to assist with this process, and
now with the Universal Accreditation Act, private adoptions are
no longer possible. People must now have an adoption agency to
go through the immigration process, further adding to the
expenses.
We were fortunate. We were able to stay with our friends
while in Sierra Leone, in a very Westernized home. But,
however, picture the house, enclosed with a 10-foot cement wall
with razor wire and glass at that top to prevent home break-
ins, and the compound was closed off by a steel door. This is
where we spent most of our time. Because of the Ebola epidemic,
we were unable to leave and visit the country. In many ways, we
felt like prisoners.
If we were to summarize our challenges of an international
adoption, they would be: Take away some of the mystification
around USCIS, to be able to have everyone be able to have
contact with their USCIS officer so they know what is going on;
U.S. immigration can take an incredibly large amount--long
amount of time. We were told it could be 75 business days. Once
the adoption is complete, it should be a quick process--maybe a
temporary visa to get the family home to the U.S. and finalize
here. Or could U.S. immigration do their investigations for all
child--children prior to adoptions when a child is identified?
Sierra Leone is a non-Hague Convention country. With Hague
countries, the visa applications are filed prior to adoptions
and, therefore, orphan status seems to be determined prior to
the emotional attachment to a child.
We know of other families that are having difficulties in
non-Hague countries with USCIS and getting their children home.
They have exhausted financial resources in waiting for the
orphan status to be approved by USCIS. They now have no idea if
they will ever see their child again. What is the in best
interest of the children?
We understand that our process is an exception for
international adoptions. Our children came to live with us when
they were 5\1/2\ months old. We were able to care for them--our
children as our own before most adoptive parents are even
notified that a child is waiting for them. Often, children in
international adoptions are waiting in orphanages for 4-plus
years. This is again, not in the best interest of children.
It is by the grace of God that we were able to finalize our
adoptions. Our faith pulled us out of many situations where we
thought we were hitting dead ends. We would bo this again--
would we do this again for our children? Knowing the outcome,
yes. Our children are thriving. James has skipped the walking
stage and went right to running and jumping. His words are
coming quickly, and when he starts to talk, he is going to have
so much to say. He has a fascination of tractors and loves the
outdoors, just like a good Vermont farm boy.
Grace loves running and galloping, and being outdoors, and
she enjoys dogs and horses. She is repeating many words right
now, and she is watching and copying everything that Mommy and
Daddy do, including putting on deodorant and using the potty.
Both of them have the love of music and dancing, and James and
Grace will have a chance at a life beyond what their birth
father could ever have imagined for them. Their opportunities
in life are endless. James and Grace are now our children, and
we could not be more proud to say they are ours. However, we
keep in mind the emotional and financial tolls we have lived
through that were challenging.
In closing, thank you, Senator Leahy and Members of the
Judiciary Committee, for your time and attention to
international adoptions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hutchins appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Grassley. Dr. Wilkerson, with your great deal of
knowledge about adoption committees and foster children and
adoption and adopted two from abroad, could you elaborate on
how difficult it was to finalize the adoption of Junior from
Haiti?
Dr. Wilkerson. The hurdles that one encounters on
international adoption are quite different than on domestic
adoption, and as I think you have heard from the other people
giving testimony, the challenges in each different country are
a bit different as well. As the Assistant Secretary mentioned
earlier, Haiti now has adopted The Hague Convention, apparently
is now a member of The Hague Convention, which also includes
some rules on adoption, as I understand it, and hopefully that
will make it somewhat easier.
The typical experience, though, in Haiti I don't think is
much different than what you heard from the other--other people
here. It is an average of $30,000 and 3 years, money just to go
ahead and make payments to Haitian attorneys, Haitian
officials, with no guarantee that the child will ever leave
Haiti.
Obviously, our Congress has very little control over that.
The difficulty I find is that the people that sometimes even
work for the U.S. Government fail to have the information
necessary to make it as easy for us as possible or are either
overworked or unwilling to go and provide the assistance that I
would expect someone in a service area like that. The example I
gave earlier when a number of you had to leave for the vote
was, I had been advised by those officials that the way to get
Junior here to the United States was to apply for a temporary
visa for medical purposes. I went through about 4 months, and
the same papers that have been mentioned before by other
testimonies that were given, and appeared--when I was given 3
days' notice to appear in Port-au-Prince, required me to
cancel, reschedule about 3 weeks' worth of surgery, only to be
met by the immigration official and told that because he lacked
adequate familial and cultural and economic ties that he was
returned to Haiti. And when I pointed out that the pamphlet
they had gone through with all the background information quite
clearly outlined that he was, number one, an orphan so he had
no family ties and was 8 years old, number two, obviously had
no bank account or business at the age of 8, and, number three,
that we had started a foundation in Haiti which would mean he
was going to be coming back and we would continue working
there, it was still denied.
When I was asked for an explanation of why, I was told none
could be given. And when I asked a simple question of if you
were standing where I am standing and I was standing where you
were standing on the other side of the bulletproof window, what
would you be telling me to allow this to occur? And I was told
I would have to leave or security would be called. That was
from a U.S. Government employee, which I found, being a former
retired military and a person in service, found myself to be
very, very surprising.
I think we really need to educate these folks. They are
doing many jobs, not just international adoption, but I think
they really need to be informed of what is available for people
doing adoption, such as the case that Ms. Winterson, former
Senator Brown's staffer, informed me about, humanitarian
parole. No one had ever mentioned it to me. Our immigration
attorney didn't know about it. The people in that area of the
State Department apparently were either unknowing or had failed
to mention it. Otherwise, Junior would have died and still be
in Haiti buried somewhere.
Chairman Grassley. A quick question to Ms. Craig, and then
I will go to Senator Leahy.
From your experience dealing with the Congolese government,
because this is things we hear so I am asking you if the
government--that government is legitimately concerned about
protecting their orphans from fraud and trafficking.
Ms. Craig. Thank you for that question. Well, I think
initially that was the listed concern for the exit letter
suspension to begin with. But as I stated, the documents listed
in my dossier, they looked at them. They're written. They had
an interministerial commission set up in May to review all
these files again, the dossiers. And they stopped. November 4th
they told us the commission disbanded in July, so they did not
review them.
I don't know. I don't know the answer. It is not in the
best interests of the children to leave them in orphanages.
Twenty-five children have died waiting to come home, some of
them with U.S. visas, maybe on their second or third. I guess
that would be a question to ask the Congolese Government. What
can we provide to them to prove-----
Chairman Grassley. I'll have that chance later on today.
Senator Leahy.
Senator Leahy. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Incidentally, Ms. Craig, one of the comments you made is
not an unusual one about when we have to rely on snail mail
coming from a country like where you were. That just makes no
sense in today's day and age. So, thank you for mentioning
that.
Ms. Hutchins I was, in fact, my wife and I were talking
about this last night, that you and your family are going to be
down here, and I think it's--I think it's amazing you were
there. You have got Ebola. You have got everything else you
were facing. We could have a new novel--instead of ``Love in
the Time of Cholera''--``Love in the Time of Ebola.''
But then I see James and Grace, beautiful, beautiful
children. Maybe Grace is sleeping a little bit now, but I was
earlier in the office, and let me tell you, I have a feeling
with those two, at the rate they were going, when they go to
bed, the parents go to bed. But beautiful, beautiful children.
I got a chance to hold them both, and I can see why you have
the love you do. And I imagine you would agree that we have to
keep international adoption as a real option for families. Is
that not correct?
Ms. Hutchins. That is absolutely correct. There are so many
children that are in need of homes, that are waiting for
families. We did think about for a very small moment about
doing a domestic adoption, and domestic adoptions are
difficult. In some States, parents can come back in a couple of
years and say that they now want their children.
With international adoptions, they are a little more final,
and we are able to give a child a loving home, a place where
they can thrive where they wouldn't have otherwise. And so, you
know, you look at them, and both of them are sleeping. So, they
are just----
Senator Leahy. The way they were tearing around earlier
this morning, I can imagine.
Ms. Hutchins. Yes.
Senator Leahy. They are sleeping because they are secure
and they are being loved.
Ms. Hutchins. Yes.
Senator Leahy. Anybody who has had children or
grandchildren--well, if they have grandchildren, they have had
the children first, but they know that a child can sleep like
that because they are secure.
Ms. Hutchins. Yes, they are.
Senator Leahy. Let me ask you, you were there during the
Ebola outbreak. Now, there was all kinds of panic in this
country even though we did not have a single Ebola case in the
United States. You would think when you would turn on the news
every night that somehow we had thousands of cases of Ebola.
The news did not bother to bring out the fact that a huge
number of Americans were dying because they did not get their
flu shots that year. But I guess Ebola was easier to put
screaming headlines on. But tell me, when you came back, did
you face any problems?
Ms. Hutchins. Well, when we came back--to go back to last
September when the babies came, our friend's husband, Robert,
was amazed when he landed in JFK that there was no screening
whatsoever for the fact that they had just come from a West
African country.
About 2 or 3 weeks after that, the screening started where,
once you land--once you land, you go through immigration, you
are tagged immediately, and you go through a separate place
that the CDC had set up. When we came through in June, we had
our temperatures taken when we left Sierra Leone, before we
even got inside the airport, we had our temperatures taken
probably four times.
Senator Leahy. Is that where they hold----
Ms. Hutchins. The infrared thermometer. It was three or
four times. We landed in Morocco for our layover. We were
screened again. We landed in JFK. We went through immigration
and then had to wait in the CDC area. That took probably about
an hour to go through. There were not many people that came
from western Africa, but it still took a very long time.
When we came back, fortunately, our family members, most of
our family members, were very supportive of us, knew we had
kept ourselves safe, and were not concerned about us. My
employer allowed me to come back to work as well as my husband
and his sister, who work at the hospital in Burlington, they
were both allowed to go back to work right away as well.
In September 2014, when the babies first came, our friends
that came with them had some struggles with some individuals
that would not see them for 21 days because of the fact that
Ebola--they were around Ebola. But we knew how to keep
ourselves safe. You didn't touch people. You washed your hands
constantly. You did not go in public places where it was not
necessary. And so, yes, the risk was there, but we kept
ourselves safe.
Senator Leahy. But your neighbors in Vermont greeted you.
Ms. Hutchins. They did.
Senator Leahy. And I take it--I mean, you live in a small
town, and the other couple lives in a small town. Everybody
knows everybody.
Ms. Hutchins. Yes.
Senator Leahy. I take it the children are well greeted at
home?
Ms. Hutchins. Oh, yes, they are. They are loved beyond
measure. My parents look at James, and they cannot imagine him
not being part of our family. He is--James and Grace are every
part of our family as if they were our own flesh and blood.
Senator Leahy. Mr. Chairman, I tell you, the areas where
the two families live are beautiful areas up in the
northwestern part of Vermont, and they are small towns. And
when you go in the grocery store or you go in the gas store,
everybody is going to call you--I mean, when I go in the stores
with Marcelle, people say, ``Hi, Pat. Hi, Marcelle.'' Everybody
knows everybody. So, I am delighted to hear you were well
greeted.
Ms. Hutchins. Absolutely.
Senator Leahy. Thank you very much for being here.
Ms. Hutchins. Thank you.
Chairman Grassley. Senator Tillis.
Senator Tillis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for
being here. I am sorry for the challenges you are going
through. It is hard for me to not shed tears, so I certainly
understand your situation and those of everybody in the
audience.
Ms. Craig, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. I
have 11 open cases--I am from North Carolina. I have 11 open
cases related to the DRC right now that seem very similar to
yours. And, Mr. Chair, I would ask consent to add information
from Katie and Chad Coleman from Charlotte who are going
through a scenario. It is going on 3 years now. I think the
daughter--two daughters were 3\1/2\ and 18 months. Now, they
are 6 and going on 4 years old--or a little over 4 years old. I
would like to submit that for the record. It is a very similar
story that it playing out time and time again.
Chairman Grassley. It will be included in the record.
[The information appears as a submission for the record.]
Senator Tillis. Ms. Craig, you said that there were 1,300
cases of which only 99 had been reviewed. Is that correct?
Ms. Craig. I believe there are 400 U.S. cases, so in the
1,300 I was including all of the other countries as well.
Senator Tillis. Okay. So, is it 99 of the 400?
Ms. Craig. The Department of State had said 99 of the 400
U.S. or 99 of the total 1,000 that were submitted were
reviewed.
Senator Tillis. Now, in the case of the Colemans, they have
indicated, in addition to the expenses they have paid for
adoption since they have been in this state of limbo, that they
have spent nearly $24,000 on extra foster care. Are you
experiencing similar expenses right now?
Ms. Craig. Our daughter is in an orphanage, but we incur
medical expenses above and beyond that.
Senator Tillis. You mentioned that the parliament, I guess,
gets out on December the 15th. If you had a delegation or a
member who was willing to go there, what do we say to them?
Ms. Craig. I think it needs to be decisionmakers to
decisionmakers. I am not sure that we're meeting with the
people who can----
Senator Tillis. And who do you think that is, just in the
conventional wisdom of people that are dealing with the DRC? I
could ask similar questions of other panelists, but I thought I
would just zero in on you and probably apply----
Ms. Craig. You know, it may even be at the executive level.
I would say it needs to be decisionmakers or----
Senator Tillis. Are there any bright spots out there? Are
there people that seem to want to do the right thing but the--
--
Ms. Craig. I think so----
Senator Tillis [continuing]. Politicians are not letting
them?
Ms. Craig. You know, I am not even sure that it is
politicians. You know, that's why I keep saying it's very
unclear. We are not sure where the issue is. So, I think if we
could nail down that answer and get to who the decision-maker
is, and it may be President Kabila. So, at the executive level,
maybe it is President to President that needs to have a
sitdown. I'm not sure.
Senator Tillis. Do you have any idea what gave rise to
these suspensions?
Ms. Craig. The initial--the Congolese initially said
concerns of child safety and well-being when--when coming to
the receiving country.
Senator Tillis. Did they cite specific examples that they
were reacting to and maybe they overreacted?
Ms. Craig. Not to my knowledge. I think they were concerned
over abuse and re-homing.
Senator Tillis. I am just curious if there was any rational
basis, in fact, that they used, so, you know, maybe an
overreaction to something that did occur. But we will have our
office look more into that.
I for one think that we probably do need to step up the
engagement with the DRC and other countries in terms of their
behavior, just trying to do the right thing for the kids. You
all are trying to provide a loving home for these children.
In the case of the DRC, they receive $176,800,000 a year in
U.S. aid-$110 million from USAID and $65 million from the State
Department. We are already trying to do everything we can to
help the DRC for the citizens in their country, and you are
trying to do everything you can to help the children in this
country actually aspire to a better, safer life. And it seems
to me we need to figure out a better way to communicate that. I
think you are right, we need to do it--this is not a partisan
thing. We need to do it in a way that engages the
administration, the executive branch, but I think Congress can
have a voice, too, and we should probably raise that voice.
And I appreciate you all being here today. I am very sorry
for your experiences.
Ms. Craig. Thank you.
[Pause.]
Chairman Grassley. I am going to close before I call on
Senator Sessions because I owe all of you a thank you. I know
you go through a lot of work to prepare for these hearings and
I know that each of you have made sacrifices to be here. Your
stories and experiences are a testament to the love that you
have for children. We commend you for opening your hearts and
homes to the kids that need a permanent home, and I am going to
leave the record open for any additional comments from Senators
or any of the families here or not here that want to still
submit a written statement for the record, and in doing that,
like a couple of us--three of our witnesses have told their
story. So, I thank you very much for coming, and I will leave
it to Senator Sessions to close the meeting down so I can go to
a 12 o'clock meeting I have.
Senator Sessions [presiding]. Thank you, Chairman Grassley.
I appreciate you and Senator Leahy for your work. And I thank
all of you, as the Chairman said eloquently, for opening your
hearts and homes to young children in need.
We have three--Senator Tillis, we have three families from
Alabama--the Swendlings, Braddocks, and Powells--who also are
dealing painfully with the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it
really is, I can imagine, Ms. Craig, extremely frustrating. It
seems to me--to repeat what you were saying, these families
have gone through the process. They have been basically
accepted. The adoptions are complete, and nothing seems to be
happening so the children can come to their families. Is that
the essence of it?
Ms. Craig. That's correct. Our adoption was finalized in a
Congolese court April 8, 2013. The only thing stopping the
children from coming home is an exit letter required by the
Democratic Republic of Congo to leave the country.
Senator Sessions. Well, you know, our State Department has
many challenges, and they do a great job in a lot of ways, and
I am sure some of you have felt the support that they give. But
I do think at some level, when we have--American citizens have
given of themselves to adopt a child and the country basically
just reneges on the process and uses a technical objection to
delay these things, it does reach a State-to-State level. I
believe in law school we studied conflicts of laws and the
ability of legal systems to bind one another, and the rulings
in one court are valid around the world. And so, I just think
that we need to--I believe we can do more at that level for
this situation.
Do you have any specific thoughts--I guess you have been
asked about it a little bit, but do you want to share any more
specific thoughts about what our Government could do to assist
in this situation?
Ms. Craig. Thank you for that question, Senator Sessions.
We need action, no more lip service. We have done a lot of
talking, a lot of engaging, a lot of meeting, a lot of promises
that did not happen. Twenty-five children have died waiting to
come home. They are a plane ride away from their family. We
need action. I don't know if that is boots on the ground or
legislation. They need protection. These children need
protection. They are on the verge of an election that may or
may not be civil unrest over there. U.S. citizenship could
provide them protection in case of an evacuation. Anything that
you could do to bring our children home.
Senator Sessions. I think this is one--Senator Tillis, I
think this is one where we have the high ground. If a nation
says, ``We are not going to allow any more adoptions,'' you
know, I guess that is their decision. But when they allow one
to occur and then do not allow it to proceed, it is really
frustrating to me. A great Alabamian, Larry Taunton, wrote a
book about the adoption process. He is a theologian and
Christian apologist. But he gets a call from his wife and son,
who graduated from Yale and worked for me, but the story--they
are volunteering in an orphanage in the Ukraine, and they call
and you can just imagine the call: ``Daddy, we met this young
girl.'' And so they agreed to adopt the girl, to make a long
story short, and it just went on for years. They had to put up
money. They felt like--Dr. Wilkerson, a lot of the money to
lawyers and other people was going to places they had no idea
where it was going. Is that a problem internationally, in your
opinion?
Dr. Wilkerson. Very much so, Senator Sessions.
Senator Sessions. You alluded to it. In other words, once
the family gets attached to the child as they were able to see
the child, stay in the hotel with them, it took I think three
trips to the Ukraine over a period of years to finally get this
done. And are the families that want to adopt being victimized
sometimes in this process, Dr. Wilkerson?
Dr. Wilkerson. Very much so, and, in fact, in Haiti it is
not unusual to be drawn out until the child turns 16, at which
point adoption is impossible. All the money has been paid,
everything has been done, now it is no longer possible. The
child is 16.
Senator Sessions. Well, I just think Nations who do that
deserve to be criticized. They deserve to be criticized. If
they're going to allow a process to go forward, it should be
done in a way that is fair and just and minimizes the cost to
those who give of themselves to these children.
Ms. Craig, this letter that is lacking from the Congolese
Government that would clear the way for the child to come,
these children to come to their parents, in your opinion is
this some sort of political deal? Does it have any substance
behind it? Or is it some sort of deliberate attempt to obstruct
the process?
Ms. Craig. You know, we've been told that the exit letter
is not a legal requirement to leave DRC. So that leaves my
opinion to be that it could be political or because they can.
Senator Sessions. Well, thank you all. And this is moving
testimony. My constituents from Alabama wrote and said, ``Every
night that passes is another night that these children will
spend alone, without a mother or father tucking them into
bed.'' And that's unfortunate. Some of the orphanages around
the world are really--really not good places, and I just thank
you all for caring enough to take this action. And I believe
maybe we in Congress can figure out a way to assist.
Anything else, Senator Tillis, that you would like to add?
Senator Tillis. No. Thank you, Senator Sessions. Thank you
all for being here. Sorry for all that you have had to go
through.
Senator Sessions. Thank you all, and we are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:55 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
to
NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH: STORIES OF
SUCCESS AND MEETING THE CHALLENGES
OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS
The following submissions are available at:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-114shrg52544/pdf/CHRG-
114shrg
52544-add1.pdf
Submitted by Senator Tillis office:
Coleman, Katie and Chad, Testimony............................... 2
Portman, Senator Rob, Testimony.................................. 4
[all]