I'm home... & new Korean adoption rules.
***Edited to add:*** Someone left a comment asking what "EP" is. I explained it in an earlier entry, but I'll copy and paste it here:
Well, we had a great week visiting the grandparents! Elaine is still there. This gives me a week to organize organize organize! We haven't really heard much about Arie. There are a couple of people who got there referrals around the same time we did, but are with a different American agency. They just found out that they have EP, so, once again, I'm hoping that we are in the same batch. Although they have a different American agency, we all have the same Korean agency (Eastern).
Korea has decided to change their adoption rules. The new rules go into effect January of 2007. Two of the big changes are:
1. Singles will be allowed to adopt in Korea.
2. They will not release the babies for U.S. adoption until they are 5 months old (prior to that age they can be adopted by Korean families).
Here is an article from The Korea Times that talks about these new changes. There are so many differing opinions about these changes. The main goal of the Korea government, however, is to decrease the amount of children being adopted out of the country. Obviously they would prefer for the children to stay in their birth-land and grow to know the Korean culture. Here is another link to a blog by a woman named Martha Osbourne. She is the creator of the website www.rainbowkids.com. It's a site that photolists children from all over the world that need to be adopted. She discusses this topic on her blog too. In the adoption community there are so many opinion and questions that have been raised because of these changes. Korea is still very old fashioned, and adoption is still not widely accepted in Korea (i.e. if you were an adopted child living in Korea you and your family might be looked down upon). These new changes have raised many questions and have made for some heated debates recently. Go check out the links and then follow the "links" trail.
Hopefully everything will work out in Korea. Obviously the Korean Government wants what's best for their children, as do we. I pray that all these new changes help encourage more positive views of adoption in Korea, and lead to more babies finding their forever families.
EP is the petition for immigration granted by the Korean government. (Basically it's permission for us to adopt Arie.) Once EP is obtained, then your travel call is imminent (like within one month, typically 2-3 weeks). EP is the LAST thing you are told prior to travel... BUT our agency doesn't tell us EP, so I'm tring to guess when we got it based on when families from another agency recieved their EP.
Well, we had a great week visiting the grandparents! Elaine is still there. This gives me a week to organize organize organize! We haven't really heard much about Arie. There are a couple of people who got there referrals around the same time we did, but are with a different American agency. They just found out that they have EP, so, once again, I'm hoping that we are in the same batch. Although they have a different American agency, we all have the same Korean agency (Eastern).
Korea has decided to change their adoption rules. The new rules go into effect January of 2007. Two of the big changes are:
1. Singles will be allowed to adopt in Korea.
2. They will not release the babies for U.S. adoption until they are 5 months old (prior to that age they can be adopted by Korean families).
Here is an article from The Korea Times that talks about these new changes. There are so many differing opinions about these changes. The main goal of the Korea government, however, is to decrease the amount of children being adopted out of the country. Obviously they would prefer for the children to stay in their birth-land and grow to know the Korean culture. Here is another link to a blog by a woman named Martha Osbourne. She is the creator of the website www.rainbowkids.com. It's a site that photolists children from all over the world that need to be adopted. She discusses this topic on her blog too. In the adoption community there are so many opinion and questions that have been raised because of these changes. Korea is still very old fashioned, and adoption is still not widely accepted in Korea (i.e. if you were an adopted child living in Korea you and your family might be looked down upon). These new changes have raised many questions and have made for some heated debates recently. Go check out the links and then follow the "links" trail.
Hopefully everything will work out in Korea. Obviously the Korean Government wants what's best for their children, as do we. I pray that all these new changes help encourage more positive views of adoption in Korea, and lead to more babies finding their forever families.
posted by Ryan | 8/14/2006 11:35:00 AM
1 Comments:
What does EP stand for?
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