So now that we've officially made the decision to adopt again, we have to find an adoption agency to work with, and a social worker to complete our home study. Through contacts here in Naples, I came across the name Randy Barlow. He founded the company American Adoption Professionals Abroad and specializes in helping American families living abroad. After perusing his website, I immediately knew I wanted him to conduct our home study. I can’t really say why exactly I felt that way. It was just a gut feeling, but I’ve learned over the years to always trust my gut. So I emailed him for more information, and received an email back from his associate Jane, who conducts all home studies in Italy. She was very helpful, and confirmed my feeling that this was the agency we were meant to use.
One of the things Jane told me was that because we were adopting from a Hague Convention country (Colombia), through another Hague country (U.S.), while living in a third Hague country (Italy), we would have to get authorization from the Italian Central Authority on International Adoption. Basically, we have to request an exemption from Italian adoption law and permission to adopt through the U.S. She said they usually approve these requests so I guess it’s really just a formality, but we can't start our home study without it. I can already see that this adoption is going to be more complicated than the others.
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