Italian Exemption

We sent off our Italian exemption letter today:

Dear Sir/Ma'am,

My husband and I are currently residing in Naples, Italy under the Status of Forces Agreement. Victor is active duty military stationed at U.S. Naval Hospital Naples from June 2011 through June 2014.

We are starting the process of adopting a baby from Colombia and are requesting authorization to conduct a Hague adoption through a U.S. Hague accredited adoption agency, and for authorization for our U.S. Adoption Service Provider to conduct our home study in Italy. Basically, we are asking for an exemption from the requirement of adopting through the Italian system and permission to adopt through the U.S. process.

Our adopted child will have U.S. citizenship upon completion of the adoption and will be living with us under sponsorship of the military. As previously stated, we are only living in Italy temporarily and are habitually domiciled in the U.S.

Thank you for your attention and support in consideration of this request.

Hopefully, we will receive our approval soon!

Let the Games Begin...

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.

One More Blessing?

Alejandro joined our family in Sept 2007, and Diego in Sept 2008. They have been such a blessing and I couldn't love them more if I gave birth to them. Could we hope to be blessed again?

For a long time, I didn't think so. After all, we're going to be stationed in Italy for three years, and we couldn't possible adopt from here... Or could we? A couple of months after moving here, I started seeing advertisements for Adopt-Abroad Inc. and the seed was planted.

Earlier this month, the base sponsored a group of local orphans to come on base for a tree lighting ceremony, dinner, and gift exchange, and my thoughts once again turned to adoption. Through this event I connected with others also considering adoption and the seed continued to grow.

Around this same time, I was cleaning out my desk and came across an unmarked DVD-R. Turns out it was a bunch of old episodes of Adoption Stories that I had recorded. Was someone trying to tell me something?

By this point, the seed had sprouted and I knew I wanted to pursue another adoption. But would Victor feel the same way? I imagined all the reasons he would say no -

"It's too expensive."

"I can't get that much time off of work."

"It will be too complicated to adopt from here."

"We already have our hands full with two."

I knew I had to at least try, and I finally got up my nerve to ask him. I was prepared to argue and plead, beg if I had to, but to my surprise he said, "yeah." Just like that. No debating, no pleading. Just "yeah." I was so relieved, and so excited!

So here we are preparing for adoption #3, a ton of paperwork ahead of us, and I couldn't be happier!