just in case you missed it, my blog is now happening at www.bringthetwinshome.org
and yes - I am actually blogging again!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
May, World Travellers
Greetings from Canada.
Yep. Canada. Only don't leap from your chair cheering just yet.
I came alone. Babies are in Ghana. I am here for the month to lend some kind of normalcy to Finn's 6th birthday. Our Big Boy is 6!
Amazing!
But now I have to tell you that there is a bit of a campaign to end this ridiculous misery, and to get us home. We have submitted our citizenship applications for the boys, hoping to have answered all of the previous concerns the high commission had. Fingers crossed for an expeditious turn around of these applications (stifle cynacism, please).
I return on June 20th - not nearly enough time with Finn, yet too long away from the babies. Never in the right place at the right time. A rock and a hard place.
Anyway, in terms of things in motion, the follow link is a very powerful investigative piece put together by a woman a call GENIUS. It will show all of my loved ones how what is happening to us isn't just happening to us. The problem is systemic. It is nasty.
www.bowenislandtimes.com/ADOPTION/index.html
The second thing to warn you about is that I am changing homes for my blog. I intend to get back in to the swing of writing now that the dark days are moving beyond me (thank you very much, 4 pm martini!).
You will find me blogging regularly (even while in Canada) at www.bringthetwinshome.org
The focus now is so beyond the telling of this story (happy at times, not so much at other). It is about getting home. Nine months away and I can tell you that no family can survive this for much longer than what we have endured. Of course, we can, and we will, so don't you all be worrying about that. But it isn't pretty. Re-entry has it's challenges, and it is time for this nightmare to be over.
Sadly, I am reading stories of adoptive families who have sat in this limbo for far longer than 9 months, which does nothing to buoy my confidence.
Anyway, enough postering and crankiness for now. Please read the link to the investigative report, and I'll see you all at the bringthetwinshome.org site soon!
Yep. Canada. Only don't leap from your chair cheering just yet.
I came alone. Babies are in Ghana. I am here for the month to lend some kind of normalcy to Finn's 6th birthday. Our Big Boy is 6!
Amazing!
But now I have to tell you that there is a bit of a campaign to end this ridiculous misery, and to get us home. We have submitted our citizenship applications for the boys, hoping to have answered all of the previous concerns the high commission had. Fingers crossed for an expeditious turn around of these applications (stifle cynacism, please).
I return on June 20th - not nearly enough time with Finn, yet too long away from the babies. Never in the right place at the right time. A rock and a hard place.
Anyway, in terms of things in motion, the follow link is a very powerful investigative piece put together by a woman a call GENIUS. It will show all of my loved ones how what is happening to us isn't just happening to us. The problem is systemic. It is nasty.
www.bowenislandtimes.com/ADOPTION/index.html
The second thing to warn you about is that I am changing homes for my blog. I intend to get back in to the swing of writing now that the dark days are moving beyond me (thank you very much, 4 pm martini!).
You will find me blogging regularly (even while in Canada) at www.bringthetwinshome.org
The focus now is so beyond the telling of this story (happy at times, not so much at other). It is about getting home. Nine months away and I can tell you that no family can survive this for much longer than what we have endured. Of course, we can, and we will, so don't you all be worrying about that. But it isn't pretty. Re-entry has it's challenges, and it is time for this nightmare to be over.
Sadly, I am reading stories of adoptive families who have sat in this limbo for far longer than 9 months, which does nothing to buoy my confidence.
Anyway, enough postering and crankiness for now. Please read the link to the investigative report, and I'll see you all at the bringthetwinshome.org site soon!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
North Shore News Article
Copy and paste this link into your web browser for the latest article written on our situation.
"Wrapped in red tape and trapped in Africa"
http://www2.canada.com/northshorenews/news/sundayfocus/story.html?id=f9ca3c91-4614-463a-8b71-545cf485b396&k=88033
"Wrapped in red tape and trapped in Africa"
http://www2.canada.com/northshorenews/news/sundayfocus/story.html?id=f9ca3c91-4614-463a-8b71-545cf485b396&k=88033
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The joy of a bucket of water
Things we like to do to cool off. This was a favourite past time of Finn's as well!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Trudge Trudge Trudge
The miracle of stair climbing. I no longer require three trips up and down to get them to sleep!
Two steppin', literally.
Alright -- big news on the baby front: Will is practicing taking his two steps pretty well all day long now.
But Charlie surprised me yesterday by taking his very first step.
In 24 hours, he has exceeded his brothers practice over the past two weeks. I do believe that Charlie will master walking before Will as his entire awake time (6 hours maybe?) has been dedicated to free standing and wiggling his feet forward. He gets in about two steps before laughter takes over and he lands on his bottom.
Will also thinks this is a great game only he now uses Charlie as a balancing board while he takes his steps.
They spend a lot of time laughing, serious belly laughing, at each other (or with each other). I am beginning to see how the whole twin connection works.
What is new on our return home? Not much, but my brother Ian should become a professional publicist. During the time of global disaster (Haiti) and local media frenzy over the Olympics, our story has managed to take up not an insignificant number of minutes on the CBC!!! There was a 6 o'clock news story, and three CBC radio interviews. Global TV has now called our house, and both of Bowen Islands newspapers are running a lengthy account of what has been going on.
I consider Ian's efforts to be nothing short of heroic. The results have not only been journalistic, but people are now reaching out to us via email and facebook like crazy. Suddenly we've got connections to a vast number of Canadians At The Top. This can only be considered a good thing.
I did what some might feel is a bit of a crazy thing, but desperate times call for drastic measures. I presented myself to the Head of Anti Human Trafficking department at CID (Crimes Investigation Department) here in Ghana. If immigration feels that something fishy is going on with regards to the boys birth mother, then by all means, investigate me.
Funny thing is that when I presented myself to the anti trafficking Unit at CID, the woman made a few phone calls and responded to my presence as "What is the problem, exactly? The department of social welfare knows about the issue with the death certificate? They still recommended a full adoption and still give their authorization for you to leave? What exactly do you need?"
Good question. What exactly do I need? I'm working on that. I guess I need someone to explain to me how I can explain something unexplicable, except to say, in Africa, things like this do happen. In Canada, mistakes in documents happen. They just do. And it happened. So instead of wasting all of this time wondering how on earth I could have possible come by a fake document, can we please just come home now??
I guess not. But I'm working on it. And I will keep you posted.
I'll try uploaded some ridiculously cute video of the boys to keep everyone occupied while I trudge around Accra trying to solve this mystery of mysteries.
But Charlie surprised me yesterday by taking his very first step.
In 24 hours, he has exceeded his brothers practice over the past two weeks. I do believe that Charlie will master walking before Will as his entire awake time (6 hours maybe?) has been dedicated to free standing and wiggling his feet forward. He gets in about two steps before laughter takes over and he lands on his bottom.
Will also thinks this is a great game only he now uses Charlie as a balancing board while he takes his steps.
They spend a lot of time laughing, serious belly laughing, at each other (or with each other). I am beginning to see how the whole twin connection works.
What is new on our return home? Not much, but my brother Ian should become a professional publicist. During the time of global disaster (Haiti) and local media frenzy over the Olympics, our story has managed to take up not an insignificant number of minutes on the CBC!!! There was a 6 o'clock news story, and three CBC radio interviews. Global TV has now called our house, and both of Bowen Islands newspapers are running a lengthy account of what has been going on.
I consider Ian's efforts to be nothing short of heroic. The results have not only been journalistic, but people are now reaching out to us via email and facebook like crazy. Suddenly we've got connections to a vast number of Canadians At The Top. This can only be considered a good thing.
I did what some might feel is a bit of a crazy thing, but desperate times call for drastic measures. I presented myself to the Head of Anti Human Trafficking department at CID (Crimes Investigation Department) here in Ghana. If immigration feels that something fishy is going on with regards to the boys birth mother, then by all means, investigate me.
Funny thing is that when I presented myself to the anti trafficking Unit at CID, the woman made a few phone calls and responded to my presence as "What is the problem, exactly? The department of social welfare knows about the issue with the death certificate? They still recommended a full adoption and still give their authorization for you to leave? What exactly do you need?"
Good question. What exactly do I need? I'm working on that. I guess I need someone to explain to me how I can explain something unexplicable, except to say, in Africa, things like this do happen. In Canada, mistakes in documents happen. They just do. And it happened. So instead of wasting all of this time wondering how on earth I could have possible come by a fake document, can we please just come home now??
I guess not. But I'm working on it. And I will keep you posted.
I'll try uploaded some ridiculously cute video of the boys to keep everyone occupied while I trudge around Accra trying to solve this mystery of mysteries.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Changes...
I promised to write about happy things -- try to reveal some good times amidst all of my complaining and absolute panic.
Well, I am ecstatic to report that Will is a walker!!! Two days ago he took his first two steps. Then the next morning he took 3 steps. Back down to 2 steps. Then 6. He is now shuffling his way taking anywhere between 2 and 6 steps before sitting down, cautiously, the laughing his head off at the miracle that standing on your own two feet really is!
Not to be outdone, Charlie found himself in a bit of a sobbing state the other day. Charlie is at that "My Mama has walked around a corner and I will never see her again. wahhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Oh, here she is....". I had run up the stairs to grab some diapers and in the nano seconds it took me to leap three steps at a time to the top, grab the diapers and hustle back down, Charlie had worked himself into a frenzy of tears. He saw me start up the stairs, and trucked right on up after me.
Voila. Charlie does stairs. Although once he realized that he had accidentally climbed the stairs with no idea how to climb back down, this started a whole other sob story.
Now, the walker, not to be outdone by the stair climber, now also climbs the stairs - but only when I am not looking.
And I have never seen such a sight as the two of them at the breakfast table placing milky cheerios into their spoons (using fingers) and shoving the spoonful of cheerios sideways into their mouths. The sounds of frustration while they try to sort out how to get this puzzle of spoon and mouth figured out is nothing short of hilarious. And loud. They are very, very loud!
Lots of new skills from our wee ones.
Now onto Finn - who is happily at home, back at school and Tae Kwon Do and planning how to sneak into Olympic events. He is absolutely thrilled at the idea of the Olympics and is completely confused as to why he can't just go and see the snowboarders. The excitement of the games is not lost on one so young, even though his parents weren't lucky enough to get tickets to anything. He is pumped for sports! He wants hockey lessons, snowboard lessons and thinks that the idea of a toboggan hurtling down ice is the best idea the world has ever come up with.
I'm sorry he won't see any of the events, but I am thrilled by his excitement over the games, which is something I hope he remembers his whole life long.
Michael and I are coping with the flock in our respective nests. Mom has, once again, saved our bacon by practically moving in with Michael to help with the logistics of Finn's life. I have to give gratitude to my Dad for making the perilous boat trips and having the patience with this situation as it drags on for all eternity. We all say "where would we be without our parents" (or at least some of us do. I do.) Michael and I would be in hell. Thank God for Ma & Pa Bastin.
We've got a lot happening in terms of getting our tails on Canadian soil. We've launched an official appeal of the High Commissions Decision, gone back to court in Ghana and obtained a full adoption order, prepared documents for direct citizenship and I am researching how difficult it could be to obtain tourist visas for any country other than Ghana while we wait out any or all of the above processes. I am a bit like a border collie - I have to work, work, work or I will go insane.
Wait. I could be insane. Anyway, dreaming about a place away from here keeps my light bulb burning, so I'll stick with that.
No pictures because MY CAMERA WAS STOLEN. I can't believe it. But it is gone. I had some great shots on that thing, but now it is gone. Another indicator that it is time to leave - I can no longer have photographic evidence of my stay, so it is time to go!
Well, I am ecstatic to report that Will is a walker!!! Two days ago he took his first two steps. Then the next morning he took 3 steps. Back down to 2 steps. Then 6. He is now shuffling his way taking anywhere between 2 and 6 steps before sitting down, cautiously, the laughing his head off at the miracle that standing on your own two feet really is!
Not to be outdone, Charlie found himself in a bit of a sobbing state the other day. Charlie is at that "My Mama has walked around a corner and I will never see her again. wahhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Oh, here she is....". I had run up the stairs to grab some diapers and in the nano seconds it took me to leap three steps at a time to the top, grab the diapers and hustle back down, Charlie had worked himself into a frenzy of tears. He saw me start up the stairs, and trucked right on up after me.
Voila. Charlie does stairs. Although once he realized that he had accidentally climbed the stairs with no idea how to climb back down, this started a whole other sob story.
Now, the walker, not to be outdone by the stair climber, now also climbs the stairs - but only when I am not looking.
And I have never seen such a sight as the two of them at the breakfast table placing milky cheerios into their spoons (using fingers) and shoving the spoonful of cheerios sideways into their mouths. The sounds of frustration while they try to sort out how to get this puzzle of spoon and mouth figured out is nothing short of hilarious. And loud. They are very, very loud!
Lots of new skills from our wee ones.
Now onto Finn - who is happily at home, back at school and Tae Kwon Do and planning how to sneak into Olympic events. He is absolutely thrilled at the idea of the Olympics and is completely confused as to why he can't just go and see the snowboarders. The excitement of the games is not lost on one so young, even though his parents weren't lucky enough to get tickets to anything. He is pumped for sports! He wants hockey lessons, snowboard lessons and thinks that the idea of a toboggan hurtling down ice is the best idea the world has ever come up with.
I'm sorry he won't see any of the events, but I am thrilled by his excitement over the games, which is something I hope he remembers his whole life long.
Michael and I are coping with the flock in our respective nests. Mom has, once again, saved our bacon by practically moving in with Michael to help with the logistics of Finn's life. I have to give gratitude to my Dad for making the perilous boat trips and having the patience with this situation as it drags on for all eternity. We all say "where would we be without our parents" (or at least some of us do. I do.) Michael and I would be in hell. Thank God for Ma & Pa Bastin.
We've got a lot happening in terms of getting our tails on Canadian soil. We've launched an official appeal of the High Commissions Decision, gone back to court in Ghana and obtained a full adoption order, prepared documents for direct citizenship and I am researching how difficult it could be to obtain tourist visas for any country other than Ghana while we wait out any or all of the above processes. I am a bit like a border collie - I have to work, work, work or I will go insane.
Wait. I could be insane. Anyway, dreaming about a place away from here keeps my light bulb burning, so I'll stick with that.
No pictures because MY CAMERA WAS STOLEN. I can't believe it. But it is gone. I had some great shots on that thing, but now it is gone. Another indicator that it is time to leave - I can no longer have photographic evidence of my stay, so it is time to go!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
A multi continental family for just how long??
Time moves at a snails pace, but then I look up and a month has past.
This month has been one of mostly heartache. Most of you are aware that the immigration department in Accra has denied us our visas, and has closed our immigration file.
This leaves us stranded in Ghana until we can appeal this decision in court.
The reason for this turn of events, as most of you know, was the submission of a death certificate for the babies biological mother, which was found to be 'fraudulent'.
Not fraudulent in terms of the basic facts - their mother did die. However, the document was not registered and did contain false information detailing the place of her death. We can't explain how this happened, but we did manage to obtain original hospital records which detailed the babies birth and the subsequent death of their mother, along with a new and registered death certificate. The family provided us with photos (which is customary to take) of village women preparing her body for burial, the family with the casket, burial plot and grave site. All quite macabre, but so incredibly necessary in order to remove the shadow of doubt caused by the fraudulent document. The local authorities in Ghana, the Department of Social Welfare, launched their own inquiry as well. After a three week investigation, the Director of Justice Administration submitted a one page report to the Canadian High Commission confirming that the babies biological mother was deceased and that our adoption of the babies proceeded under the full legal jurisdiction of the governing authority (social welfare and the courts). Social Welfare authorized the High Commission to complete our visa applications.
Yet still the shadow of doubt remains. And we were denied.
We are upset (understatement) scared, sad... but mostly, we are a family apart for an indefinite period of time.
Finn and Michael returned to Bowen island on January 16th. The hardest day of my life, watching them pass beyond the immigration gates. But Finn is doing well, and much better than he was doing in Ghana.
Michael and I are completely immersed in raising the kiddos we have in our respective nests, and also planning how to best approach this appeal, and how we can somehow be together as a family as the time apart is absolutely not acceptable.
We are appealing to the minister of immigration to override the delegation here in Accra, and to have him issue us a temporary residency permit for the babies. With this TRP, we can enter Canada. The babies remain under control of CIC, but we can wait out the appeal together in Canada. There will be no vacation to Disneyland, but we will be quite happy to camp out on Bowen Island for the next 10 years, thank you very much.
So that everyone has the story straight, I've put together a simple time line of events. Fairly soon, I'll be calling on everyone to put together a massive letter writing campaign to the minister. The more Canadians that rattle this cage, the more attention will be placed on this situation. The time isn't quite right just yet, but I will let you know when it is. For now, I can offer you this:
June 2009 – We complete all of the legal requirements under the Province of BC are now qualified to pursue and international adoption (the BC government will back this up by issuing a letter of no objection once we have our court documents from Ghana)
September 3 – 9 months after the death of their mother, and the relinquishment of parental rights by their bio father, Danaa (William) and Dawuni (Charlie) are placed in my custody for fostering period. Social Welfare agreed to waive residency requirement due to health concerns of the babies. Subsequently they set an early court date.
September 17 – Interim adoption order granted and states that as the legal guardians of the babies we are free to leave Ghana. Ghana authorities recognize Michael and I as the legal guardians of the babies. They are given our last name in the court order
October 20 – Submit PR applications after taking a month to locate a death certificate – the final outstanding requirement in our PR applications
November 20 – Email from HC: death certificate is a fraud
December 12 – Re-submit authentic death certificate along with new evidence: medical records, death certificate
December 21 – Ghana Social Welfare submits report to HC which is the result of their own investigation into the fraudulent death certificate. Report confirms that the governing authority in Ghana is satisfied as to the legality of the adoption procedures.
January 15 – PR applications denied. HC states that TRP issuance is not appropriate and that PR application is closed as HC is not convinced that the true whereabouts of the babies biological mother is known.
Post Jan 15 – present: new court date (Feb 2) to get full order, launch appeal in Canada and request ministerial intervention from MP and Immigration minister to get us home during 10 month appeal process. All family distraught but trying to keep it together for Finn. Anxiety and fear reign as we lurch towards possible solutions. I am in Ghana with the babies, with Michael and Finn in Vancouver until further notice.
I have been raising my babies since they were nine months old. I have nursed them through severe illness, and we have bonded as a family. It is impossible to conceive of leaving my children, even for a short period of time. The daily struggle I endure due to the separation from my Finn is unbearable.
This all sounds heavy handed and I am trying everyday to find joy, and look towards the light at the end of this tunnel. I just heard a rumour that Craig & Lisa have mailed me some coffee....this will most certainly bring me joy and the moment it arrives I will be taking time away from memorizing the Canadian Citizenship Act in order to enjoy at least a gallon of the stuff (thanks you guys!!). Weird how in the lands of the coffee bean, no here cares to figure out how to roast and market the stuff!
On a sweet chocolatie note, I am posting a picture of the work of art Finn and Michael produced for my birthday, just a few days before their departure. I will start downloading the pictures of Charlie and Will, who grow sweeter and zanier by the minute. My next entry will be about nothing but the good stuff - our children.
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