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.
