Letter to the Editor

Over the weekend, it was suggested to me that I write a letter to the editor about our current hold-up to bringing Shaling home. What I composed appears below:

Our family is currently pursuing the adoption of an orphaned 8-year-old girl from China. Shaling was abandoned as a 2-year-old. Our 9-year-old son is especially excited, as he has wanted a sibling as long as he can remember.

We are frustrated because staff shortage at the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services is delaying us. We began our intensive 4-month home study in January. Our adoption agency social worker prepared the summary and submitted it to D.C.F.S. on May 10th for a required endorsement. Last year, the turn-around for receiving that endorsement was 2 to 3 weeks. Currently, it’s 11+ weeks. Those figures came from couples who are in various stages of the adoption process. We have not received our endorsement yet.

More aggravatingly, this endorsement is unnecessary and redundant. D.C.F.S. has already cleared us of any child abuse allegations and is extraneous to the remaining process. Our adoption agency is licensed to approve us for adoption, collected all of our paperwork and completed the research for the home study. They will make follow-up visits to check on us and our daughter post-adoption. The F.B.I. and state & local police have cleared us criminally. Our daughter is not a ward of Illinois, but of China. China will also be reviewing our documentation and approving us as parents. Finally, this adoption will not even take place in Illinois; it will be completed in China. The D.C.F.S. review is a duplicate of what our licensed social worker has already done and what China will do once our dossier is submitted.

I would like our lawmakers to review what seems like a “rubber stamp approval”. It is uselessly delaying children from being embraced by a loving family and is a wasteful expenditure of tax dollars. With an over-burdened staff at D.C.F.S., time would be more efficiently spent following up on the welfare of children currently under their jurisdiction; children who have no other advocates.

I’ve been told by another adoptive parent that based on her research, Illinois is one of about five states that require this endorsement. In the majority of the U.S., we would already be submitting our dossier to China, and be able to give our little girl the loving family she deserves 3 months sooner.

Illinois lawmakers, please eliminate this dispensable endorsement. It will benefit children in need of a family, reduce D.C.F.S. back logs, and save taxpayer money.