Day 9 - Interviewed by the ICBF

For those of you who have never adopted a child, here is a brief overview of the process when a couple comes to Colombia to fetch their child:

First, they have a brief meeting with the lawyers and the ICBF (barnevernet), where they get a document stating that they are in the process of adopting this child and are its rightful guardians. Then they get to meet the child and take it to their hotel so the bonding process can start.

About one week later, they have an interview with the ICBF's lawyer and a child psychologist to determine how the first contact has been. If all is well, the couple's lawyer sends the case to the court system later that day.

Once a week, all new cases are distributed at random among the available courts (reparto). In Cali there are ten different courts, and court selection happens Monday evenings.

The court examines the case in order to approve all the documents. In Cali this takes one to three weeks, in Bogotá from two to six weeks.

If the judge requests additional information or documentation, the couple('s lawyer) must provide this within five days, or else the case will be dismissed.

El procurador (the authorities' controllant) has to approve and sign the auto admisoria de la demanda (the declaration that the court has approved all the adoption documents). This can only be done on two fixed days of the week.

The case is sent to the ICBF's attorney for control and comfirmation. According to the law this shall take at most five work days. In practice it may take longer because they allow 2-3 days for the actual moving of the documents.

The case is then sent back to the judge, who is supposed to finalize it and give a ruling (sentencia) within 10 days after the ICBF's attorney has made her comments. In practice it usually takes longer than that.

El procurador (who works only two days a week, see above) must read, approve, and sign la sentencia.

The ruling is thereafter announced (notificacion) and signed by the lawyers and (at least one of) the adopting parents, in court or in a public office.

Then it takes three days for the ruling to take effect. Only after that is the child considered to be legally adopted.

The lawyer can now pick up the ruling at the court and begin making all the necessary notarized copies of the documents. This normally takes a whole work day.

The child receives its new surname in the civil register, and a new birth certificate must be issued, in the town where the child was originally registered (born). If this is the same town where the case was tried, this takes 1-4 days. If not, it can take much longer. This is the last process of uncertain duration, so when this is done, the parents can go to Bogotá and plan the trip home.

Before they can leave the country, the parents must apply for a Colombian passport for the child, for the flight out of Colmobia. This must take place in the capital (Bogotá), but it is a formality and shall only take an hour or so.

If the parents are from Norway, they can apply for a Norwegian passport for the child at the Norwegian embassy in Bogotá — if they have brought the necessary statements from the Norwegian government (Bufetat) and from their local police authorities at home. This takes 1-2 days to make (as opposed to a visa, which can take two weeks or more).

Then the new family, who by now will hopefully be well on their way with the bonding process, can go home and get on with their life. Its as simple as that!

Today we got through he second point in the process! The child psychologist seemed very pleased with our report from the first five days with the child. (We did not show him this blog!)

Since today is Monday, we will know the result of the third step already tomorrow morning. Our lawyer has promised us that if we get Court No.3, she will withdraw the case and apply all over again, because that judge is infamous for being very slow in foreign adoption cases (he is against it and uses all available means to throw sand in the gears of such processes).

If we get any other court than #3 (and preferably not #5, which is also slow), we then move on to step 4 above — at cruising speed! :-)

---

We went shopping at the big mall again today. While Jelena went shoe shopping, Ulf looked after the kid alone, and decided to buy a couple of ice cream sundaes and sit down and enjoy them on a bench outside. No sooner had they sat down than the three year old announced that he had to go to the bathroom. He refused to walk, he insisted that daddy carry him. If you think it is possible to carry a wriggling three year old who has to pee, while at the same time balancing two full cups of soft ice with caramel and strawberry sauce, and still be wearing a clean shirt afterwards, think again!

Around noon we got a knock on the door to our room, and outside we found a beautiful arrangement of flowers (see the pictures)! There was a card with it, hand-written in Norwegian, but with 'aa' and 'o' instead of 'å' and 'ø' (proving that the card was hand-written not by a Norwegian but by someone who had been sent the text via their computer — isn't Internet the most wonderful invention?) and with no signature or sender's name, only a cryptic reference to a yellow house in Norway. :-)

This was a very nice surprise, and we have received many compliments on the nice flowers from the other guests and the staff (which we are also getting to know little by little, all 23 of them), for we have left the flowers on our doorstep, where there is daylight. But we are not sure whom we should thank! We do have a main suspect, but since we actually have several close friends who live in yellow buildings, we'd prefer it if you confess — we know you are reading this, because the card said so!

---

A Norwegian guest (apparently a business man in his sixties, from Trøndelag) moved in this evening in a room close to ours. He just popped his head thru our open door and almost woke the boy by asking loudly what time it is in Colombia right now — he obviously came straight from the airport.

The two couples who arrived yesterday both got their five month old babies today. Yes, we felt a sting of envy since they got what we initially applied for, but now we wouldn't trade our wonderful son away for any baby in the world!