An article from the Wall Street Journal is bringing attention to potential changes in the way international adoptions will soon be happening in the USA.

Apparently, the US is close to implementing the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. With the State Department now starting the application process for adoption professionals to gain accreditation, it looks like ratification will happen sometime next year.

(There was a post on a group saying that the polar ice caps are melting faster than the US is moving to implement, but since those popsicles are shrinking pretty darned fast I'm not sure if that's supposed to indicate the process has been fast, or slow.)

What will this mean?

Who knows?

Opinions are fairly united that it will raise fees and extend waiting times. Some countries will become easier to adopt from, and others will be more difficult, or perhaps impossible.

Folks with Guatemalan adoptions in the works are most likely to be impacted negatively, as being a Hague signatory but reportedly non-compliant, adoptions from that country could stop immediately upon ratification.

The good to come from the Hague is yet to be seen. Adding more miles of red tape and a whole new set of hoops may increase transparency and clean up the business of adoption in the world ... or it may merely bog down, cost more and teach news ways to get around new rules.

It's hard to criticize the Hague, as so many hold great hopes that it will be the solution to all the issues international adoption creates. Faith in rules and regs and laws and central authorities is running high right now. Almost everyone wants to see a climate of trust, honor and ethics envelope the adoption world, and at this point the Hague is looking like an answer to the dream of honest, upright and true.

Potential parents are optimistic about changes to systems that will make their process not only aboveboard, but also provide more.

They should have access to more information about the child they are adopting. Under Hague regulations, agencies will have to try harder to get credible health information on the child -- and to supply it to the adoptive parents. They will also be required to try to gather more information on the biological parents and share it with the adoptive parents, subject to local privacy laws. As part of the anti-trafficking protections, they will also have to ensure appropriate documentation is available before the child is adopted.

Call me a cynic (Who? Me?), but I'm wondering how well this is going to work. Sure, birth countries will develop documentation, but how many have the resources or the expertise to pull this off.

My concern is that the time between abandonment, death of parents or whatever circumstance brings children into an orphanage (and keep in mind we are only talking about those kids ... not the ones who never make it that far and are doomed to a life on the streets, or worse) will have to extend to many more months or years.

Yes, I do know that bad people have been involved in slimy adoption practices and that children have suffered because of this. A far greater number by the hundreds of thousands, however, are trafficked ... the magic word these days ... by folks who have no desire to be anything other that pimps or slavers. A change in adoption laws, no matter how global or comprehensive, doesn't touch them, but making it more difficult, more expensive and slower, I have no doubt, will free up more kids for said pimps and slavers.

If someone wants to explain to me why the Hague is wonderful and what great things it accomplish, please do. I will welcome the input, and any version of hope I can get.

Some links: The National Council for Adoption, the Joint Council on International Children's Services, the US State Department, and Families Without Borders.