A lovely report from Santa Cruz, California has me pondering an issue that comes up often in the international adoption world.

The story is about Lisa and Jennifer, a lesbian couple who've adopted twins from Russia. Their tale is sweet and loving, and has, at this time, a happy ending.

"I had always envisioned having children," said Jennifer, sitting in their backyard and smiling, her dark hair curling softly around her face. "It had been my lifelong dream," she added. And Lisa, blue eyes sparkling, said she too had wanted a family. Both women had been waiting for the right person to come along. And when that happened, it opened the door to the possibility of having a family just a bit wider.

"I started to try it on," said Lisa about the idea of becoming a mother. And the idea fit. Adoption has played a large role in both Lisa and Jennifer's personal histories. Jennifer has a sister who was adopted internationally. And Lisa was adopted.

Each knew how complicated the process can be. But both women believe that as long and winding as the road to parenthood was, it was all for a good reason.

Timing was everything. They had to trust that they would be in the right place at the right time to find their children. And as they began to contemplate that search, twins, a boy and a girl, were born in Russia and placed in a children's home where they began to wait.

Their twins were four years old when they brought them home recently, and reportedly have adjusted wonderfully well to their new home and mommies. A doctor friend accompanied them when they traveled and deemed the children healthy, although nutritionally deprived. The wait between referral and finalization was torture for Lisa and Jennifer, as it is for all of us, but time passed and the twins are now home. They are a family.

As I said, a lovely story. But the pondering comes in with the tag at the end:

People throughout the world fight red tape and climb through bureaucratic mazes to adopt children.

California does not discriminate against gay/lesbian couples adopting domestically. According to Paulettee Horner of the California Department of Social Services, gay/lesbian couples have to go through the same background checks as heterosexual couples and are treated equally in the state of California.

When adopting internationally, the process is slightly different. According to Shana Cronin, administrative assistant of Across the World Adoptions, most countries do not allow homosexual partners to adopt, but do allow those partners to adopt as single parents.

International adoption agencies make two separate "home studies" so international adoption is possible for gay/lesbian couples. These home studies act as both a process and a product, including fingerprints, medical exams and four interviews. The home studies get sent to both U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Since countries do not allow gay/lesbians to adopt, the home study sent to Immigration Services leaves out one partner's name. After the child gets to California then he/she is adopted by the other parent.

"Gay/lesbian families are really careful when they go to the host country," said Cronin.

I recall heated debates on country-specific forums where same-sex couples were accused of misrepresenting their circumstance, of lying to birth country governments, and so on. Some feel a country has the right to impose what they consider to be moral standards on adoptive parents. Some feel this is not the issue and that information on their personal relationships is on a 'need to know' basis, and government officials in birth countries do not need to know that they're not actually living as the single person their homestudy suggests.

I'd be interested to hear thoughts on this.