Tuesday, April 1, 2014

EP Temporary Stalled, But Willl Move Again

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) called a meeting yesterday with all three intercountry adoption agencies after a prolonged delays in approving the EPs due to the incident related to the death of Hyunsu O'Callaghan. 

I am told that after the meeting, the long delayed EP process may flow again.  However, one of the most notable decision of the meeting was to instruct Holt to end its relationship with the Catholic Charities, as they will no longer be able to place children from Korea.  The other decision was only to work with the agencies that have received the Hague accreditations.

The fact of the matter is that most of the agencies that Holt, Eastern and SWS work with, whether they be in the US or Europe, already have accreditations from Hague.  It was MOHW's concern that in the past some of the home studies might have been conducted by non-Hague accredited agencies, and this is unacceptable from now on.

But my heart goes out to the Catholic Charities, a fine agency with great people, have received much of the blame for the death of Hyunsu along with Holt.  Catholic Charities, a Hague accredited agency, is really being punished by the MOHW.  It is one of those things where someone must take the blame, and the Ministry's axe fell on them.  There is a rumor floating around, that perhaps four other agencies in the US or Europe will loose their privileges in placing children from Korea, but nothing firm has been decided on this yet.

Some waiting parents, whose cases have been submitted to the court,  have pulled out of the program, unable to endure the painful delays.  I am thinking perhaps the additional headaches of going through the battery of psychological tests might have been too much for them.  But I sincerely wish they hadn't, and still wish they would change their minds.  They need to focus on the children they are adopting, and think nothing else.

I am told that the Ministry will shortly begin the EP process again, but what other technical delays that may rise is anyone's guess.

28 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for the update.

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  2. thanks for the update and much appreciate it. totally agree with you on "focusing on the children they are adopting, and think nothing else.."

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  3. Thanks for this update Steve! We were so excited to hear that our EP was submitted in late February... only to learn that they still haven't approved those submitted at the end of December. :-( Hoping and praying for some movement soon!!

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  4. Hi Steve did you know if EP started the process again, we are one of the families that had been pending to approved since Dec 18th, is being along time and getting frustrate this is our second adoption our first child adoption was so smooth and fast (before new laws), so it is very difficult for us right now to don't know when an how our son is coming home

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    1. From what I have heard from Korea the process started again, but still slow. I feel for you and others who are second time adopters, and by comparison, under the new law children are suffering even more.

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  5. Happy to hear your EP was approved Camila. Ours was submitted in January and it is great to hear that they have started moving again. I hope ours will be approved as well shortly.

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    1. sorry you misunderstood we are still waiting for issuing it

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  6. Our agency said today that several of the December EP submissions were approved!

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    1. Thanks Jenna. This is a great news as people were writing me about this EP issue taking so long.

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  7. Any court dates? We were submitted on 1/28 and haven't heard anything.

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  8. I didn't hear anything about court dates, just the December approvals. Hopefully they will approve some more soon, but who knows? We were submitted 2/20 and are very anxious to hear too!

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  9. We're still waiting for EP to be issue it had been there since dec 18 2014 and nothing is going on,,,
    We asked for status to our agency here in Canada but they don't know anything at all..
    meanwhile We are currently finished our physiologic test

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  10. Does anyone have any recent information on how the EP approvals are coming along?

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    1. We got our EP approval on Apr 17 but was only informed about it last week

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  11. Hi Hiroko,
    Congratulations on your EP approval. Can I ask when your EP was submitted?

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    1. Hi E.B.
      Our EP was submitted December 31 2013. Hope you get your EP soon!

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  12. Hiroko have you heard anything about court submission yet?

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  13. We got a court date for June 24 and will have to be in Korea for meetings with Holt 1 week before. We actually never got information about the submission to the court but just the wonderful news about the appointment.

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  14. Forgot to mentioned - we are scheduled to meet a psychologist this morning. Denmark has been exempt from the full battery of test but instead we are to be (re)evaluated by a specialised psychologist who are to write a report on mental condition, our personality, expectations to the adoption etc.

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  15. Hi did anyone from December submitted has answer we still not on the loop waiting rrrrrrrrrrr getting so frustrated. we are in Canada we had finished our full battery test but we haven't hear from SWS about our EP

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    1. We are in the same boat in the U.S. Our EP was submitted late December, completed all the psych exams, and still have yet to hear about our EP or court date.

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  16. We just got word this morning that our EP was approved!! Submission was February 20. Our child is with Eastern. Hopefully that means more are being approved!!

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  17. HI congrats Jenna, we also got information our EP had been approved since feb 12 and our file had been on court since feb 20,waiting for court day hope will be soon

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  19. Things are moving indeed! We got our EP approval today (approved may 29). It was submitted in the Jan group. We're with SWS. SO EXCITED!!!

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  20. Hi everyone! Does anyone have news of court dates being assigned recently? And how long after the EP approval? Our EP was approved on 8/8 and we are wondering how long it might be until we hear about our court date. Thanks for sharing any info you have! :-)

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