Hello,



We are looking for some help. Since we started the adoption program 4 years ago we cannot find our way...

So this is our story:

Frederic and I get married in March 2008. Before our wedding we were already talking about adopting one or two children. So after getting married we started the Belgian adoption program.

We had to follow 4 seminars. All people who wants to adopt have to pay and to follow those seminars. After it you have to choose between the national (domestic) adoption and the international adoption.

We choose the national adoption. So we had had the different interview with the coordinator, the psychologist and the social workers. After a year of meetings they told us to try to move to the international adoption program because of the waiting list that was very long. There were already 30 couples waiting and only one child adopted on the last 2 years. Also because we are living in the French speaking part of Belgium so we can only adopt in Brussels and the French part. Not in the Flemish part, so are the Belgian laws... Just to let you know my mum is French speaker and my dad is Flemish speaker. Since I am a little boy I speak both languages...

Listening the coordinator we move to the international program! We had to do again all the meetings with the psychologist and the social workers because it was not the same department... After more than one year, we had to past the judgment at the tribunal. Only a judge of the Tribunal can give the right to a couple if the report is accepted and if he think everything is ok. We received this right directly. So we started to look for an association who would work with a gay married couple. We did not found it in Belgium!

In the same time we had have contact with Circle Surrogacy to know a little bit more about the surrogate mothers. But until now we are thinking that it is buying a child and not having a baby just because of the price of this program. We respect the price because it is normal but it is really too expencive for us.

So we started to introduce us as a foster family. After 9 months of contact with their social workers and psychologist. They said that it was not good to introduce a "problematic child" as they said into our family because we did not have other children.

So today we have no ideas anymore and we cannot find our way. We have all the rights and we cannot get through it!

Thanks to take the time to think about our request, we really need some help.

Cedric and Frederic

cedric.leroux@skynet.be