December 5, 2003

To: Joint Council on International Children's Services

1403 King Street, Suite 101

Alexandria, VA 22314

Dear Council Members,

Hello, I am a Wichita State University graduate nursing student and also

adoptive parent to two girls from India.

While working on a project for a Nursing Issues class, I came across The
Hague

Conference legislation. The project deals with involvement with
political

issues that concern health and family. I was very excited to real the

structure and intent of the legislation. The legislation appears to
cover

foreign adoption and children services well.

According to the published information, the legislation was to be
enacted in

2000\. This being the case, I would like to share some pressing
questions

regarding the legislation and the Immigration Services compliance with
this

legislation.

I have had close contact with a number of families within our small
rural area

and find that the same problems and issues that our family experienced
with

U.S. Immigration (Kansas City) are very similar to the setbacks and
problems

being experienced by local families completing foreign adoptions.

My husband and I completed adoption of our two daughters from India 17
years

ago. The process with India was long and trying, but nothing could match
our

disappointment with KC INS when they refused to accept our documents we

received from the courts of India. They denied our daughters visa's,

insisting we needed to get yet another document of abandonment which was

impossible for us to obtain. We ended our dilemma by my traveling to
India

and having a (brief) interview with the U.S, Embassy in New Delhi, who
issued

the visa's. This cost extra money and emotional toll on our family that
can't

be placed into words. Our daughters were not able to come home with
eight

other children in the same orphanage, with the same documents, and their

response was sleep disturbances and anorexia, causing our one daughter
an

extensive vitamin A deficiency.

I find that INS is still creating new requirements that are not on the

extensive list of adoption requirements given with initial adoption
requests.

I am attaching letters from three families from this area who have had

stressful experiences. I narrowed the number of letters to three to
simply

give an overview of the issues experienced.

Questions that have been proposed are:

1\. Will the Hague Legislation fulfill all requirements needed by INS.?

2\. Will this law be uniform across the board with all INS services?

3\. Does there exist and explanation as to why INS creates new
requirements

as they individually see fit.

After 9-11 we all realize the need for homeland security, but children
waiting

to come home to their families is not a terrorist issue. Has it ever
been

considered to:

1\. Create a separate office within INS to solely deal with Adoption,
family

and Health issues.

2\. Could foreign adoption requirements all be stated initially for the

families with no surprises added at the end.

Please let me know if there is any way I can further be involved with

this issue. I plan to follow this legislation closely and make
suggestion

where I can.

Sincerely,

Jaynette Miller

1090 Diamond

Newton, Kansas 67114

jdmiller1@wichita.edu