Good morning. Bonjour, mesdames et messieurs.
First of all, I want to commend the committee for undertaking this study. As an adoptive parent, it's very heartening to see our Parliament and parliamentarians looking at such an important issue that affects, literally, the lives of thousands of Canadians, thousands of families. So thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
A quick story. My wife and I, in 2008, felt that we were called to adopt, not because of fertility issues, but we just felt it was something we were called to do. So we set out and began to research international adoptions. We researched Geneva Convention-compliant countries and adoption agencies that aligned with our philosophies, and as a result we decided to adopt with Mission of Tears, an organization based out of Toronto. In fall 2008 we enrolled with Mission of Tears and decided to adopt from South Africa.
To say that the adoption process is lengthy, intentional, and intrusive is an understatement. Most of it is provincially regulated, as you're all well aware, but it's long. It's a very intentional process, and it's, as I said, very intrusive.
We attended the PRIDE training that's mandated by the Ontario government--the Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education program--decided on a homestudy, or an adoption practitioner, and completed our financial, psychological, and personal child welfare and criminal background checks just to make sure that we were good people and apt to kindly take care of a child.
In the summer 2009 we applied for phase one of the citizenship requirements, which we were told was going to take about seven weeks and which ended up taking about 12 weeks to confirm my wife's and my citizenship. Then we attended in Toronto cultural sensitivity training about raising an African child in a predominantly white family. In fall 2009 we received our phase one approvals as well as our Ontario provincial ministry approvals.
In October 2009 we received our file for our son, Sivuyile Dlamini, and I have to say that was one of the most profound and amazing moments of our lives, where in our hand we held the file of our soon-to-be son. Sivuyile, at the time, was just about three years old, so that was last October.
On November 2 we departed Ottawa and journeyed down to South Africa, to Durban. We met him on the fourth, in the morning, spent the first day with him, and then on November 5 we went to court and the court in South Africa declared us his parents. It was a moment I'll never forget—equivalent with the moment when we just had a biological child in November. Yes—one of those moments you'll never forget.
From November 6 to November 28 we awaited phase two of his citizenship, under the Bill C-14 process, and then also his temporary Canadian passport. On November 28 he flew home with his Canadian passport in hand, a little white temporary passport, and on the 29th he arrived home to grandparents who were eagerly awaiting his return.