P.E.I. couple waits after adoption agency bailout

A Charlottetown couple will have to wait until next month before they can find out when they might be able to adopt a baby through the adoption agency they helped rescue.

T.J. and Kelly Keenan are among 50 Canadian families who paid an extra $4,000 each as the Imagine Adoption agency restructured and climbed out of bankruptcy so it could resume its international operations.

The Keenans had been working with Imagine for 18 months and had paid $15,000 when the agency went into receivership in July, deflating the hopes of about 400 families across the country in the process of adopting children from overseas.

"It was devastating news to ourselves and our families," Kelly Keenan said.

"We've had some pretty big blows trying to have a child and I don't want to get my hopes up until I know for sure when I see that picture and the write-up of everything about the history of that child to actually then feel 100 per cent that, yeah, we're going to have some kids," Kelly said.

The Keenans have been married six years. After two miscarriages, and considering the long wait times for adopting a child in P.E.I., they decided to try adopting from Ethiopia.

When a restructuring plan was proposed this fall that would have the agency rescued by having clients pay any outstanding balances and an additional $4,000, the Keenans and 250 others pitched in.

Imagine went back to work last month and placed two children from Ethiopia with couples in Saskatchewan.

The Keenans will find out next month how far down the waiting list they now are and how long they might have to wait for their turn to adopt.

Domestic adoptions take longer
Among the options available for couples hoping to adopt, international adoptions can be comparatively quick, but expensive.

Adopting a Canadian child can take six years, longer if the couple wants to adopt an infant.

The international route can cost up $20,000, but the Keenans were told that Imagine could arrange an adoption in less than two years. Approaching 40 years of age, the Keenans opted to go that route.

But it can come with some criticism.

"I know a lot of people feel strongly that if we are Canadian people we should be looking out for Canadian children first," says Tammy MacKinnon of the P.E.I. Adoption Coalition.

MacKinnon has already adopted two children from China and is currently waiting to adopt another from Canada.

"It's not like I'm going to adopt domestically, and, boom, let's have a child, " says MacKinnon. "People don't understand it's a long process in P.E.I."