The Hague Convention And Kansas Christians

Lisa and Don Jenkins, of Topeka, Kansas, decided to purchase a few more children. This time, they wanted to buy some young people from another country. They prayed about it, as per the practice of their church, and decided that a couple of Ukrainian children would be just the ticket. So they bought their tickets, and off they went, because; according to friends and churchmates, "god" had told them to adopt Ukrainian. While they were in that country, all hell broke loose, and Congressman Pat Roberts, of Kansas, had to place a phone call to the Consulate to inquire about the safe return of the Jenkins family. Northland Christian Church also set up a fund, to bankroll their extended stay in the Ukraine, merely to wait for passports for their newly purchased human beings; and used local news stations, such as WIBW, to promote this shameless "beg for bucks" effort.

At surface levels, international adoption seems innocuous enough. In certain instances, it can be a wonderful arrangement. At other times, such as when Dr. Timothy Monahan and his wife, Jennifer, bought a kidnapped and trafficked child in Guatemala and refused to return her according to the court order from Guatemala, international adoption can be shady, black market in nature, and a very sad form of human trafficking. The only way to protect all parties, natural parents, adoptive parents, and children, in any adoption is to make sure the laws in all countries and states are followed, and to pay attention to all of the details involved. Anyeli, the little girl held hostage by Dr. and Mrs. Monahan, of Missouri, has a mother whose life has been shattered because of kidnapping and human trafficking, and she will never get her child back because the Hague Adoption Convention had not been signed by Guatemala until 2008, and Anyeli was kidnapped and auctioned off in 2006.

Fast forwarding to 2014, the Hague Adoption Convention is up and running, and has been signed by eighty-nine countries. Ukraine is not one of them. As such, it is a country where an improper adoption, possibly resulting from a lack of agreement by both biological parents, a kidnapping and illegal sale of a child, or falsified medical history can fly under the radar, and no affected party is guaranteed recourse of any kind. It is both odd and interesting that Lisa and Don Jenkins have chosen to adopt Ukrainian under those auspices, and that their church, Northland Christian Church, has used local media to snow the public into thinking that these people are "doing something wonderful" and to send money to them! Au contraire! If the Jenkins family were truly concerned about children, why did they deliberately choose a country for their shopping pleasure that had not signed the Hague Convention? And why wasn't Northland Christian Church open about this? It is certainly legal for the church to support their members in adoptions that are legal, provided; of course, that they are in fact, legal; but when the church decided to publicly beg for bucks for this effort, instead of advising their parishioners to simply come home immediately, shouldn't they have included the information that the Ukraine has not signed the Hague Adoption Convention? And WIBW does not mention the Hague  Convention, either. A phone call placed to WIBW produced a conversation with a station employee who was unaware of the Hague Adoption Convention, the Hague Convention, or the general legal issues surrounding adoption and focusing on the best interest of the child.

Luckily, the Jenkins family converged upon Kansas International Airport on Saturday, no worse for the wear. From the outside looking in, though, their choice to adopt in a country that has not yet taken measures to protect the best interests of any child in an adoption proceeding seems a bit suspect. Hopefully, everything is fine, and the adoptions involved are all above board, but Northland Christian Church should not ask the public for donations without proper explanation of all the facts, and WIBW should have done more research about international adoption and human trafficking.