He was abandoned by his birth mother due to his disability. The three-month-old boy was born with a cleft hand - a congenital condition where the centre of the hand is missing fingers. The waitlist to adopt a child in Canada was at least five years, so the couple turned to their country of origin, Jordan, to find a child in need of a home. When they moved to Calgary in 2011, Al-Zu'bi quickly got a job at the University of Calgary, where she completed a PhD in environmental design, while Kharaisat opened a shawarma restaurant.īut their family didn't feel complete - the couple had always hoped to have a child.Īfter years of exhausting and expensive fertility treatments, and with Al-Zu'bi in her early 40s and Kharaisat about to enter his 50s, time felt like it was running out. 'The way I was being treated never felt like I was Canadian'Īl-Zu'bi and Kharaisat are Canadian citizens. The sticking point is a difference in terminology between how those countries, and Canada, view adoption.ĬBC News spoke with two families who say their lives are on hold while they're left waiting for the government to recognize their adoptions as legal.

Families, their lawyers and advocates say it effectively blocks Canadians from adopting children from many Muslim-majority countries. The 'mistake' Maha refers to is a federal policy with roots stretching back through the last decade. 'We love Canada, but sometimes when you love someone you close your eyes to their mistakes because you love them.'

But we don't know when,' Maha told CBC News. 'We strongly believe we'll be back in Canada someday. Maha says, while it's always a celebratory day, it's a hard one - because sometimes even the thought of looking at pictures from home brings her to tears. Every year for the last four years, Maha Al-Zu'bi, a former Calgary professor, her husband Tahseen Kharaisat, a former local restaurant owner, and their five-year-old son Furat have dressed in red and white to celebrate Canada Day from the apartment they're renting in the northwest suburbs of Amman, Jordan.

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