I spent hours researching all of the benefits that Lene would have by moving to Northwest Arkansas, including our proximity to Arkansas Children's Hospital and the new campus they are building nearby in Springdale. I explained how one-of-a-kind ACH is and how much superior care Lene would receive from this hospital, should she need heart surgery or some other type of treatment. I laid out the special education department at Bentonville Public Schools and all of the therapies she would receive, as well as all of the time and attention from the trained and highly skilled staff. I added photos of the buildings' interiors and exteriors and made sure to emphasize that Bentonville schools have received the "highly coveted" Blue Ribbon Award for their excellence. I wrote that Robby and I are willing to hire a Nanny to help care for Lene, seeing as how DGA's main concern is that our attention will be too divided among her and our biological children. I researched Nanny rates, availability, skills, and expertise in our area and raved about what we have available to us. I laid heavy emphasis on how we have an advantage to have access to women seeking Nanny jobs who have experience (sometimes even with degrees) caring for children with special needs like Lene's. We've dished out yet another large fee to have our social worker complete another job for us; I've been having conversation after conversation with her over the past week and she is confirming that the numbers all add up for us to be able to afford to hire the extra care, should it be required. I spoke about how our family has a solid routine and a large part of that is running this household together, each doing our part to contribute in many ways to a smooth process of accomplishing all of the things that need to get done around here. I stated that we have a housekeeper that comes to help with cleaning and getting the extra "things" done. I said that we have family and friends who are willing to help out in any way they can. Most of all, I shared my heart and the hearts of my husband and children in that we already consider Lene to be a part of our family; we want to be the ones who take on the challenges together in helping her be all that she can be as a human being. We already love her and we have already prepared our hearts and our home for her arrival. We do not want this beautiful little girl to live in an orphanage without a family any longer- we want to be her family. We accept everything that comes along with her being brought into our home and into our lives and we welcome it. We are a team and we will get through this together; we can and we will, if only they will allow us to. From the bottom of our hearts we have pleaded with them to let us love this little girl the way that we already love each other.
Additionally, our adoption agency is writing a letter highly recommending us for the adoption of Lene, as is our adoption contact in Latin America (who is the "go between" for the adoption authorities and our agency). We have absolutely nothing but support all the way around, from every single source connected to our adoption process. Now we need DGA to agree. That is the very last piece to this 2.5 year puzzle.
All of these reports and letters will be submitted to the adoption authorities within the next couple of weeks so that we will be presented, once again, at the consejo for August. I admit that I feel such mixed emotions. On the one hand, I am absolutely terrified deep down on the inside. After all of the blood, sweat, and tears that we have poured into pursuing Lene and bringing her into our family, it is extremely uncomfortable to pass into such a phase of finality. Especially knowing that we are going into it with the minds of so many people seemingly already made up that we aren't the right family for this precious child. On the other hand, I am resting in the knowledge that we have done absolutely everything the Lord has asked of us and the final outcome never was in our hands or within our own abilities.
Now we wait.
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