So close to the "YES" we wanted

 

Ahhh, LIFE. It is very full at all times. This isn't a complaint from me, it's merely fact. Where should I start with this blog update?


I guess I'll begin with some information I recently discovered from the director of Latin American adoptions at our agency. As it turns out, she traveled to Peru to have a meeting a few weeks ago with DGA (the adoption authorities) to discuss the giant MESS adoptions in Peru has become. The goal was to try and figure out a way to smooth the process out so that our agency can once again begin accepting applications to adopt from Peru (as of right now, they cannot in good conscience encourage families to sign up for the Peruvian program). During the meeting, the topic of our family came up in conversation. DGA told our director that when we had appealed their initial denial for us to adopt Maria (Lene), they had decided as a group that we were, in fact, going to be approved. Everyone on the panel believed our family was ultimately a good match for Maria and so they took the next step to push our case forward, which was to have an outside counselor approve the match. For whatever reason, this counselor made up his or her mind that we weren't a good match and should not be able to adopt Maria. DGA did not agree, but ultimately could do nothing without the official approval of the counselor. Therefore we were denied. DGA admitted to our director that we had been done wrong, having jumped through so many hoops at their request in order to be approved. She was then informed that because of our case specifically, they have now had the requirement of a counselor's approval thrown out.


I was heartbroken to hear this. In a way, it hurt even more to know that we were so close to bringing Maria home and that the refusal of one single person to comply changed the course of ours and Maria's futures. It literally sickens me. I asked our director if we went all the way back through the process again, could we then be approved. Her answer was that she'd essentially asked the same question during the meeting, but was more or less given a big fat question mark in response. Our prayer is that there is a major overhaul in Peruvian adoption in the years to come and we can go through the process a second time to bring Maria home. We still have hope for that little girl to become a part of our family.


As for our current process, everything is on track. Our home study and psych report will hopefully be finalized soon and then we can finish up the last tasks to completing our dossier. We don't have a lot left, but a few of the remaining tasks are pretty big ones. Our goal is to have our dossier mailed to Colombia before summer's end. We will also be doing whatever we can to raise the remaining funds for the adoption. We recently lost a pretty large grant from perhaps the most popular adoption grant organization in existence, due to the fact that we switched countries and it's considered a new process. A few days ago I tallied up an estimate of what we lack for absolutely everything left after we've used our current savings/grants/donations/an interest-free loan we will have to pay back and it looks like it's somewhere around $16,000. The money changes over time; sometimes new unexpected fees pop up, sometimes you end up with a large discount you weren't expecting, grants come and grants go, things like that. It feels daunting to know that we could very well be set to travel before the end of this year, yet we still have so much money left to come up with before we can go. We have a personal savings account with funds reserved only for the adoption that we are adding to over time and I plan to apply for more grants as soon as I can get a decent break in my schedule to begin that lengthy process. That's the best we can do right now with the time and abilities we have, given the responsibilities of our current household.


The kids are into their first week of summer break and they're already bored. Ha! I need to come up with a plan to keep them occupied in the weeks to come. Pinterest is my friend. ;)