Monday, January 25, 2010

Update-Finally something to report!

The Trivia night was a great success! We are more than grateful to Emily, Lori, Mark, Lori, Jason, and Andrea for pulling off such a marvelous event on our behalf.
Since that date we have made progress in the ever-changing, roller-coaster world of international adoption. We have had our application approved with our Home Study agency, been assigned a caseworker, and are due to get started next week! Whew! Finally!
We had delayed this part (since June) due the fact that our original country we were pursuing went "on-hold", so we completed another mountain of paperwork to switch countries only to learn they are having "delays"...So...we had much contemplation, "sign" reading and prayer and have decided to move forward with China's Waiting Child program. But...Adoption Ark does not have a China (WC) program so we had to seek out one that does. They were very kind in giving me a contact who had adopted with them previously, but was now going to China for her second. We had wanted China all along but did not meet their marriage length requirement but I persisted until I got the answer we wanted-2 agencies were very willing to offer a waiver for the WC program and we jumped.
This led to much more excitement and a whole new obsession-scouring profiles of waiting children that had now become available via yahoo user groups, personal referrals, and agency lists. We had our hearts tugged and subsequently wrung out several times. Just as we would take time discussing (isn't that the smart thing to do after all?) and finally agree to "go for it!" we would find they had been matched. WONDERFUL of course for the sweet children, heart wrenching disappointment for us. You see, with this "waiver" comes the stipulation that we consider children on shared lists which means ANY agency's clients may also be viewing the same profile.
The very night of the trivia- we had extra anticipation as we had actually obtained the file of a darling 17 month old boy and were having it reviewed by an amazing doc specializing in adoptive medicine at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital and were most hopeful.
However, the file was 8 months old and that is a LOT for a baby with a heart condition. We have yet to hear back about the inquiry we made to the orphanage regarding the updated info. Both doc and agency say unfortunately this is typical.

Soldiering on, we have at least finally (again) decided upon an international agency- Great Wall China (in Austin,TX of all places :-) and are very pleased thus far with the communication and services they offer. We have had our screening and waiting child application approved and on file with them and just this weekend signed the formal application and sent in that fee. In (hopefully) about a week we will get approval and be given a contract, for which the awesome trivia night funds will go to.
Each day is wrought with joy and despair (well, at least frustration) in this process as it is not static,and my inability to have total control over this aspect of my life that I desire so deeply is emotional to say the least.
Faith, Hope, and Love is what we ask and so many have delivered. I pray for patience and the ability to truly "give it over". Such Baby steps from us now will hopefully yield the real thing for us in 2010.