We are still processing everything that happened and honestly, are not yet ready to write about the emotional side of this yet, it is too raw. Also, it is still unfolding, so we want to see how everything ends up.
In a nutshell, here are the facts:
- Monday we inquired about a waiting boy on our agency's site (we'll call him "Aang" on the blog b/c Ababa thought one of his photos resembled Aang from the cartoon 'Avatar: The Last Airbender')
- Aang was listed as special needs, and after much thought and conversation we decided that we we would be completely fine adopting him with his special need and began seriously praying about adopting him.
- Tuesday afternoon we were surprised to find out from our agency that in fact Aang wasn't special needs.
- Wednesday we let our agency know that we were very interested in adopting Aang, they told us there was one other family considering adopting Aang, that they were at the same stage of the "paper" process as us, and that it was only fair that we both knew about each other as it might impact one of our decisions to adopt. They said that no other families were interested in adopting Aang and that no one currently waiting for a toddler boy was approved for a child over 36 months.
- We prayed and prayed and prayed and did a lot of soul searching to determine if Aang could truly be our son.
- Thursday morning at 6 am our agency's time we contacted them to say we definitely wanted to adopt Aang (we just couldn't contain our excitement and joy!)
- Thursday morning at 9 am their time we made contact with our agency and they said a "paper ready" family had asked to review Aang's file Wednesday afternoon; they got precedence b/c they could possibly bring Aang home faster; and that they had 48 hours to decide if they wanted to adopt him, then if no other paper ready family had decided to move forward with Aang we could move forward.
- We sat by the phone for 48 hours and waited and prayed, and prayed and waited, with our hearts in our throats.
- Friday afternoon when we still had not yet heard anything I called and we learned that the paper ready family had requested additional medical testing for Aang which would take several weeks or more.
- We are heartbroken, tired, frustrated, disillusioned, and worried for Aang.
- With all our hearts we want to be Aang's parents but it looks like that is a pretty slim chance at this point.
- We are trusting God and praying that he brings Aang into the best family for him, a family who wants HIM and loves HIM--a special toddler boy with a complex background who may have special medical needs.
We do want to be his parents...but we want what's best for HIM...we are hoping and praying that our agency makes a wise decision that will place him with the right forever family for HIM. (We understand completely that that may or may not be us and are praying to be able to accept God's will, whatever the outcome may be.)
As for our paperwork:
- Ababa is taking two documents to be certified this week
- We are waiting for my re-done PA child abuse clearance (should arrive any day now...)
- We are waiting for the final written copy of our homestudy (should be done by Christmas, definitely by New Years)...
That's it! Then our dossier and homestudy will be done!
After that we file the I-600A, get fingerprinted yet again, and wait to get our I-171H from the government and then we are finally paper ready!
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