My sister got caught in an ugly adoption process from the Ukraine. It was heart wrenching and almost unbelievable. After having spent 6 weeks last summer with the little girl she was going to adopt and that we all fell head over heals in love with, it fell through. She was devastated, as we all were.
I tried to convince her to go through China, but after already having lost thousands of dollars that she'll never get back, she needed to hold out for a bit. In the meantime, she was in contact with CAS (Children's Aid Society) and decided to try a local adoption.
If you think that international adoption is a lot of headaches and red tape, you haven't seen anything. The processes is so time consuming it boggles the mind. But, she persevered and what seemed to have no end to the process, endless forms and questionnaires, psych reviews for both them and the children, video screening, blind visits, supervised visits, sleep overs etc..., it did a 180 last week (when they were away). They came home on Saturday, were told a little girl was coming to see them today and she just emailed me to say that they are now officially her parents and she'll be moving in on the 16th permanently.
How does that happen? They seem to have all this protocol in place that we can't break or speed up or vary in any way, but when they need it to move at lightening speed - voila! Instant parents.
She's 6 1/2 years old, absolutely gorgeous, and although she struggles with attachment issues, she has been working through them and my sister is the perfect parent to hold the course and do whatever necessary to help her through it.
Amazing! One just never knows what life is going to bring.
Wow! And after you had shared all the hoops they were being made to jump through and expected to jump through more!!!
ReplyDeleteSometimes your 'faith' in the system gets renewed! Wonderful!
A big welcome to your newest family member! How exciting for another cousin to play with :)
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