A New Beginning

Well, we received info on 2 children from WACAP and did not feel that we are competent enough to parent either of these special girls. All of the children WACAP has sent for us to consider (besides the child we were hoping to adopt) have had severe developmental/medical issues out of our comfort level. Consultations with the International Adoption Clinic about these children--4 of them--resulted in them expressing "extreme concern" and they were deemed "very high risk" adoptions. We pray these children will find the homes they need. There are no more children in their waiting children album left for us at this time to inquire about. Any new children they receive will have to be listed for many months before being granted a subsidy, so we have two choices: find another agency that we can afford, or resign ourselves to wait several months in the hopes that a "perfect" child will be made available soon, and then wait for that child to get a subsidy, and hope that no one else adopts them before that can happen.

Since staying with WACAP seems like a ridiculous choice at this point, we have sent in our pre-application to a new agency, Americans for International Aid and Adoption (AIAA) out of Michigan. I have heard wonderful things about them in online discussions, and they place children out of the same orphanage the child we had hoped to adopt was from.

I was considering them, when I looked at Rainbowkids.com, an online photolisting of adoptable children, and ran across an article called "Nothing Can Keep Us Down! Three babies in need of families tell us about themselves" (December 01,2007 / Teri Bell of AIAA). Here is a sweet description of 3 children all at the same orphanage in India with Spina Bifida that need homes, a 2-year old, 1-year old, and infant. The 1-year old is the child we had been pursuing at the other agency. The 2-year old sounded sweet, but a little more delayed mentally than we had hoped. Then the description of the infant:

"I'm the baby of this group and you can know me as Sweeti. I'm turning seven months old. I'm just spectacular and everyone agrees on that. Unlike my friends I still have the lump on my back that I was born with. The doctors checked me out and because I'm doing so well, they don't want to do any surgery at this time. My medical says that I have features of a myelomeningocele but someone who looked at my information in the US wonders if maybe it is really a myelocele with minimal nerve tissue involvement. As I understand it, everyone is just so happy and surprised with my development that they question the amount of spinal cord involvement. Last month when Aunty visited I was doing the same things as the other babies my age. What's so special about that? I move my arms and legs well, I'm alert, I like to smile, I play with my feet and toys, I'm growing well, I turn over, I'm vocal, my feet are ticklish and yes, my bowel and bladder habits are normal. I'm getting physical therapy too, but I really think it is because the therapist likes to play games. I do not have a listing on RainbowKids yet as I'm waiting for my paperwork to be finalized."

And the clincher:

"Each of the children above are eligible for a significant adoption grant depending upon the eligibility of the adoptive family. "

I requested information and the agency was quick to respond. Their total fee for an Indian adoption is $4,000 less than WACAP, and if we qualify for the maximum adoption grant (which I don't see why we wouldn't), the fees would be down to around $2,500, less than the $5,000 we would owe WACAP with their grant.

This child is not yet listed, because she has not been released from India for adoption. This is in the works. So, since our homestudy is done, I would hope that we would have an excellent chance of adopting her if we have got everything set up with this agency.

We pray that the closed door with the 1-year old was so that we would find this beautiful infant, and that within the next few months, we will be able to begin the process of bringing her into our family.

What a bumpy, emotional road this is! What a comfort to know that God goes before us, and somewhere at the end, is our child.