We sent the email that began our commitment to adopt a specific child while we were trundling (okay, not really trundling...our children and vehicle actually travel very well!) through Tennessee on our way back home from a vacation in Kentucky. That day and the next, while still on the road, I received baskets full of emails with forms to fill out and submit, itemized lists to follow, and large adventures to begin. I came home full of determination to get to work!
Within hours of being home, I wrote my own itemized list. But now, five days later, I still can't get past the second item: secure someone to do our Hague-accredited home study. The past three working days have been ones of invisible progress.
Monday's new law requires all US citizens involved in international adoptions to comply with all Hague Convention rules, regardless of whether or not the country you are adopting from acknowledges those rules. This is a great idea, but there are some quandaries in the implementation of it. For example, I was told yesterday that many of the Kenyan refugees have relatives in the US that would love to adopt them, but the new law requires that they go officially through an adoption agency and pay agency fees to legitimize the process. How tragic to have two sides whose coming together could so thoroughly benefit each other's lives, and even relieve burdens of other national governments, be hindered by unnecessary costs and hoops to jump through. Some agencies have decided to waive agency fees to assist these people, and that is a beautiful thing!
In our case, the country our girl is in does not accredit US agencies, so everyone adopting there has to have an in-country facilitation team. Although many agencies are contracted with such teams, in the past one could get an independent home study and then bypass the agency (and it's extra fees) and work directly with the team. No more. I cannot find anyone willing to give me a home study without me being linked with an agency. Their reading of the new ruling is that whoever gives the home study would be liable for every other aspect of the adoption, and as they cannot vouch for anyone but their own contracted people as facilitators, they don't want to take on me as a liability. I understand their position. To do otherwise jeopardizes their license. It just has made things more complicated for us.
SO, in the past 48 hours, I have contacted and talked at length with perhaps 20 people about this issue, searching for a way around partnering with an agency. The family coordinator for the facilitation team we planned on using is still working through her contacts and is pretty confident she can find a way to make it work, but in the mean time I am going to start researching agencies. That route is an intimidating maze with hundreds of avenues, one I hoped I would not have to pursue.
I am reminded of my sister telling me how she chose an agency to use. She said that she pulled info from all the agencies that fit her criteria, made a list, and then started to pray. She told Heavenly Father that she had no way of knowing which was best and did not have the time available to research every aspect of each, and prayerfully requested that He help her to feel which one was right. And He did.
That's what I will begin today. And if it costs more to use an agency, we will just have to find ways to get grants or fundraise the needed funds. It will all be okay.
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5)
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