More waiting

This morning I checked my email and finally got a response from our agency. They had been in communication with the Federal CA, but apparently we will need to get permission from the local German CA. For those keeping track, these are the same people who said we had "no hope" last year. Certainly not encouraging. I am hoping that if the agency asks, they may be willing to consider the possibility. There is an "Adoption Placement Act" here that says that outside adoption agencies can obtain special permission on a case-by-case basis, but from what I have heard, that "act" hasn't actually been put into practice. I'm hoping that knowing about it gives us a bit more of a chance. As a last resort, I can always bring a picture of our little princess with me to their office and appeal in person. I hope that seeing her beautiful face and my inevitable tears might help them understand that there are people involved and that this little girl deserves a family. I have been told that this will probably not matter because the bureaucrats are "heartless", but at least I can try. Here's to praying for a miracle!!

I hate waiting....

We have ordered all of our documents. We actually just got our first one in the mail. I can't tell you how exciting it was to get that 1 document, but it was good! We also had our physical exam complete with an insane amount of blood work. That was some expensive blood work, too! That's about it for progress though...

We can't begin our home study until we get written permission, either from the German government or from the USCIS, that we can do this adoption. Ugh!! This was why we asked in the first place, but we were assured that everything would be fine. *sigh* I never did get a call back from the city adoption authority. Am I surprised? Not in the least. I should probably call them back and "remind" them that they were supposed to actually call me back, but I'm fairly certain that if I do that, they will simply say "no". So, at least with no phone call, I can safely say that I tried and they didn't say no....I gotta find some humor in this somewhere! My agency has emailed the German authority as well as USCIS. My brain is being all kinds of pessimistic. After all, this has NEVER been authorized before! EVER!! But, I'm trying to hold onto hope. God told us to bring this little girl home. He is capable of so much more than I can fathom, so I know that He can do this too! If we need to rock the boat a bit more, I'm all for that if that's what it takes. :-D

Speaking of rocking the boat, I actually contacted the European Union the other day to see if this was legal since almost every other European country has granted this permission to American expats. They forwarded my message to some other departments, but what I have heard back so far is that every country gets to decide its own rules about adoption. Boo!! They also sent me a link to a page with help obtaining a lawyer in case I felt I needed one. That is actually tempting, but I doubt we'll have a case. This is something bigger than the courts. This is UN big. I wonder if they could help us..... Yes, I really am serious. The more people I talk to, the bigger this issue seems. It's not just for us. There are many families being denied their right to bring another child into their homes and love. This, of course, denies those precious children the right to families and THAT is a crime!! At any rate, I will keep you posted as I hear anything. (Hopefully soon!)

Obstacle 1

Our application has been submitted. Our money has rapidly begun to disappear. ;-) We have a list of documents that we need to obtain in triplicate as quickly as possible. Each document has to be notarized and certified and needs an apostille! (Overkill doesn't even begin to describe this process!) I cannot order anything over the phone, but fortunately, many of the documents I need can be ordered online or via emailing forms to the appropriate contacts. My mom is helping me obtain the ones I cannot get from here. It's a pain in the butt, but I'm glad to be kept busy! Less time to dwell on the fact that she is still there waiting for us. Less time to worry about what Germany may do to interfere. Less time to think about anything!

I had a bit of mis-communication with the agency that we want to do our home study. I had contacted them WAY back when, before we knew living in Germany would be a problem. Then, I had to inform them that the agency we thought we would be working with had another social worker they wanted us to use. Time passes. We end up with a different agency who says we can use whoever, as long as they're Hague accredited. So, I emailed the home study agency again to say they we're back in the game and would love for them to do our home study. They must not have gotten the email. Anyways, we got that straightened out. Unfortunately, the main worker whom I have spoken with several times said that the USCIS has been really cracking down, so we would need to get permission before she would feel comfortable beginning our home study. *SIGH* Since the people with our agency had reassured us that they checked with USCIS and they said it would not be a problem since we are US citizens, I told our home study contact about that. She suggested we try to get that in writing to make sure we don't have problems down the road. A VERY good idea!! However, I caught a nasty cold from DJ and it's making it hard to not get discouraged by this. I'm sure everything will work out fine. At least, I'm trying to tell myself that. :-\ I will keep you posted....

-V