Praise
My BFF, Helen, called this evening to tell me that they finally received a referral for the adoption that she (and her husband) started pursuing 2 1/2 years ago.
When I first told Helen that Paul and I were thinking about adopting (in the summer of 2005,) Helen just said "no way!" She and her husband were thinking about the same thing - had already started looking at agencies, as a matter of fact. So, once I'd told her what we were thinking about, she told me, "we are going to adopt too!"
That was 2 1/2 years ago. Our adopted daughter has been home for over a year. Helen and Jeff just got their referral.
If the situation wasn't so odd, I'd blame the whole thing on Helen, who likes to let me undergo major life changes first. This way she can watch me royally screw them up, then learn from my mistakes (all the while offering sage advice to me.)
But, her situation is too crazy for her to have purposed. They began their process wanting a child from Sierra Leone. Things went crazy there, and adoptive families just aren't getting children from that country with any degree of certainty. So they decided to adopt from Ukraine, which several months later put their whole system under a massive overhaul and hasn't really been getting kids into families since.
Their new choice of country, Ethiopia, required them to apply with a new agency. Which means new paperwork (in addition to renewing things like fingerprints which had, by this time, expired in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security. How, exactly, can one's fingerprints expire? I don't know, but they can in the Department of Homeland Security.)
All the while, Helen was concerned about the spacing of their children. She wanted the child to be close in age to her daughter. She was discouraged because, as more time passed, this seemed less and less likely.
But they got pictures of their sons today. Yes, sons. A. turned two in October. B. will be one in January. The two of them are 15 months apart. A. is 17 months younger than Helen's daughter.
There was never any guarantee that they would be able to get siblings, but that was what Helen really, REALLY wanted. They got them - and they are spaced just like she had wished.
I am so thrilled for them. YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
When I first told Helen that Paul and I were thinking about adopting (in the summer of 2005,) Helen just said "no way!" She and her husband were thinking about the same thing - had already started looking at agencies, as a matter of fact. So, once I'd told her what we were thinking about, she told me, "we are going to adopt too!"
That was 2 1/2 years ago. Our adopted daughter has been home for over a year. Helen and Jeff just got their referral.
If the situation wasn't so odd, I'd blame the whole thing on Helen, who likes to let me undergo major life changes first. This way she can watch me royally screw them up, then learn from my mistakes (all the while offering sage advice to me.)
But, her situation is too crazy for her to have purposed. They began their process wanting a child from Sierra Leone. Things went crazy there, and adoptive families just aren't getting children from that country with any degree of certainty. So they decided to adopt from Ukraine, which several months later put their whole system under a massive overhaul and hasn't really been getting kids into families since.
Their new choice of country, Ethiopia, required them to apply with a new agency. Which means new paperwork (in addition to renewing things like fingerprints which had, by this time, expired in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security. How, exactly, can one's fingerprints expire? I don't know, but they can in the Department of Homeland Security.)
All the while, Helen was concerned about the spacing of their children. She wanted the child to be close in age to her daughter. She was discouraged because, as more time passed, this seemed less and less likely.
But they got pictures of their sons today. Yes, sons. A. turned two in October. B. will be one in January. The two of them are 15 months apart. A. is 17 months younger than Helen's daughter.
There was never any guarantee that they would be able to get siblings, but that was what Helen really, REALLY wanted. They got them - and they are spaced just like she had wished.
I am so thrilled for them. YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Labels: Friends
posted by 
at 11:07 PM
2 Comments:
Oh Lori that is a praise! God knew exactly what He was doing didn't He? Tell her congratulations from Blogland!
Yeah! That is so awesome. God's timing is always best. (I know that's what I'm holding onto!!) When do they become a family?
The fingerprint thing always amazes me as well. As if the fingerprints have changed in the last 18 months. Just run a new background check with the old fingerprints.
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