Pages

Saturday, March 24, 2012

waiting for a social worker

I'm terribly frustrated with our social worker for our home study.  For reasons I don't know, she hasn't replied to our emails or my agency's emails.  She hasn't written our home study, even though we've given her everything she's asked.  This delay delays the submission of our I800A, a document I had hoped we could perhaps submit by the end of this week.  Now I'm unsure; and our future child waits.

Sometimes, I don't think people speak about the other disruptions that can occur in life as you wait for paperwork and wonder about traveling.  For instance, we take a yearly trip to Hilton Head Island.  It is already scheduled for the very end of August.  Will there be conflicts with travel or documents or something else?  Will there be any disruptions in my daughter's preschool schedule in the fall?  Will Jon be able to truly get the time off that he needs?  Will our future son be home for Christmas?  Will this be Chelsea's last birthday without her brother?

This is the difference between pregnancy and adoption, among several other differences.  Pregnancy typically has an end date.  It always has a date (a due date) by which the pregnancy will almost certainly not continue past.  Sometimes, like with me, pregnancy ends far too soon and the end date is never reached, or is artificially expedited.  There is so much I wonder and don't know.  Others wonder too (naturally) but I don't have clear answers.  I have a general idea, but just vague thoughts.

And then there's that little boy, our Little Dude who sits and waits.  We still have not managed to find a good way (or be able to fund) the added nutrition we want to send to him.  The delays means days, weeks, or even months of waiting in The Bad Place...growing thinner, suffering more with rickets, scurvy, and other ailments, without interaction, unable to walk, and not talking. 

It is hard.  I know our Lord is with him and can shield him if He chooses. I know the day will come when our future son is protected and able to get help.  I wish it could be more quickly, but sometimes things get slow.

This process will change you...it will change your family...it will change every facet of your life...

We'll go to church tomorrow and pray for the families who are choosing to rescue orphans, particularly those from The Bad Place.  We will pray for our future little son; for protection and care for him.  We will also pray for funding...our Reece's Rainbow account hasn't grown in the past few days, although we rejoice that others have.  The Mulligan Stew Giveaway is still going on! Have you enetered?  There are so many GOOD prizes in it.  On top of the Ipad, which is awesome, there are 2 Kindles and several gift cards...some of them are $250 each.  The odds of winning are so much better than in more traditional giveaways.  I never win anything, but when my friend was adopting, I won a Nook Color!  How cool is that?  Please think about entering with the button on our blog...and prayerfully consider our little boy "Ian" as the child to donate to to enter.  Thank you for believing in us, supporting us, and praying for us!

6 comments:

  1. I'm sorry your SW isn't keeping in contact. I know the frustration as we've gone through it at different times with different people in the process ourselves. Do you know if your HS agency is Hague approved or will your HS have to be reviewed by your placing agency as well? Ours required that extra step and took over a week for them to do after the HS was finished being written before it was finalized.

    Praying things start moving for you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, ours is not Hague accredited so we will need to go that extra step. Luckily our agency IS really on top of things so I know when they get the HS they will hurry. They understand about Pleven. Our HS agency apparently does not. It was cheaper for us to use a non Hague HS agency, it was almost 2x's as much for Hague.

      Delete
  2. Accredited! That's the word I couldn't think of :) We had to pay an extra $500 fee to use a non Hague HS agency, but thankfully our HS SW was very prompt at the end with the turn around on this part to get it completed.

    I did see a huge range of fees for the different HS agencies we checked into. One was almost $5000 and had to be paid all upfront! Glad we didn't go with that one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's expensive for an agency to be Hague accredited by COA which is why I think HS fees are higher for agencies, especially smaller ones, who do have Hague accreditation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can "we" as outsider people send pediasure to the orphanage to him?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is so kind! I don't have an actual address for the orphanage yet (although I know I could get one). I want to see what procedure we need to follow in order to make sure he receives it, which I am waiting for our agency and facilitator in Bulgaria to tell us. I don't even necessarily mind if other children receive the benefits (naturally I'm selfish and want it for our son only - I admit it, I'm human!) but what I really want to make sure of is that orphanage workers who are unkind would potentially confiscate this for their own purposes. I'll be updating as we find out more...

      Delete

Kind comments are welcomed. Poorly researched, ill-informed, horrifically biased comments are exploded. :)