We are not giving up!

I do realize that it has been over a month since I've written anything. First, that was due to no news on the adoption front. Then the holidays came and life seemed to speed up a little. And then 2 weeks ago we heard some political rumblings from Hadley's home country. The rumblings quickly moved on to the reality that something big might happen and our adoption, and the chance for Hadley to have a family would be over.

Well, we got the see the worst of politics happen when two of the largest and most powerful countries in the world went at it. Unfortunately, the leaders of Hadley's country decided to use the weakest members of their society as their weapon, their 600,000-700,000 orphans. I don't even know if you could call these children members of society anyway since they are hidden away in orphanages  And many of the orphanages are tucked away, and outside of town. Some of these orphanages are okay places, and some are absolutely awful. These children are usually forgotten. Until they are used as political pawns.

So, is our adoption over? Not yet...Our adoption agency, the US State Dept. and others are working to see how this is all going to play out. As soon as the law was signed, amendments to the law were presented. This is not over. How long will it take? So much longer than we originally thought. We really don't know at this point. But, we are committed to Hadley. If there is a chance we can bring her home, we will. We are likely to be the only family she will ever have.

Here's the truth of the situation for the orphans in her home country. Out of the total number, about 100,000 are available for adoption. And an even smaller number are available for international adoption from that large number. Most of the children available for international parents are not wanted by their own citizens, so they are unlikely to ever be adopted. This is for any number of reasons, including their medical history, family history, the way they look, the color of their skin, etc. And Americans are more open to adopting children with medical needs and disabilities because we have the resources in our country to care for these kids, and our country welcomes them. So, for many of them, an American family is their only chance of being adopted. This is why this new law and ban is so tragic for these children. For many, it's a death sentence.

We believe that Hadley fits in this "unwanted" category. And the older she gets, the more "unwanted" she will become, in her home country. But, she will never be an unwanted child to us. Unless she is adopted by another family, she will always be our daughter, no matter what. She will never be an unwanted child. She is deeply wanted by her loving family in the United States, and that is why we won't give up. If there ever is even a crack of an open door to adopt her, we will be there with open and loving arms, ready to take her home.

And so we continue to wait...