After almost a year and half of trying, waiting, wishing and hoping we have been told we cannot adopt Angelina. Our paperwork sat in St. Petersburg for months and was finally sent to be submitted to the MOE. On the first try they refused to accept it with the reasoning that a new judge in the region would not approve us since we already have four special needs kids at home. Frustrated but unwilling to yield we begged our agency to try and convince the judge or the MOE to reconsider, we wrote a long letter explaining all the reasons adding one more child would not be an issue for us, stating how Michael was close to becoming an adult and even with the diagnosis of Asperger's was not a burden and in fact was very helpful with the girls. We also laid out our support network, the services the girls receive at home and at school and the great support we get from our family. Armed with that information our facilitator seeing our commitment met with the judges assistant to try and convince them to reconsider. They balked and wanted some documents that the MOE had, the MOE was unwilling to release the documents as they are convinced the judge will never say yes regardless of our story.
So a long journey is coming to a disappointing end, we're frustrated and heartbroken to say the least and it's taken a lot out of us emotionally, financially and frankly physically. To think that Angelina would be better off in an orphanage than dancing with her sisters is upsetting beyond belief. She should be a part of our family and be loved! So where does that leave us? We're not sure what to do and how to proceed, our documents are so old it would be a significant chunk of money to get everything updated and to start anew. We are weighing our options and hate to give up on bringing another child home, but just don't know if we can swing it. Where does it leave Angelina? Unfortunately it leaves her in a mediocre orphanage in Russia for now. She does have a grant and any monies we raised or collected will stay committed to her. We would encourage any paperwork ready family looking for a beautiful daughter to consider her and ask that her angels who advocated for her previously pick it up again. Please know we tried and tried, we have letter after letter of recommendation from teachers, paras, friends, family and doctors we tried to use to convince them to reconsider us, but stubborn as Sheila and I both are, we just can't figure out anything else to do, but hope another family will consider her.
We haven't blogged a lot lately and obviously with everything going on in Russia couldn't talk publicly about most of this. We hope to get our blogging up to date and let people see the progress Caelia, Valeria and Masha have made. We know there are many people out there who enjoyed hearing about them and Michael. And regardless of whether we adopt another child will remain advocates for the Down syndrome community, international adoption and children's care and well being in these orphanages. A big thank you to Karin and Elaina at HIH for all of their work and effort on our behalf and for trying your best in a very difficult situation. And thanks to everyone for their support through the whole process. Keep Angelina in your thoughts and prayers as well as all the orphans out there.
So a long journey is coming to a disappointing end, we're frustrated and heartbroken to say the least and it's taken a lot out of us emotionally, financially and frankly physically. To think that Angelina would be better off in an orphanage than dancing with her sisters is upsetting beyond belief. She should be a part of our family and be loved! So where does that leave us? We're not sure what to do and how to proceed, our documents are so old it would be a significant chunk of money to get everything updated and to start anew. We are weighing our options and hate to give up on bringing another child home, but just don't know if we can swing it. Where does it leave Angelina? Unfortunately it leaves her in a mediocre orphanage in Russia for now. She does have a grant and any monies we raised or collected will stay committed to her. We would encourage any paperwork ready family looking for a beautiful daughter to consider her and ask that her angels who advocated for her previously pick it up again. Please know we tried and tried, we have letter after letter of recommendation from teachers, paras, friends, family and doctors we tried to use to convince them to reconsider us, but stubborn as Sheila and I both are, we just can't figure out anything else to do, but hope another family will consider her.
We haven't blogged a lot lately and obviously with everything going on in Russia couldn't talk publicly about most of this. We hope to get our blogging up to date and let people see the progress Caelia, Valeria and Masha have made. We know there are many people out there who enjoyed hearing about them and Michael. And regardless of whether we adopt another child will remain advocates for the Down syndrome community, international adoption and children's care and well being in these orphanages. A big thank you to Karin and Elaina at HIH for all of their work and effort on our behalf and for trying your best in a very difficult situation. And thanks to everyone for their support through the whole process. Keep Angelina in your thoughts and prayers as well as all the orphans out there.
