Journey to L and H: Starting out strong

With our adoption saga continuing to drag on, I have felt the need to pick up my proverbial pen again and get back into blogging. When we first started this journey, we had all the hope in the world that this adoption would go faster than our first. In fact, it was part of the reason why we chose Liberia in the first place. The number of successful adoptions was averaging 30-40 per year for our agency, a striking difference to the tiny number coming from Madagascar. So we took that step of faith and made the most logical choice.

Little did we know that we would find ourselves here, over 2 years into the process, with unprecedented hang-ups blocking our ability of bringing our girls home.

To catch you up on our journey, on September 2nd of 2022 we hopped on a call, an unexpected call, with our adoption agency. We had first begun the process in January of that year and we were at the point of getting ready to complete our Dossier and send it to Liberia (note: a Dossier is a country-specific collection of documents designed to illustrate what the prospective adoptive family is like. An adoption dossier includes everything from a family’s medical and financial background to their employment history. Ref: www.adoption.org).

 Little did we know, that our agency, who runs their own orphanage in Liberia, already had two little girls in mind specifically for our family. We had said that we would be open to adopting a female child or a sibling set between the ages of three and seven. And the girls didn't fit any other waiting family's parameters but ours. So even though our Dossier was not yet sent, they knew we were close to being ready to receive referrals. When they emailed us and said that they had a a referral for us, we were utterly shocked. We didn't think we would get a referral for several more months.

With us currently being in the village, and with the time difference, we had to wake up before dawn to make it work. So that next morning, with a really terrible internet connection due to the thunderstorm brewing around us, we hopped on to a call and were told that there inderd were two half sisters in need of a family and waiting to be adopted. I couldn't help but immediately start crying. Tears of shock and relief and joy and eagerness. Then we saw their picture. Crazy how your heart can expand in the span of a second. We knew we would need to be cautious and read through their history and medical info before proceeding. But deep down I knew we couldn't turn them down. Unfortunately for privacy purposes we will not be able to share pictures until the adoption is finalized in Liberia.

So we took a couple of days to let it sink in. In some ways, it's still sinking in. To say yes to not only a sibling group but an older sibling group was extremely daunting. We'd read the books, we'd talked to many adoptive parents, and heard very concerning stories. But the draw to these girls was too strong. Older children need families too. Period. Statistics say that children adopted as old as EIGHTEEN are around 60-70% less likely to end up in prison or addicted to drugs. If we have the opportunity to even slightly help provide a nurturing environment for children, whatever the age,  we are up for the challenge, albeit with a dose of fear and trembling ;)

So, we said yes.

And by the next month our Dossier was sent to Liberia. So began a year long investigation by the Liberian Ministry of Gender into the girls' history. This includes interviews of any living birth family, compiling birth and medical records, and other means of verifying that they are truly adoptable. It was an agonizing wait, as normally this process is around 6 months long and by October 2023 we were beginning to become frustrated. We wrote our case worker, who initially couldn't explain the slowness. But it was beginning to become obvious that something was not right...