It has been a month and half since we began this journey. We have Melody on the brain, and each day that is spent going about business as usual feels like a day that could have been better spent. We should have plowed through more paperwork! Finished our online classes! Read another chapter of Deborah Gray's Attaching in Adoption! As it is, we're running on a half-full (or half-empty, depending on the day)tank right now, keeping up with our little ones, jobs, and burning candles at night to move through our adoption process as quickly as possible. The uncertainty is unnverving; the waiting is tough; the paperwork is daunting. In fact, the only certainty I can grasp onto is that Melody is worth this, one hundred times over.
For the sake of her privacy, there's not much we can disclose about Miss Melody at this time, including her true name, which country she's in, or even her age. We have little information as of yet, aside from one photograph and a brief description of her known medical issues which include an array of congenital heart/valve conditions, that she is fortunate to have had heart surgery which reduced pulmonary hypertension, and that she's in serious need of medical advocacy. Families who've met her in her orphanage have contacted us to say they've been sick with worry for her. She's been waiting tooooo long.
We are working with a country that does not allow "pre-selection" of children. Instead -- assuming we will be extended an invitation and travel date by our target country -- once "in country," we will be referred to children who are in the approximate age range and gender that we've been prequalified for, and whose disabilities/medical issues are ones we've expressed interest in. We will pray that our girl is appearing amongst them. We must be open to the possibility that things won't go as planned. The possibilities for heartbreak are endless. In the past month, as we meet more and more families who have walked or are curently walking this same path, their stories are real. The child that you just moved heaven and earth to reach is suddenly "not available," is stuck in orphan limbo with faulty paperwork, or -- the ultimate heartache -- your child is now deceased. When it is said that these children are on "borrowed time," it is not a joke. "These children" that I'm referring to are the special ones: the ones who've been cast off as Disabled. Malformed. Socially Unworthy. Unwanted. These children.
So where are we at with all this? We are putting one step in front of the other: If all goes as "planned," we will be walking off a plane this winter with Miss Melody in our arms. If the plan is altered, we will greive, but we will walk off that plane holding the hand of another. And if that plan doesn't work, we will know that we tried.
Meet Masha! She is the same age is Gillian: At the age of eight, she is living in an impoverished adult mental institution. If I could win the lotto today, or turn back my life by a decade to create a more flexible situation, she'd be coming home with us too. If you're interested in finding out more about Masha, or making a donation to a grant which will assist a family in adopting her, click here.
Masha
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