Saturday, November 19, 2011

Frustration

Z's bloodwork, fecal tests and urinalysis came back normal and was sent to Gladney to be apostilled this past week. Thursday there were numerous articles in Honduran newspapers about an intervention in the Adoption Department of IHNFA by the government due to "irregularities." I don't know what type of irregularities they are referring to. Gladney says that the Adoption Department is still processing cases, so I have no ideas what's going on. I hope it doesn't mean that someone will be taking over and going over all the dossiers there. That would take an eternity!

It seems like it's just one thing after another. I know of 31 other families from different parts of the world that are in some stage of the Honduran adoption process. There are families that have been on the waiting list for over a year. We are not even ON the waiting list yet. We are not ever officially approved, and our dossier has been there since July. We have sent the psychological addendum and now the labwork for Z. I cannot think of another thing that they could want from us. They know more about us than we know about ourselves!

It won't be long before we have to start re-doing documents. For a country that supposedly became more "adoption friendly" Honduras is very demanding. Z's adoption was a cakewalk compared to this. We were very lucky.

I have given up on the idea of having a number on the waitlist by Christmas. It's all very discouraging. This will be the first Christmas without my Mom, and I so wanted some good news!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Poor Little Z!

Gladney called an important teleconference last week to inform all families adopting from Honduras that our children at home need to have lab work, fecal smears, and a urinalysis. This did not come as a surprise, since all the other agencies require it and it is on INHFA's website (although it uses the word "biological" children). There is one family I know of that only needed tests for their bio children and not for their adopted children. Internationally adopted children are already tested for all that stuff anyway. Our daughter had all kinds of blood tests done in her birth country and again when she got here. I tried to get out of it, but we had to just do it. INHFA did not specify which tests they need, so we are going to do all of them so that we are not held up again or have to go back to the doctor for more bloodwork.

I told Z about what the doctor would do. She thought it was hilarious that the doctor wanted to check her pee-pee and poop, but the blood was not so funny. We had a CBC, Hep, HIV and syphilis. Poor Little Z was so scared. I told her how brave she was and promised her we could pick out whatever she wanted at the store afterward. I only told her later what the testing was for. She is proud of herself that she did it for her baby brother's adoption. She asks everyday when he is coming. She can't wait to be a big sister.

Other families have said they had to get a TB skin test for their kids as well, so we will go to the health center today for that. I also have the fecal smear kit here at home and really look forward to that part! I hope she doesn't have to go #2 at school today. This will all probably take at least a week to get to Gladney, then apostilled, translated, etc. in Honduras.
Will the paperwork never end? I'm trying to roll with the punches, but I am so frustrated sometimes. Meanwhile other paperwork is expiring. Our home study is only good for 15 months and our fingerprints for 18 months. Before we know it, we will be having to update everything! I hope and pray that INHFA will accept us soon, and give us a number on the coveted wait list. I also pray for patience.