Dear fellow AWAA families,
I am writing to you from San Salvador as a new mother. It is difficult to compress all the events and emotions we have gone through in the last two weeks into one blog. Our adoption journey started in November 2005. We accepted the call of adoption for our family at that time. We knew we had an upcoming move so we could not start our paperwork until September of 2006. In May of 2007 we submitted our completed dossier. In July of 2008 we received our OPA approval. In August of 2008, I accompanied Brain Luwis with other AWAA families to El Salvador and was able to meet our lawyer, Salvadoran adoption advocates and officials in the Consulate office at the American Embassy. In September 2008, my husband and I drove halfway across the country to attend the Angels in Adoption event and were able to meet the Procurador, the director of OPA and reacquaint with others from El Salvador. It was after this trip that we changed our immigration and home study to be willing to accept a sibling pair. In each of these meetings we not only told our story but reminded those that there were many families waiting to adopt.
In November of 2008, we were told of a sibling pair that was going to the Joint Meeting to be paired with a family. In December we found out they went to a family in Italy. In January of 2009, my husband led a mission trip from our church to El Salvador and through AWAA local contacts was again able to meet with the Procurador to remind him of all the waiting families in the States. In March of 2009, Susan Maines called us to let us know of another sibling pair that was available. The day after Mother's day, we received the call that we had an official referral. We immediately sent our acceptance to AWAA. In July we received pictures of our children. And in September we received our court date, October 12, 2009.
Now it is October 21st and today we bought two plane tickets for Friday when our entire family will fly home to the United States. It has been a long emotional journey for us, as I know all of you have your own story with highs and lows. I have to give testimony that God's hand was obvious throughout our entire process, and even more significantly during the past two weeks. After meeting our children on Sunday for the first time, we went to court on Monday. When Alexis picked us up at 9:30 he said that the Judge was wanting to postpone the hearing due to an oversight in paperwork with OPA. Alexis was able to fix the problem before 9:00 and court went on as scheduled. We were able to obtain custody of the children at the courthouse which was completely exciting, overwhelming and terrifying at the same time.
Tuesday, October 13th, we began the paperwork chase for their new birth certificates which is required for their passports. This process took about two days and then we applied for their passports, which we received by Thursday, October 15th. We enjoyed a three day weekend with no appointments for paperwork and spent the time bonding as a family. This past Monday was our first appointment with the Consulate Office at the Embassy. We took the children for the medical appointments directly afterward, but we could not get their photos taken until the next day. This delayed our second appointment to the Embassy. We were told they were very busy and might not be able to see us until the end of this week. However, when I called our contact this morning he said I could come over right away to submit the rest of the paperwork. He called us back within twenty minutes to say that we could come back at 2:15 for our interview. Tomorrow we pick up the visas and Friday we fly home. Several times we had concerns about a paperwork "hiccup" but each time things were fixed or taken care of in such a way that you could only give glory to God.
God has put many people in our path during our time here to help us. First and foremost was Alexis whose expertise in Salvadoran law and political processes made the time here as smooth as possible. We have had access to bilingual dental treatment, that each child desperately needed, from a pediatric specialist. We are thankful for Carmen, an adoption advocate here in El Salvador, who has called and supported us with friendship and resources. She helped us make use of a bilingual psychologist, who has experience with children from orphanages, to do some transition work so the kids are more comfortable about our upcoming journey and transition to the United States. We are so thankful of a special cab driver named, Jorge, who has been a Christian for 18 years and drove all over the city for a week and a half. Often he would get out of the cab and help us complete our errand.
As our time here comes to an end, our real journey is just beginning. We look forward to integrating our children into our family and teaching them how to be the people that God has called them to be. As the judge told us last Monday, "These children were not orphaned for nothing. It was destined that they would become a part of your family." That is exactly how we feel as well.
Rachel Donoho
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