We submitted our application to adopt our kids on August 2, the day after they returned to Poland. We already had our dossier (all of our documents) ready so we just knew that the process would go quickly and the kids would be home by Christmas! To our surprise, we found out that only Przemek was qualified for adoption and that we could either adopt him immediately or wait for the girls to also be qualified. Of course, we chose to wait.
The orphanage director compiled the girls' files and sent them to the regional adoption center BUT it took the regional adoption center almost two full months to schedule the meeting :(. The meeting was finally held on 9/29 and the girls are now qualified for domestic adoption. In order for them to be qualified for international adoption, they must be listed in Poland for a minimum of 52 days so that they can show the courts that an attempt was made to find a family in Poland for the girls before qualifying them to be adopted internationally (Przemek has already completed this step). The girls' documents are being sent to Warsaw this week and we hope that they will be entered into the database quickly so that our 52 day wait can begin. The national adoption center in Warsaw already has our application and has officially matched us with Przemek. His file is on hold from all other agencies while we wait for the girls to also be qualified and, at that time, they will match us with all three of the kids and we can continue on with the process (there is about 3-4 months worth of steps left after this step is complete).
Although we are devastated that this happened to the girls .... it gives me goosebumps to think that, at 14/15 years old, if we had not applied to adopt them, no one would have ever known that they were not qualified to be adopted (the orphanage director didn't even know). The girls never would have been given the opportunity to find a family simply because someone along the way decided not to file the paperwork. God brought us together!
The qualification process has delayed the adoption by almost four months already. We are, of course, praying for a miracle but, it looks like our kids will not be home until Spring :(.
Being apart from our kids is HARD! We appreciate your prayers, encouragement, and support more than you can know.
We have already paid and/or raised over $24,000!!! We have just over $15,000 left to go, for a spring homecoming, this works out to between $3,000-4,000 needed per month! If you have a fundraising idea or need that we can help meet, please let us know.
And I know it is far-reaching and would involve "moving a mountain" .... but will you please keep praying for a Christmas miracle? Our hearts just can't fathom spending Christmas apart from FOUR of our beloved children. THANK YOU friends!!
