What information is in a child proposal? A call for help

This is a call for help for all those of you who have adopted.  I received a photo yesterday of a young child available for adoption in my country and today received very sketchy information on the child.  The information is not enough on which to make any kind of decision and I am more than frustrated!  

When you receive the proposal on a child what information do you typically receive?  Please leave me a comment so I know what is reasonable to ask for and what is unreasonable.  I have already asked some questions but did not receive terribly helpful answers. The child has just turned six years of age.  If you haven't received a proposal but are in the process, what would you want to know?  What would you want to be included in the package?

I wish I didn't feel like I do, in that information is not forthcoming.   I am curious as to what those of you who adopted from China, Vietnam, Honduras, Russia, Korea and Ethiopia received.

Thank you for your support.  Have a great weekend. 

Very Quiet and Slow on the Western Front

No news what so ever and I have been home for just over two months.  I would love to hear from those of you that had to change countries.  Something I am really considering doing.  At what point did you do it?  Did you wait for your country to close or did you decide to jump ship, so to speak?   Apparently although there is no matching system for my country there is some kind of waiting list kept.  I have asked to know where I am on this list.  I hope the waiting list isn't the register I gave Miss zxcvb my name and info to put in, as I can't say I hold much faith in this big book.  It kind of reminded me of the attendance registers teachers used to have to keep. 

I just posted on my other blog and said I am about ready to give up.  I can't believe how much money I have already spent in agency fees (local and facilitator), medical - shots, postage, citizenship, etc,etc.  At least if things don't work out, I know I tried and put up a good fight which seems to be the story of my life.  Sorry, this sounds like a pity party and with what other people are facing in life, it really shouldn't be!  The $10,000 CAD (airfare, hotel, driver, shots, food, lost wages) the trip cost me I can at least say was a trip and an experience that I would otherwise never had had or never taken.  It allowed me to travel to a country I would not otherwise have visited.  I came back all eager for July, so despite a work contract, I could start making a photo book of myh trip.  Any of you that are teachers now that June, or the last month of school for those in the US, is a write off for getting much else done.  Needless to say July has come and gone and there is no photo book, not even any signs of one starting.  I have to be completely honest and say I have little interest now in putting one together. 

 I have two weeks of holiday left, three offically but I never look at the last week of August as a holiday, when I am in school getting ready for September!    Due to a number of things, I can't say I am excited, but then who really is!   I have bought some books off of Amazon that I can use with books and ideas l I already have for an almost year long writing project.  I plan to do a piece of writing every second week for this project and think the finished project will be a keepsake for families, I hope anyway.  As I am working on making things less stressful at work for me, these pieces of writing will be in a draft form.   The editing and publishing process with young children requires a huge amount of time and effort.   Special pieces, those for holidays, Mother's Day, Father's Day or to go on display will of course be published.   As I have all new students, last year I went from a  grade 1/2 to a grade 2 and kept some students, I can also do the "All About Books" I have done in past.  These too parents love!  Thank you K for sharing this idea years ago.  It is still a great success.

I haven't done much blog following in the last few days so am going to go and get caught up.

Decline in the number of international adoptions

In searching to see how many BC agencies are working with my country, as I have some legitimate concerns, I found this article on another local agency website.  It doesn't paint a very bright picture for those of us waiting to adopt internationally.  It is very frustrating when there are many orphans world wide that need homes! 

Things are still at a stand still and I am TRYING to find out information on another agency back east and need to talk to a fellow blogger this week.  I just need to know that something is happening for me.  To change countries at this point is incredibly costly and I'm not sure I have the money to do so.   My confidence, trust and faith are at all time lows!

One blog I am following talked about another "childless Christmas" this year.  I couldn't believe it when I read it because it is how I feel.  When I went back to look for it to link to it, I couldn't find it!  Obviously I read it somewhere else, I hope that's the case, otherwise my mind is playing tricks on me.  I know this sounds strange, "a childless Christmas" but I so would love the to do, see and be a part of the Santa thing.  Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for my family and having a place to go for Christmas, but I would so love to see a child enjoy Christmas.  I also look forward to maintaing family traditions and building new ones with my child.

I am trying to count my blessings.  My mum saw some show on TV a while ago that was about some woman's book on gratitude, sorry, I am not good with names, and apparently each day we should find 10 things we are thankful for. I started to make a list for you but only got to six!  I guess the first one,
"Family and friends (that includes my online blogging friends) that love me, care about me and support me." I could break into three! 

Post # 90 - Check out my other blog for my first and last "Heart Letter" to R

I have been following Lisa's blog, "Are We There Yet, Len?" and love the 'heart' and 'love' letters she writes to her girls K and L.  I should have checked with Lisa, I never like to use other people's ideas without asking, but needed to put closure on my adoption loss and so went ahead and wrote a 'heart' letter to R.  I don't think R will ever see it but she is a very special little girl who deserves a special family and a loving, caring, forever home.  I only hope the couple that is finally returning to start the adoption paperwork realize what a wonderful child R is.  Please hop on over to my other blog (link in top righthand corner) to read the letter.   It is nothing like the ones Lisa writes, she was a high school English teachers, and my high school English teachers didn't know where I'd come from (the experimental education era in the UK in the 70's) with the exception of Mr. R at Oak Bay High.  Thanks Mr. R, for encouraging me that writing from the heart, doesn't have to be perfect!  Sometimes the content and the message are what counts! Another reminder of Mr. R came the last week of school when one of my little students M, when asked to write about somebody special in her life, insisted on writing about her cat Pepper.  Her writing almost made me cry as the tabby cat she described could have been our dear old, most beloved Tinkerbell.  Even though Tinkerbell has been gone for 12 years, I have missed a lot in the last two weeks as she had the uncanny ability of knowing who it was in the family that needed her the most, and then giving her time to that person.  I couldn't find the kids' writing today and can only hope the substitute teacher handed them out on the last day of school.  I wanted a copy of M's piece and to let her mum know this was a piece that needed to be saved!

Happy Belated Independence Day to my extended family and friends in the USA!

Adoption Loss

I don't recall this topic as part of the AEP I took last summer, perhaps it was addressed but then I put it out of mind, forgetting about it,  hopeful it wouldn't happen to me.  Today is the first day since learning of the loss on Wednesday around 5:00 by email that I have not spent time crying, but then today isn't over yet and I haven't made two very difficult calls!  

I arrived home from my country on May 31st with the decision as to whether to increase the age of the child I was going to adopt and put in an application for a beautiful, sweet, gentle and affectionate soon to be 8 year old.  There was a very definite connection with 'R' and it didn't take me long to realize that this little girl and I would be wonderful for each other.  I felt I had so much to offer her and was very willing to help her deal with her issues around grief and loss.  Thank you to all of you who looked at my pictures and videos, spent hours talking to me, or emailing me.  Thank you also for being her for me now as I am hurting and feeling so empty inside.  I was so devestated and upset by the news that I had to take the last day of school off.  In 21 years of teaching I have never missed the last day of school!  Being absent on the last day of school, I went to my GP's to get an absence note.  When asked by him why I'd come in, I said I hoped he knew of a cure for a broken heart and burst into tears!   Perhaps not the smartest move, as all who are in the adoption process know we rely on GP's to fill in medical forms asking all sorts of questions about the applicant, but I couldn't help it!

On June 14th I learned from the Canadian agent on the ground in my country that 'R' was cleared and available for adoption.  With this news, I started to send Seattle Children's Hospital video footage and photos I had taken and started thinking about the bed (much nicer in the store with other bedding on it) I had seen at IKEA in early May and how I could decorate 'R's" room.  I talked to a family in Toronto adopting 'R's' friend from the same orphanage and have also been excited with the friendship I am forming with another single woman (also a grade two teacher) in another BC town who is travelling to my country in August.  Then WHAM!!!!!!  Out of left field is this email from the agency director, via the agent, that the family in Europe that adopted "R's" sister several years ago are starting the paperwork this summer to adopt "R".  Note they haven't already started, they ARE starting.  I am very happy for 'R' that she will get to be reunited with her younger sister, don't get me wrong here, but why all of a sudden is this news being dropped.  Why wasn't I told something about this in the last month?  I suspect the family may have been phoned and told there was interest in 'R' and asked if they were interested in their daughter's sibling - "R".  I will never ever know the answer but hope and pray that 'R' is happy with this reunification.

Where does this leave me?  Well, I haven't been able to speak to the agent in my country, only the director of the agency in Ontario.   At the moment, I don't feel that my wishes or best interests are being taken into consideration so I am going to try and decide what to do.  I have the next week off between school and summer school and will try to make phone calls and connections with people that are impossible when differences in time don't make things easy.   Yes, F, I have spoken to my agency about changing to your country and even phoned a clinic here in town to try and get infromation on the medical tests you have told me about.  G, I am also reaseraching your country and waiting to hear from my local agency about their agreement with MLJ, which is the US agency I'd have to use.  It is a huge decision to change countries, not to mention loss of money which there is a lot less of now, at this point in time but it may have to be done.  I know several of you whose blogs I follow have had to do this and have gone on to bring home wonderful, adorable children from other countries.  A few people have told me that things happen for a reason, perhaps they do, but right now that reason is very hard to understand.  I am not a great believer in karma - except parking, but hope mine begins to change!  I envy, this is the wrong word but I don't know which word to use, those of you that have a strong relationship with God as I want to be a mum so badly yet seem to be having so much difficulty in the process.

Sorry for the depressing and down post on a Sunday of a long weekend, but to anybody following this blog that isn't on my group email list, you wouldn't have heard the news!  Thank you again to everybody for all your emails and support.  It has meant so much to me in the last few days and I will try to gradually respond to them.

To my fellow Canadians, near, far and overseas (M - I'm thinking of you Down Under) Happy Canada Day!   12 years ago today on July 1, 2000 I became a Canadian citizen in a special millenium celebration in Barkerville, British Columbia.  I was living in Quesnel at the time so it wasn't as far away as it is now!  I hate to admit it took me almost 17 years to do so!