Best Case Scenario--Update

I am updated my post titled "Best Case Scenario". I was looking at dates today and it actually seems like so far we are on track for the Best Case Scenario!!! Of course there is still a ton of things that can go wrong.

I talked to our Social Worker and she said that things are on track for her to be done with the report at about the same time our child abuse clearances are back (2 weeks from now). So April 1st time frame to have the homestudy done is still right on.

Kendi Mabel's paperwork is coming along well in Ghana. She is pretty much referral ready now. We don't have a single family currently in the program that is homestudy-complete and open to an HIV+ child. And we certainly have no families open to a child exposed to alcohol. This is the part in the process that makes me most nervous, because she is not technically "ours" and yet she is now referral ready.

I used to have more mixed emotions about it than I do now. Before we knew about her pre-birth history I wondered if we would be holding her back--making her wait longer--just because we want to adopt her. Also, I couldn't tell back then whether the difference in us being ready and her being ready would be 2 weeks or 2 months.

Honestly, Merrily is fine with us "holding her back" so that Eric and I can adopt her. *I* just had misgivings because I want her to have a family ASAP. But now that we are talking 2 weeks difference, I am okay with it. =-) And honestly, the chances of us finding a family for her in 2 weeks with her potential special needs (not HIV but adding in the other) is very small, even if we placed her on Rainbow Kids.

I still hope I can make one trip to get her. I've left her once and I don't want to do it again (not that she will care)! But it will all depend on who can care for my family here when I'm gone, and how things are going with DHS/Embassy at that time.

Gosh, I love this child.