Time for Bold Moves

First and foremost, for anyone who reads this blog, please take something into prayer right away. A friend of a friend had a child placed from birth with her and her husband and now it appears the birthfather from jail may contest the adoption. This would be completely unexpected and is heart-wrenching, an adoptive parent's worst nightmare. Pray for Chris to be strong through this period and maintain her faith and be comforted by God, pray for the baby whose life could be completely turned upside down and not in a good way, and pray for the birthfather to first, reconsider and allow the baby to grow up in a 2-parent home where drugs are not destroying the parents' lives or second, that he will have found God and that he will be convicted by God to raise this baby in a Christian home.

Today, I made the call. I called Chesapeake Social Services directly. I found a number for the supervisor of the caseworker assigned to work the 3-month old baby placement. Remarkably I heard back from the supervisor in just a short while. I explained to her that we were not receiving return phone calls from the case worker and wanted to make sure we had the opportunity to present some race bias-specific information prior to any eliminations. We also wanted to find out what the process and the timeframes looked like for this scenario. She indicated that they had not "staffed" the placement yet, which is where apparently, in committee they narrow the decision to several families. After which, there may be interviews or additional consideration given and then a decision made.

I told her that we wanted to share three factors that might keep us from being excluded:

1. We have a multi-racial extended family.
2. We're open to establishing relationships with birth family members, black and/or white.
3. We'd seek out opportunities to explore AA heritage and be intentional about connecting with the local AA community.

She seemed to take the information well and said she'd record it in our file to be considered in the "staffing" process. She said they'd be meeting in the next 2 weeks and that they'd notify our agency either way about their decision.

The chances are still slim, but the door is not totally closed on this situation yet. I feel better just knowing what their approach and timeframes are. I let our agency know that I did this and hopefully that goes over ok with them. They're trying, it's just that I had a friend of a friend who had the experience and contact information.

On the international front, PA said that they sent the report we've been waiting on last week, so I hope it will be there today or tomorrow when I get home. We have to finalize our response to CIS quickly and change countries with them to see if we'll pass the test for R Country or any other country for that matter.