Good News from Rome

Yesterday we received word from Rome that our US application was approved! The official approval form is on its way to us from Italy. When it arrives we will need to do some further paperwork in Rabat and Casablanca before we mail a certified copy of this form to Ukraine to complete our dossier. Thanks so much for all your prayers!

Intro to Attachment

One of the most important and most fascinating items on my adoption prep list is to put together a plan to promote a secure attachment with our children. The book I'm reading right now is called Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents by Deborah Gray. I was impressed right away with the book when I read the following personal note of the author:
I have come to acknowledge myself as an attachment-disordered child of a loving God, slow to trust and confused between life and God, in spite of evidence of love. I am grateful for this extravagant love, flowing through my life, through my work.
She goes on to explain that the relationship between a parent and a child is the template a child uses for all other relationships. In a secure attachment, children know there are lovable, that they can trust their parents, and that their needs will be met. Children who are adopted often have this primary relationship of their lives disrupted. Because of this, children such as those who are adopted from orphanages in Ukraine have more developmental and emotional work to do as they grow up than children who grew up with their birth families. We're told that a normal healthy process of attachment of a child after an international adoption may take up to two years. All that on top of learning a new language!

Repeat Request from Rome

Yesterday we received another email from Rome requesting our adoption agency's updated license. We were assured this was faxed after the first request, so it appears the folks at the consulate didn't get it into the right hands. This time the agency is emailing a scanned copy that should be easier to keep track of. In some ways, I was relieved to hear that this was what was holding up the application and not something less fixable. Typically the U.S. paperwork gets processed pretty quickly in the overseas offices as there aren't as many American adoption applicants living overseas as there are in the U.S. We mailed this application in January and have had a couple rebounds in the process. Keep praying! I hope to post good news soon from Rome!