I haven't blogged lately, because honestly, I haven't had much to say. Even though there hasn't been any changes to the law yet, we have been pressing on with our court dossier. We spent about 15 hours the last two days getting it all perfected and submitted to the Secretary of State for apostilling. It should be an amazingly exciting time. It should be that the hard work of the adoption is done, and now on to the fun part! Court and gotcha trips! It just feels like a hollow victory at this point.
We joined the European Court of Human Rights case, so we're basically suing Russia on behalf of Dasha Meg. The claim is that she has a basic human right to a family. We met her, we love her, we bonded with her, and we promised her we'd be back to be her mama and papa. Now Russia isn't allowing her the chance to be in a family. It's yet to be seen how Russia will respond to the lawsuit. Please continue to pray that something will allow us to continue our adoption. Our sweet girl. I just can't even think about what will happen if we're not allowed to proceed. She deserves a family!!
Last week, I was feeling hopeful as the news articles coming out of Russia talked of an American delegation being allowed to come talk in Russia. This week, however, relations have taken a turn for the worse as another child adopted from Russia has died. This darling boy came home to Texas in November and died in January. The claim from Russia was that he had been given adult psychotropic drugs and was beaten to death. I don't believe this is true. He had Risperdal in his system, which can be used on kids for anything from ADHD to Fetal Alchohol Syndrome. She hasn't had any charges pressed against her in Texas, and she still has custody of the younger brother, so who even knows what really happened. No matter what happened, this is a terrible tragedy. Poor boy. Poor family. Now his biological mother, who had the two boys taken away from her for alcohol abuse and didn't even know they'd been adopted, is claiming she wants to take the younger brother back and parent him. Sheesh.
It's hard to see how this ends well. We are keeping hope alive, though, and pressing forward like nothing has happened. Our dossier will be ready to fed ex to Russia next week, and we'll take it from there! Thanks to everyone for the continued support! This continues to be such a difficult time, and we appreciate all the prayers and good vibes our friends, family, and people we've never even met are sending our way!
