Adoption Papers.

I will try to explain all this so it makes sense. We went to put our papers in yesterday...everyone kept asking us which child we want...I guess most of the time when Americans put in adoption paperwork it is because there is already a child they want. There are several in placement that we know about but we decided not to give any names because we thought we wanted to take one in who didn't have any options and were in a bad environment. Well, the social worker that we spoke with yesterday said as of right now in our county there are no adoptable children on the list...I'll explain why later. We didn't have all the papers we needed but the ones we need will be easy to get so she let us go ahead and register for the class which starts next Monday and we can just bring our paper work with us then. We will go every Monday in November from 9 until 12. It should be very intresting.
The reason that there are no "adoptable" children right now is this: although there are many many children in foster homes and in "baby hospitals" there is no one in the child protective services that is going out and doing what is necessary to declare children adoptable. The new law states that even if a mom has signed off at birth that she doesn't want to raise her child, if later on in life there is someone that wants to adopt the child, they have to once again track down the parents and bring them to court (even if they are far away) and get them to tell the judge in person that they want their child to be up for adoption. Then they also have to go to the 4th degree family members and see if anyone wants the child...uncles aunts grandparents cousins etc. It is quite a process and most people are content if a child is in a good foster home so they are not going to pursue this course of action b/c it is quite a process. This is b/c of the new law that is supposed to protect children against child trafficking but in many cases it puts a child back in an unwanted home environment. Also, alot of these kids are gypsies and a lot of gypsy kids don't go to school anyway so the government doesn't consider it abuse for a child to be left to roam the streets all day if they have food and a roof over their head they are considered well cared for. We are praying and contemplating what to do. We will take the class in November and then we do have a social worker acquaintance here in our town that says she can tell us of adoptable kids. We do know of several children through an American children's home who are "up for grabs" but we would probably still have to try and track down the parents AGAIN...even though that has already been done once. One of the little boys who is 4 actually doesn't even have parents on his birth certificate, he was given a name by the mayor where he was born. It is really messed up system that doesn't really seem to look out for the best interest of the child. Sometimes a mom leaves her baby at the hospital and the baby is put in an ambulance and driven back to the mom's home...so they are being put in an unwanted situation which could lead to abuse. The baby is returned by an ambulance driver, not a social worker or someone who looks at the environment and is trained just a guy who drives the ambulance.
We really need to pray b/c they are doing a good job of another orphan cover up...it is not nearly as bad as what it was 15 years ago under communism as far as how the orphans are treated but there are still a lot of kids who need loving homes.
We are going to "Trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding and in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths."
Pray that through the whole process we will not be anxious and not worry and will be a bright light for Christ.