On the home stretch

Just before transfer.

One more step in the immigration process (our i800) was approved this week and we are truly in the home stretch, and expecting a November court date, now.

Our girl started back to school last week, which is very good, and we received the following email from our wonderful facilitator in her country:

"After my complaint [regarding the lack of care our girl, and the other children in the orphanage, have been receiving] to the central authority, a big evaluation in the institution is in process. They are not happy, but...they are working on the papers and are very afraid of me. Well."

There is a saying that adoption doesn't change the world, but for the child who is adopted the world changes a great deal. Really, the effect is broader than that, though. We are adopting our little girl because the family who adopted her friend from the baby house told us about her. And because our facilitator visited the institution to which she was transferred, somewhere she had never been before, conditions will (God willing) be a bit better for the children who remain there. Orphaned children are mostly invisible, hidden behind walls where very few people are permitted to look, and evil has always found it easier to flourish in hidden, secret places. Every time a child is adopted, however, the place from which she came is a little bit less hidden, and, we hope, that the motivations of adoptive families are a bit less obscure and suspect to the caregivers and authorities in the sending country. And, bit by bit, that can change the world for many children.