Our application is in Colombia. After almost 2 years of paperwork, seeking out forms/certificates/letters, getting our our documents notarized and apostilled, we finally have our full application at ICBF (Instituto Colombiana del Bienestar Familiar).
In Dec. of 2021 I saw a video of a perfect 6 yr old Deaf girl. We immediately reached out to our agency to find out what changes need to be done to request this girl. To protect her identity I will call her Claudia. First, If you haven't yet realized we are pursuing the adoption of a son. Also our homestudy application was approved for a 3 to 5 yr old child. Our agency also doesn't want us to adopt a child older that Violeta. The concerns are valid. There is a concern that psychologically our biological daughters will feel displaced. They don't support artificial twinning, because it leads to rivalries between siblings. They are also concerned that children in the system will bring learned sexual behaviors into the home. With two daughters at home they want to make sure our girls aren't exposed.
Claudia looked like she could already be one of our daughters. She seems very bright but lacking language. We put aside our desire to have a son and we would address any of the concerns as they came about. We were willing to redo our application to be able to adopt this child. However the agency said another family had already put a letter of intent out for her.
Our next step is to wait on Colombia to approve our application. Then the ICBF will make a suggestion for a child that matches our requirements (Deaf/hard of hearing, boy/girl, ages 3-5). If we agree to the match, we then have to travel to Colombia for the final steps. Please keep us in your thoughts.
I've been working extra hours and saving up for the adoption. So far we've spent approximately $20,000. Those are agency fees for processing, translating. Also, filing fees with the government. As well as all the certificates and classes that we've been taking. Our last few fees will be with those in Colombia (agency, lawyers, court costs, certificates, medical, airfare, housing, transportation, etc...) I have another $14,000 set aside for the adoption. A couple of our interpreter friends were kind enough to donate. I have to double check my GoFundMe because it looks like it's inactive. Any money collected will go toward our future expenses including the post adoption visits. If we have any remaining funds from donations we will put it towards other families adopting Deaf children.
We are praying that we get to have our child home before the end of the summer.
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