Update

I am going to try to provide an update, but once again, it is going to have to be vague. There is a particular issue that is likely to prevent Jon and me from being candidates for adopting from Katya's country. We aren't comfortable putting the issue on our blog in general because it is a public blog, but it is not at all a big deal from a US perspective. As a matter of fact, it is nothing that I ever imagined would be a problem for us, so we were completely surprised a month ago to find out that it could be a problem. We had already finished the home study, filed our INS application, etc. and had never come across this issue as being a problem. It seems that Katya's country doesn't make easily accessible rules and regulations that allow perspective couples to know these kinds of things in advance.

Since that point when I first wrote about the possible roadblock, people from Reece's Rainbow have been working hard with the in-country facilitator to try and find a way around our problem. So we have had a week of believing our chances of adopting Katya are completely "0", then a week believing that it still might be able to happen because of some new information, then another week finding out that it might possibly happen but that the chances are quite low. At this point, we are waiting once again for the in-country contact to check on one final thing that might possibly help. But just to be honest, it is not looking very good.

This has been heart wrenching for us, and I am sometimes coping ok and other times not well at all. Last week, Jon and I felt that there was not enough chance of us being able to go forward to even keep trying. We felt it would be better to let Katya be posted as "available" again on the RR site again, so that a family with a better chance could try to adopt her. Today, we're not sure. We keep thinking, "What if? What if we quit trying and no one adopts her? What if we quit now and there is a way we just haven't thought if?" And I've been trying to figure out how long to fight and when to surrender. And I just don't know. I really don't know.

So please pray for us, and even more importantly, pray for Katya. We don't want to abandon her. We also don't know how much longer we can fight for something that seems impossible instead of letting it rest.