We have made a really tough decision to NOT adopt our boys older brother, Sergey. For the last 6 months, we have been quietly putting together our "dossier" - which is a huge stack of paperwork that needs to be submitted before you can apply to adopt any child internationally. We have everything all apostilled and in order. This decision has been hard and heartbreaking, but we feel that bringing Sergey home with us would not be the best choice for our family.
Sergey is 16 now... he is aging out of his orphanage next month and will be sent on to vocational school to try and learn a trade. Over the last two months, we have learned alot more about Sergey, his strengths and his challenges. We have looked into all sorts of possibilities that would have assisted us with being able to bring him here. For a long time, finances were an issue that slowed things down. We got past that hurdle only to hit another... one that was alot harder to get over.
Sergey has a condition that is similar to one of his brothers. I will get into this condition in another email... but put simply - this condition, while invisible to most - is a true disability. We have had countless emails with two people in Ukraine who have done a wonderful thing by helping us stay in touch with Sergey and get to know more about him. While we have never promised adoption to anyone - the hope has always been there that this would be a possibility.
Over the last couple of months - we have learned much more about behaviors and challenges. While many of these are typical teenage things, they also follow a pattern that makes things more difficult.
We decided that we could not in good conscience add Sergey into our family. The kiddos that we already have present so many different challenges each and every day - we felt that for their well being that adding an older child with a new set of issues would be damaging to the progress that we have worked so hard to obtain.
While we will continue to advocate and support Sergey as best we can.. it does sadden us that his dream of having a real family will have to wait until he is ready to start his own. Just a thank-you to those of you who had sent me emails over the last couple of months... its been a journey that we have learned from. We really had high hopes that we could bring him here and help to "fix" things for him.. unfortunately, it was not meant for us to do.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Not sending our dossier to Ukraine
Labels: Sergey, Ukraine thoughts
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