Unprecedented Delays

We had been putting off a vacation for over a year as we expected to travel to Peru last Summer, then last Fall, then last Winter. Finally, we scheduleda vacation this Spring Break to get away for a week.

Good thing we did, because we ended up having to deal once again with frustrating and unexpected bad news while we were gone. We heard by email on Tuesday that we would not be getting a referral at Thursday's consejo. The reason given? The new psychologist at SNA in Lima had decided there was a need for a full psychological report on the children we were hoping to adopt.

This was something not encountered in the 24 years of our adoption agency's involvement with Peru. Just like the requirement for psych reports on our natural-born children (in January), this is apparently a new part of the system, not something specific to our case.

What made it so surprising to us was that we understood the children had already been shown our pictures to begin preparing them for the adoption. But apparently whatever report was prepared by the psychologist at the orphanage was not sufficient for the federales. We had even received word by email that "The Millers were declared suitable to adopt two to three siblings, one of them a girl, from 5 to 13 years old" just a few days before. Huh?

Waiting is hard on us. Now we think that waiting must be extra tough for the kids, too, because they already know someone is ready and willing to adopt them. We understand being adopted is no piece of cake, either. We will be introducing a huge disruption into these childrens' lives; but we believe it is all for the best. We want them to be prepared, but we also don't want to be guinea pigs for a whole new process.

Remember, in Peru they eat guinea pigs...or worse.