We have a plan...

Well, what a journey adoption has been so far! Because this adoption is so out of the ordinary it's made it really difficult to get all the answers we needed. I have phoned what feels like a ton of people in Immigration, Service Canada, our local government and our Family Services to which I kept getting the same pat answer "It all sounds great.. what a nice thing your doing!" Well that doesn't help me people! lol!

Finally, through a friend of ours, we discovered that the plan we had in place would not work and that it was actually illegal. The illegal part being that we were bringing him to Canada with the intent to adopt and that I guess is not allowed. We finally decided we would go to a lawyer ourselves to get all the information we needed. We met with the lawyer, explained our situation and she promised she would find out the answers.

Well the next day we get a call from our Social Worker saying that the lawyer had contacted the Adoption Coordinator about the adoption (the lawyer was looking for information) which had brought our case to her attention. The Adoption Coordinator called our Social Worker to see why we were going through a lawyer when family services would be able to give us all the answers we needed and as well would help us get everything done!! I must say I was a little annoyed at the thought that we could have skipped a whole lot of time if, when we brought this to Family Services attention back in March, they had told us this.

But here we are, and however long it took to get the answers we needed we at least know now what the process has to be. So here it is...

Jeff and I will begin the paperwork to sponsor Anesu with the intent to adopt him once he is here in Canada. There is an actual process for this kind of adoption ( which no one told me about when I called immigration... grrrr). The sponsorship takes anywhere from 6-8 months OR up to two years. We are seriously hoping for the 6-8 month time frame. Once Anesu has been sponsored and has his permanent resident card his Aunt will fly over and bring him back here to us. Once he is here we will begin both the adoption process and the citizenship process. Not really sure how long those will take, but I don't really care since he will be here with us then.

The only glitch with this plan is whether Zimbabwe will agree to Anesu coming here to be adopted. They are a hard country to work with so please pray that whatever official makes the decision will have a softened heart.

Another slight problem is the fact that we will probably need to send our friend over to Zimbabwe twice. The first time, this summer, will be to fill out the necessary paperwork and the second time would be to bring him home to us. That puts another financial strain on us, so we are really praying that we can figure out a way to get the money together.

Well, I think that's all the update I have for now. Please keep praying that things work out!