Our Journey with Esthela

Eddie and I have spent a whole lot of time praying, thinking and talking about the issue of adopting Esthela. We both have come to love her over the time we have known her and we both realized that adopting her is something we want. So we began to dig a bit deeper into the process and see how we can move forward. We spoke with DIF (like children services in Mexico) and they told us that if the mother wants us to adopt her daughter the process is very simple, an independent adoption. Then I checked with immigration, and an adoption agency in the US, to see what steps we’d have to take to get to her to be able to cross the border. What I heard was not encouraging for our situation. A new law passed, basically to help prohibit Child Trafficking, which does not allow children who have been adopted by an independent adoption to be taken to the US. This keeps parents from selling their kids. If we did do an independent adoption it looks like we would have to wait a trial 2 years, in Mexico, before we could even apply for her to cross into the states. For us this situation is impossible because Eddie only has a two year permission to be outside of the states because of his green card and the legal process to make the adoption official will take at least 7 months. The other option for us to take us is to move to San Diego, do a home study and get approved through the states to adopt and then carry on with the adoption in Mexico. We are still looking at the whole process, making sure we are clear on the steps we need to take and also making sure that it is for sure what God wants. If we do have to go to San Diego it means major fund-raising and I know God can do miracles but He has to be in the middle of it all in order for it to happen so we are still waiting to make sure that He is in it. Please continue praying for us, for wisdom, for guidance, and for sleep (we’ve not been able to sleep well lately). Thank you.