Featuring Joy & Geoff, Big Brother , Little Brother , Sis , and various household (and outdoor) critters...

Monday 9 November 2009

Ghana - The Continuing Story

While we have been given the news that our agency does not plan to continue with a Ghana program, there is a strong voice, primarily from those with referrals, to find a way for these adoptions to proceed. It seems there may be some key individuals who may support a movement to keep Ghana alive and well. The closure of the program does not mean that Ghana adoptions cannot happen in Canada, but there are definite obstacles which would take a significant amount of effort to overcome. It seems like such an unlikely possibility, given that we have essentially been told twice that the program is closing. But if there is a small chance, especially for those with referrals...

One family with a referral for siblings learned that their children had been sent back to their village of origin during the Hands of Mercy orphanage issues. Tragically, one of these children has since died. Now, the Hands of Mercy Shutterfly site has just posted that another baby, also sent back to his village with his twin brother, has died as well. He was apparently to be referred to parents in Canada. We will of course have no way of ever knowing who would have been referred to us, but I suspect now that we were closer to a referral than I might have guessed, since at least one of the Ghana referrals came to a family whose dossier was sent after ours (they would have received their referral ahead of us likely because of a broader age request). While I am glad we did not receive a referral only to find out that we could not complete the adoption, thinking that some of these children impacted by the orphanage closure/restructuring could have been referred to us makes the situation more real in some ways.

http://handsofmercy.shutterfly.com/

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