Basically, Los Pisingos lost its license to process adoptions. The orphanage, however, is able to continue its mission caring for the children and birth mothers of Colombia. But any adoptions of the children in its care will be administered by the ICBF (the Colombian government program that oversees adoptions) until Los Pisingos is able to regain its license.
There are currently 104 families with dossiers at Los Pisingos. 57 of these families are from within Colombia with the remaining 47 being international families. This is an interesting tidbit because Colombian families are typically given preferential treatment so that the child can stay in his or her birth country.
The dossiers that were at Los Pisingos are now at the ICBF. The ICBF is giving families the option to choose another private orphanage or to stay with the ICBF and potentially transfer back to Los Pisingos when (or if) they regain their license. Some good news is that if we keep our dossier at the ICBF, we do not have to go to the bottom of the ICBF mile high pile of dossiers! Per the ICBF,
"At the
Adoption Committee referral meetings, according to each family’s code (all
families have a code in the Colombian adoptions system), the families from the
ICBF and LP will be equally placed and considered; committee meetings will
therefore be held for the ICBF and LP families on an equal basis."
While no one from my agency has been able to tell me why Los Pisingos lost their license, I stumbled upon an answer online during my quest for information. Los Pisingos owes around $200,000 in back taxes. At this point, no one knows when Los Pisingos will regain its license. I can imagine that coming up with that kind of money will not be an easy feat.
While our agency has not been the most forthcoming with information, I do feel like they are doing their best to advocate for us. Although it also feels like they are not necessary asking us how we want to proceed, they are just proceeding for us. Very little is in your control during the adoption process and it feels even more chaotic when you are not asked the simple question of "How would you like to proceed?"
LSS (our adoption agency) has four families with dossiers at Los Pisingos and I've heard that all four of us families already have two children in the household. LSS has asked us to write a letter to Ayudame in the hopes that Ayudame (another private orphanage) will accept us into their program. Ayudame typically only works with families that have up to one child currently in the home. So whether or not they will accept us is unknown. LSS also works with another orphanage called La Casa. If Ayudame says no, they plan on sending a letter to La Casa on our behalf asking the same question. La Casa has the same "one child in the home" requirement.
Part of me wonders if we should leave our dossier at the ICBF and hope that Los Pisingos is able to regain its license in the next year. Part of me worries that it may take much longer for Los Pisingos to figure things out. As the 100+ dossiers from Los Pisingos flood the few other private orphanages in the area, there will undoubtedly be a longer wait time until we are united with our child.
Things are out of our hands at this point as we wait to hear the responses from the private homes. I know we will end up where we are meant to be. But the uncertainty at this point is exhausting. We pray for clarity as things begin to unfold and put our trust in God as we move forward on our journey to Baby Slom #3.
Oh, the stories we will have to share with our little one!
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