Worry and Sleepless Nights

Last week we received copies of our documentation and recommendation letter that was about to be forwarded to the Ministry for final approval. To my surprise, I came across a page that said that Reuben had Hepatitus C. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Why hadn't this been disclosed to us? We felt our happiness quickly fading. I called the agency immediately which started a commotion of many calls and e-mails to Vietnam, hoping to get clarification. Although Alex and I began to do some research on this illness, we soon realized that we weren't approved to adopt such a child, even if we wanted to. As well, we were informed that if the Ministry reviewed the recommendation letter, it would not have been approved. Now all we could do was wait to hear back from our agency. In desperation I went through our files and found the e-mail address of the doctor that originally tested Reuben. He answered my e-mail almost immediately and suggested that Reuben come in for more testing. Reuben was brought in on Monday and we were told yesterday that the results would take approx. 3 weeks. On blind faith, we decided to keep moving forward, although I felt my motivation slipping away. You can only imagine how happy I was to receive an e-mail this morning that said that Reuben passed all his tests. Apparently, in Vietnam, they use a template Recommendation Letter and likely the child before had Hep C. They just forgot to remove it from our letter. Phew! Back on track and only one week left.