Still Chasing Paper

We are still chasing papers to get N home. Today I got to pick his birthday. Sort of weird, but also fun. He is officially two weeks older than Omega, and we finally have a June birthday. We are chasing the papers needed to get his HIV waiver so that he will be able to get a visa to travel back to the US. Currently, the US has a travel ban on people with HIV. In order for him to immigrate to the US we have to have a doctor that is willing to treat him, and that is qualified to treat him. We need a letter from the Public Health Dept. stating that the doctor is qualified. We have to have a letter from our insurance company stating that he will be covered by our insurance. We must sign a statement that we understand his condition and will educate him on how to protect himself and others from infection.

After gathering all of this, it made me wonder at all of the comments I have read recently from people who are angry that HIV+ children are being adopted into the US. Some of the arguments are about the risk these children present to the country. Some are about the drain on taxpayers to provide medication for them. I guess they don't realize that someone already thought of all that, and has provided protection for them. Maybe they should take a look at the pile of paper I have stating that I will teach my children how not to endanger other people, even after he gets married and/or becomes sexually active. Yes, we parents do realize that our children will become sexually active someday. And we will teach them all about safe sex, especially our children who have infectious diseases. We aren't asking "the taxpayers", by the way, we do pay taxes, to pay for our medical care. We have jobs that provide insurance, I guess that is kind of crazy. And we plan to have them treated for this disease which will cause them to have healthy immune systems and an undetectable viral load. Deep breath, we are not the crazy fools that some people seem to think that we are. And really, if they want to worry about the taxpayer's money I think they should be far more concerned about the cost of bailing out investment banks. Our medical costs don't even touch that.

After the paper has all been collected and shipped off to Ethiopia, we will continue to wait for news of a court date. After that our little guy will legally be ours. If you want to know how to pray for us. Pray that our celebration in a couple of weeks goes well, and that the travel ban will be lifted for persons with HIV. President Bush has signed a bill that would lift the ban, now it has to be approved by Tom Leavitt. In the mean time we just keep plugging along.