Then she finally came

In October 1997, we sent an application for the adoption of child no. 2 to DanAdopt.

We were lucky enough to be interviewed in October. The county thought we were probably approved before Christmas. But no, the matter was not included in the consultation meeting until February.

By Helle and Flemming Knoth

The case was rejected because our boy, who was just over 3 1/2 years old at the time, had a support pedagogue. They even had a statement from the kindergarten. We were then referred to a child psychologist who we were to visit with our boy, and who was also on a home visit.

Two years of waiting

In May 1998 we were then approved for a healthy and fit child aged 0-36 months. We would like to have a child from India. So we got on the waiting list for India. Approx. The waiting time was 2 years. Terrible, we thought. But then suddenly one day in May 1999 we got a call. There is a very small girl in South India, but you must know that she is very small and it is therefore not certain that the county will approve her. Nor would they. It is not her who is in the picture, they thought. It took approx. 10 days which were terrible. The county got new information and finally she was approved. Then we had to go up and hear about her. And she was very small. She was approx. ll/2 years, height 68 cm, weight approx. 6 kg. But otherwise healthy and fit. We said yes immediately.

She will be home before Christmas

The wait until she came home was approx. 6-8 months. Then she will be home before Christmas, we thought. But we were soon to become much wiser. There were big problems in India. Several orphanages had not received their license on time.

It will arrive soon, was the answer many times when we called.

But we had to go all the way to December 1999 before the orphanage got its licence. We were told that we would probably still have to count on 6-8 months. Then it would have been over a year since we had her proposed.

Our boy Niklas had gradually lost his patience, he was now determined that it was our fault that she had not come home.

But luckily we had got many good pictures of her when she was proposed. Again in September 1999 we got some new pictures of her.

It was December 1999 and she was 2 years old. Niklas bought her a nice doll, because even though she wasn't at home, he still thought she should have a present.

Our thoughts were on India

We also got through Christmas and New Year, although our thoughts were many times on a little girl in South India.

At the end of February 2000, one day there was a letter from DanAdopt. These were some new pictures of our little girl. They were really good, and how lovely she was. We would later receive a video with her. It didn't take too many days for it to arrive. And we have probably seen that many times.

Now Niklas also believed that he would probably get his long-awaited little sister home one day. We received a letter stating that the case would be finalized in April 2000, and then she would come home in May. Now it was unforgivable for all of us, even for a little boy of 5 1/2 years.

The case is taken up

On Wednesday 26 April 2000, the case will be taken up in the courts. And it goes through. We are then told that there will be a transcript of the sentence before 30 April 2000. And then a passport and visa must be applied for on 1 May 2000. But no transcript of the sentence came. The manager of the orphanage is told that she can come back on 8 May, when she arrives, they tell her she can come back on 9 June 2000. And then she will get a copy of the verdict immediately. So she can apply for a passport. It was now over a year since we had proposed to our daughter. It had been a long and tough year, where we occasionally said to each other, we will never get through this. But then promised each other that we had to, because we also had Niklas to take into account.

Only on 29 June 2000 does the transcript of the judgment arrive, and on 6 July 2000 does her passport arrive. We now get word that she will come on July 17, 2000. HURRA-HURRA-HURRA.

But, but. Friday 14 July 2000 at approx. 16.00 we get a call from DanAdopt. You can't pick up your little girl. We could not be told otherwise. It all came to a standstill for us. It was Friday afternoon, everything had closed, we couldn't do anything, just wait until it was Monday.

Is she coming?

But we didn't want that. We knew that there would be 4 children coming from India, and that one team's parents would pick them up themselves, and that they were in India. After some back and forth we agreed that we would try to call them at the hotel in India. We did, and they were able to tell us that all 4 children were missing their visas in their passports, but that they would do everything to get them so that they could come home on Thursday, July 20, 2000.

We then got through some long and tough days, and hardly slept. They got their visas, and would then arrive at Kastrup airport on Thursday 20 July 2000. 14.10, did we now also dare to believe that??? No not quite. We had now reached the point where we wanted to see and feel her first. So it was with very mixed feelings that we headed towards Kastrup on Thursday morning.

She needed a hug

We had to meet with someone from DanAdopt and the 2 other families. We were probably all nervous that they wouldn't be there. But all 4 of them were.

And she was just something so lovely. Big brother was absolutely crazy, she just wanted a hug. But she didn't care, she was really mad and mad, and screamed all the way through customs.

It was only when we got out to the car that she calmed down. We now had a long drive back to Skive. But it went well and she slept most of the way. And at home, grandma and grandpa were waiting, along with our neighbors. It was very touching. Niklas could now proudly show off his lovely little sister.

She was worth the wait

Kathrine has settled in well and is a very happy girl who is very good at explaining to us what she wants and doesn't want.

Niklas now thinks it's a bit of a shame that his little sister is so motherly, because she is.

It was a long and tough game to get her home. 14 months after she proposed, she finally came home.

But she was worth the whole wait.