Guinea Pigs

Because international adoption is apparently never boring, we have found out that we get to be the first family with an homegoing adoption trip under the new Embassy requirement that any child adopted from BG needs to be tested for TB (and test negative) before they can leave for the US. This requirement went into effect a few days ago (Oct 1st) and many of the logistical details are still being worked out.

For one, there are two ways to do the test - an inexpensive skin test or a more expensive blood test. The skin test has a high change of giving a false positive, especially if the person being tested has been previously immunized against TB. Both tests take 3 days to process, which means if we get a false positive on the skin test, we have to do the blood test anyway. But then yesterday our agency told us that a chest x-ray as followup is another option, and that doesn't take three days to process...

THEN, to make it more complex, they will not do the test until the child has their passport. Typically, getting the passport (which takes a few days to process) is one of the first things, and major things that we would do in our week-long pickup trip. BUT, getting the passport, and then getting any one of the TB tests (though I'm thinking now, couldn't you do the x-ray at the end of the week??? don't know enough about the ins and outs just yet!) could likely spill us over into another week.

We've already had to change our pickup dates and pay the fees associated with changing flights. It would be nice to not have to do that again. ;) Though at the same time, I know that money is a non-issue to God. ;) Mostly - I'm just really really looking forward to bringing our boy HOME!!!

So, at the moment, subject to change :) someone from the agency in BG will drive the 2.5 hours from Sofia to Pleven next week, pick up Krassi and one of the orphanage staff, drive back to Sofia, get his passport rolling, and then drive them back to Pleven that same day. That's a lot of driving! *If* that's the way it ends up working out, then Krassi would have his passport already by the time we pick him up next week Monday, and we could drive back to Sofia and get the TB testing rolling.

(For families reading who have their own pick-up trips coming soon, I don't think there's any reason to assume that your trip will look like mine - I think they're mostly just working to get *something* worked out for us because of the short notice of the change, and it sounds like its very likely that whatever "standard protocol" becomes won't necessarily be what we experience. That's the joy of being the guinea pigs!!)