[JaCC]

My husband and I are going to approach his cousin about adopting her 4 year old daughter. The situation that the little girl lives in is terrible and she needs out of that house. I talked with an attorney today and he said the process is pretty simple if she and the girl's dad will sign the forms. We won't have to have a homestudy and the cost is cheap ($750). We have been diagnosed with infertility and are undergoing fertility treatments right now (clomid and IUI's). I feel so stressed about this. I want this to work out so badly for "A". But, I'm also very scared about taking her and raising her. We're both about 30 and have good jobs and are fully capable of raising her, but I'm still nervous about it. It's a total life adjustment. I could become a mom in a matter of weeks. I'm trying to turn this over to God and not worry about it, but I'm having trouble. I just want to be sure that we are doing the right thing. Then I think about "A" and how much different and better her life would be with us. And then I convince myself that we are capable of doing this and are doing the right thing. To anyone who has adopted a toddler or preschool age kid, do you think that she is young enough to overcome the trauma that she has already been through and turn out “normal”? She will need so much attention. She doesn’t know any of her ABC”s or 123’s or even how old she is. My stomach is just in knots about it. I want to do this so badly and save her, but the selfish part of me says that this will require a LOT of time, effort, etc. But, I can’t just turn my head and watch her suffer. Any words of encouragement for me? I am just struggling over this. We want kids so this would be the perfect opportunity. Right? If we can convince the parents……….. Her dad is jail so I think he would sign. The only reason that the mom wouldn’t would be because she’d lose her welfare benefits.