Maria's adoption

I'm taking care for Maria since she was born in November 2012. Maria is the fourth born to a mother which is mentally unsound. Her two brothers and sister all died soon after birth.
Maria was found a few days after birth in the bush were her mother delivered her. She was send to Nkhoma hospital as she was a premature baby with very low birth weight (1 kg). On arrival she had sunburns all over her body and she was put immediately on neonatal sepsis protocol. Together with the grandmother I took care of Maria. I taught the grandmother how to bottle feed her and the importance of hygiene. After two months in the hospital Maria left to the village however she came back very often because of severe diarrhea, malaria, sepsis etc.
After 6 months the grandmother asked me to adopt Maria, we visited the district social welfare office in Lilongwe and I became her official foster mother.

In November 2014 I started Maria's official adoption process. I contacted a lawyer who helped me preparing for the court case.  
In order to adopt a child in Malawi you have to get approval from the high court. Unfortunately soon after I contacted the lawyer the high court closed because of a strike.
End of January they opened again and beginning of February the Judge assigned a social worker from national office to investigate the case. A few weeks later the social worker visited my house and he visited the grandmother of Maria in the village. He wrote a report and supplied it to the judge. In meantime I supplied many documents to the lawyer. Copies of my passport, police clearance, medical report, family background report etc.

Thursday February 19^th the lawyer, I, Maria and Maria’s grandmother had to appear in court. The adoption petition was heard at 08.30 in the morning.
The judge decided to sign the adoption petition with a final adoption order. As of this date Maria Tirzah van Elteren is officially my daughter.

Since 2011 the Dutch law says that children adopted from Malawi automatically qualifying for a Dutch passport. Off course we have to do a lot of paperwork before Maria will receive her Dutch passport but soon she will have a Dutch nationality and passport!

Love,
Nicole