Spring Fever?

All this waiting makes me feel like it's late January/ February and I'm ready for winter to be over already. On one hand it is hard to believe Christmas is one week away - on the other hand time seems to be dragging waiting for news on our referral and travel dates.

There really isn't much news. We know that our dossier will be resubmitted on Monday December 22nd. We don't know what they will do after that. We could (probaby not) get a referral then or end up waiting several more weeks. Russia closes down for the holidays December 31st through January 11th. They should be open the 30th which means we have 2 more chances to hear some positive news before the end of the year.

I am almost ready for Christmas. I have some last minute shopping to do either today or over the weekend. Then of course a bunch of wrapping. I really don't enjoy wrapping gifts. I'm not sure why but I have never liked it. Connor has to see Santa yet. We are running a little late on that one but he will get his "order" in before Christmas.

"Is it Christmas yet?"

This is the question I seem to be getting every morning from Connor. He is just a little bit excited this year ;)

Here is a picture of Connor holding up a soft baby doll that we are taking to Russia for his little sister. This photo will also go into a photo album with pictures of us, our home, her room and the rest of our family. We will leave the album and the doll with her while we wait for our court date.

Hope?

Well, I feel more optimistic than I have in a while about things proceeding. Our agency feels that our dossier should be resubmitted the week of December 16th. We should receive a new referral or get our original referral the week of Christmas along with a travel date. Anything could happen but at least there is some positive news. It would be a great Christmas present that's for sure!

Moscow in January... BRRRRRRR! Hope so!

I'm Thankful

I'm thankful for so much in my life. Everyone has their trials and hardships but I know that ones character is shaped by these and God leads us through.

We have this magnificent, beautiful child that came to us through adoption. It was a 7 year journey through infertility and the hurdles and uncertainty of international adoption but the blessings of Connor can't be expressed in words. He healed us from our heartache - God healed us.

I'm thankful for Connor's hugs and those out of the blue "I love you's".
I'm thankful for his smiles, laughter and silliness.
I'm thankful for those oh so kissable cheeks.
I'm thankful for his singing.
I'm thankful for his mischeivious-ness and grumpiness too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Broken Record spinning round and round

OK, so you probably guessed from the title that we have no news on a new appointment date. It was the same reaction from the DOE in Russia - "come back next Tuesday". No info period. I wonder how long they can/will keep this up? I can think of a million catch phrases: Stuck in the middle; Falling into the abyss; Our hands are tied; Going around in circles; Now all the sudden I have that Howard Jones song in my head "no one is to blame". I really like that song but I don't want it to pertain to my life :) lol

We really hope to travel before Christmas to meet our daughter. For that to happen, we really need some positive news next week. We were joking that they will probably give us an appointment the week of Christmas just to spite us. It definitely wouldn't be ideal but we would work around it. We would have to call the north pole and ask Santa to come early to our house. :)

DAY 50 - we still haven't met her....

I wish I wouldn't have just counted the days but it has been 50 days since we received our referral. Another week has past with no good news. We are beginning to have our doubts that we will ever meet this referral. At this point we aren't even certain that we still have a referral.

This Tuesday our rep in Moscow provided, in writing, information on how our agency prepares adoptive families for Russian adoption. This was done per their request. They took the information and would not discuss anything else. They stated that next week they will talk about referrals and dossiers.

So, next Tuesday we are hoping to get some positive news. It is a helpless feeling not having any control over what happens. At this point we can only take things one day at a time.

Another Week

There isn't any news on the adoption this week. We hope we hear something positive on Tuesday. It is a helpless feeling when you have no control over what happens. So, we pray and we keep hoping.

One good thing that came out of our cancelled trip is that we were here for Halloween. Connor had a ball this year. He was Dash from the incredibles. We had almost 200 trick or treaters. It was a record. We love to count the kids each year.

So, as we wait, I am trying to keep occupied. This weekend I am going to move some stuff out of A's room. No, we don't have a name picked out for her yet. A is the beginning initial of her Russian first name. The closet in her room is a decent size walk-in. I have been using it to store all of the holiday decorations along with other stuff. For now, I will clear out a section. I wonder how long it will be before she claims the whole closet? Tween or before??

Two other things I want to do-- Learn the cyrillic alphabet and get a Russian phrase CD. I was thinking if she is almost 3 she should have more language development than Connor (Connor was 26 months when he came home). Kids pick up language so quickly. The sad thing is that they lose their first language more quickly than they learn their new language. So, a few phrases in Russian will be good to use especially in transition.

Well, I hope the next post will bring some good news....

No Good News. Just More Waiting...

Well,
The MOE has not changed their mind on waiting to issue our appointment until the other family was taken care of. Unfortunately, the other family declined to visit the referral they were issued on Tuesday. Next Tuesday is a holiday in Russia so the next opportunity to have an appointment scheduled would be on the 11th of November. It is looking like our 30 day visas will expire before we get the chance to travel.

More news from the agency. It looks like Russia will be doing away with blind referrals soon. That means that more medical information will be available upfront before visiting your referral.

Travel Dates Unknown

We hit a roadblock yesterday when we heard back from our agency that our apointment scheduled for October 28th had been cancelled. So I had to get all our reservations cancelled for now. We were all set to leave on Saturday. We are obviously upset over this development.

Why did this happen... Well, from what we understand another one of our agencies families declined a referral two weeks ago and did not get another one. The MOE (Russian Dept. of Adoption) expected to see this family yesterday for another referral. The family was already back in the US. The MOE was not happy that this family declined the first referral because they believed it was a good referral. In fact, the same referral was taken immediately by a Spanish family. I don't have any more details but it is like the MOE is mad at or punishing our agency and all of their families. We just hope that sitting on it a week will calm everyone's demeanor and we will get another travel date on Tuesday (they only issue appointments on Tuesdays).

So, as we wait--our referral sits in an orphanage deprived of love. Who really suffers? I know a lot of adoptive families feel the same way. It seems to always take more time than we think it should.

Someone had asked the age of our referral. She is 2 1/2.

Getting Ready to Travel....
It is amazing how much one can get done when there is an approaching deadline. I had posted a list a post or two back and I am happy to report that I have cleaned out some closets and sorted through a lot of things. I am having garage sale next weekend. It is pretty late in the season but I don't want to have all the stuff around the house all winter (especially since our family is going to grow before then).

I have to say, packing for a week travel to Russia is much different than packing for a month or longer travel to Ukraine. I think we can make due without things for a week.

For those of you who don't know, with Russia you go over and meet/accept your referral formally. Then you come back home, prepare more paperwork and wait to hear when your court date is scheduled. Then, you travel back to Russia (in our case Moscow City) and hold court. There is a 10 day mandatory wait after court (just like Ukraine). After that you get passports and visas for the child and come home.

Another interesting fact is that Connor is from Kharkiv Ukraine which is 25 miles from Russia's border. I haven't been able to find out exact mileage to Moscow but it looks to be about 500 miles on the map.

MAJOR UPDATE!

We can't believe it but we already have a referral!! We got the call on Wednesday September 24th. We were in total disbelief and have been walking around with our heads in the clouds. We have come down to reality but it is hard to focus on much of anything else.

We will be going to Moscow City the last week of October to meet a little girl who we hope will be our child.

We feel blessed because we just got our documents complete on September 14th. Wow! 10 days!!

Even if we would have stuck with Ukraine our timing wouldn't have been much better than this.
We started the process the last week of June 2007. So, it will be about 1.5 years. We officially switched to Russia in May 2008.

So now there is a lot to do to plan and orchestrate our trip. I'm currently working on a to do list and hope to have several items checked off by next week.

Moving forward

Our home study approval came in last week. We had to get separate approval from the state before it was sent for our I171H. So, we made a mad dash and got all our documents apostilled and sent to our agency. It was a relief to get this all complete, finally.

Now we are waiting to see which region is moving along the best before we register our dossier.

I was a little impatient to get it registered but I understand why we should wait. Most of the regions shut down for vacations in July/August.

It has also been nerve racking with the conflict with Russia and Georgia and how adoptions might be affected. Hopefully things settle down and nothing changes.

Life goes on. Connor had his 5th birthday. I can't believe how big he is getting. I had my gallbladder out and have been recovering for 2 weeks. I'm feeling pretty good. Better here than in a hospital in Russia!

What to do while waiting..

For the most part, I think most adoptions take longer than expected and with our switching countries ours will be longer than we thought. We are at 1 year, 1 month right now. Some days/weeks the waiting is not as difficult. Other times, you wonder if anything is going to proceed in a smooth, timely manner. So, rather than stress out and let every detail of the process drive me crazy, I am trying to focus on some projects. I have made a list of several things I want to get done. Some of them aren't too exciting or fun but will give a sense of accomplishment once they are complete. I also told myself to finish one project before moving on to the next. Here are a few things from my list.

• Clean out and purge all closets starting with our bedroom. This is one I have really put off but I know will make me feel lighter once complete.
• Sort though outgrown toys and make a pile to donate or sell at a garage sale.
• Start on decorating the new baby girl room. This will be a fun one to do. I'm not going to get in a hurry with this but just do it a little at a time. Once we meet our daughter to be and are between trips, all the details will be finished.
• Have a garage sale in the spring.
• Last but not least I need to finish Connor's life book. This will be fun too. It has been hard to find a starting point. I may purchase a book to guide me. I love being creative but sometimes I need some inspiration/ideas.

So, there it is. For all to see. No excuses now....

Introduction

This post is the continuing journey of our 2nd adoption. We adopted our son from Ukraine in 2005 and he has been the light of our lives. Our hope is to add to our family. We had previously been working towards adopting in Ukraine again but it has become more and more difficult to adopt a young, healthy child.

We have been working on getting our homestudy updated and it has taken longer than anticipated. Hopefully, we will have our state approval soon so we can get our apostilles and get our dossier registered in region in Russia.

We started the process the end of June 2007. It is hard to tell how fast everything will move once our documents are in Russia. I will post our progress right here.