Reasons for Rejoicing! Reflections and an Update

Reflections:
I promised a while ago to post a list of some of the blessings God has provided that may not have been possible if he had not made this path to children difficult for us. I call the list "Blessings on the Path that Veered from my Plan." Here are a few selections...

* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, I would not have been able to invest as much in my education - an education that has served me well and brought me to a job that is a great fit and great blessing for me!
* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, I would have spent less time having really important conversations with friends in Madison and helping some people through hard times. My flexibility allowed me to bless others.
* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, we would not be in a position in which we call on others for so much support -- and experience so much grace through them.
* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, we would not have been able to be as highly involved in multiple ministries in our church and small group.
* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, we probably would not have connected as well with younger people when we arrived in Gainesville - which would mean missing out on some of our greatest times playing board-games and entertaining ourselves with the Wii!
* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, I would not have gotten to know my students and colleagues as well as I have (I'm always hanging around the office). I have really valued the relationships that have been built during this time of schedule flexibility.
* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, Rob and I wouldn't have had as much time to enjoy each other's company and support without a lot of other responsibilities pulling us in different directions. I have come to take our time together for granted, but really it is a huge blessing.

And finally....
* If we had been given our first child when we initially planned, we wouldn't be experiencing God's provision of the child who was meant to be ours!!

Speaking of that child....there is good news!

Update:

Just as we were getting really frustrated and looking (again) at changing agencies, we got the news that our agency has been REACCREDITTED IN RUSSIA!!!!

For those keeping score at home, our agency's previous accreditation expired in June 2006, and there have only been two batches of agencies accreditted since then (in June and July 07). Our agency always "hoped" to be in the next batch. Then we were told earlier this week that our agency actually WAS in the next batch. I decided I'd believe it when I saw it. Fortunately, when the accreditations are issued, they are posted on the web, and I was able to confirm that our agency was reaccreditted. (You may recall that I'm not allowed to discuss my agency on the web due to our contract with them, so I can't name it here).

So I talked with our agency's director today, and he said that the best thing to do will be to pick up again on our process in our original region (remember we had done a new set of documents for a new region this summer). He is going to let us know next week exactly what needs updating in our documents there, where we submitted some updated documents in April 2007. We know for sure that a few of the documents need to be redone, but we don't think it will be too much work. Please pray that anything that needs to be done can be done swiftly and without stress :)

We expect to submit our updated paperwork next month, but it probably won't get officially registered with the Russian government before the holidays. (They take a break from late December until mid-January.) However, it will be registered immediately after that. I asked about the time projected between registration and travel. Our director said he thinks that, since we first attempted to register our paperwork with the Ministry of Education (government office that handles this stuff)way back in May 2006 in this region, they should put us at the front of the line even if there are others currently waiting there who submitted more recently. (The others in the process there are with other agencies that were reaccreditted earlier.) He said it is realistic to expect to travel by February.

********* WOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!! *********

God is good and we are so happy to be moving forward.

An update, and yet not really

I received an update from our agency, after a couple of emails. It appears that they, too, are not clear on the current delay. They did not tell me whether the family ahead of us had gotten a referral (I am guessing not, since they would certainly have wanted to give me good news if they had any). They did say that they talked with their representatives in Russia, who have indicated that several other American adoption agencies started working in this region in July/August and that the region's Ministry of Education seems to be serving them right now rather than us. Our dossier arrived there in late August.

Guys, we just can't seem to catch a break. Plain and simple. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't think God had a plan in all this.

I specifically asked our director if it is reasonable to expect that we could travel in November (remember, I wrote to him a couple of weeks ago, when October wasn't practically over), and he said he could not yet be sure and that he'll get back to us in a week or two with more info. That sounds very much like a "no" to me. And if we do not travel in November, that brings us to December, when all of the bureaucrats' vacations begin again as the holidays approach (and continue through part of January). Sigh. I am trying to let go of the idea of traveling before late January, but I can't do that quite yet. Our update from our director in a couple of weeks might finally provide some realistic expectations.

My prayer partner - who is also in frustrating circumstances - reminded me of how praising God in the midst of difficulty can be really good for us. We've decided to each make a list of some particular blessings and joys that have only been possible because our circumstances have deviated from the plans we had. You can look forward to seeing some items from that list in my next blog entry.

oh the long,long wait

There's no news yet. We'll let you know when we hear anything at all.

You might be thinking, "Man, they have been waiting a long time." I agree with you. In fact, I've been noticing lately a very tangible measure of the length of our wait.

You may remember when I posted this photo in June 2006, after getting my hair cut:



Below is a picture of me today. Luckily, I am so lazy that I haven't gotten a haircut since June 2006, so we have a perfect measure of the "length" of the wait!




Before you say "Wow, Sarah, your hair grows fast!" let me tell you that it's grown about 9 inches in 16 months, which isn't much above average. It has just been a loooooong wait! Thanks for hanging in there with us.

one vacation and one family to go

I got an update from our agency. The first family that was ahead of us in line has gotten a referral of a child and has just returned from the first trip! This means just one more family ahead of us. However.....

(see if you can predict this)

.....the government official who arranges these referrals is, yes, going on vacation for 2 weeks. So it will be at least 2 weeks before that family receives a referral, and then we will be next. It's not clear how long the wait in-between will be, because there are other agencies also working in this region of Russia, so there are other families waiting as well. Where are we in the "overall" queue? Who knows.

Please pray for good news for us in the next month.

becoming professional waiters

There is a person on an online Russian adoption chat board called "Russian waiter". It is funny how being a "waiter" becomes very defining of who you are - and I don't mean waiting tables!

When I go to those chat boards, I find people who've waited longer than us, people who are caught between trips, people who started after us but are already home with their children, and people just starting out who still have the illusion that they may have some control over the timing of their adoption. Probably the most helpful people are the ones who have gotten home and can give practical advice. There are some particular discussions we will definitely re-read once it gets closer to our turn.

Unfortunately, I have no news. I have sent an email to our agency director but haven't heard back yet, so I don't know if the two families ahead of us have made progress or not.

If you are a pray-er, here's what we need from God's hand right now:

1) Patience!!

2) Motivation for work - especially me (Sarah) because I have a lot of research on my plate and need to really push to get much of it done before the adoption.

3) Our preparations....there are little things to do (finishing some small home improvements, getting an official lead paint inspection) and some bigger things (Russian language study, preparation for unique parenting issues that may arise during the transition from the orphanage)

Some praiseworthy things are:

1) Our God who has a plan for us and our family!

2) Conveniently for us, there is a "Parenting" Sunday School class going on at church this semester, so it is really helpful to be thinking through issues of parenting with a group of people who are trying to take a Biblical approach

3) Our church Bible study home group has been growing, and discussions have been really good so far this semester. We always lose some people in the Spring at the end of the academic year, but the rebuilding has gone very well this fall.

4) My undergrads this semester (about 75 students) are great! We are having a lot of fun with Labor Economics (although, how could it not be fun? honestly?).

Thanks for your prayers, and for walking with us in this process. It is sort of surreal sometimes - I am sure that is how it will feel when we finally are given a travel date. The whole thing is sort of hazy right now, and it will suddenly be real and probably shocking! We'll be sure to let you know whenever there is news.

Across one ocean and behind two families!

Our adoption agency director in the U.S. has carefully gone through all of our apostilled documents and they are GOOD TO GO! He will send them to Russia on Monday. When they arrive, they will be translated as we wait for two other families who are ahead of us in line. He expects that the first family in line should be invited to travel very soon, so then just one more to wait for, and then us!

I've been really impressed so far by the communication from the director of the agency, who is now handling our case directly because our caseworker went on maternity leave. He has been very attentive to my questions this last week and even offers other information that he expects to be helpful. Very nice!

While we wait for something to happen, we are continuing to work on our Russian. We're on lesson 10 (of 30) and we also just got a booklet/CD with vocabulary especially designed for adoptive families. It's a combination of travel help and phrases to say to children to help comfort them during transition. Although our child will likely be 1 year old and not talking, he/she (probably he) will likely have some understanding of Russian. We want to make it as easy as possible for him to latch on to us, so "sounding" familiar might help.

We'll update you (probably not for a few weeks) when we have any more news!

Success!

Our corrected documents arrived on Saturday. We went to Tallahassee this morning and got all of our apostilles, and this afternoon I sent everything out to our agency. We should be in the queue for the new region now.

Phew!

Hopefully this is our last "dossier # 1" (we did one for our old region, then an updated one for our old region, and now this one). Third time's a charm right?

I will update the blog when I hear anything about a timeline. Right now, I am just ready for the break from paperwork! We think there are still some families ahead of us, but we hope that this fall will bring at least trip # 1 and perhaps both trips. Meanwhile, it's time to get back to teaching and work on sending out some more research papers before our travels.

Thanks for your prayers, and we'll post when we have news.

Ever feel tested?

Yep, we needed our last two documents, which arrived in the mail yesterday -- both with errors. New ones are being sent today, for arrival tomorrow, so that we can go to Tallahassee on Monday instead of today.

I have never, before entering this process, been in a situation where I actually felt like physically exploding with sheer frustration. I wonder if this is how people with short tempers feel all the time. It's miserable! I actually wanted to walk outside and scream at the top of my lungs - I would have, except people would have been worried about the crazy woman outside :) There have been many times that I've been glad that they do the interviews/home study/psych exams at the beginning of the process, since the process itself can actually drive you into insanity.

Fortunately, Rob had just the ticket to calm me down last night after we got the mail - he made me chicken soup and peanut-butter toast (yes, I like them together, it was an elementary-school-cafeteria thing). And then we watched some comedy shows and a couple episodes of "The Wonder Years". Nothing like a little Kevin-and-Winnie puppy love to cheer you up. Mix that with a glass of chocolate milk and life looked a little better.

I hope, hope, hope to be writing with good news on Monday -- once we send that stuff out, then it's back to the waiting game. While we're still hoping the wait won't be more than a couple of months, one thing we have learned is that nothing is predictable. Praise God that he has a plan:

"God sets the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:6a).

And so he will, in His timing.

The switch is almost complete

We have finally reached the end of the series of documents that needed to be modified/changed/updated/created in order for us to switch regions! The last two are in the mail from our home study agency. We should get them this week, and then it's off to Tallahassee for (you guessed it) the chance to drop another $200 or so on apostilles.

(I decided not to blog about the last few weeks, which were among the most frustrating paper-chasing I have ever experienced....just glad it's over.)

After that's done, we'll send the packet to our agency and officially be in line for the new region. There are only a few people ahead of us, so we still hope to travel on our first trip in September or October if things go smoothly. We'll probably just get a week's notice.


PRAISE GOD THAT:

* We seem to have all of the correct documents, finally!

* Two families working with our agency successfully went to court last week (in our new region) and now have custody of their children!

* We had a great, relaxing vacation in Canada last week, which helped take my mind off of the stresses of this stuff

* My department has worked with me to arrange a substitute professor to teach for me when we are traveling to Russia

* Both Rob and I can use sick leave (instead of unpaid parental leave) for our adoption travel

* I have just been given the opportunity to revise another of my articles for possible publication - this is good to get done now rather than later!


PLEASE PRAY THAT:

* Our documents are indeed acceptable to our agency and to Russia

* The lineup in our new region continues to move and does not stall

* We are able to concentrate on our work and on practical preparations (rather than unproductive worrying)


Thanks to everyone for continuing to support us in this very long and difficult quest to find the child God has planned for our family. We will continue to update the blog, whether or not there is news, every few weeks - so stay tuned!

making some preparations

Well, we still have a couple of weeks before we can get our final documents from our home study agency, and when they arrive we will be in Canada for a week...so we hope to send our new dossier on August 15. We still don't know for sure which region we will end up in...a total of 19 agencies have been reaccredited, but ours is not one of them. So assuming they are not reaccredited within 3 weeks, we will go with the new region.

Meanwhile, we thought we should be thinking ahead a bit and learning some Russian for the trip. Although we probably would have done a short/simple program for tourists, some friends were kind enough to pass along a longer course that they no longer needed. It is a completely "aural" course (all on CD's, listen and repeat, no book). It took us a bit to get used to it, but we are starting to catch on. We listen in the car almost every day. We have finished 20% of the course (6 out of 30 lessons) and I can already say some important stuff:

(note: I am making up my own spelling, because of course we are just learning how to say them, not write them in Cyrillic)

"Zdrastvuit-ye. Ya nimnoga goveroo parusskie. Ya Amerikanke. Ya khatchelee ba shtonyboot payeest."

"Izvineet-ye. Skazheechee puhzhalste, gjeuh shtonyboot payeest?"

Translations:

"Hello. I speak a little Russian. I am American. I would like something to eat."

"Excuse me. Tell me please, where is something to eat?"

I figure these will help me in any number of situations :)

I know that the language is starting to sink in, because I was trying to wake Rob up yesterday - "Time to get up!" - and he mumbled something at me. I said "What?" He repeated: "mozhitbweets poe-zhuh".

Translation: "Maybe later".

Let the games begin!!!

What games? Why, the Olympic games for one thing. Russia just won the bid for the 2014 winter Olympics.

But that wouldn't be enough to write a blog entry about. Instead, I have great news -- yesterday, on the 4th of July, seven American adoption agencies were given their reaccreditation by Russia!!! Ours was not among them (there are around 40 still waiting) but this is a huge turn in the tide. No agency had been reaccredited since April 2006. This is a symbol of a giant breakthrough: Russia has demonstrated that it is going to continue with its system of accredited agencies being allowed to facilitate adoptions (which at times people had begun to doubt). Our agency "hopes to be" in the second batch of reaccreditations (who doesn't?), and we aren't sure when they would be. However, last time Russia did reaccreditations the first two "batches" were only about 3 weeks apart. So it may not be long. But who knows?

What does this mean for us? Well, the timing is interesting. It is still another month or so before we are able turn in paperwork to switch regions. If our agency is reaccredited before that, we plan to stay with our original region. If not, we will prepare our documents for the new one and send them in mid-August. In either case, we very much hope that we will be traveling in September or October!

Fun fact: Our original region is in Siberia, and would require a plane trip from Moscow. Our potential new region is just a 3-hour drive from Moscow. While sort of attached to the old one, one nice thing about the new one was that we could at least save money from not needing those flights. Then we learned that in the new region, there is an extra doctor's visit required in Russia. Each of us would need to go to a special clinic where they do these exams (most people say they're quite brief) and it would set us back $700 PER PERSON!! Scandalous!

Finally some progress!

It is nice to write that in the subject line!

We have decided to switch regions, within our agency, to one where there is currently movement in adoption processes. (You can call me/talk to me if you want to hear the long version of why we didn't have this opportunity earlier.) So what's the scoop on the new plan?

1) While summer vacations occur in Russia, we'll be putting together new paperwork for this region. It's similar to the other one, but there are still some new/different pieces. We'll also be re-applying for our permission to adopt, from USCIS (formerly the INS, i.e. U.S. immigration). Our old permission was good for 18 months, but its associated fingerprints were only good for 15 months (brilliant, I know!) so we are redoing all of it at once. Looks like it will be free to get the update, which is a plus :)

2) In about 6 weeks, we'll send our new paperwork to Russia. There are others also waiting to adopt from this region (sorry, can't name the place for confidentiality reasons) so at that point we'll see how quickly things move. The earliest we could be asked to travel would probably be September. In the grand scheme of things, this is just around the corner, though it is still a bit of a wait. If we did get to travel in September or October, there's a good chance we'd be able to go back for trip # 2 to complete the adoption before Christmas. I am trying my best not to anticipate that, though....what can I say, I am a Christmas addict, so I always build my mental schedule around Christmas! I tend to build up anything and everything surrounding "the most wonderful time of the year."

3) My impression from others who've worked in this region is that there is generally a "waiting period" during the second trip, after you've been to court to get the adoption approved. It looks like most people are not given custody yet during that time (about 2-3 weeks) so sometimes, instead of waiting in Russia, it makes sense for people to return home and then go back to Russia once again for "trip # 3" to take custody and come home. We don't know yet how this will work itself out for us, but just thought we'd let you know what the process is looking like.

ALL THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Boy, is it ever! Please pray with us that this avenue remains open to us. My optimism has gotten very cautious these days, but things are looking up.

Looking at our options - there is hope!

I try to write on this blog once a month, whether there is news or not.

In one sense, there is no news. Russia still has not reaccredited any agencies. Our dossier remains in our assigned region (a city in Siberia) and our agency continues to hope that reaccreditation will come soon. We are less optimistic, given our experience so far.

However, in another sense, there is news. It looks like there are a couple of paths we might take to move forward with a Russian adoption. This is feeling good!

One option is to switch to an agency that is still able to help people adopt in some regions (without accreditation). This is called "independent adoption" and it is legal in Russia. Essentially, we would be hiring an agency as a "facilitator" but the adoption would not be done "through" the agency in the usual way. My understanding is that most people find the experience to be basically the same; the agency does the same amount of the work, provides the same services (translator, driver), and so on. The smoothness - and even existence - of this type of process is built on personal relationships set up between agency facilitators and regional officials. Let me say again, though, it is legal. The only downside is that it is always possible that the Russian government decides to change policy on this...but that is a risk no matter what we do (as we have learned already!). Oh yes, and the other downside is that we lose a lot of money and have to redo some paperwork.

A second option, which is better if we can do it, is to switch regions WITHIN our agency. Although they were not taking applications for a while, our agency is now starting new cases in ONE region of Russia where they have been able to set up "independent adoptions" while they wait for accreditation in their other regions. A couple working with our agency recently returned from there with an 11-month-old baby boy. Our caseworker has said that we may be able to redo just a few documents and be able to transfer the rest of our paperwork to that region instead, where we would then be able to register our paperwork with the government and actually be in the queue for a travel date!

However, the first thing we have to do, before deciding on anything, is wait for a couple more weeks. (I am sure that doesn't surprise you at this point!). The head of our agency is going to be in Russia trying to establish what is going on with the accreditation. If she returns at the end of the month with good news of truly imminent accreditation, it may make more sense for us to leave our finished paperwork where it is, because we are the first in line there for a travel date as soon as the accreditation occurs.

We have no idea where God has placed our little one. We think this child of ours is in Russia, but we simply don't know where! Please pray for us to make good decisions in the next month as we try to find the way.

It's probably over the ocean right now...

We (finally) got our corrected documents from the home study agency, and we drove up to Tallahassee yesterday morning to get them apostilled at the Secretary of State. It was an uneventful trip and they did not have any trouble verifying our notaries. So yesterday afternoon I made lots of photocopies and sent our documents "Global Express" straight to Russia. They should arrive within 5-7 business days. Since it doesn't look like accreditation will happen before then, we are in good shape. the documents are good for about a year, but hopefully we won't need to worry about that!

Interestingly, the national news has picked up on the Russian adoption delays. There have been several stories this last week, I guess because the last couple of agencies' accreditation finally expired. Although this didn't really affect anything, newspapers picked up on the fact that now there are NO accredited agencies in Russia. The only international adoptions occurring there are those that had already started proceedings for a particular child before loss of accreditation, or those whose agencies work in a few regions that don't require accreditation (but are risky in their own way). USA Today decided to write that Russian adoptions had been "stopped", as if the last expiration were instead a new law in Russia banning adoption! That's not the case at all. This is just a long bureaucratic delay, and there's no indication that Russia is going to prevent accreditation. The fact that they have asked for extra documents, while frustrating, suggests that they are paying attention to the agencies' applications in some way.

We'll let you know when there is an update! For now, I'm trying to get through the last couple weeks of the semester....tests to write, papers to grade, tests to grade...plenty to keep me busy!

Spoke too soon....

In my last post I suggested that we'd be off to Tallahassee soon to get our documents apostilled and sent to Russia. The last background check was supposed to arrive within days, and I thought that once we got that our social worker would send our remaining documents immediately.

I forgot to "figure in" the fact that I was asking the social worker for 8 documents, and inevitably there would be a glitch in the first attempt at the documents. The social worker is not here in Gainesville, but elsewhere in FL, so everything is also delayed because we are sending these things through the mail instead of doing them in person (didn't realize there's be so much paperwork for them; thought it would just be the home visit, so we didn't realize the advantage of going local). So we are doing another round with the social worker, hoping to get everything next week. THEN we will be off to Tallahassee.

This is very frustrating, but (fortunately?) no agencies have been reaccreditted in Russia yet, so we aren't worried about losing our place in line while our paperwork is getting finished. The line simply isn't moving. There's no clear word on when it will start...the Russian government simply hasn't gotten any of the agencies' applications processed yet. The good news is that we know they are working on it -- some people who have gone to pick up their children recently (who are with the few remaining accredited agencies) have gotten more of an inside scoop. Sounds like some people think April will be our lucky month. I am not holding my breath.

I, for one, am trying to plan for fun things that we will be doing in the next few months, without assuming there will be a trip to Russia anytime soon. I've got a conference later this month, then we'll go to a wedding in early May, then I have another conference mid-May, then my brother will be visiting in late May, and then we will be going to Wisconsin (for a conference) and hopefully Minnesota in June. You may notice that conferences qualify as "fun" to me :)

And of course there is plenty to be done at work, so I am not at a loss for things to do! My ability to focus at work is sometimes a little lacking (don't know if I can blame that on the adoption or not!) so your prayers are appreciated as I try to prepare some more research for sending to academic journals. I'm happy to report that I passed my "3rd-year review", so I get to stay here at UF and keeping working toward tenure. I won't be evaluated for tenure for another 4-5 years, but publication cycles are SLOW in economics, so now is the time for me to be as productive as possible!

We'll let you all know when we have actually sent our documents to Russia - no false alarm this time!

Tallahassee, Here We Come (again)

Well, it looks like we should be heading to Tallahassee to apostille our re-done documents soon. Rob's doctor note turned out to be a breeze, but this time the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had a delay with our background checks. They took a long time to send them, and then they never arrived. I have been learning the real-life lesson that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link! So I requested new ones...should be arriving soon. Once those arrive, our social worker can finish his updated home study, and then we can take it all to Tallahassee to be apostilled. After that we send it to Russia.

Let me offer public thanks to my office manager, Laura, for notarizing 19 pages of documents in the last two days. Thank you!!!

It looks like there will only be a gap of a week or two between the expiration of our current dossier in Russia and the arrival of our updated one. Of course, we would have preferred no gap, but this will probably be fine. I'd be shocked if our agency happened to get reaccredited right when we were in the gap. In fact, if they did, that's fine. We wouldn't be the first to travel, but we'd at least know our agency was operating again.

Your prayers are appreciated this spring and early summer. There are baby showers and new babies galore all around us. We will be helping out again this year at the kid's Easter Egg hunt at church -- last year I was fully anticipating coming the next year with our toddler in tow! We even bought him/her an Easter basket on clearance the following week - it has a plush Big Bird (yes, Easter baskets have gotten fancy these days). Alas, it was not to be...not yet.

This will surely be the most anticipated baby of all time. Or at least in second place, behind that time God became flesh.

Back in the paperwork game...

Over the last two weeks, we have successfully requested a new copy of our social worker's license, received it in the mail, sent it to Tallahassee and back to be apostilled, and then sent it on to Russia. This document had expired, so this will bring our set of documents back to being updated for the time being.

The next order of business is updating our home study, which expires in about a month. Fortunately, we don't need to go through another home visit - just need to get some updated documents to the social worker. All of them have been straightforward, except that we ran into a snag with Rob's doctor's approval form (stating that he is healthy). It turns out that Rob's doctor doesn't work in Florida anymore! So he is getting a new exam done with a new doctor instead of just having his old doctor sign a new form like mine did. Luckily, he is getting in for this appointment in the coming week. Once we have that, and the results of our background checks, we will be able to send them to our social worker and get the updated homestudy, which we'll send to Russia immediately.

I talked with a Russian grad student the other day and it was both encouraging and nerve-wracking. She accurately described the way that Russian bureaucracy seems so complicated and tends to go in circles - it was encouraging to know that this was her experience too. Then she gave me her prediction that our adoption would take another year. Nooooo!!!!! She was sweet - told me that she hopes it's shorter - but she just knows how slowly the government can operate. I've decided not to believe her, for my own sanity :) Plus, there is some evidence from the Russian adoption online message boards that the wheels may be turning for reaccreditation. At least one region is even allowing an agency to start operating again based on anticipated, imminent reaccreditation. Let's hope that our day of celebration is right around the corner!

Marking a frustrating anniversary

Well, we've officially been in the adoption process for over a year now. Not an anniversary I anticipated celebrating, given the original 6-7 month estimate our agency gave us last January.

But here we are. What's past is past, and we now hope to hear something about reaccreditation within the next 2 months. Meanwhile, we've discovered that we need to get new copies of several of our forms because they are soon expiring (one already did). This will mean more notaries, some more travels to Tallahassee for apostilles to certify the notaries, and new background checks in case either of us has become a criminal in the last year. On the bright side, it gives us something to actually DO to pursue the adoption, instead of waiting helplessly.

We'll definitely let you know if there is any news!

Sarah

Quick update

I confirmed today that our agency has submitted its accreditation paperwork to the Russian government! They turned it in before the holiday break, although our agency director was not sure if it was officially "processed" before the break or if it was just recently processed when workers returned from the break this week. In any case, we should hear back about their reaccreditation within 90 days, according to the new laws passed in Russia. This means that - as long as there are no errors in the paperwork - our agency should be reaccredited by sometime in March or April.

We are so happy to see things moving forward. Please pray that this deadline is honored!

Christmas for our little one

While we still don't have any news on our timeline, our child was not forgotten this Christmas!

The Kampfers (my family) got us an Advent Calendar that is a whole set of tiny books, each in a special slot, as well as a sweet little teddy bear! We also went shopping after Christmas, and Mom picked out a new stocking and stocking holder for our new addition for next year.


The Hamersmas got our little one a pair of Calvin College sweatpants and some sweet little slippers that look like Dutch wooden shoes! I am glad that the Russian descent of our child isn't stopping them from raiding the Dutch store :) Hopefully our kid will like Dubbel Zout candy (double-salty black licorice) more than I do!



Our agency still anticipates being reaccreditted "soon". At least one person I have talked to, who is with our agency but submitted a dossier just recently, was told that they expected she might travel in May. Of course, we take all of these predictions with a grain of salt, but I suppose it's better than if she were predicted to travel even later...

We'll keep you updated as usual!