The other day my office manager asked me how much of my time is spent being preoccupied with our adoption - she can tell how it weighs on me. It was a good question, to which I didn't have a specific answer. I just know it's a lot.
Yesterday was particularly remarkable in the amount of time I spent preoccupied with our adoption. Along with my usual few emails each day related to something other than work (church, etc.) I received 1 email from our new home study social worker, 2 emails from a prospective agency that I had asked for more info, and 3 emails from our current adoption agency. I responded to all of them. I don't want to think about how much time that probably took. But I'm not really able to let that stuff wait.
Our home study worker learned that she needs to do a background check for us in Wisconsin as well as Florida because we lived there less than 5 years ago and that is a new rule. So I looked into getting that process moving. Our meeting with her went very well on Tuesday and we are busily assembling the paperwork she needs to finish our home study update (which is needed no matter which adoption agency we end up with).
The prospective agency was working on sending along a fee schedule to us, as they just finalized it for 2008 (in other words, we're just slightly late!). We have narrowed the search down to this one or one other one that I talked with back in November.
But the most important emails yesterday were from our current adoption agency. They have confirmed that our paperwork made it to Russia and was brought to the office of the Ministry of Education, and was turned in, and was NOT rejected outright (even though some of the documents were prepared for another region of Russia). We are surprised and cautiously happy about this. Our caseworker said that the MOE could still ask us to redo some things once they look more carefully through it, but at least for now it looks like we are actually "in line". We like the idea that the Russian government actually HAS our paperwork for the first time. Our agency was told by the MOE to check back in 10 days to check the status of the situation. This could mean that they would be ready to give us travel dates, or to tell us about a specific child, or to ask us for updated paperwork (could be one document, could be all 12 or so). I emailed back and forth with our caseworker to try to understand more, but this is really all the info they have. This could be very good news, but we just can't tell for sure yet. (Notice my lack of exclamation points - I am holding off on getting excited right now).
There was an interesting turn of phrase in our caseworker's email in which she was explaining the possibility of getting a referral. She said that after 10 days "they might have someone ready." For some reason, this stuck with me: "someone". I think everyone always says "a child" or "a baby", not "someone." It seems much more specific to me, for some reason. Even though it's unlikely that the 10 day mark will bring this best-possible news, it has helped move me toward a more hopeful mood about all this.
If we are instead told we have to redo all the documents, we are still planning to switch agencies. Both of the our candidate agencies are moving at light-speed right now, with first-trip travel happening within a month after submitting paperwork. So no matter what, we should be in a good situation within the next few months, God-willing.
Please pray that God is willing!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The plot thickens...but not too much
We have learned that the packet with our dossier was in fact sent on Monday to Russia. The person who told me it hadn't been sent yet had thought the director was still waiting on something, but when I talked to the director today he gave me the tracking number of the package he sent out on Monday to Russia. It should arrive tomorrow or Monday.
I had a talk with him about this situation and he understands where we are at. He has asked if he can just TRY to get it submitted and see what feedback they get before we move ahead and sign up with another agency. He made clear that he was not asking us to pay anything, basically he just wants a week to see if the submission goes through. I told him we were absolutely, for sure switching home study agencies, even if we didn't switch adoption agencies, and I said that we expect it would be messy to potentially have two different homestudies floating around. He assured me that this will not create a problem. He also clarified that the new bureaucrat in our region is not at all involved with the court system, which is the dicey part of the process.
Nothing has changed from the plan I laid out here earlier today - we are starting the new homestudy on Tuesday (already made our appointment), and we are looking into whether to pursue Russia with a new agency or pursue domestic adoption. The one change is that during the next week, while we are investigating these options, our current agency (with no additional payment or commitment from us) is going to try to submit our paperwork. If by some miracle it is accepted, despite the expiration dates, then we would be traveling quickly. More likely, there will be problems and it will not make it, in which case we will pick up with another agency as planned. So it doesn't cost us anything to let them try.
Not sure what you should pray for, but please pray for God's will to be done.
I had a talk with him about this situation and he understands where we are at. He has asked if he can just TRY to get it submitted and see what feedback they get before we move ahead and sign up with another agency. He made clear that he was not asking us to pay anything, basically he just wants a week to see if the submission goes through. I told him we were absolutely, for sure switching home study agencies, even if we didn't switch adoption agencies, and I said that we expect it would be messy to potentially have two different homestudies floating around. He assured me that this will not create a problem. He also clarified that the new bureaucrat in our region is not at all involved with the court system, which is the dicey part of the process.
Nothing has changed from the plan I laid out here earlier today - we are starting the new homestudy on Tuesday (already made our appointment), and we are looking into whether to pursue Russia with a new agency or pursue domestic adoption. The one change is that during the next week, while we are investigating these options, our current agency (with no additional payment or commitment from us) is going to try to submit our paperwork. If by some miracle it is accepted, despite the expiration dates, then we would be traveling quickly. More likely, there will be problems and it will not make it, in which case we will pick up with another agency as planned. So it doesn't cost us anything to let them try.
Not sure what you should pray for, but please pray for God's will to be done.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Time Has Come for a Fresh Start!
Well, we did not wait until Friday. We did wait until we found out whether our paperwork was going to be submitted before it begins expiring. It is not. The paperwork I sent overnight mail last Tuesday to our agency's office in the U.S. has still not been sent along to Russia. Our agency explained their alternative plan to me (too much to bother explaining here) and we have decided we don't want to do it. So we have officially terminated our case with them.
As much as this is a loss, this is really a huge relief! We don't have to deal with the uncertainty of working with our agency anymore. We also don't have to worry about the particular region we were planning to adopt from, which just recently got a new government official who may make adoptions more difficult. These worries are no longer OUR worries.
So what's the plan? First, we are going to move forward with a home study update from our local social worker. This means we won't have to work with the home study agency anymore either, which has certainly been a source of stress. So this is the first good thing we get to do. Second, during that process (maybe a month? not sure) we will finalize whether we want to start a new Russian adoption or consider a domestic adoption. Both have their upsides and downsides. If we go with a Russian adoption, we will probably use an agency recently recommended by friends of ours. I have been in touch with the agency, and they are literally searching for families to adopt the children that they are ready to place. They recently had a family submit their documents, and the day after the documents were submitted in Russia they were given info about a child, followed by a trip to meet her two weeks later. Talk about running smoothly! So even if it takes us a month or two to put together new paperwork, we are still possibly in the game for a first trip by summer. We don't know as much about domestic options, but we will talk to our social worker about that to get more details. The timing is more uncertain in those cases since we would have to be selected by a birth mother from among other waiting families, and you can't predict when that will happen.
We are feeling optimistic that we are being led in a new direction. Having these frustrations behind us is a load off our minds and hearts. But your prayers for our next move are appreciated!
As much as this is a loss, this is really a huge relief! We don't have to deal with the uncertainty of working with our agency anymore. We also don't have to worry about the particular region we were planning to adopt from, which just recently got a new government official who may make adoptions more difficult. These worries are no longer OUR worries.
So what's the plan? First, we are going to move forward with a home study update from our local social worker. This means we won't have to work with the home study agency anymore either, which has certainly been a source of stress. So this is the first good thing we get to do. Second, during that process (maybe a month? not sure) we will finalize whether we want to start a new Russian adoption or consider a domestic adoption. Both have their upsides and downsides. If we go with a Russian adoption, we will probably use an agency recently recommended by friends of ours. I have been in touch with the agency, and they are literally searching for families to adopt the children that they are ready to place. They recently had a family submit their documents, and the day after the documents were submitted in Russia they were given info about a child, followed by a trip to meet her two weeks later. Talk about running smoothly! So even if it takes us a month or two to put together new paperwork, we are still possibly in the game for a first trip by summer. We don't know as much about domestic options, but we will talk to our social worker about that to get more details. The timing is more uncertain in those cases since we would have to be selected by a birth mother from among other waiting families, and you can't predict when that will happen.
We are feeling optimistic that we are being led in a new direction. Having these frustrations behind us is a load off our minds and hearts. But your prayers for our next move are appreciated!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Counting down to next Friday
We had an excellent meeting on Saturday with the local social worker. We talked about a lot of options with her, and we will most likely switch to her for our home study update and then talk with her about our next steps. It is really exciting to have personal contact with someone who is local and available to help us!
So why are we counting down until next Friday? That is when our paperwork in Russia begins expiring. If it happens that - between now and then - our agency manages to submit our file to the Ministry of Education in Siberia, then we will be able to continue there. Otherwise, we are prepared to rethink the whole situation.
We'll keep you informed!
Sarah
So why are we counting down until next Friday? That is when our paperwork in Russia begins expiring. If it happens that - between now and then - our agency manages to submit our file to the Ministry of Education in Siberia, then we will be able to continue there. Otherwise, we are prepared to rethink the whole situation.
We'll keep you informed!
Sarah
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