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.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, April 01, 2007
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!
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!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
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
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
Thursday, January 11, 2007
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!
We are so happy to see things moving forward. Please pray that this deadline is honored!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Actual progress!
You may remember from my last post that we were not clear on whether agencies were able to submit their documents to Russia yet, or if Russia wasn't accepting applications. I talked to our agency and learned that when they told me our agency's documents had been "submitted" they were relying on a faulty translation from their Russian office -- what actually occurred was that they had brought their documents to the Russian Ministry of Education, where they are eventually going to be submitted, and got information/corrections for putting together their packets.
But this doesn't sound like good news - it just confirmed that Russia was not yet accepting documents. I went for a couple of days trying to come to terms with the expectation that Russia would probably not accept applications until after their holiday break. After all, they are obligated to decide on the applications within 3 months of submission, and since they'll be on vacation for almost a month they might not want to start accepting submissions until they return to work in late January.
Praise God, I was wrong!! The Russian government issued a letter yesterday that finalized the documentation requirements for agencies applying for reaccreditation (include # of photocopies, etc.) and declaring that they would officially start receiving applications on December 20. THAT'S TODAY! I talked with our agency director and he expects our representatives in Russia to submit right away, since they had already made revisions and corrections based on their discussions with the Russian government. Though I don't know if they submitted today, it should be soon. At that point, the 3 month countdown begins!
Yes, 3 months is a long time...but if we're able to travel soon after reaccreditation (say, within a month or so) we may still get our first trip in the late spring. And it's possible they will issue the reaccreditations within less than 3 months. But I suppose I shouldn't start having wild dreams here :)
This is something to be thankful for - a reminder that while things are slow, they are not completely stalled.
We'll be up north for Christmas and New Year's, so I probably won't be blogging (unless there is news). Until then, Merry Christmas!
But this doesn't sound like good news - it just confirmed that Russia was not yet accepting documents. I went for a couple of days trying to come to terms with the expectation that Russia would probably not accept applications until after their holiday break. After all, they are obligated to decide on the applications within 3 months of submission, and since they'll be on vacation for almost a month they might not want to start accepting submissions until they return to work in late January.
Praise God, I was wrong!! The Russian government issued a letter yesterday that finalized the documentation requirements for agencies applying for reaccreditation (include # of photocopies, etc.) and declaring that they would officially start receiving applications on December 20. THAT'S TODAY! I talked with our agency director and he expects our representatives in Russia to submit right away, since they had already made revisions and corrections based on their discussions with the Russian government. Though I don't know if they submitted today, it should be soon. At that point, the 3 month countdown begins!
Yes, 3 months is a long time...but if we're able to travel soon after reaccreditation (say, within a month or so) we may still get our first trip in the late spring. And it's possible they will issue the reaccreditations within less than 3 months. But I suppose I shouldn't start having wild dreams here :)
This is something to be thankful for - a reminder that while things are slow, they are not completely stalled.
We'll be up north for Christmas and New Year's, so I probably won't be blogging (unless there is news). Until then, Merry Christmas!
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