Happy Holidays Everyone!

Well, it is going to be a white Christmas here. Our house looks like a winter wonderland!

I wanted to thank everyone for checking out our blog but looks like we won't have any updates until mid-January. I talked to our agency on Friday and they had been on the phone to their conterpart in Russia talking about our case, we are not matched yet (we weren't expecting it this early anyway) and the Russian winter holiday is the first two weeks in January so everything closes down. They will be back mid-Janaury and then we should get another update. Then hopefully a referral and invitation to travel on our first trip to Russia not long after that. We are wishing for Christmas that we'll have our baby home for the summer. It should be an exciting 2008 for us! I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and safe Christmas & New Year's Eve.

Rostov-on-Don Link

I found a great website all about the Rostov Region if you are interested.

http://www.donland.ru/english/content/info.asp?partId=6935&infoId=7459&topicFolderId=7450&topicInfoId=0

Rostov-on-Don

Last night we had our class at the agency on Russia. Lots of information to make your head swirl but exciting too. Although we won't know anything for sure until we get a referral, it is looking more and more like Russia is going to work out for us instead of U.S. adoption. With our agency's reaccreditation we are only looking at maybe a two month wait now for a referral to Russia.

We found out that our dossier has been submitted to Rostov-on-Don in the Rostov Region of Russia. Rostov-on-Don is in the South Western part of Russia right on the border to Ukraine. Most likely this is where we will be traveling to meet our child. Things are always subject to change but usually they don't at this point. I am trying to learn as much as possible about this region now. I have always wanted to visit Ukraine since my ancestors are from there so I hope we get the chance. Since one trip will probably be 3 weeks we will hopefully get to do both. Now I'm off to google more about Rostov-on-Don and see what I can learn!

Reaccreditation!

I just heard from our agency that they are reaccreditted in Russia! We weren't expecting this before the end of the year so this is great news. And today just happens to be Michael's birthday so I'm wondering if this is a little sign that we might be going to Russia instead of adopting domestically. Only time will tell but I am excited about the idea of either!

What does this mean for us? We're not 100% sure but we know it means wait times for referrals should be shorter but we don't know how short yet. We were orginally told 6 months and it's only been one month so far. Maybe we'll get a referral early next year? That would be perfect. So we are off soon to celebrate Michael's birthday and the idea that our little one might be home sooner than we thought :)

Some Updates on Russia

We spoke with the agency last week and it looks like things are moving along with their accredidation. They are in the final stage and hope to have it back by the end of the year! We can adopt through them with or without it but having accredidation means they can work in twice as many regions and it is very likely our referral will come quicker then. So very good news :)

As for the domestic side. Nothing going on there. We have been told that potential birth parents tend to wait until after the holidays to make these decisions if they are not due now. So we are not expecting this will work out before the New Year anyway.

So we will wait and see what happens. For now we are plenty busy with the holidays which I am thankful for. It makes the time go by quicker.

Lightening Fast!

Wow! This has been a crazy but very GOOD week. We dropped off the completed dossier on Friday to the agency and were told it would be 5-10 days for them to review, approve, and send off to Russia. Well I got the call today that it was reviewed and approved and being sent off to Russia and it's only been 1 business day! With all the problems we've had with paperwork so far I am thrilled this last big step in the dossier went so easily. I hope the rest goes this fast and smooth ;)

I600A approved!!!

After only 2.5 weeks we got our immagration approval today! They told us 4-6 weeks so I was shocked when I got the email today from my agency that we were approved. And then I got home and it was in the mail waiting for us. We will be getting it notarized tomorrow and dropping it off in Boston to be aposilled. We should have the completed dossier into our agency by the begining of November and should definately be on the waiting list for Russia by Thanksgiving. We are so excited!

Starting a little late...

I've been meaning to start this blog for months now and here it is October and I am just starting. Life has been calm for the moment on the adoption front. We are fully approved for domestic adoption in the U.S. and our profile is with the agency waiting to be shown to birthparents. Now we are just hoping and praying that we get chosen.

The Russian adoption is a little more complicated. The dossier paperwork has been MUCH harder than I imagined. But after spending almost 2 months running back and forth from 3 different doctors, our accountant, town halls, DSS, police station, and many other places I finally have all the paperwork needed and it has been notarized. Now we are just waiting to get our I600A fingerprints back which were taken on 10/4. They say it will take about 4-6 weeks until we get them in the mail. Once we have those we can get them notarized too and then send all the paperwork to get aposilled by the state. That should take another week and then we will be able to submit the dossier to our agency. We are hoping to have that done before Thanksgiving and hopefully be a waiting family in Russia too soon after that.

I get asked a lot why we are applying in both Russia and the U.S. Basically we were planning to only apply to Russia and do an international adoption. During the end stages of our homestudy we were made aware of some delays and issues with adoptions in Russia right now. We are hoping for everyone that adoptions start going smoother again in Russia soon but in case they don't we wanted to have another plan. We will just wait and see and take whichever referral comes to us first. So we could end up going half way across the world to meet our child or somewhere nearby. We may end up with a newborn (if U.S.) or a toddler (if Russian). We are up for anything and can't wait until our child finds us!