Merry Christmas!

Hi all!
As Christmas quickly approaches, I can't help but wonder what our daughter is doing and if this is her first Christmas. It makes me sad to think that we might be missing her first Christmas. Or her birthday, or first steps...I hope that this time next year we'll be celebrating as a family of three.

May God bless you this Christmas season with good health and wonderful family time!

Russian phrase of the day: "s razhdiSTVOM khiSTOvym"- Merry Christmas! (literally, "with the birth of Christ")
(Russian Orthodox Christmas is January 7th.)

Mistake or God Thing?

Well, I got a call on Friday from our mortgage company that controls our home equity line of credit (the way we are paying for our adoption costs at this point). They said that our card had been declined when the State Police used it to pay for our Criminal Records check. Anyway, after several lengthy phone calls with the company we found out that I had made a typo on the expiration date when I filled out the form, and the problem was not that the card had to be swiped, instead of keyed in (as the first lady that I spoke with told me). We then found out that there are lots of limitations on our card which will make it virtually useless for our adoption expenses. So Friday night, we spent about an hour and a half at the bank applying to have both our first mortgage and our home equity loan moved from our mortgage company to our bank. We will hopefully close on those this Friday.

So I really wonder, was it just a typo? Or did God specifically orchestrate that typo so that we would discover the problems with our home equity line of credit before it was too late (ie. we are in Russia trying to use the card to pay for something and can't)? I believe the latter is the case. Thank you God, for this mistake that you knew all along would be a blessing.

On a separate note, I really have concerns about the inner workings of the State Police Criminal Records Division. When I called them to inquire about the status of our paperwork since the card that we were using to pay for it was declined, they told me that they have so much paperwork come in that they simply cannot keep track of everyone that comes across their desk and that they do not keep a record of what they have received and returned. They said I'd just have to wait and see if it is returned to me. These are our tax dollars at work.

Russian word of the day: muh-lah-DYEHTS! "well-done/good job/atta-boy/atta-girl"

Rumor Confirmed

I got an email from our family coordinator this afternoon confirming that reaccreditation would probably not be completed until February of next year. However, she said that they are fairly certain that their accreditation would be valid through May of 2008, not next year in May. So hopefully this is the last delay we will experience due to the reaccreditation process.
She also had very good news. She said that they expect that referrals will not be slow in coming because there would be fewer accreditated agencies working in Russia, so there would be more children readily available. So I am very hopeful that once the reaccreditation is finished we will get a referral relatively quickly. There are lots of other families waiting for referrals, but since we are all interested in different ages and genders of children hopefully the wait for our little girl will come to an end in the next few months. It's pretty awesome to think that this is probably our last Thanksgiving and Christmas with just the two of us!

Russian word of the day: EH-tuh nyee-i-GROOSH-kuh "that's not a toy" (I like this one, might come in handy if she's closer to 2 years old when we meet her)

Law passed in Russia

Hi everyone. I got word last week that Russia passed a law to clarify what documents are needed for agencies to be reaccredited. Unfortunately, they have not acted on the law that would have allowed multi-year accreditations. A friend said that she heard from her coordinator that reaccreditation may not be completed until February.
On a happier note, November is National Adoption Month! Please keep all adoptive families in your prayers this month and if you've ever thought about adopting, then definitely attend a seminar to find out what it's all about. Although the waiting is difficult, so far this has been one of the most exciting and fulfilling things we've begun.
Please also continue to pray that God would provide financially for our adoption, especially when it comes time to travel (two trips to Russia can be outrageously expensive).

Russian Word of the Day: ya ne poni' mayu "I don't understand" (I think this one might come in handy!)

Happy Wednesday!

I mailed our papers for our new criminal records check today. Hopefully it'll come in the next three or four weeks, then we can send it off to the Secretary of State for the apostille. Luckily our next piece of paperwork doesn't expire until March. So we shouldn't have anything else to redo anytime soon.

Sometimes I wonder if our daughter will look like us. A lot of adoptive parents end up with children that look like them even though there's no biological relationship. Our friends' daughter couldn't look more like them. I also wonder what her name will be. I think we want to keep her name if it's not too complicated. I hope someone is cuddling her while we wait for her, and that she's being well cared for. Hopefully the wait will not be too long.

Russian word of the day:
'dobroye 'ootro = good morning

Slow Progress

Well, there's really nothing new to report. Reaccreditation is still not completed, but hopefully soon. Our first document is getting ready to expire, so we are busy getting notarized signatures again. The person who notarized our Police Clearances had a commision that expires at the end of November so we have to have it redone even though we just got it in April, because Russia requires that all papers have current notary dates (our agency recommends that the date be at least two years from the date it is notarized).

I just talked to our family coordinator and she said that they are getting ready to pass a new law in Russia that will allow agencies to be accredited for more than one year, which would be great. She also said that there's a possibility (not probable, but a possibility) that there may be a larger number of referrals once reaacreditation is finished since children keep being added to the registry, even during the reaccreditation process. So maybe it won't take as long as 9 -12 months to get a referral. I would love to get a referral in the next 6 months (April--Spring Break in Russia, hmm that would be nice!), then travel to bring her home in June or July. Please pray that God's timing would be perfect and that we would be able to wait patiently for our daughter to come home.

The weather in Moscow today is similar to here, in the upper 40's. All of next week it is supposed to be in the low to mid 30's with a chance of snow showers each day.

Russian word of the day: bood-zdah-ROHF "Bless you"

We have NGO status!

Thanks to everyone who prayed last week during the 24 hour prayer vigil! God responded by having our agency's partner agency in Russia receive NGO (non-governmental organization) status, which is a huge step towards reaccreditation. Our agency is having another prayer vigil specifically for reaccrediation on Sept. 15 if you'd like to say a prayer for us on that day. Reaccreditation needs to be completed before we can start waiting for a referral. We did get an email about an 11 month old boy who could possibly have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, who was available for review. We chose not to review his file however, since we really feel God has a daughter already chosen for us.

Russian vocabulary of the day:

hello- pryi-VYEHT

No new news

Well, our dossier is in Russia, so there probably won't be any new news for a while. The agency has told us that once it's there, they don't get any updates until we have a referral. So instead of posting adoption updates I think I'll be posting interesting Russian adoption tidbits, or other things that are going on with us.

Russia tidbit #1- The temperature in Moscow tomorrow is 61 degrees, a little chillier than here obviously. Their summer is only hot for about a month it seems. Makes me a little nervous if we have to travel in winter when temps can go down to 40 below.

#2- Russian people are sticklers for wearing a hat even when it's not all that cold. One woman I talked to said she was scolded by the orphanage workers and the cab driver because her daughter didn't have a hat on, and she said it was almost 60 degrees outside.

Well, that's all for now!

Russian vocabulary of the day: (phonetically, 'cause my computer won't type cyrillic letters)
oo-chee-tuhl-NYEET-suh teacher (female)

Dossier off to Russia

Our coordinator called and said she received our dossier (whew! now I can stop worrying about where it is, washed up on a beach somewhere...), and that it had to go through a two-step review process. She was concerend about one of the pictures in our photo album (Chris with one of our dogs), and said she worried that Russia would have concerns about an animal that looked like he could pull you apart. I guess he is a pretty big dog, oh well. I substituted a picture of Chris fishing that we had in our den. I had to scan it in then it wouldn't email! I was very stressed that our email wasn't working right, but it finally went after trying for over an hour!
Our coordinator said that our Russian facilitator would be hand-carrying our dossier to Russia tomorrow! Yay! Hope they get reaccreditation done soon, so we can start waiting for our referral.

Dossier on its way!

Well, our dossier should arrive at the agency Monday morning before 10:30am according to the lady at Fed-ex. It was actually hard to put it into that little white, purple and orange box and entrust that the delivery driver would take good enough care of it for my liking. Visions of "Cast Away" kept playing in my mind, and our dossier washing up on the beach! Oh, well, I guess I'm allowed a little obsessing.
Now the wait is on. Waiting for that all important phone call to learn our daughter's name. I'm praying that the time will go by quickly and it won't take the 9-12 months our agency has said it could take. Getting our referral by Christmas would be wonderful, but we'll just have to trust that God's timing is perfect and whenever He gives us our referral that's when we're supposed to go to Russia.

The Fed-Ex Man has Arrived!

Yippee! The Fed-Ex man finally arrived this morning with our apostilled dossier documents! I'm waiting for our adoption coordinator to return our call about some questions I have on how to send all of these papers to her without them getting lost (I would totally freak out if anything happened to them! I'm not even taking them out to make copies today because it's raining. There are 73 pages and I have to make 4 copies of each page!) I'm hoping she'll say we can drop them off Saturday and Chris and I will take a day trip to DC to drop them off. Otherwise, I guess we'll Fed-Ex them and I'll just trust them to take good care of our papers.
Our coordinator reports that reaccreditation is moving along and should be done by early fall, we hope for sooner though.
One more step closer to our baby! I wonder if this is how pregnant women feel when they hear the heartbeat for the first time :0)

Finally home after a long week

It has been a very long week. I left last Sunday for training about 2 and a half hours from home. The training was very good, and it was supposed to last all week. But Chris called Wednesday night with bad news about a family member, so I rushed home and we headed out for a 13 hour drive for a funeral. The funeral was beautiful and I know that she is now pain-free and living with her Savior. We got home last night. It was very good to be home last night, sleeping in our own bed.
I'm working on cleaning up today and getting laundry caught up. Chris dropped off our papers for apostille last week on Wednesday. The lady in the Secretary of State office was surprised to see him. She said they get 20-30 Fed-Ex packages a day, but no one ever comes in. She said we should get them back today or tomorrow, so I am anxiously awaiting the Fed-Ex truck so I can carry the papers to Staple's to copy them for our agency.
I think when we were going through all of those infertility prcedures and we had to wait so many times to see if they worked, God was preparing us for this wait coming up. What is so exciting is that at the end of this wait, there will be a beautiful little girl, not another negative pregnancy test. Praise the Lord!

Reaccreditation blues

We just found out yesterday that reaccreditation may not be final until early fall, so our dossier won't be submitted until later than we thought. I guess there's no hurry now on getting those two documents redone or rushing to get everything apostilled. I am so bummed that this already long process will now be even longer! Aack!
Is it weird to miss someone that you haven't even met? I miss our daughter even though I don't even know who she is yet.

"But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently" Romans 8:25 (I have had this taped to my bathroom mirror for the past year or so.)

Puttering around

Just puttering around today, trying to find things for the yard sale we're having in the middle of August. So far I have some clothes and a lot of teacher books. I'm moving into a new classroom at a new school after teaching at the same school for 7 years, so I have a lot of stuff accumulated that I need to get rid of. Will be going through boxes from school later today.
I'm also working on baking for a wedding cake that I'm making for this weekend. Five tiers and two sheet cakes is a lot of baking! It's going to have round cakes with white frosting and copper colored dots alternated with square cakes with copper frosting and white swirls and cornelli lace. I'll try to post a picture when it's done.
We got an email from Sarah, our adoption coordinator telling us that the dossier paperwork that had to be notarized by the social worker is on it's way back to us. I had also emailed the Secretary of States' office to see if they ever give appointments to have papers apostilled, but she said they only do that for five or fewer documents. On a positive note, she did say that most people Fed-Ex them and have them returned within 3-4 days (the voice recording that I called said 30 days and I kind of freaked out!).
I'll be out of town all week next week at a teacher training , so Chris will probably be sending the papers for apostille, then making the copies to send with the original to the agency. Thats' going to be hard since I'm such a control freak, I like to do everything myself, though I'm learning quickly to let go through this whole process.
I think I might go out and get some pictures for the baby's room today. I saw some cute flower prints the other day. They're kind of small but I thought if I clustered 4 together they might look good. Right now the walls are bare except for new yellow paint that we did right before our social worker came for our 1st homestudy visit. My mom is going to get furniture for the room between our two trips after we know how big our daughter will be. We've asked for a girl younger than 24 months, but there's a big difference between an 8 month old and a two-year old. I'm kind of hoping she's on the younger side, especially since this is our first child. We found a beautiful crib online at Target.com that I love. We'll probably get it either way since it's a convertible crib. Oh, well, enough typing for now, gotta get back to work on yard sale stuff and laundry.

Where we are now

Our adoption journey began about 7 months ago when we went to an adoption seminar after stopping infertility treatments (we tried unsuccessfully to have a baby for six years and decided to stop after two failed IVF's). After the seminar, the next day we applied to adopt a little one from Russia. We weren't really sure how we would pay for the adoption, but we trusted that if the adoption was a part of God's plan that He would make a way. One day as I was praying about how to pay for the adoption, the phone rang and it was our mortgage company offering us a home equity loan for the amount of the adoption, and amazingly enough the guy's name was "Jesus". Okay, God I'm listening!
We are now almost finished with our dossier, we have a few more documents that need to be redone before we can send them for apostille. Chris has to get his employment letter redone because the dates don't match and then we have to have one of our other notarized papers redone because the notary scratched out a date and rewrote it over the top of the old date. It's really frustrating having to keep redoing things, we might have to redo our criminal record check because the notary's commision expires in November. Then we'll also have to redo our bloodwork between our first and second trip, not sure why, but the doctor marked through a mistake on the paper so I guess we'd have to have it redone anyway.
Our agency tells us that we may wait 9-12 months for a referral, but hopefully it won't take that long. We'd love to be able to make our first trip before Christmas, I'll guess we'll just wait and see.
We applied for a grant from Shaohannah's Hope but we won't hear back about that for at least 3 months. We have also started an online fundraiser at currentfun.com. (If you feel like shopping, check it out. They give us 50% of the sales towards the adoption. Our state is Virginia and the organization name is : Chris and Susan Banchero, you just shop then enter our info at checkout.) I'll let you know how it goes, it seems pretty easy and straightforward.