Praises

Praise the Lord! We received a donation this week for $150, which means we have officially raised the entire amount needed for the orphanage donation! Thank you to all of our friends and family who have helped out. (Now, we move on to getting together the amount needed for the 8-doctor medicals in Moscow.)

We are also thankful that our CPS letter finally arrived last week and should be on it's way to Russia now! This was the last document (for now at least) that we were waiting for.

Here's a photo of Dasha's amazing athletic ability. She's throwing the ball to me! Can't wait to show a pic of her cute little face (hopefully it won't be much longer!)

Court Dates (Not Ours)

Praise God that several families in Chelyabinsk (a particularly tough region), who have been waiting a very LONG time, have had successful court dates recently and will be bringing their children home soon. Praise God also for a family from our agency who received the first court date in Krasnoyarsk (our region), scheduled for Dec. 18th, and another family who received a court date in Tula, scheduled for Jan.15th. Please pray for these families as they prepare for court and to bring their babies home. I also thank God that He has provided $850 of the $1000 that we need for the orphanage donation.
Tomorrow (Dec.10th) is a Prayer Day devoted to praying for Russia families from our agency. Please pray for the children, families, judges and staff in Russia, and for our agency.
I pray that God would let us know when our court date will be, even if it is not until January or later. I think I could be more at peace during this Christmas season if I knew when I'd be able to see Dasha again.

Happy Birthday Dasha

Today our little girl is two years old. I pray that she has had a wonderful birthday with her nannies and that she is happy. I miss her terribly and wish I could be there with her today. I rest in the knowledge that, God-willing, this will be her last birthday without us as a family. Chris and I are going out tonight to celebrate with friends(one of whom incidentally has the same birthday as Dasha!).
Thank you to everyone who have been praying for our documents to arrive. We got our I-171H back in two days!! We are now just waiting on the CPS letter and then we're all done.
Keep praying!

The Last Few Documents (I hope...)

We got our court petition and police clearances on Tuesday and our homestudy update on Friday. Praise God! They are now on their way to the Secretary of the Commonwealth for apostilles. Now that we have the homestudy update, we have also filed for our I-171H extension. The last two documents we need are the new I-171H and the letter from CPS. Please pray for these to arrive as quickly as possible (the I-171H usually takes several weeks, I'm hoping for a miracle...to have them within a week or two). If we get all of our documents within the next week or two, we will probably have a court date in mid to late January.

Dasha's 2nd birthday is in less than two weeks (Dec.5). I wish we could be with her to celebrate. I wonder if the orphanage will recognize her birthday or if she won't even know that she is turning two years old.

Please pray for Dasha and her birthmother on her birthday. Also, please continue to pray for financial matters relating to the adoption and that God would continue to provide what we need to finish the adoption and for me to be able to take off a couple weeks when we get home from Russia (my job only allows 4 weeks of sick leave to be taken for an adoption, then it's unpaid leave...at this point we can only afford for me to take off while we are in Russia. Please pray that God would provide for more time for us to bond as a family before I have to return to work.)

The Latest News

Well, the latest news is that our region in Russia has decided to require the 8-doctor medical exam in Moscow. This means that we wasted our time and $ getting our medicals and psych evals done here, since we'll have to be examined by 8 different doctors now in Russia including a Russian psychiatrist (VERY EXPENSIVE!). It will also add a day or two to our trip. We had to have new bloodwork done to take the lab reports with us and a chest x-ray to test for TB so hopefully we won't have to have the bloodwork done in Russia.

We are still waiting for our homestudy update to be completed. We are also waiting for our police clearance letters, letters from Child Protective services, and our court petition. These are the last four documents we need before we can get a court date.

Thank you to our family and friends who have donated towards the orphanage donation fee, we have raised $700 of the $1000 that we needed for the donation. God is good! We are now trying to raise money for the last $300 and the cost of the medicals (about $1500) in Russia.

I had a wonderful adoption shower yesterday with my girlfriends! Chris was so excited to look at all of the toys and cute clothes when he got home from work. I can't wait for Dasha to come home so she can see how loved she already is not just by us by by all her "aunties".

Paperwork almost done

Well, I took yesterday afternoon off to go to our Psychiatrist Evaluation appointment and get our papers notarized. The appointment went okay, and the Dr. said he'd try to have our report done by Monday, so that's good. We had our medicals redone on Wednesday and Thursday and the Dr. said my blood pressure was a little high (hmm...I'm not under any stress or anything so I don't know why it would be high! Haha!). He messed up my forms, which I knew he would, so Chris took it back with him to his appointment and had it fixed. We are still waiting on my employment letter, our police clearances, our homestudy update, and new immigration approval (which I need the homestudy update to be able to apply). Maybe we'll have it done in time for a mid December court date, who knows?

On a happier note, Chris and I registered at Target for baby things. I kind of felt like an imposter though since I obviously wasn't pregnant. We put Dec. 25, 2007 as our arrival date, wishful thinking of course. The registry will be a good shopping list for us once we find out when we're traveling. We won't have to try to think so hard about what she'll need when we get her home.

I want to thank a couple of our friends, you know who you are, who have kindly donated $ towards the orphanage donation fee. We still have a long way to go, but your thoughtfulness and love for us is renewing my hope that God will provide what we need.

Here's another "non-identifying" photo for you to enjoy. She's checking out the toy cabinet. Oh, I miss her!!

Trip One News and Where We Are Now

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog since we received our referral! We left for Russia on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 22 and flew to Chicago, then to Frankfurt, Germany, then to Moscow, then finally arrived in Krasnoyarsk on Monday morning, Sept. 24. We had breakfast at the hotel and then changed into our clothes to go to the Ministry of Education (the officials that are in charge of adoptions). We were there about 20 minutes while the official, Galena, asked us questions about our occupations, why we wanted to adopt from Russia, etc. From there, we went back to the hotel to drop off the couple that we traveled with. Then we went to meet the orphanage director, and she asked the same questions and told us all about our daughter's medical history and what they knew of her background (which was not much). After that we drove to the orphanage and met with her doctor, and were able to ask her questions. After about 15 minutes with the doctor, they brought Dasha in to meet us. She is so adorable. We played ball, read books, played with dolls...she is very energetic and lively! She was calling Chris "Papa" on the very first day. We were able to stay with her for about three hours, then we went back to the hotel to sleep. We slept a few hours then got up for dinner at the Cafe at the hotel.
The next day, we went to have some papers notarized at the notary's office, then off to the orphanage for another visit of about three hours. Leaving that afternoon was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. We had dinner that night at a russian restaurant with Yelena (our facilitator) and Serge(our driver).
The next morning we left for the airport around 4:00am, and arrived in Moscow around lunchtime. We toured Red Square and had dinner with our guide, Ana, at TGIFridays. Then back to the hotel to sleep a couple hours before leaving for the airport at 2:00am.
We left Moscow and flew to Munich, Germany, then to Chicago, and then we got home to Richmond at 9:30 Thursday (Sept.27) night.
What a whirlwind of a trip! We're not allowed to share photos of her face until after the adoption is final so here is a picture of her I can share :0)

We are now doing paperwork that is required to get a courtdate (about 20-30 documents), having an evaluation by a psychiatrist, having our medical exams redone again, and having our homestudy updated again. Once that's all completed, we send it in and the judge assigns a courtdate for at least thirty days after receiving all the paperwork. So we're probably at least looking at December, maybe late January if not in December (since Russia shuts down for two weeks for Christmas in early January).

Please pray that we would get all of our documents in very quickly, that they would be completed correctly, and that we would have a court date before Christmas. Please also pray that we would be able to come up with an extra $1000 dollars that they have just added to our fees as an orphanage donation for our 2nd trip that was not previously required. (We took some donations on the first trip, but these do not count towards the $1000 that they are requiring.) We are already way over the amount that we had originally thought we'd need and since it has to be cash, I don't know where this is going to come from. Pray that God would continue to provide as He has been. Thanks!

Referral!!!

Hi everyone,
As you probably already know from the email I sent out to our family and friends last week, we received our referral last Wednesday night. She is a beautiful little 21 month old girl. I know now what it means to fall in love at first sight. We Fed-exed our agreement letter to the agency accepting the referral on Friday and now we are waiting on travel dates to go meet her. Oh, how I long to hold her in my arms! We'll let you know when we receive our travel dates. There is so much to do and so little time to get it done (and it's the first week of school!).

Orphanage Donations

After speaking with several other adoptive parents about orphanage donations, what I have learned is that the best way for friends and family to help is to make a monetary donation and then we buy supplies (like diapers or medicine) for the orphanage while we are in Russia (the money goes farther there and we also don't have to pay overweight fees at the airport for the extra luggage). We are also going to take some clothes and shoes (they all must be new and have the tags still on them). We are going to take clothes in sizes 6 mths to 4T, and infant and toddler shoes. Shoe Carnival marked down a bunch of shoes for me when I told them what they were for. I got 12 pairs for $3.oo a pair the other day. A friend of mine said not to take toys because she said the kids don't get to play with them, they are put up on shelves. What the kids really need are new clothes. If you'd like to help with orphanage donations, let me know, we'd appreciate all the help we can get. Thanks!

Krasnoyarsk and the referral process

We received some information from our agency yesterday about how the referral process works in Krasnoyarsk. First, the agency is able to register about 3-5 dossiers per month there (yay! ours was one of the first few to be registered!). Then the referral match is made in Russia and then sent to us. If we choose not to accept it, then we have to write a letter explaining why we are declining and then may wait several more months for a new referral. Evidentally, in the past, the agency received several referrals not matched with a particular family and they had more flexibility in matching the children. They also said writing the letter in case of declining the referral was a new procedure.
Our agency said that the referrals coming out soon would mostly be boys (since there are fewer girls available) and would probably have some health concerns (since the healthiest children are reserved for Russian adoptive parents). However, most children in Russian orphanages do have some medical diagnoses that do not really mean a whole lot or are easy to treat once in the U.S.

Please pray that God would make our daughter the first referral that we receive and that we would know at first sight that she is ours. Also, please pray that she would be "healthy" by American standards, even if she has a strange Russian diagnosis in her medical records.

We are registered in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

We received a phone call yesterday that we are officially being registered in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Our little girl will come from that region. Krasnoyarsk is exactly 12 hours time difference and the high temperature there yesterday was around 55 degrees.
Our family coordinator said that in the past referrals generally came 2-3 months from registering in the region and court dates came about 2-4 months after trip one. But she said they are not really sure exactly what the time frame will be now since it has been so long since there has been accreditation. Please pray that the time would pass quickly!
Also, please keep our family in your prayers as my uncle passed away unexpectedly yesterday. Pray that God would provide comfort and peace, especially for my grandparents and cousins.

Cute Cracker Barrel Outfit

Here it is. It's probably too big but I couldn't resist (the only size they had was 18 months).

Praying for a Referral

Our dossier should be in a region by now. Our agency emailed last Friday to let us know that Dr. Dubrovsky had everything and was ready to submit it. Hopefully, we will hear what region we are registered in sometime next week. Maybe we'll hear about the region and get a referral at the same time, who knows?
We are praying that God helps us to wait without being anxious or worrying, and so far we are pretty calm. I am so looking forward to the day we get to meet her and see her little face!
We found the cutest outfit today at Cracker Barrel (I'll post a picture when i get a chance). On the front it says "Hi, I'm new here". I love it!
Keep praying that our daughter is receiving good care and is in good health as we wait to bring her home and that the time is short until she gets here!

Russian word of the day: NAH-shuh DOH-cheen-kuh- "our dear daughter"

"To Do List" part two

okay, here we go again...
12.) make a list of questions to ask at the orphanage about our baby
13.) find an international adoption specialist to use for a consult before accepting the referral
14.) make a card to carry with important Russian phrases
15.) find out what kind of converter I need to charge the video camera and cell phone (done)
16.) get a money belt, or two (done)
17.) get a couple toys that I can leave with the baby and play with when we visit her (maybe get duplicates so we can have them at home too?)
18.) call the credit card company and let them know that we will be making large charges so they will not suspect fraud
19.) buy some pants that don't wrinkle :0)
20.) practice packing my three ounce liquids into one quart size bag for the carry-on (done- wow! not much will fit in a quart size Ziploc bag!)
21.) get immodium, tums, benadryl, ginger pills, advil, and other meds in small packages to carry-on, also small Kleenex packs to use for t.p. in russian bathrooms (most of this is done, thanks again Joanne, you are awesome!!!)--still need immodium, benadryl and ginger
22.) want to get "squishy" pillow for plane ride
23.) will keep thinking, that's enough for now...

Starting a To Do List

Well, I've started a "to do list" of things we need to have ready in case our referral comes soon. Chris is off on Friday, so we're doing some of the things then that we need to do together (in addition to preparing for his parents' visit the next week). First we need to go to our bank and request cash in the form of new bills to take on our first trip. It usually takes a while for them to get the amount of new bills that we're going to need so I figured asking early was a good thing. My mom used to work at a bank and she said her bank had to order them and it usually took her three weeks to get them. Then we need to get passport photos taken to go on our visa applications. I saw somewhere that you can fill out most of the visa application ahead of time, then just fill in the other blanks when it's time to go so we may look into that too. (money and visa photos done!)

Stuff that doesn't have to be done Friday, but before we go...
1.) take pictures of me, Chris, Chris' parents (they're visiting from Arkansas next week, perfect timing to get their pictures taken), my parents, and a few other things to go into a photo album to leave with the baby at the orphanage (almost done)
2.) get a disposable camera to leave with the orphanage workers (done-thanks Joanne!)
3.) call the doctor and see if she's willing to give us a prescription for antibiotics to take in case we get sick and ask about putting tubes in my ears for flying since they don't equalize the pressure AT ALL--they just hurt horribly for hours at landing and after the flight
4.) make a packing list for the suitcases
5.) show Chris how to work the videocamera so we can take turns
6.) get together donations to take for the orphanage
7.) make a list of phone numbers and important addresses to have with us in Russia
8.) call the cell phone company and sign up for international calling (our phone is GSM capable) (done- $3.99/minute! will probably mostly be emailing from the hotel business center!)
9.) arrange with someone to drop us off/pick us up from the airport (done)
10.) ask my brother to take care of the dogs and cats (done)
11.) want to get a travel book about Russia (done- Lonely Planet makes a great travel book!)
12.) finish this list--gosh, I feel tired just thinking about all this!

Russian phrases of the day: "Do you speak english?"- vy govo'rite po ang'liiski
"I don't speak russian."- ya ne govo-ryu po russki

More good news

I got an email today that said that my agency needed this particular new document as soon as possible because our facilitator in Russia was submitting dossiers to regions and ours was in the running!!!
Please pray that our agency would process this document very quickly and that this would be only the beginning of very good news to come!!

A-C-C-R-E-D-I-T-A-T-I-O-N!!!!!!!

Praise God for His goodness! Our agency called this morning and they are now officially accredited in Russia!!!! She said that referrals should start back up in about two weeks, so we are now really waiting for a referral and not just for our agency to be accredited. I am so excited!!!!!!! Keep those prayers coming for a quick referral and first trip to Russia!

Finally some good news to share

We received this information yesterday in an email from our agency:

"Our agency today received word that our agency's partner agency in Russia has received approval from all necessary government institutions (the various ministries) and all of these approvals are currently at the Ministry of Education. We are now waiting for reaccreditation by the Ministry of Education. The exact timeframe for the Ministry of Education to grant reaccreditation remains uncertain, however the timeframe being suggested is a few weeks. Once reaccreditation is granted it may take a couple weeks for the official paperwork to be completed and work begun.

Our agency's partner agency is currently in the second set of 10 agencies that have received approval from the various ministries and are awaiting reaccreditation at the Ministry of Education. The reason for our current positioning appears to be missing post placement reports from previous families working with our partner agency.

Our agency is very excited at the continued progress occurring in the reaccreditation process. We do however remain cautious regarding timeframes as we have seen timeframes lengthen unexpectedly in the past. We will continue to keep you updated as new information becomes available.

Please continue to pray for this process, the officials at the Ministry of Education, and the many children in orphanages who are affected by this process."

This is very exciting news! This sounds like we should have reaccreditation hopefully by the end of July and maybe things will get moving by September (August is usually a slow month in Russia as most of the court officials go on vacation for most of the month)!

I am cautiously hopeful, but very excited that there appears to at least be some end in sight and it's not ridiculous to think she could be home with us by Christmas! I only have a few more documents to get done and then they are off to the Secretary of State for apostille, I am even more anxious now to have everything in order and ready!

Please keep praying for forward movement and that our daughter would be in God's loving care while she waits for us to bring her home.

New Nursery Pictures

The pink squares on the quilt are this soft, fuzzy chenille fabric. I love how soft all of the bedding is. We are waiting to get a mattress since we thought it might encourage the cat to make herself at home. Once the little one is home, we will probably keep her door closed at night to keep the cat from hopping in with her.

The picture above the rocking chair is a Peter Rabbit Print. I had always wanted a Peter Rabbit nursery, but since she won't be a newborn when she comes I didn't think it would be appropriate. So the print is my memorial to that dream.

I can't wait to be rocking with the baby in this chair before bedtime!

Glorious Summer!

The official beginning of summer was yesterday and it was beautiful outside, not too hot, sunny, and just a little breeze! Oh how I love summer!
I spent my first week of summer vacation redoing some of our dossier documents (16 of them to be exact). The notary messed some of them up and I had to redo a couple with a different notary, but all in all it only took me a few hours to get everything redone, notarized, and ready for apostille (that's next week's job). I took new photos for the dossier photo album since we've almost finished the nursery now, and last year we hadn't started it yet.
I picked up a couple cute outfits at Target today on clearance. I know I probably shouldn't buy clothes yet but I couldn't resist. It makes it feel more real to see little shirts and dresses in the baby's armoire.
I also got two cloth books--Fluffy Chick and Friends, and Squishy Turtle and Friends. Our friend's daughter has Fluffy Chick and she loves it. I figured they'd be good to pack for Trip #2 for the plane ride.
We got an encouraging eamil from our agency on Wednesday. She said the first five American agencies are possibly getting ready to be accredited, since they've made it through all four Russian Ministries that had to approve them before accreditation. They are now just waiting with the Ministry of Education to receive their accreditation. She said our agency is about #15-20 down the list to receive reaccreditation. So maybe things will get moving soon.

Russian word of the day: LYEtam- "in the summer"
Weather in Moscow: Sunny, 69*F, low humidity

Re-Do, Re-Do, Re-Do

Well, let the paperchase begin again! We just finished re-doing fingerprints at immigration and submitting the paperwork (new financial statement, new medicals) to redo our homestudy. Our social worker comes next Wednesday to do the visit. I need to get started on the other documents that expire soon.

We got to visit briefly with our friends and their daughter (adopted from Sakhalin, Russia) this weekend at a Washington Nationals Game. The Nats lost but we still had a great time. We agreed that once our daughter and their next daughter (from Guatemala) comes, we should stick to minor league games. Not sure about three girls on the DC Metro at midnight :0)

I'm in the final stretch of a challenging school year and will be glad for the respite of summer. Hopefully, there will be great news to share soon about the adoption but at this point there's just more waiting!

Russian word of the day: doo-SHEHB-nuh-yuh BOHLY - "heartache"

Frustrated!

Ack! The MOE in Russia has asked for more revised documents from our agency before they will reaccredit them! Now instead of the end of March, it probably will take til the end of April (though technically, they have til the middle of June!). I know God's timing is perfect, but now all of our paperwork is probably going to have to be redone, not just some of it. And at this rate, some things will be redone more than once! And all the while people that I know are getting pregnant, having their babies, celebrating their babies birthdays and here we are, still waiting. How much longer can I endure this!

Nursery pictures

A few pictures of what we've done in the baby's room. We still need to hang some things on the walls (the pictures for one wall are in the crib), but all of the furniture is finished. I love the wall color and the natural colored furniture.

My Goodness! Will Russia ever finish reaccreditation?!?

Well, now it seems that instead of reaccreditation being completed by February, we are hearing that our agency's revised paperwork was submitted in early January and the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Russia has up to three months to review it before accrediting our agency. We are also way down the line of people to be registered in a region once it is done. So we are looking at an even longer wait now.

On a happier note, my students and I had a fabulous time playing in the snow flurries today after lunch.

The Yahoo group that I am on has set aside February as a month of prayer for our adoptions. If you feel so led, please join us in praying. We are praying as a group on Sundays and then the week days and Saturdays are assigned. My days are Feb. 2 and Feb. 16. Please pray specifically that the MOE would review the paperwork quickly and efficiently and that those who have been waiting so long to be reunited with their children would be able to get court dates very soon. Also please pray for those waiting for referrals and that the waiting children would be held in God's tender loving care until they can be held in their parents' arms.

Please keep Chris and I specifically in your prayers that we would be patient in our wait since the frustration is strong especially as our paperwoorks starts to expire and that the finances would be there as we move forward. Thanks!

Russian word of the Day: "snyek"- snow

Nursery

Well, we did decide to put together the crib and I must say it is lovely. I thought it might make me sad to have an empty crib in there but it really makes me feel so full of hope to look at it, knowing that one day our daughter will be filling that room. The rug that we got to go in her room is gorgeous, all sorts of yellows and greens with a floral print. It matches perfectly some cute flower pictures I got to go on the walls.

Our paperwork is back up to date. I just have to send off the police clearances to the agency next week. No real rush though as reaccrediation is still moving at a snail's pace. Our next document expires in March so I guess I'll start working on that next month.

Russian word of the day: suh-BAH-kuh "dog"- (note: dogs in Russia are less tame and more wolf-like, some children are afraid of them as a result. )

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Yeah, I know it's January 13th, but I'm just a little behind(or early, Russian New Year is tomorrow). We finally got our police clearance letters back from the State Police and Chris is planning on driving over to the Secretary of State's office later this week to get them apostilled. I'm glad we'll have it done before our agency is reaccredited so we won't have an added delay of waiting for it to come. Our agency is still saying probably February is when things will get moving again.

Chris got the floor fixed in the baby's room and we found a new rug to go in there. The crib we ordered on Christmas Day arrived yesterday by UPS. I'm still trying to decide if we should put it together now or wait.

Russian Phrase of the Day: NAH-shuh DOH-cheen-kuh "our daughter"