Next steps

We have received our next set of paperwork from our adoption agency - boy is it a lot!
They have also included travel information for Moscow and within our region. Basically we have to complete a lot more paperwork relating to all aspects of our lives (health - physical and mental, finances, employment, marriage, criminal background checks, pictures of our home and family/friends, etc.). But it is relatively straightforward and we should have plenty of time to work on all of it. We are also getting some CD's to learn a little Russian!
Once we receive a referral we make travel plans for Trip 1, which should be approximately one week. This trip is to meet the child and make a final decision on whether to adopt that child. When will then return home and await our court date. Trip 2 will be for our court date and to bring our child home. If the 10 day wait is not waived, we may be in Russia for 2-3 weeks on that trip. The judge has the authority to waive the required 10 wait and allow us to leave the country, but the trend is that the judges are being pressured not to waive it. It is suppose to be the appeal period.
I don't mind the travel -except for leaving Bryson!!! It is going to be sooooo hard to leave him here, especially for that second trip knowing we may be gone for that long. I know he will be fine with my parents, but I will worry and miss him so much! It is so far to travel away from him. I know some families take their other children - even on both trips. If he was older, we probably would. But that is such a hard trip to take a 3 or 4 year old on. And our new child will likely be frightened and need ALOT of attention. Can you imagine a 10 -12 hour overseas flight with both a preschooler AND a scared 1 or 2 year old. Can you say "flight from hell"? Ha! Ha! Author John MacLean has a whole section in his book "The Russian Adoption Handbook" entitled "The Flight From Hell" and I about died laughing when reading it. But I'm sure it is correct unless we get very lucky!
Until next post!
Steph

Introduction

Now that I have more time to write, I will give a quick summary of where we are at in our adoption process. The good news is that we have completed our Home Study, received BCIS approval, and our documents have been sent to the region of Kemerovo. Kemerovo is about a 4-5 hour flight from Moscow in Siberia. If anyone is interested in learning more about this region, I have found RussiaTrek.com very informative as you can get more general information on the different regions of Russia.
The bad news is that we are caught up in delays with re-accreditation with our agency. Russia has implemented a new law that all adoptions agencies must register as a NGO (non-governmental organization) before they can renew their accreditation. The problem is that while they have passed this new requirement, they have not set up the policies and procedures for agencies to comply with it! Our adoption agencies accreditation came up for renewal on 6/9/06 - right after this new policy was passed. Therefore our agency (and many other well known agencies) are "in limbo" preparing to get NGO registration so that they may then get re-accreditation. We have been told this should take anywhere from 1 -3 months. It has now been 1 month and everything is still pending.
Unfortunately, our documents did not get registered in Kemerovo before their accreditation expired (it was sent over about 10 days before the 6/9 expiration date). For families with paperwork already registered in their regions, they have the option of continuing with their adoptions independently or waiting for their agency's accreditation to be renewed.
So, now we wait - wait for this "glich" to get straightened out and then our paperwork can be registered and begin our wait for a referral.
For those who do not already know, we are waiting for a child younger than age 2 (boy or girl), and have told our agency that we would be willing to consider a child with a minor medical need. Many simple corrective procedures that are easily obtained in the USA are not readily available in Russia, and we would love to be able to help a child with a special need.
Next posts I will give a bit more detail about our "next steps" and probably ventilate a few frustrations!
Steph