Making Changes

Lisa and I have been in the process of adopting for….well, it seems like forever, but in truth it has been for around 3 years.  As most of you know, we were originally in the Vietnam program, but it shut down and still hasn’t reopened.  We stayed in the program for a while but got frustrated at the slow progress and switched to the Russian program

The Russian program has moved a lot faster.  In the past several months, we have completed our home visit from social workers, completed all paperwork, and have been fingerprinted by the Homeland Security office to get our approval for international adoption.  All of our paperwork is in Russia now and we have even been assigned a region.  We will be adopting from Yaroslavl.  It is about 150 miles north of Moscow.

All we are waiting on now is our phone call from the agency, Children’s Hope International, informing us of our referral.  That will give us about a week’s time to get everything ready and travel to Russia.  Believe me…we are more than ready!

On our first trip to Russia, we will finally get to meet our child at the orphanage.  We will get to visit for 3 or 4 days while we are there.  During this time, we can feed and play with him.  We can also help with changing diapers and other things.  Of course, we will have our own medical examination of him and will be in contact with the good people at UK.  They have an international adoption medical unit and will be able to give us advice on the adoption.

At the end of the week, we will decide whether or not to complete the adoption.  Our agency has informed us that they have excellent records of couples accepting their first referral.  I have all the faith in the world that everything will work out for us as well.  If we agree to complete the adoption, we will sign the paperwork and then travel back to the USA while everything goes through the courts.

When it is time for us to go before the judge in Russia, they will call us.  At that time, we will have about 2 or 3 days to get back to Russia and have our appearance in court.  According to our agency and other people who have adopted, the process in court takes about 2 hours.  When the judge approves the adoption, we will have to wait 10 days until we can legally pick up our child from the orphanage.  We will stay in Russia during this time.  We can visit the orphanage during our wait, thankfully.

After we pick him up from the orphanage, we will have to spend more time in Russia getting his paperwork together so that he can leave the country.  We will also have to get him a passport and visit the American Embassy in Russia.  Finally, we will get to come home.  Of course, we will need a little time at home to start bonding before we rush back into work and such.

Most people have kids and take it for granted that this is something that is just naturally going to happen.  For those of us who can’t…for whatever reason…the process is a little bit more than just letting nature take its course.  There are piles of paperwork, late nights of worrying that everything is going okay, and then having to travel halfway around the world to pick up our child.  However, it is a process that will be more than worth it in the end.

I know that there is a long way to go still on this journey to complete our family.  However, can I dare say that I see the light at the end of tunnel?  We are expecting a phone call at any time.  In fact, we are hoping to complete this adoption by the end of the year. 

I will keep you all informed as we continue along this path.  Please keep us in your thoughts!

Until next week…class dismissed!