It's Coming!

The Home Study Report has been put in the mail today! WooHoo! After a bit of a struggle yesterday, our Social Worker and Family Coordinator worked out the complications and I resubmitted a financial document and we're 'good to go'!


---doing the happy dance--- woohoo!

Revised letter has been sent

Just a quick update. The CPA (Laura) who originally did my Employment letter a month ago, has speedily revised and resent another one. She's been so kind and I just want to thank her publicly!

So, I forwarded the letter to our Family Coordinator (Kristen) and she replied that it was great. Then I forwarded it to our Social Worker (Amy) to finalize the checklist of our necessary paperwork. I also asked when I could expect to receive the finished Home Study Report. That's where we are now, waiting for that lovely report.

At least we've moved a little forward. Thanks for checking in!

Need Letter Again...

Just heard from our Family Coordinator... we'll need a new CPA letter. The one we did needs to be worded a little clearer. Plus, there was a date typo that I hadn't noticed, so even if the wording were correct, it would still need to be redone. Oh well!

One strange reaction I had was one of excitement when I heard that the original letter had gone to the Russian contact for approval. That means it's been seen by someone who normally wouldn't see it until going to Russia. I don't understand it myself, but I kind of got a little excited.
*shrug*

So, that's where we are! Working on another letter....

Fundraiser Still Going!

Praise God! We received a lot of orders for our Valentine's Fundraiser. Lots of you ordered cards and cookies and we're so grateful!

We want to let everyone know that we're going to make this project a long-term fundraiser and have cards and goodies available for as long as possible. If you need to buy a card, why not check in with us and see if we have a design you like. You'd be helping us out while getting something you need. Check back in the future for our newest designs for all kinds of cards. We'll be designing all the year-round cards like Birthday, Congrats, Get Well, Wedding, Shower and many more. I'm working on personalized notecard packs too!

Thanks again for all your support and please continue to share this with others you know! "Direct Link" to come....

Nothing yet!

We've FINALLY heard from our Agency Social Worker. It's been more than 3 weeks since our last home visit and it looks like we might get our Final Report by the end of this week, or maybe early next week. Of course, I get anxious because of all the rest of the stuff we have to do, but I know that God is in control. That's easy to say and hard to walk out, but I guess I don't have a choice!

Keep praying that things work especially fast on the government side of things!

New Fundraiser Finally Ready

As you may have read in my last post, I've started the website for the Valentine's Fundraiser. I finally have the order form ready, so feel free to access the website pages and place your order! We're offering specialty Cookies in different quantities along with a slew of Greeting Cards, sure to please.

Thank you very much for your support and Happy Valentine's Day! Check it out here!

First Draft H.S. + Fundraiser info

We received the first draft of the Home Study Report. I found some errors and that led me to another form I had already submitted. I found errors on some of our financial information so I've corrected it and resubmitted that form. I hope it's ok. I sent the report changes to Vickie and haven't heard back yet. Hope it's all ok.

Some of the agency families who were waiting for a court date to go on their 2nd trip have finally received them. They'll be going in February to pick up their children and bring them home for good! One of them commented on how expensive the hotels were. Our agency's travel agent got them prices of around $300/night, and some others couldn't find a safe hotel for under $600/night. It's scary how pricey it is, and they'll have to be in the country for 2-3 weeks. Yikes!

On that note, I want to introduce another website for Valentine's sales. I've created several cards that can be personalized and also have cookies available. Click here to go to that page. The Order page isn't up yet. I've been super busy with work (praise God) and have only been able to get this far. If you'd like to place an order, just email me and we'll go from there! (To email, there's a link that says "I need to ask a question"). THANKS!

Home Study Visits Finished!

WOOHOO!

We met with Vickie again this evening, this time individually. She asked us about our family and upbringing and stuff like that. It was really easy and very comfortable. *whew*

Vickie said she'd have the report to us by early next week for our review. Then it's got to go to the main woman, Amy, in Orlando for the final look-over. We should have our final report in a couple of weeks. Yay!

Then we'll send off for our government clearances. Keep praying things continue to go this smooth. :) We're one step closer!

Oh, and I found out that our agency works with 4 different regions in Russia, so our child will come from one of the following areas: Tula, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod and Krasnoyarsk.

David's perfect child...

David called me and said he'd found his perfect child. Here's what he said:

A little girl walked into the mall foodcourt and exclaimed “Look Mom, there IS a ChickFilA in the food court! I want ChickFilA.”
Wow, what a precious child.

Silly guy! Just thought I'd share!

Home Study Visit news

Tonight we met with our assigned Social Worker. It was a very pleasant and relaxing visit. Vickie asked us several questions and we just basically talked about our backgrounds, why we decided to adopt and what we thought about different aspects of the adoption process. We then showed her around our house, talked about when we could meet again and that was it!!! Total time: 1.5 hrs.

We have our next and final visit with Vickie next Monday night. After that, well, we're almost done with this part! Woohoo!

Thanks for your prayers!

Fee Increase

Just got an email from our agency:

"Dear Russia Families,
It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to inform you of increases to the Russia Foreign Fee. After numerous discussions and deliberations, the Facilitator Staff has informed us of the necessity of increasing the Foreign Fee and Dossier Translation cost in order to continue to provide adoption services...The primary reasons for the current increase are the increased official procedures related to adoption in Russia and the decreasing value of the dollar against the ruble."

Basically it is $2,300 more than it was. At least the whole fee isn't due until the 2nd trip. Guess it's time for another fund raiser... I've been trying to come up with something I could do for Valentine's Day. Any ideas? More sweets?

Not So Bummed!

OK, so we were contacted by another Social Worker and she can meet with us this Thursday evening for our first Home Study visit!!! Yay! We should only have one more after that and then the report can be written! Yay! Yay! Yay!

>>>We were also given our first stroller. It's the kind you use for a little older child, with only the cloth thingy to sit in. Thanks for thinking of us!

I'm bummed...

You know I sent our last piece of paperwork to our Social Worker the other day. She got back with me and due to their annual audit next week, the soonest she can schedule a visit would be the last week in January. *sigh*

She also said she was going to contact a contract social worker to see if she could get someone here sooner. I hope that works out but I also [mentally] know that it will all happen in God's time. I'm just a little frustrated because I know that the form that is dependent on the Home Study report could take up to 3 months to come back. That just pushes everything else back too.

Again I say... God is in control.

Autobiographies done!

We finished them and I emailed them last night to our Social Worker! YAY!

I haven't heard from her yet, but I am trying to not think about it. I keep buggin' her and so I figured it would be nice to leave her alone for a day or two! haha

That completes our portion of the checklist for our Home Study! That's also most of the list for our Dossier. Of course, as you read in my earlier post, the Dossier has many documents that can only be completed after the Home Study report is written.

Yay!!!

Merry Christmas!

The Russian Orthodox Church still uses the old Julian calendar; therefore, its Christmas celebration falls on January 7th, 13 days behind the West. It's a day of both solemn ritual and joyous celebration. Before this date, Orthodox Russians fast for six weeks. This Fast is completely vegetarian and requires that there must not be any parties or gatherings. Maybe it's very similar to the Catholic tradition.

Merry Christmas!

Order of Events to come

For all those wondering, there are still several steps to be taken before we can actually get on the waiting list in Russia. The Home Study is the most important right now. Everything else is dependent on that, which is why I'm so anxious to get it done...

Once that is complete, and we have a final report in our hands, we will be able to file an application with the federal government called the i600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition), which will then be used for another federal application that I won't get into. My understanding is the Russian government will need that one.

So, (a) home study gets completed, (b) file i600A with government. (c)Finish collecting all the Dossier requirements (almost done) and (d) file the other government application. Of course there's the waiting for the government to respond and that could take a while too. (Praying that it won't). (e)Then I have to send everything to the state to get it Apostilled, which means they check all the notaries that were used. Once they approve it all, (f) it all goes to our Agency in Virginia. They review it to make sure everything is correct and then (g) send it to Russia to be translated and registered.

That's the highlight version, and it's according to my understanding at the moment. Hope it helps! (Anyone out there who knows more about this process is free to comment!)

It's In The Mail!

The C.P.A. letter that I've been scrambling for is finally on it's way! David's co-worker Christine's sister, Laura, was so kind to help us with this letter. She emailed me a copy of it and the original letter is on it's way! The file was forwarded to our Family Coordinator to make sure it is acceptable. The only thing left to finish now is our autobiographies. My plans are to finish those up this weekend and have them in the social worker's inbox by Monday!

Woohoo!