Our Family

Travel dates!

Yikes!  The next step has happened so quickly.  We have travel dates!  We have just a few weeks to prepare and then we will be headed out!  I am so thankful this time we were able to have 14 day advance on our tickets and visas.  This extra time is wonderful!  Last time we barely had one week which made for some interesting travel arraignments. 

We are starting to organize our items for the orphanage.  We were told that children's shoes are always a need.  So I've been scouring the clearance racks hoping to bring over quite a few pairs.  We've also been told that they are hoping to buy a few blood pressure monitors for kids and  small pools for the hot summer.  While, I don't envision bringing over a pool (couldn't imagine the bag fee on that), I know many of you have asked if you could donate something.  Either shoes, money toward the other items or really anything for children is great.  We would be honored to give the donation in your name.  Let us know.

This will likely be the first of three total trips.  Shortly after we get there, we will meet with the lead office for adoption and learn officially about our child.  From there, we will spend time at the orphanage for a day or two playing with the child and getting to know each other.  Then, we will come home and wait for our court date.  This will likely be a tough wait! 

 

 

Referral!

We are overjoyed!  We have been matched with a referral- meaning we have been paired with a child for adoption.  I can't even begin to describe what an emotional roller-coaster this last week has been.  Similar to last time, we turned in our paperwork and had a conversation with the agency that now begins the waiting.  We discussed that every few weeks they would check in but we should expect to wait a few months to learn more.  Well, 24 hours later they called.

We did receive a bit of medical information and thanks to the expertise of our International Adoption Doctor (fabulous and can't recommend enough-after we are done we will share more specifics but send me an email if you'd like the info now), they were able to offer some guidance.  However, they did have a few follow-up questions and concerns to which our agency was able to get more info.  I thought they would laugh when we asked for more info but they came through-twice! 

Just like our first adoption, I can't share many details (country, name, age, location) for fear of losing the child because we've been too public.  Please help us with that and if you do know any of that info, please don't include it in a comment!  

Now comes the tough part...waiting....waiting...and waiting.

A little more baseball

I am so loving this whole baseball thing.  The games crack me up!  They are really cute.  I love the seriousness yet fun of it all.

 

Putting this wind to use

Ilya has finally found something good about all this wind---kite flying.  He's really good!  Learning to do a few tricks, turns and loops with dad.

  

Mother's Day at Preschool

How cute is Mother's Day at Preschool?  Adorable!!!

Ilya loved showing me his work.  Started off showing me the plants in order from the sun.

 

Then on to a game of planet bingo!

 

Next, a little water work.

 

And finally, some songs, a cookie and a hug!

 

Fingerprints....take 3

We've been fingerprinted so many times, we are getting to know those in the Sheriff's office on a first name basis.  :)

Off Broadway Musical brilliance

Hilarious!!!  How have I never heard this musical brillance before?  This is priceless and captures the process nicely!

Click on the box below labelled Adoption Interrogation.  It might take a minute to download and will require quicktime.

 

08 - Adoption Interrogation

 

Homestudy...Take 4

Not four copies....reworknumber 4.  We've found minor difference in the home studybased on how the country specific documents request information.  While, these would likely be no big deal, we are getting them revised now to avoid any problems later.  Small things like when the notary commission expires.  The document is good for a year, unless the notary commission expires.  In the most recent redo, the notary would have expired this fall.  While we might be done by then, better safe than sorry and have to redo documents mid-process, get new apostilles and resend overseas.  So, more copies being made with a different notary signature.

 

Diggin it'

Picture says it all!

 

Adoption- Take 2

If the title didn't give it away---guess what??  We are in the midst of adding to our family once again via adoption! We actually signed with an agency several months ago and have been working on the home-study portion.  Our home-study was recently finalized and we are ready to start working on our dossier. 

We will be headed back to Russia again.  This should be similar to last time with three trips to Russia over the course of a few months.  We aren't entirely sure about the time line but hope to have the adoption finished later this year or maybe early next year.  There are quite a few variables and it's a little hard to put a time line to the whole process yet.  As things move along we will get a better idea. 

Now that we've reached this milestone of homestudy completion, I'll be posting more frequently here with updates on the process.  Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers for a smooth process to a healthy, happy kiddo on almost exactly the other side of the world!