Turn in the road

Well, no one said that anything worth fighting for would be easy.  Adoption is no exception.  Our quest for an international adoption took an unexpected turn in the last few weeks, thus the sparceness of posting to the blog.

First came the news that the Ukraine had passed the first vote to envoke a moretoreum on international adoptions.  This is the first of several votes required, but definately put us on edge.  We have quite a bit of money due in Jan and its tough to make the call to pay it if the country might close as that would mean we would loose the money and with that much paid we'd have to call abd end to our quest for the child we know is out there some where waiting for us.

Next, we lost the support for the up-front money we thought we were going to have for the adoption due to a turn of events.  With that loss we were faced with taking out a loan, which we do not believe for us is appropriate as it migh comprimise the long-term care the new adopted family member will probably need.

So, after a very enlightening discussion with my family, and an offer by them to give us a third of the money we need, we decided perhaps we were being shown in a not-so-subtle way that we were looking in the wrong direction.  Perhaps its not an international adoption that we are being called to do.  Perhaps, we need to adopt closer to home.

After some deliberation and discussions with our social worker, we've chosen to adopt through an agency here in Texas a waiting child from CPS.  We have our first informational meeting on Thursday to meet with the new agency. 

So, as one chapter ends in our story, a new and hopeful chapter begins.  I, too, was adopted from CPS in another state, so in a way, this turn in the road is quite poetic for me on a personal level.  We'll keep you posted.

It's Time!

Well, we got the call that it is time to begin our dossier document gathering.  We were really pumped.  Our dossier is due on Jan 10th and several of the documents are long-lead items.  Little did I realize, but the State of Texas can take up to 12 weeks to process FBI fingerprints and most places only do fingerprinting on Tues and Thurs.  We figured this out last Thurs.  So, we are off to get our fingerprints tomorrow and we just pray that they come back in 11 weeks and not 12 weeks or we will miss our filing deadline.  (Never a dull moment).
I spent my day off from work finishing our document binder as it stands today, updating the fee schedule so we know what we have left to pay, figuring out the schedule for requesting our documents to ensure they are as new as possible at the time of dossier submission, and finding all the forms we need to get our other clearances updated.  This process almost feels like another full-time job, lol!  So much for a day off work.

Still holding

Its been a while since I last posted.  Honestly, there just isn't much to report.  We are just hanging out and waiting until it is time to start our 2nd set of paper work.  In our waiting time, we are reading other people's blogs on their Ukrainian adoption experiences to learn what to expect.  We are continuing our study of the Russian language as well.  We also are working on securing the remaining funds we will need for completion of the rest of this adoption process - no easy task I must say.  Mostly, we are focusing on our current family and the start of a new school year.  The school year always brings the restart of lots of activities and takes a while to get into the swing of things.  I anticipate begining the document preperation dance again in late Oct so our documents do not expire before we even get to the Ukraine. 

Its been a while...

Well, it has been a while since my last post.  We submitted our first dossier and have been registered with the Ukraine to be adoptive parents!  We got our 2nd Dossier submittal date.  It is Feb 10th of next year.  It is later than we were hoping for (we missed the Nov submittal by a few days).  In the Ukraine, most government goes on holiday through Dec and Jan, so an early Feb submittal date puts us at the beginning of the new year of adoptions.  Once we submit, we should travel about a month later! 

I began taking Russian classes a few weeks ago.  I can now read the alphabet and know some basic words and phrases.  It is a complicated but wonderful language!  It is much more efficient than English in many ways.  Hopefully studying Russian will help us to pass the time.  We cannot start on our 2nd dossier yet because the documents would expire by the time we were to travel.  So, we are in a waiting game right now.

Besides studying Russian, Abbie is keeping us busy with her dance, getting ready to go to camp, and her swimming.  Its nice to enjoy some great family time while we wait!

And They're Off!!!!

It has been an adventure, but we finally have our first set of documents off on their way to the Ukraine!  We are SO excited!!!

We got our home study completed.  We then drove to Austin to get our first set of documents apostilled.  We sent those in only to realize we were missing one.  We drove back to Austin a few days later to get another apostille for the document we forgot. (We've learned already - be flexible - its all part of the process). We sent that document off.  Our agency received them today and sent the whole package off to our facilitator in the Ukraine!  Next, we'll find out if get registered and when we need to submit our full dossier.

Things are moving along...

Home Study almost complete!

We finally received the last of our child abuse registry clearances!  We will fax those to our social worker and then she can complete our home study!  Things are finally moving again!  YEAH!!!

For all those moms and moms-to-be - Happy Mother's Day!!!

Changes...

It has been a while since I’ve updated the log. First, I’ve been sick – yuck! Also, we have been watching the status of adoptions in Russia very closely. After much prayer and many discussions, we have chosen to switch from the Russia program to the Ukraine program. This was a difficult decision. With where we are in our process, making a switch is easy now, but in another month or so, it would be much more difficult and expensive. We love the Eastern European culture, so we wanted to stick with a country in that block. Ukraine stole our hearts. What a neat country! The more we learn the more excited we are. Ukraine has a long and varied history with a mix of cultures.


The Process will be similar. The main difference is that the Ukraine will usually require just 1 trip. That one trip will be much longer lasting from 3-6 weeks. Our Home study is almost complete (just waiting on some state clearances to come in). Once the home study is complete, we will file it with USCIS to begin the immigration process. We send the home study and a few other documents to the Ukraine and wait for them to tell us what other documents will be required and for a preliminary acceptance. We then complete our dossier. We should then get an invitation to travel about a month later.

The Ukraine does referrals a bit differently than Russia. We will travel to the Ukraine where we will be provided with a selection of children that might match our family and are available for adoption. We will then choose 1-3 of them to visit and make a decision. Then we have a court visit and a waiting period before we can bring the child home.

I have a dear friend who is travelling to Russia today to adopt her son that they have been trying to adopt for 2 years now. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts as they travel during these uncertain times in Russian adoption.

Still going...

Things are still moving along.  We had our first home study visit on Sunday.  That was really an interesting process.  Our social worker asked us many questions about our backgrounds and our motivations for adopting.  She even interviewed Boo on her feelings toward the adoption.  I found the whole thing facinating.  We have to have at least 2 more visits before the process can be complete.
We  also finished our adoption education credits this week.  We took a class on adoption and parenting adopted children, read numerous articles and we read a book that included an online test.  All were very interesting and I feel much better prepared on what to expect.

For those of you who have been watching the news, there was a case recently where a mother returned an adopted child to Russia.  Obviously, Russia did not approve and has threatened to freeze US adoptions.  After lots of prayer on our part, we have decided to continue moving foward with Russia.  This is a risk, but it is our hope that this incident is viewed as isolated, and we hope that the dialoge it initiated between Russia and the US will result in better protection for children in the end.

Resolve Strengthened

The adoption process is moving along. We did get everything in on time, so the multiple trips to the post office were definitely worth it! I’ve been sick for the last 5 days, so that slowed things down a bit. We are in the middle of the home study process, and we hope to have our home visit this weekend. The home visit consists of a licensed social working coming out to the house and interviewing each of us, looking over our property and working with us on any education or other items she feels we need to complete our home study. We are also about to send in the rest of the initial fees. We are beginning the application process for several adoption grants that are available. I am surprised thus far at how smoothly things are progressing. Our adoption agency is terrific in answering our questions and leading us through the process.


Sunday night, Extreme Home Make Over was on a family in Kemah (just a few miles down the road) who have adopted 11 of their 15 kids and have fostered over 85 children. They had Ike damage and were living in a trailer. The story strengthened our resolve to this adoption. That family is such an inspiration – and to see a family so close to home that have done what they have really touched our heart. Things slowly seem more real and possible as we move through this. It’s cool to think that there is a little boy out there waiting for us to get through the red tape to bring him home.

One Foot in Front of the Other

What a fiasco, but at least it’s done. We managed after 4 trips to the post office and two trips to the notary to get all the documents in the mail for the contract. I have resolved to be better organized for the next round. Assuming the documents make it there by the end of the month, we should be good to go. Sending in our first installment of money is definitely bringing home the reality of what we are attempting. We have a long way to go in this process. The complexity of the process and the financial burden of the services are definitely daunting when you look at it as a whole. So, we’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other and we’ll get there.

Moving Along...

We have good news and more good news! The process is proceeding well. We were accepted by our agency to proceed with adoption! They found nothing in our self assessment that was a cause for concern. They shipped us our contract and another bazillion documents to read and sign. We have to get the documents signed, notarized and returned to the agency before the end of the month – just a few business days away. Yikes! It’s a lot to write in such a short time – reminds me a bit of buying a house. Our Home Study process is under way and it is amazing how many documents you have to collect for that process too. We also found out that the Federal Tax Credit has been extended for one more year! This is great news for us as it takes some pressure off of trying to complete the adoption so quickly. The next step after we turn in our contract is to complete the Home Study. That will involve a home visit by a social worker.  So we are moving along!

Self Assessment - Checked Off

Whoo Hoo! We got the last bit of info needed for our self assessment. Now we need to make copies and overnight it to the agency. The assessment included things like birth certificates, marriage license, self evaluations, financial breakdown, etc.... It was very comprehensive. Our next step is to get the contract from the agency and submit it. We will also be doing our home study and collecting our documentation for our dossier. We are trying to do as much in parallel as possible. The Federal Tax Credit for adoptions runs out at the end of this year, and that would cut our costs tremendously if we can qualify for it! So we have to boogie to get this done :-)

And so it begins...

This Monster family officially began its journey into the realm of international adoption two days ago. Our clan consists of The 1-eyed Purple People Eater (a.k.a. 1i), Princess Fiona (me), and our daughter Boo. Our hope is to add a boy monster under the age of 4 to our clan, who we will call Ogre. (We will not use our real names on this site as many countries frown upon publically posting too much information.)

We started down this road the first time 5 years ago but put it on hold as it was just not the right time. After lots of research, we have decided to look for Ogre in Russia. The need in Russia is immense. Our choice to do an international adoption is personal, and we have nothing but love and respect for domestic adoption. We know the need for domestic adoptions is great too. This choice of international adoption is just what fit into this Monster family.

We will try to post here as often as possible as we move through the ups and downs of this journey. We hope you will join us in this journey to bring Ogre home.

Our first step was to apply to an agency, which we did 2 days ago. We were accepted to proceed to the next step, which involved a rush order to get 3 reference letters (thank you so much to our dear friends who met this tall order on short notice). We are now gathering multiple documents and performing a self-assessment. Once we turn that in (we are waiting on one last piece of information) we will begin our home study. So, as you can see, we are very early in the process. Keep watch for more to come!!