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!!