The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

TIP: leave a disposable camera at the orphange with the request that pictures be taken in between the two trips. Others have said these photos were invaluable to them!

posted by AnnMarie at 8:21 AM |

We bought our family car last night! Well, we signed the check for the downpayment. Stuff like insurance and financing is being settled today. We bought a pearl green (woohoo!) Honda CR-V EX. There's room in the back for Jedi (who's no longer a puppy; it's his birthday today!), and plenty of room for kids and carseats in the back seat. And it's full of cool compartments!

posted by AnnMarie at 8:28 AM |

Over the last couple weeks, Eric and I have been discussing whether to adopt just one girl at a time. Earlier this week, decided that that was the best choice for us. For me, it's really the difference between thinking with my head and feeling with my heart. I really want two children, right now, last year! It's easiy to sugar-coat it and think how wonderful life will be, that there won't be big problems. But reality is that we do not know what our child(ren) will be like. We do not know how easy or difficult it will be to promote attachment. How much they will want to run around screaming on the airplane. What medical issues will come up once they are in Oshkosh. And so on. It is a lot more logical for us, particularly as first time parents, to take our family slowly. And we can always return to Russia in a year or two for a sister!

I just learned that a friend will have her baby in October. I'm so excited for her! I know someone else due around then as well. Wouldn't it be neat if we all have children at the same time?

posted by AnnMarie at 6:22 AM |

Today was the second of 4 homestudies. We traveled to Manitowoc (about 60 miles) for it. We left plenty early and didn't get lost! We found what looks like a cool place to eat next time--it's a block from CAC--an old diner/ice cream parlor called The Penguin. It has old neon lights, and advertises in huge letters "Home of the Big Penny!" No idea what a Big Penny is....

The interviews went well again. We each had to take the Enrich inventory again; also did this for LSS but never saw the results since we left before the homestudies were done. It's an survey about marriage, parenting, lifestyle, etc. It's meant to help us recognize areas of potential disagreement. And then make sure we have talked or will talk about them. There are no right answers.

Elayne told Eric we seem very well prepared to be parents. She's had couples come in who think their child-to-be will just be perfect, won't disrupt their lives much, etc. We're more grounded than that!

Meanwhile, I've also been working on paperwork. Two copies of this and three copies of that and only one of another. Plus I want an extra copy on hand just in case. I'm going nuts keeping track of it all. Luckily, CHI gives us a handy little checklist. Have to check it over tonight to be sure I have all the copies. Tomorrow or Friday we'll get them all notarized. Then to apostilling--the expensive part! (I think it's $10 per apostille. If I counted correctly before, we have 39 of them to do at this point. This doesn't count the additional letters we'll get for medicals and the homestudy. Aack!)

posted by AnnMarie at 3:51 PM |

So, just what do we have to get in our dossier?

• 2 original Questionnaire of the Candidate to Adopt (each parent fills out one)
  
• 2 original Petitions to Adopt
  
• 2 CHI Powers of Attorney (so that CHI can get a referral for us, I think)
  
• 2 original Home Studies
  
• 2 copies of Home Study Agency License
  
• Copy of Social Worker License
  
• 2 original Recommendation Letters from Home Study Agency
  
• 2 original Post Placement letters from Home Study Agency (the agency has to promise to complete the required visits)
  
• Copy of State adoption laws
  
• Copy of I-171H - Approval letter (approval from BCIS for us to adopt; the result of the I600A form and fingerprinting)
  
• State Police Report
  
• 3 Copies of passport picture page
  
• 2 Certified copies of your Marriage Certificate
  
• Medical Report(s) - One for each parent
  
• Copy of Medical Doctors' license
  
• Employer's Letter
  
• 2 original Financial Statements
  
• Statement of legal residence (from our real estate agent)
  
• Parent Power of Attorney
  
• 2 Original Embassy Registration letters from family (promising to register our children with the Russian Embassy. Until 18, they retain Russian passports, thus citizenship)
  
• 2 Original Post Placement Letters from family (our promise to fullfull postplacement requirement)
  
• PICTURES: Adoptive parents(s): at least 2 different photos (does not need to be studio, but of just parents or family); Outside of house: 2 Front and Back; Inside: 2-3 (Kitchen, Family Room, Dining Room, Bedrooms); New child's room: 1(if it is completed, otherwise no need to send picture of empty room.)
  
• Three letters of reference (can be copies of the references you supplied to the homestudy agency)

All of these except the last two (photos and reference letters) must be notarized and apostilled. CHI provides samples of each letter, so we can provide copies for others. Also, they are online, so I don't have to retype everything. I'm getting our information in them, both the ones we have to do as well as the ones for others. That way, they won't have to do as much work, either!

posted by AnnMarie at 6:22 AM |

In the last week, CAC has done more to move our homestudy forward than ASI did in 3.5 months. We had an appointment yesterday (Wed), about one week to the hour I first contacted CAC via email. I thought we'd just be making sure we liked the social worker (Elayne) and felt comfortable proceeding. We brought all of our paperwork along as well as the application and application fee. We were comfortable almost immediately. We went through all of the paperwork--everything from ASI was accepted, including the medical forms. Not sure on the reference letters--ASI has to forward them (and we have to make a written request to do so). This means we have no more paperwork for the homestudy! After that, we moved into the first homestudy interview! Yes, the first of four interviews is already over! And we have appointments set for the other 3. It's quite likely the homestudy will be written by the end of July.

Wow!

We'd been thinking our papers would be in Russia shortly thereafter. But I just remembered after the homestudy is written, we still need to get BCIS approval. That can take a couple months. Since everything else, including fingerprints is done, I hope it is processed very quickly. In the meanwhile, we have to get the rest of the dossier done--all sorts of letters and statements about our life that have to be notarized and apostilled. Need to get cracking since all of those things take a while as well. (I forget about the apostille turn-around time, too. We will try to get as much as possible notarized next week. The medical letters will likely take longer. But most of the rest isf just us writing things up.)

posted by AnnMarie at 11:24 AM |

TIP: prepare for the court appearance before the second trip!

posted by AnnMarie at 9:22 AM |

Community Adoption Center (CAC) is FAST! The first packet of material (application and introductory information) arrived Friday. Everything else arrived on Saturday. Linda had said it would be mailed Monday, but I guess it went out Friday. On Friday as well, we picked up our paperwork from ASI; almost everything was there--except our photos and a health form. Apparently, the reference letters will only be forwarded to another agency, not given to us.

On Sunday morning, I filled out as much of the CAC paperwork as I could. There are only a few things we'll have to get. And we hope they will accept mthe rest from ASI's forms. We hope to turn in most of it on Thursday or Friday--we'd like to meet our social worker (already been told who it will be) before actually doing so since we're a little hesitant after ASI's bungling. Will call shortly to see if we can find a time that works. It's going to be an hour or longer drive, so I have to take an afternoon or morning off work. :(

posted by AnnMarie at 7:01 AM |

Saw a cute adoption announcement today. We'll probably just create our own announcement and print it ourselves. But this is a cute idea!

posted by AnnMarie at 9:59 AM |

Well, as you can tell by the dearth of information in this blog of late, not much has been happening. We fired our homestudy agency yesterday. It's been almost 4 months since we started working with them. We should have been finished by now. There were a lot of minor frustrations throughout the process so far, but a phone call from the social worker on Tuesday was the last straw. So, we're looking for a new one. Just talked with Linda at Community Adoption Center. I think they may be our new agency. It's a LOT more expensive, but they reall seem to know what they are doing vis-a-vis Russian adoption homestudies. Next, to get our paperwork back from the first agency. ::sigh::

posted by AnnMarie at 7:15 AM |