The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

Two sites with news about Tomsk: Daylight Online (aggregator) and RusNet (searched on Tomsk).

posted by AnnMarie at 7:00 AM |

We frequently get asked if we've chosen a name for our daughter. We have, but her name will depend on what her given name or nicknames are. If we really like that name, we may well keep it. Or use it as a middle name. Some people have used the child's given name only to find out the child had never actually been called this! Russians have a strong tradition of using nicknames (ever read Dr. Zhivago? I couldn't keep straight who was who because everyone had a different nickname with each other character!). Sometimes, these are diminutives of the given name; sometimes not. Just like in America. And sometimes the diminutive is longer than the given name! We hope to find out what names have been used before making our final decision. And if we readopt in WI, we can always change her name again at that time (although I doubt we would change it).

Eric also just noticed how long the name we've picked out is (although it's still shorter than mine!). So, who knows? We might change our minds again.

posted by AnnMarie at 6:22 AM |

Some information on the TOMSK 400 (the celebration going on next year when Tomsk is 400 years old). Also includes a lot of info on the city and region.

posted by AnnMarie at 1:10 PM |

As part of our fees, we pay a $2000 orphanage "donation." (In quotes because while called a donation, it is required and thus not a tax-deductible, charitable donation such as we normally use the term.) Some agencies have you give cash directly to the orphanage (which means carrying even more money in-country). Our agency doesn't do this; we pay it to them. The money is then directed through their charitable program to the region of our child's orphanage. I just found out the primary project in Tomsk: In Tomsk, our biggest project is in coordination with local Ministry of Education. We will help build a new orphanage and internal school for children with cerebral palsy. Another area of funding is an educational project which helps in development of children from ages 0 to 5 years old. I'm so delighted to hear about their current project!

posted by AnnMarie at 11:26 AM |

Eric and I requested to look at CHI's waiting child list. Waiting children, typically, have medical needs (among other possible reasons for not being adopted quickly). If you find a child on the list, you don't have to wait for a child to come off the database*, so you can travel right away. Over the past few months of being on listserves, I had come to find that children with some of the medical issues we were willing to accept could be found on the waiting lists. So why not check it out? Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), once your dossier has been sent to a particular region, you cannot be matched with a child on the waiting list. However, CHI does check that list before sending your dossier to the region, which hadn't been clear to us before. On the other hand, since we expanded our age range, if there is a 2-3 year old waiting in another region, she won't be matched with us, which I would have expected to happen. (*The database: children are on a regional database for 3 months and a Russian database for 3 months. At this time, they are eligible to be adopted within Russia. They are not eligible for international adoption until they are off the database. This is also why few infants under 6 months are adopted. However, some regions put children in both databases concurrently, so sometimes infants between 4-6 months are adopted.)

posted by AnnMarie at 8:59 AM |

Recently, I read/viewed a gorgeous book of black and white photos of intricate wood homes in Tomsk, Tomsk: Texture in Wood. There was a grand style in the early part of this century for elaborate carved decorations along windows, balconies, corners, and rooflines. I earlier found some examples in color online (select "next" in the left to see more; not all are listed on the left side). Many of the homes have fallen into disrepair, but the carvings are still visible. The book is out of print; I got it through interlibrary loan. (Interesting side note: The notes on each photo and each sections introductory essay are in English, German, and French.)

posted by AnnMarie at 12:26 PM |

A few things have happened recently, but I've had a brace on my right hand for the last 2.5 weeks so not doing too much typing. I'll try to make some over the next few days.

Of primary importance is that we increased our age range from up to 24 months to up to 36 months. (Low end is open, but typically children are at least 6 months old.)

posted by AnnMarie at 11:28 AM |

Hotel Katerina is the official CHI hotel in Moscow. Their offices are in an adjacent building.

posted by AnnMarie at 6:37 AM |

TIP: Bring a light scarf to use as a head covering to visit a church.

posted by AnnMarie at 8:53 AM |

Here's how the matching process works, in general, according to a CHI rep: "Once the dossier is registered, the real waiting begins. Our Representatives will go to the Ministry of Education on a weekly basis to see if there are any children off the database or coming off the database that meet within your request. Once there is a child off the database, and you are the next family whose dossier was sent following the family who just received a referral, they will put your dossier with this 'referral' childs dossier (yes, they have a dossier too, but of course they do not prepare theirs) you will be notified by us of an 'invitation' to travel to Russia to see this particular child. We typically have NO information about this child, only that you have an 'invitation to see this child'. We notify you of this invitation and we will call you with travel information."

One significant difference from what I've heard elsewhere: The CHI reps do have a role in matching you to the child. In other explanations, which were much more vague, it made it sound like the MOE did it all.


posted by AnnMarie at 7:37 AM |

TIP: Full info about Northwest Airlines adoption rates.

posted by AnnMarie at 7:06 AM |