Nyet to Russia

Well, with a heavy heart our Russian adoption has been closed. Our case worker emailed us to tell us that the agency will no longer be sending families over to Russia due to several factors. So, this leaves us back to square one. We went to the agency this past Friday and met with them to see what the next steps were and what they could offer us. The only options were India and Domestic. So we listened to both programs and came away with two options. We have been talking it over and have decided to go the Domestic route...much less paperwork and we'll be getting an infant.
With the crib due to arrive in a few weeks, we'll be able to be ready whenever a birthfamily chooses us. So, keep your fingers crossed that this is a quick and smooth process. We will need to get our homestudy amended and we'll have to create a profile in order to  "sell" ourselves.

So, we're off on a new path and hopefully we'll get a call soon!

D&D

Roller Coaster

Well, where to begin...well since I last posted, there has been some slow down to Russian adoptions due to an unfortunate event. I'm sure you've all read the story of the Tennessee mother who "sent back" her 7 year old adoptive son back to Russian, by himself with a note attached to his jacket. Needless to say the Russian government did not look to kindly on this act, which is understandable. So, in a knee jerk reaction, reported that they were shutting down all Russian adoptions. Well, as it turns out, this was just talk and as it turns out, they are just slowing things down a bit until the governments, both Russian and US come to some sort of agreement on how to prevent things like this from happening and how to protect the children leaving Russia.
So, this has slowed us down on our front, so we wait....again... This time waiting has been used to spruce up the nursery, the mural is complete, the trim has been painted, the crib has been ordered and should be arriving at the beginning of July. Now, we wait for another referral and work on paperwork for our dossiers.

The slow up has not deterred me from buying every bulldog themed article of clothing I can find at Gymboree, Carter's or any other children's clothing store...it's a sickness...too many cute kids clothes!

So, we wait, and wait...who knows how long we will wait, there are several families in front of us waiting as well. But our patience will be rewarded, hopefully sometime soon!

I will post pictures of the nursery once we get the furniture in place and set up! I have the bedding and the valances are already up...I love it!

-Deb & Dave

Referral part 1

Hello,
It's been a few months and I should really get better at blogging, but there has not been much to report...until a few weeks ago. We received an email from our coordinator asking us to set up a phone conference to check in, we thought, no problem...

We chatted the next day and told her that we had sent out a bunch of paperwork to be apostilled at the state house and it should be sent to the agency soon.

Then she mentioned that they had a referral for us........oh boy.

We learned that it was a little boy 6 1/2 months old (very young for a Russian referral, 1st red flag) and that he had a very visible cleft lip/palate. Ok, we thought, not such a big deal, very easy to correct. Then she mentions that he is on the growth charts and he has a good head size. Ok, we thought, sounded like he's growing well...
Then she runs through the list of things on his medical, it was quite an extensive list of issues...we thought, ok, we'll send this info to the IA doctors here in Boston and have them evaluate it.

So, we were excited and nervous and completely overwhelmed.

More to come...

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2010 and we hope this year brings you lots of new adventures! We are hoping that we will have our little one by years end. The holidays were nice and quiet and we celebrated the new year with some old college friends of mine, and celebrated our new years hostess' acquisition of a new house! One of the nice things about my job is a vacation week between Christmas and new years. I really needed the down time to mentally gear up for the waiting. The little one got a bunch of books from Nana and Grandpa and a few from us as well, Dave can't wait to read the red sox book to him/her. The little one also got a Sox baseball hat too...they will definitely be growing up as a Sox fan! I also finished the big mural in the nursery and plotting the opposite wall. We are going with a Classic Pooh theme, it is my favorite and gender neutral.

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and hope your 2010 will be filled with lots of great memories!

Forward movement

Well, it's been a while since I wrote, my apologies! A lot has happened between the holidays and the last post. Dave and I had a teleconference with our coordinator at the agency. We spent a little over an hour on the phone as she detailed the next steps and what to expect. Now that the homestudy is finished and signed, we will need to be registered in a region. Right now, the agency is working in the Murmansk and Moscow regions. We prefer the Moscow region, as it is bigger and closer to the city for paperwork purposes.

We had to redo our medical preferences and send it in so the coordinator can start the registration process. The immigration paperwork is going to be sent in as well, this usually takes a few months for clearances and we'll have to get fingerprinted as well for approval.

So, we are moving forward and taking baby steps towards the first trip. Once we are registered in a region, our wait time will be 2-8 months for a referral, depending on how many families are in front of us.

We hope you had a very happy holiday season and 2010 is poised to be a great year!

Happy New Year! We hope 2010 will bring great things for you!

-Deb

Also, the mural in the nursery is done! I am also working on the opposite wall on a few smaller ones. Baby M also received quite a few books from Nana and Grandpa for Christmas and we have a pretty good collection going for the nursery!

Homestudy finished!

Well, we've officially finished our homestudy! Yay! It's been a long few months and now we start our Dossier that will include our official documents such as birth/marriage certificates, the homestudy, our immigration paperwork and the like. So our file will be transferred to the Russia coordinator S. We met S. at the MAPS picnic this summer and she was so nice! Everyone at the agency so far has been great to work with.

We are also gearing up for our Fundraiser on the 14th! There is still lots to do and Dave has been busy with the Silent Auction stuff and getting everything ready. We are anticipating a visit from Santa for the little ones and lots of craft project to keep them occupied while the adults can bid on auction items! We are serving a yummy lunch provided by the Stocked Fridge!

If you'd like to join us on the 14th, please visit http://mcculloughadoption.webs.com for more info!

-D

Finishing up the Homestudy

So, Dave and I had our one-on-ones with V. Both took about 2 hours and we delved into our childhoods, where we grew up, what our parents were like. V's next visit will be on Thursday to do a walk through of the house to make sure there's nothing that can harm a child and she basically wants to see where the child will be sleeping and everything. Then she'll have some follow up questions for us...all in all, not a bad homestudy, and nothing like I pictured it in my mind.

We also drew the winner for the Rangeley Lake week at the end of August. Tara N. won, she's a friend on mine from an internet message board. I am so happy she won, and she's totally excited to go! There are still 4 vacations to raffle off so, if you or anyone you know would like to win a vacation, you can check out http://mcculloughadoption.webs.com We are trying to raise money that way to cut downt the cost on the adoption.

We went to a 2 year old's birthday party today and I got to watch Dave with babies, it was so great, I know he's going to be a great dad...he let those kids climb all over him and they just loved it!

Well, that's all I've got for now...I'll let you know how Thursday goes!

-D