Updated Documents Sent

Well, we shipped our final (?) documents off today! This included our updated physicals and police clearances which have short lives (90 days). This batch will hopefully make it through the audit process and be shipped to Russia next week. Short of an error in somebody's signature, this should have us set for court. The judge could request additional paperwork when the documents are presented, but we are praying this will not happen.

We are bit drained emotionally and in many other ways. There is soo much to do to get things ready and not much time. Not only do we have lots of painting to finish up, we have to replace Dawn's SUV that burned up at Thanksgiving. Last weekend we helped two friends who suffered significant damage to their respective homes from the tornado that hit our small town on February 17. Afterwards, we came home to work on our own home improvements. We are just thankful we did not suffer any storm damage! God has been wonderful and shown us so much grace. We ask for his continued blessings.

We have not heard anything from our kids in Vladivostok. I had hoped that we would get a short letter from our oldest by now, but it has not happened. Another couple is traveling next week to our orphanage for court. They are taking some small gifts for us to give to the kids. We are hopeful we will get something back when they return. The waiting is difficult, but manageable. If we could just get a picture once a month e-mailed to us or some update on their health, it would make it so much easier.

Petition to the Court & Paper Update

This week we were able to send our Petition to the Court (in Russia) asking them to hear our request to adopt Big Sister, Brother and Little Sister. On this document, we also had to indicate what names we would give them. It was never a question for us, the children would keep their first names. We will call them by their given birth name and nicknames. If they decide later, on their own, that they want to be called by their middle name, then that will be fine.

This week we were also able to forward updates on all our paperwork that would be expiring by April 30. In the adoption process, none of the paperwork can be more than 12 months old, some less than that. So, we were able to get all our paperwork updated AND get the required psych evaluation. This was difficult because we had to find a psychiatrist or psychologist that was not only willing to complete the assessment, but also provide us with a copy of their license. The fourth person I called was willing to do the assessment and give us a copy of their license. Best of all, he did not charge us anything! This saved us about $600. It turns out his sister adopted internationally and he is familiar with the paper chase. That leaves us with our physicals , local police clearance and one document from our home study agency to get.

All of the updated paperwork was shipped to Russia yesterday along with a letter we had written to the kids. There are two families that we know of traveling to our region for court this month so I am confident the kids will get our letters. We are thankful to a young Russian school teacher at the Cultural Learning Center in Birmingham for translating our letters for us. The CLC is a school started by some friends of ours that adopted some children from Ukraine. The school is for Russian speaking children new to the US. It allows them to transition slowly into the public school system by teaching them in their own language while teaching them English grammar.

The question everyone seems to have on their mind is, "When are you bringing those children home?" The answer is, when the Russians allow us too. We don't know when, but we are praying it will be soon. We were told to prepare for 4-6 months and it has been just a little over 2 months already. Things are moving in Russia so we hope it will be closer to 4 months.

We have a great social worker at the agency in St. Louis which has turned into a friend. She has been very patient and sweet throughout the process keeping us up to date on any changes or requests. She deals with stressed out parents and has to be the bearer of bad news when there is a problem with paperwork.