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.