We are ready! Yes, last September we decided to proceed with our adoption by choosing an agency, completing the mountains of paperwork, and starting our journey to bring our son home. Our agency is phenomenal. They have been placing children in the US from all over the world for the last hundred years. We are so blessed to have found them through a friend who adopted from Russia just a couple of years ago.
Our first step was to take a required weekend-long class to learn all we could about international adoption. Everyone kept telling us that after this class we may change our mind about adopting. Not so...the class actually sealed our decision. We want to adopt our son from Russia more than anything else in the world, and we are so excited about it.
The next step was contacting a local agency to complete our Home Study. They are also a wonderful agency who expedited our study and got it completed and approved by the court in just a little over a month.
As part of the Home Study we had to install a fence around our pool. Of course Chris was not too happy about that but once installed we realized it wasn't so bad after all. They too were able to come to our house, get measurements and had the fence installed in less than ten days despite the fact that it was their busy season. As soon as I told them I was fencing the pool because I was adopting a baby, they could not get here fast enough :). As soon as the Home Study visits were done, we were able to remove the fence and stored it in the garage until our little one comes home.
The adoption agency sent us a long list of paperwork that we had to complete, notarized and get apostilled (sort of notarizing the notary) downtown. Chris and I took a couple of trips downtown and thought it was really a breeze. We sent all the paperwork ( called the Dossier) to our agency in Minnesota. They called as soon as they got the paperwork to let us know that our documentation was in perfect order and on its way to Russia.
The adoption representative in Russia got our paperwork last Tuesday, November 27th. We are being told now that it will be translated and presented to a Judge in a few days. We also had to file immigration papers asking INS to allow us to bring a child to the US. We are getting fingerprinted this Friday, December 7th and expect to get their letter of approval before the end of the month.
So far so good... between choosing the agency, getting the home study done, the pool fenced, preliminary INS paperwork completed and submitted, fingerprinting appointments set, and our paperwork to a Russian Judge, it has taken about four months. Now we just need to keep praying for a referral to come just as quick.
Our first step was to take a required weekend-long class to learn all we could about international adoption. Everyone kept telling us that after this class we may change our mind about adopting. Not so...the class actually sealed our decision. We want to adopt our son from Russia more than anything else in the world, and we are so excited about it.
The next step was contacting a local agency to complete our Home Study. They are also a wonderful agency who expedited our study and got it completed and approved by the court in just a little over a month.
As part of the Home Study we had to install a fence around our pool. Of course Chris was not too happy about that but once installed we realized it wasn't so bad after all. They too were able to come to our house, get measurements and had the fence installed in less than ten days despite the fact that it was their busy season. As soon as I told them I was fencing the pool because I was adopting a baby, they could not get here fast enough :). As soon as the Home Study visits were done, we were able to remove the fence and stored it in the garage until our little one comes home.
The adoption agency sent us a long list of paperwork that we had to complete, notarized and get apostilled (sort of notarizing the notary) downtown. Chris and I took a couple of trips downtown and thought it was really a breeze. We sent all the paperwork ( called the Dossier) to our agency in Minnesota. They called as soon as they got the paperwork to let us know that our documentation was in perfect order and on its way to Russia.
The adoption representative in Russia got our paperwork last Tuesday, November 27th. We are being told now that it will be translated and presented to a Judge in a few days. We also had to file immigration papers asking INS to allow us to bring a child to the US. We are getting fingerprinted this Friday, December 7th and expect to get their letter of approval before the end of the month.
So far so good... between choosing the agency, getting the home study done, the pool fenced, preliminary INS paperwork completed and submitted, fingerprinting appointments set, and our paperwork to a Russian Judge, it has taken about four months. Now we just need to keep praying for a referral to come just as quick.
1 comments:
Maravilloso!!!
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