Happy Easter!!

Still waiting...

We finally received our immigration approval letter yesterday!!! But..there's not much we can do with it right now. Our agency is still on the dreaded 'black list'. They found out the reason why -it's a couple who has recently moved to Germany. They are in contact with them and are trying to get their post-placement report.

In the meantime, we're looking at other options. We've applied at some domestic agencies here in the US, and are waiting to hear back from them.

Russia is having a lot of governmental problems and we are concerned about putting more money into the agency once it clears. Nothing is refundable and Russia could shut down the program at any time.

So the journey continues....

Bad News.......

When you complete an adoption, you have to follow up with so many placement reports to ensure the child is in good hands, etc.

Well......Russia is currently banning any adoptions from certain home study agencies because they have either been late or not submitted these placement reports. There are 100s of agencies on this list. Of course, ours is one of them......:(

I've contacted both the home study agency and adoption agency to see where we stand. I hope we don't have to start over.......

Waiting....

No news..just waiting! I heard the immigration form can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months!

Looks pretty cold in Russia right now...brrr!

Home Study in our hands!

The home study caseworker dropped off our finalized and signed home study yesterday! Yay! Tomorrow we're sending a copy of it to get the immigration form. They'll assign us an appointment for fingerprinting, then a few weeks later we should get the I-17 form.

Now our next step is finding out where to get stuff apostillized. I think we have to go to the Secretary of State's office, but I'm not sure. I hope it's not a pain. I know it's going to be expensive though. They charge $20/page!! All for a stupid seal/signature.

Moving along....

Well our home study was approved by the agency! We signed the final copies and are waiting for them back from the home study agency. Once we have it in our hands, we'll send it in to complete the I-17 Immigration form. I'm hoping that won't take too long. It varies by state.

Once we get the I-17 form, then it's time to compile everything to get notorized/apostilled....then off to Russia! The waiting is torture, but after waiting over 7 years to get pregnant, what's another year?!!?

Happy New Year!

We just got an e-mail from our Home Study caseworker. She has completed the home study and will be sending it to the agency for review! Yay!

Once we get the OK, we'll send it in to the Immigration office and get another form. Once we have the approved immigration form, then it'll be time to get everything notorized/apostilled.

Once that is done, it'll be time to send it to Russia!!! This seems to be moving smoothly and quickly! I'm sure there will be bumps in the road, and we'll handle those when they come.

Happy New Year to all! I'm hoping 2009 will be our year!! :)

Merry Christmas!!

Hopefully by this time next year, we'll have a new addition to our family! :)

We got our psych report back...and passed! We're sane enough to be parents I guess?!?

We're just waiting on the completition of the home study report. Once that's done, it's time to get everything notarized and apostilled! After that, we turn it in to our agency and they send it to Russia!! We're actually ahead of schedule on a lot of things, so that's positive.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!! We're leaving tomorrow to visit Mike's side of the family in Galesburg, and then headed to my side Christmas Eve.