Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Russian Process

Again, I am not a patient person - but really how many people like to wait for things, especially wonderful things? I endure the wait because I know of the wonderful things to come. So here we are, almost another year gone, still in the paperwork stage. I see the light at the end of the tunnel though and we should soon be registered in Russia - then we wait some more! Since we are adopting two children our agency can't even guess how long we will wait before getting 'the call'. The call is the invitation to travel to Russia. Once there we will receive a 'referral' which is information on the children they are presenting to us. Normally, for adopting a single child this wait is around 6-9months. I hope it will be much sooner but know we could wait much longer. It is a hard time too because you have to be ready to travel on a moment's notice. That means I have to get the stuff I want to take to leave with the children ready now...which is a lot of fun, but I know the longer we have to wait the harder it will be to have that stuff around.

So, once we have travelled to Russia, met the children, and gotten them checked by a doctor, we either accept or decline the referral. If we were to decline, which I certainly hope and pray that we won't have to, the Russian officials are suppose to try to find us another referral right away while we are still in Russia. Once we accept a referral we come back to Canada and wait for a court date, usually 2-3months. We then travel back to Russia for court where a judge approves the adoption. With any ruling in Russia there is a 10 day appeal period (which may be calendar days or business days depending on what region you are in). During this time we will not have custody of the children so are planning on coming back to Canada - otherwise we will be away from our three children here for a month. I, along with a globe-trotting friend, will then travel back to Russia a third time to get the children, finish up the paperwork, obtain immigration stuff, and then finally bring everyone home! It will be a crazy busy and emotional time...but I soooo look forward to it!

1 comment:

Lori-Dawn said...

Really excited for you guys Christine!! It's interesting to me how I just listened to Focus on the Family on my way home from grocery shopping, by fluke on the radio (I usually like the quiet, but turned it on for some reason) and it was a guys testimony about adopting! And how after suffering a miscarriage 2 months ago...this became so important to him...anyhow, then your blog...I wonder if God is placing something on my heart...I wonder if He'll speak to Jamie too?! Very interesting...I will be praying for you guys and will bookmark your blog so I can read it often!
Blessings!!
Lori-Dawn