Latest news

I took all the notarized documents to Austin on Wednesday to have them apostilled. I sent them to our case manager. She received the documents today and proceeded to put them in the mail to go to Russia TODAY!! Praise the Lord- we will soon have our name in at least 3 regions in Russia. We are so excited to see what the Lord is going to do- when He will bring our little one home to us.

Thanksgiving was a blast. On Thursday, we went to Lake Livingston to spend the day and that night. We froze in the lake house because we forgot to turn the heat on. Not one person was able to brave the cold temp to get out of bed to check the heater. So cold, but so much fun. On Friday, we returned to Houston to celebrate with the other side of the family. I ate so much but that is what happens on Thanksgiving.

We are so busy right now. This weekend, we are heading to San Antonio to see our cousin, Jared, get married. We are so blessed to have so much time with family.

Next Thursday, I leave to go to NY to have a girl's weekend with my mom, sister, niece, two cousins, and two aunts. We are going to see the play "Wicked" while we are there. I am preparing to really experience the cold weather.

Great News! We received word today from our case manager that Buckner is now working with 2 additional regions in Russia. Also, as of today Russia is now allowing families to register their dossier in more than one region. She told us that this should shorten our wait time!!!

I received this news late this afternoon and I am almost finished printing everything we need to add our dossier to another region. It is mostly printing additional copies of what we have already sent in.

Update!

We received an email in response to a question that I sent to our case manager. Her answer clarified something that we have been confused about regarding our dossier. It turns out that the dossier is registered once a referral is received. So the step of having our dossier translated a few weeks ago was the big milestone in becoming a waiting family. This is great news!!!

Update from our case manager

Our case manager called yesterday to inform us that our paperwork has been translated and is in the process of being registered! We are happy to hear this because this is much sooner than what I expected. This is important news because we are now one step closer to being a waiting family!!

Good news!

We received word from our case manager that our dossier left to go to Russia today. After 3 business days of travel, it will then be translated. Translation takes about 2 weeks. This is excellent news to begin our weekend!
Our students came back this week and I am pretty tired. I love being out of the classroom and being able to assist where I am needed.

We have company coming in this weekend so that will be lots of fun. Plus, this is our week to work with the 15-18 month olds at church. Jammed pack weekend!

Another milestone in our process

We received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security that our I-600A immigration form was approved!

In other news, I officially started back to school on Monday. It has been a very busy week! I have helped with the inservice trainings and I am very tired.

Where are you at in the process?

This is a common question that is asked in the world of adoption.

I have started this blog as a way of keeping everyone informed of what is going on and as a journal of our life changing journey.

Since this is my first entry and we are many months into our adoption process, I will give an overview of what has happened so far. This will be written in timeline form to bring you up to speed.

November 2007- discovered that adoption was more than likely God's plan to grow our family

June 2008-December 2008 began filling out paperwork and attending classes with an adoption agency that works with CPS

November 6-15, 2008- went to Russia with our church to work in orphanages


December 2008- made the decision to adopt from Russia instead of through CPS

December 21, 2008- submitted our preliminary application to our agency that handles international adoption

February 13, 2009- attended a two day orientation workshop for international adoption

February 25, 2009- submitted our formal application (11 days later), this application included doctor's report, financial reports, references, life insurance, etc.)

March 19th& 20th- attended 2 day seminar given by our agency

March 21st-continued reading 1 of our books for our required reading.

The remainder of March and part of April was spent preparing our house for our home visit.

April 10, 2009- Home visit from our social worker

April 21, 2009- Had a psychological evaluation (required by Russia)

April 21-June 5th- Waited on all documents to be turned in to make our file complete so the home study report could be written, reviewed, and approved.

June 5, 2009- Received the news that our home study was approved to adopt up to 2 children(ages 1-3 years of age).

June 11, 2009- Mailed USCIS our I600A form

June 12, 2009 -Assigned a dossier coordinator and began working on part I of our dossier for St Petersberg. A dossier is the paperwork that is sent to Russia.

June 14,2009- completed our part of the dossier (application, passport copies, 5 photo books of our family and home,etc.)


June 26, 2009- Sent a copy of our picture book to our social worker so she could verify the info, sign off, and have it notarized.

July 15, 2009- Received our agency's part of the dossier

July 20, 2009- Got our part of the dossier documents notarized

July 22,2009- Drove to Austin to spend the night so we could be at the office of the Sec. of State early the next morning

July 23, 2009- Took all documents to Secretary of State's office to apostilled (certified). Quickly sent them by overnight mail to our agency

July 27, 2009- We are now waiting for our agency to send all the apostilled documents to Russia. This will make us a waiting family in Russia!!