...and then came Vladik

Alan and I are very happy to introduce Vladik. As fate would have it, we received a referral for a 3 year-old boy while in SP and were able to visit him on our way home through Moscow. Rob had been in close contact with us throughout the time in SP, and we feel very lucky that our time there has now led us to Vladik. He is a smiling, jumping, running and loving little boy. His babyhome is approximately 1.5 hours outside of Moscow and run by a very kind director and staff.
We informally accepted his referral before we left Moscow and are now in the process of completing the paperwork necessary for that region, which seems to be more extensive in terms of the medical and fingerprinting, etc, but we are very anxious to get it completed in order to receive a court date. We've been told this is the hardest part, as we have met him and will begin to prepare for his arrival into our family, while we (im)patiently wait the estimated 6-8 weeks for word of our court date...

Day 4

With a broken heart and after three emotionally exhausting days here in SP, we have had to refuse the referral of Maksym and Danil. They will always hold a place in our hearts but due to previously undisclosed health issues, Alan and I discussed and struggled and cried and finally conceded that we would not be able to offer them what they would most need for a happy and successful life.

We haven't ended our journey, and hope to receive another referral while we are here. Alliance is working for us to find a referral, hopefully in Moscow.We thank you for your continued love and support and will continue to keep you posted. K&A

Dobrye Utra!

Good Morning from SP! Even with 8 hours sleep on the flight to Moscow, the 5 hour wait for our connection to SP was exhausting. Our translator, Ludmilla, was waiting for us in SP along w our driver (Sergio or Alexander, not clear yet...??). Both are extremely friendly and welcoming. Ludmilla told us some history of SP as she pointed out the Moscow Gate, Victory Park and countless memorials and statues as we drove to the hotel. It is a very historically rooted city but new shopping/entertainment megacomplexes are included in the mix!

We were tired but found there's no rest for the weary, as Gallina was waiting to meet us at the hotel on our arrival! She was nice enough to allow us a few minutes to "freshen up" and then we sat with her in the lobby as she briefly described our activities over the next few days. We are up now as I write here and waiting to meet Ludmilla here at the hotel around 9:30a, and she will take us to meet Gallina at the MOE. They will present the boys files to us there and give us "permission" to visit them. Then we are off to meet them! #8 is the more strict with rules and so they have designated a time to meet the director (or "Chief Physician") and Danil in the afternoon around 4p. So we will visit Max in #7 first, which is approx 1 hour from the MOE (our hotel is apparently very central and only minutes from the MOE). I had to press a little for more details about the visits and frequencies, but I've been assured that their job is to make sure we will spend as much time with the boys as possible. They also let us know that we don't have to make a decision by Friday, which was what I assumed since it is the last weekday we are here, but apparently we have until Sunday, and we should be able to visit the boys every day until then. She answered some other questions I had about the boys but mainly referred me to the babyhome Directors, who will be able to provide all the details when we meet with them.

I think she could tell we were both STAARVING and tired, so Ludmilla led us to a Greek restaurant that she recommended. It was PERFECT- casual, good food, live music, and around the block from the hotel. Our room at the Petro Palace is BIG, a bit basic and little reception for wireless in the rooms, but the heated floors and strong shower in the bathroom make it all worthwhile...and of course waking up, we tuned in to BBC just in time to see Obama surpass the 270 he needed to become our next President (elect). I must say although that probably won't be the highest highlight of this day, it was a fabulous way to start it....
Our schedule is packed but we hope to post more tonight!

11 hours to relax

This is our last post before we leave to meet the boys (only 11 hours from Atlanta to Moscow!), and we just wanted to thank all of our family and friends (old and new) who have kept us in their thoughts and prayers for this journey. Although Alan and I have each traveled to quite a few different places in the world, I think this one ranks pretty high on the "far and exotic land" list. Not to mention the ultimate destinations at Baby homes #7 and #8.

It's been a hectic past week (month, year...), but we look forward to posting some good news in the coming days.
K&A

More updates...

Another change in the rules from St Petersburg. They are not allowing any more independent medical evaluations, except from Doctors from Euromed, which is a group of "internationally trained" doctors (also recommended by our agency). We almost had a pediatrician from Moscow confirmed to fly over for their evaluation, but got the news in time. This was concerning though since the medical is really the most important aspect of our final decision. We spoke with Dr Gordina this morning and she also voiced her concerns. She is not a fan of Euromed or their evaluations and felt that just the fact that St Pete limited the exams to this practice was a conflict of interest. She emphasized that the parent exams/evaluations were usually more valuable to her, and we are using her while we are there anyway to call for questions and send copies (photos) of medical records as well as every word we write w observations, verbal history/information, etc. The boys should have fairly recent notes on all developments/events/sicknesses/medications, etc- even bloodwork is done and recorded at least once a year.

She also recommended that we ask for an evaluation by the orphanage doctor while we are present and to take pictures of this as well. Megan said Galina would arrange for this.

She gave us some advice for what to bring w us for our visits w the boys (puzzles, bubbles, balloons, small backpacks, and small boxes of cheerios and raisins) . I had read that some homes don't allow the parents to bring food for the children but Dr Gordina said that the small boxes were good because we could show they weren't opened and each child can hold his own box.
We will also bring some disposable cameras to leave so the caregivers can take pictures in between trips #1 and #2. Apparently, they really will!

We had some minor things to still send to Megan for the court packet that she will send back for our trip over. We should still have it all ready to go by Monday.

My passport is back complete with a really hideous passport photo and a very exotic-looking Russian Visa stamp. Alan's did not have enough blank pages (!) and so took some extra days and stress to get additional pages attached and the Visa processed- his should be back safe and sound tomorrow morning.

Pre-Visit Details

We received more details on the trip from Megan. Ultimately, she said BE FLEXIBLE. She said Galina will be our main contact there and is very efficient and detail-oriented so we need to be open to whatever schedule she plans which cannot be planned far in advance...

We fly out through Atlanta to Moscow on Delta on Nov 3, then the Russian airline, Aeroflot to St Petersburg on the 4th. We will meet with the MOE, no specific time yet, on the 5th, then will meet the boys on the 6th- one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Apparently she's heard that the homes are not so close, but I don't know what that means. Since we are there over the weekend (we leave Monday, Nov 10), I asked if we could go to the homes then, but they said it's up to the orphanage- she said one of them usually allows and the other never does, we have to ask when we get there.
I saw a recent Yahoo post from a parent who adopted from babyhome#8 (Daniil's) 3 years ago and she said expect to be "drilled" by Ludmilla, the orphanage director, who she said was tough but very nice and she said you could tell she cares for the babies there. I emailed her/the parent directly to try to get more details...

I've gotten some names of pediatricians for the boys' medical evaluations, but still haven't confirmed. When I contacted Dr Gordina, she recommended one of the same that our agency did (Dr Oleg Togoyev) but we haven't heard back from him yet with his availability or fees...
We are speaking with Dr Gordina tonight to touch base and go over the info she had sent previously. We will be sending by email and fax all our notes and any medical records/details we get over there, so she can review and also give her recommendation while we are still there.

Otherwise, everything else seems to be on schedule. We have both had our medicals and will pick up the forms w results and doctor's licenses hopefully on Friday. Employment letters are signed and notarized, and police background checks completed, so besides a few aches and pains from the tetanus shot I had (!), we are in good shape...

First Visit Dates!

We finally heard from Rob and Megan with visit dates!! We will fly over November 3 to arrive on the 4th, then meet with the ministry officials (and more importantly the boys!) on November 5. They are a little vague on the logistics, but I think a lot of information is given to us there- the ministry lets us know when we see the boys and where. There is still a question as to whether we will meet them together or in their separate orphanages. We can meet with them every day we are there and will be contacting a pediatrician there for an independent medical evaluation of both boys.
I've already been in contact w some other parents on the yahoo list who will actually be there at the same time- one of them is staying in our hotel (Petro Palace), there on her second trip to pick up her little girl. They will have had their court date Oct 31, then there is a 10 day customary waiting period and she is staying in Russia for this until she can pick her up. Hopefully we can arrange to meet for coffee or dinner.

So that's the latest exciting news!

We heard from Megan and the boys were taken off the registry on the 21st. Galina went to the MOE on the 22nd. The MOE told her on Friday that they needed more Russian refusals before they can officially invite us. St. Petersburg has this rule that is more of a formality than anything else. Apparently, each child before being allowed to be assigned to a foreign family must be refused by Russian families a certain number of times. They don't know the exact number because they don't believe there is an exact number. The MOE told Galina that it would be another couple of weeks before they have all of the necessary refusals. Every child ends up getting the number of refusals within a matter of weeks and then the family is invited. ..
I've been doing a lot of reading and have never heard of this but I'm going to post it on the St Petersburg listserve and see what kind of response I get...

Almost 2 months have passed and still waiting on travel dates for the first visit. There was apparently some miscommunication regarding the registration of the boys, and they had not yet been taken off the Russian registry until September 21. It has been a week now since this date so I'll call to pester the agency for some information on travel dates on Monday...

We were hoping to have them home before Christmas, but from what I've read, it sounds like the Russian courts are very backed up, so it looks like it will be longer than the estimated wait of 2 months from the time of the first visit and therefore, will likely be after the 1st of the year.

We are still waiting...
I heard from Megan that the dossier was submitted and that Galina was checking regularly with them on travel dates but nothing yet. Then Rob emailed me last week and said they would try to get some update but still nothing....
As my meeting in Taipei nears in September (etd, Sept 10), I'm getting more nervous that the travel will clash, but we are ever patiently waiting.

Today there is news of Russia attacking Georgia in Ossetia- this seems to not affect other regions (yet). I've emailed Megan and Rob to see if this will affect adoption over there and the safety of the kids, as well as travel to St Petersburg and/or Moscow. Hoping and praying the clashes do not escalate...
I'll update with anything new.

Megan let us know that Galina "will try to register the dossier next week." So hoping it's only a couple weeks before we hear about travel dates, maybe in time for Max's birthday??!
I also found out that they are not in the same orphanage! Apparently, it's not uncommon to separate even brothers since the orphanages are typically grouped by age. Daniil is in Orphanage #8 and Max in Orphanage #7, not sure yet of the distance between the two. We will be busy...!

I know it's been a while but Ma and Pa Dunn have been traveling and working 24/7. There are only a couple more trips and visitors planned right now (oh no!) in the near future to keep my mind off the mini-Russkies!

So, the dossier was offically sent to Megan in Massachusetts, processed, forwarded to Russia (June 20) and is currently under translation by our rep in St Petersburg, Galina.

According to their timeline, she should be finishing it soon and she will submit it to the MOE in St Petersburg hopefully very soon. She usually lets the parents know when it's been submitted/registered, and it's about a week or two after that until we receive our dates to travel there for the first visit. BUT St Pete only has a couple days a month for dossier registration and I don't know when they are...

We found out a few more items we will need to update before our visit, including an 8-doctor (yes 8!) evaluation...fortunately, for St Pete our primary care MD can sign for all 8...
also updated good conduct and employment letters.

We have forwarded their Medical evaluations that we received to Dr Alla Gordina, who is a specialist in eastern european adoptions in East Brunswick, NJ. The initial eval is brief so we don't expect much but she offers her services throughout the adoption, including consultation while we are in Russia. She is Russian and familiar with what can be found in a Russian medical eval. If we receive a video or even take our own and send her whatever they give us in the orphanage, she will review all and give us her opinion while we are there. We are still investigating the options of having a local MD evaluate them while we are there. I have a few names in St Pete from the listserve I joined but haven't contacted any as of yet.

So that's the latest...stay tuned

We met with Rob on Monday morning and he gave us our final checklist. Unfortunately, Alan was leaving yesterday (Tues) to spend time with his mom after she undergoes surgery for breast cancer on Thursday, so he was not a little stressed pulling everything together before he left. He's my hero (!), as I did really need his help to get the last things. I'm dropping them off to Rob this morning.

Once the packet w homestudy gets up to Megan, he said she'll contact us directly for any additional items or clarifications. Hoping she'll also keep us posted on the progress so we know when all's completed and sent off to Russia....

We got the call on Friday!!
I had just dropped off the previous Friday the majority of our paperwork for the dossier so I could go over everything piece by piece with Rob, and we determined the few remaining items needed. After a little badgering, Alan got his physical and completed the final forms.

Rob calls me Friday morning and asks if I would mind switching regions from Omsk to St Petersburg because they had a referral for two boys from there. They are Daniil (1 y/o) and Maksim (3 y/o), and he had medical history as well as PICTURES!! This is rare to have all these details but they were in the process of being adopted by another family from Sweden, and it fell through, so the records had been gathered already for that family. I'm still not sure just how available the boys are at this point. It seems there is still such chance they could still be adoped by someone else or even that original family, before we get our dossier over there. I have a zillion questions for Rob so I'm hoping to meet with him tomorrow (Monday) to get some answers.

In the meantime, I couldn't help but share the news with close family and friends. I don't want to jinx it and I'm trying not to get my hopes up before I have some more definite answers, but I'm (cautiously??) yes, ecstatic.

Really?

It's usually the first response we get when we tell someone we are adopting from Russia. It's then more often then not, followed by "my [....friend, cousin, brother, etc...] adopted a child"- crazy how many people know someone who has adopted. It became clear that having a family was our next journey.

We found Alliance for Children and many many many other international agencies online, then took to investigating and found Rob. He's everything you dream an adoption social worker might be...easy to talk to, supportive, and informative- yes, he has received and successfully deflected panicked emails after I've read a particularly discouraging blog about Russia's ever-changing adoption policies. We sent off our I-600 to Immigration since this takes the longest to get back and in the meantime have gathered birth/marriage certificates, letters of good conduct, financials, photographs, had physicals, and started the "adoption fund." Once together, Rob will do the final homestudy visit, meet the pups (crazy 1 and crazy 2), and hopefully approve us to submit the completed dossier to Russia, where it needs to be translated and then sent to the Ministry of Education (MOE) in the Omsk region. There, our baby boys await their new home...

I'll be sure to post more as time passes, thanks for your support.
Kristin and Alan