Well, what a week this has been! On Sunday I came down with the flu. All day Sunday and all day Monday I stayed home and tried to stay warm. Of course, it doesn't help that this week has been bitterly cold! On Tuesday, I felt better...no more chills, but a bad cold now. I took the day to relax and rest. Lucky I stayed home because our home study arrived today certified mail. Today, Thursday, I feel only slightly better. Because it was a day off of work, I took all our dossier documents downtown and had them apostilled (the county checks to see if the notary is actually certified to notarize, and then they put a letter over the notarized paper with a seal.) It took three hours, and I was all bundled up against the cold. Also, instead of walking to the building from Union Station, I took a taxi. It really wasn't that bad, but I feel horrible now. I came home, and of course, you have to make photocopies of all the apostilles because all your photocopies have to be EXACT copies. So....two hours of photocopying apostilles! I then had to staple all the numbered apostilles to the correct documents. For isntance, the apostille for one of the forms is number 80, so I had to make sure that the photocopied "80's" went on the corresponding pages. Then, I had to place each copy or original onto one of six piles. Yes, six. There are three piles for the Department of Education and three piles for Court. One pile in the DOE is for the DOE and is sent to the agency...that's all the originals and is our "dossier". Another folder is for the Agency, and is an exact copy of all the DOE pages. The last is "our" folder to take with us on the trip and to keep for our records and are an exact copy of the DOE pages. The other three are the same only for court when we take our second trip.
So, after about two or three hours of copying, putting in folders, double-and-triple-checking, I finally took all our dossier documents to FedEx. Two sets will arrive tomorrow morning! They will check it over (which is just a formality as I already e-mailed her the whole dossier and she was able to check it over before I actually sent it out), and then they will send it off to Russia! Sometime after that, we will be notified of our first visit. People usually travel between 10 and 17 days after receiving their referral, but since we already have a referral, I don't know if it will be the same or if it will be longer.
Post again soon!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Welcome!
Welcome to our blog! We are the Reynolds family. We have been married for 9 1/2 years. We had always prayed for a child, but God did not bless us with one of our own. There are medical reasons why it's not possible, but we won't talk about it here.
Our journey began a year ago when we decided to adopt. God had blessed us financially, and we decided to use that gift to adopt a child. We researched agencies, and we filled out a contract. Within one day of sending it out, we got a phone call to be introduced to our social worker and case worker. Within a few days, we met with our social worker and began the paperwork for the home study. We also signed up for an adoption seminar to get our credits for DCFS. Our case worker discussed the different programs and sent us the dossier paperwork.
We were flying high as we began a dossier for Nepal. We were done with our dossier in record time, and our home study was done earlier than expected, too. However, we found out through Nepal adoption chat groups that the new government was dissatisfied with the current adoption law, so they were halting all adoptions until they could re-write the adoption law. This meant that we could not submit the dossier we worked so hard to create. This also meant that all the couples that had already met their child and were waiting to return to finalize found themselves on hold. After waiting a couple of months, we decided to consider other programs. Our agency gave us information about a lot of different countries, but we didn't find one we really felt comfortable with.
In mid-August, we received a referral for a baby girl in Guatemala. However, we received word shortly after that she had died. After careful consideration of our options, we decided to stick with Guatemala. Our agency told us that Guatemala was also changing their laws, and we could end up not being able to complete the adoption. We took the chance and began working on a dossier. In October we received a referral for a little girl a year old. For three months we dreamed of adding that little girl to our family. However, that is not the child God intended for us. We found out on February 4 that the birth mother had changed her mind.
When the ageny called to deliver that terrible news, they also offered a baby girl in Russia. She told us to look at her information and to consider our options. Guatemala was no longer an option because they weren't taking new referrals until the new law opened up in April. After looking at her photos and thinking about our options, we decided to pursue this adoption in Russia.
We received our dossier documents right away, and our social worker was notified right away to update the home study.
So, it has been 8 days since we accepted the referral of Tatyana. We are frantically trying to finish the paperwork necessary for the first trip. It's not a lot, but it all needs to be notarized and apostilled. We have it all done and notarized and are waiting for our social worker to send us the home study. She said that she would send it Wednesday or Thursday. I will be taking it to be apostilled as soon as I get it. If it arrives early enough on Thursday, I will go right away. If not, I will go on Tuesday, since Monday is President's Day.
So, that is where we stand with our adoption. We are taking this waiting time to go through adoption blogs and reading all we can about adoptions from Russia, and in particular adoptions from the Kemerovo region, which is where we are going.
We will post updates as new information becomes available. Please pray for us as we pursue this adoption of Tatyana.
Our journey began a year ago when we decided to adopt. God had blessed us financially, and we decided to use that gift to adopt a child. We researched agencies, and we filled out a contract. Within one day of sending it out, we got a phone call to be introduced to our social worker and case worker. Within a few days, we met with our social worker and began the paperwork for the home study. We also signed up for an adoption seminar to get our credits for DCFS. Our case worker discussed the different programs and sent us the dossier paperwork.
We were flying high as we began a dossier for Nepal. We were done with our dossier in record time, and our home study was done earlier than expected, too. However, we found out through Nepal adoption chat groups that the new government was dissatisfied with the current adoption law, so they were halting all adoptions until they could re-write the adoption law. This meant that we could not submit the dossier we worked so hard to create. This also meant that all the couples that had already met their child and were waiting to return to finalize found themselves on hold. After waiting a couple of months, we decided to consider other programs. Our agency gave us information about a lot of different countries, but we didn't find one we really felt comfortable with.
In mid-August, we received a referral for a baby girl in Guatemala. However, we received word shortly after that she had died. After careful consideration of our options, we decided to stick with Guatemala. Our agency told us that Guatemala was also changing their laws, and we could end up not being able to complete the adoption. We took the chance and began working on a dossier. In October we received a referral for a little girl a year old. For three months we dreamed of adding that little girl to our family. However, that is not the child God intended for us. We found out on February 4 that the birth mother had changed her mind.
When the ageny called to deliver that terrible news, they also offered a baby girl in Russia. She told us to look at her information and to consider our options. Guatemala was no longer an option because they weren't taking new referrals until the new law opened up in April. After looking at her photos and thinking about our options, we decided to pursue this adoption in Russia.
We received our dossier documents right away, and our social worker was notified right away to update the home study.
So, it has been 8 days since we accepted the referral of Tatyana. We are frantically trying to finish the paperwork necessary for the first trip. It's not a lot, but it all needs to be notarized and apostilled. We have it all done and notarized and are waiting for our social worker to send us the home study. She said that she would send it Wednesday or Thursday. I will be taking it to be apostilled as soon as I get it. If it arrives early enough on Thursday, I will go right away. If not, I will go on Tuesday, since Monday is President's Day.
So, that is where we stand with our adoption. We are taking this waiting time to go through adoption blogs and reading all we can about adoptions from Russia, and in particular adoptions from the Kemerovo region, which is where we are going.
We will post updates as new information becomes available. Please pray for us as we pursue this adoption of Tatyana.
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