The executive director and president of our agency are back from their trip to Russia. I am sure they are holding meetings with the case workers to give individual updates on all their clients that currently have a dossier submitted to Russia. However, our case worker was out-of-town for a wedding until today. So, I have no idea when she'll be able to give us an update on what is happening with our case.
Here's the latest news: Some yahoos on the chat groups are bemoaning the fact that Russia won't accept adoptive parents that are on antianxiety or antidepressant drugs. So, I didn't panic (Brian's on both). I just wrote back that it's not a "Russia" thing, it's an agency and region thing. Meaning: "don't get us all in a panic...check with your agency." Our agency is aware that Brian is on those meds and would have told us if there was going to be an issue.
So, for now, we have no new news to share....except that we finally heard from USCIS, and our appointment to get our fingerprints re-taken is on Saturday, May 3 at 8 am. I am so glad that will be out of the way!
TTFN!!!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Wait
Where do I start today? It turns out that the staff at the DOE was not on vacation. They were told to take off while the government decided what to do about the case in Utah where an adoptive father murdered his adopted children from Russia. This happened on March 7, and our paperwork made it to Russia on March 3. Just our luck.
Well, so the DOE is back and running again processing adoptions. However, there is another dimension to the game. Now when we arrive in Moscow before we go to court, we have to undergo an 8-doctor visit. It's supposedly non-invasive. Just so these specialists can go over our paperwork that we did in the States and ask us questions reguarding our health. There is also to be a psychiatric exam to boot. It's to cost $650-800 per person.
As if that's not bad enough, our fingerprints for Immigration expire in June, and 8 weeks before they expire we have to notify Immigration so they can make another appointment for us to get fingerprinted again (another $80). So, I sent in my letter on Friday, a few days early than the 8 weeks.
But wait-there's more! On Friday our social worker told us that Immigration wrote them and said they cannot approve us for Russia because we had not had a home visit in almost a year. Also, some of the answers to our questions were not acceptable. For instance, our other social worker asked us if we were ever accused of a sexual offense, and we said "no". But since she did not write our responses word-for-word, it's unacceptable. How many words does it take to say NO??? Anyway, she's coming today at 5:30. I'm not as nervous as the first time, but I am kind of nervous because our downstairs bathroom is torn apart because we have to replace water-damaged walls and ceiling, and our bathtub has part of the wall missing from having pipes replaced. I know I'm being paranoid, but those are my fears.
Anyway, I do know that the executive director and the president of our agency are in Russia right now checking into the situation. They are also checking on each individual case. We will be called in a week or two to get an update on what is happening with our case and to also maybe even get a travel date. So, here I go...waiting at least another two weeks before we hear anything!
Well, so the DOE is back and running again processing adoptions. However, there is another dimension to the game. Now when we arrive in Moscow before we go to court, we have to undergo an 8-doctor visit. It's supposedly non-invasive. Just so these specialists can go over our paperwork that we did in the States and ask us questions reguarding our health. There is also to be a psychiatric exam to boot. It's to cost $650-800 per person.
As if that's not bad enough, our fingerprints for Immigration expire in June, and 8 weeks before they expire we have to notify Immigration so they can make another appointment for us to get fingerprinted again (another $80). So, I sent in my letter on Friday, a few days early than the 8 weeks.
But wait-there's more! On Friday our social worker told us that Immigration wrote them and said they cannot approve us for Russia because we had not had a home visit in almost a year. Also, some of the answers to our questions were not acceptable. For instance, our other social worker asked us if we were ever accused of a sexual offense, and we said "no". But since she did not write our responses word-for-word, it's unacceptable. How many words does it take to say NO??? Anyway, she's coming today at 5:30. I'm not as nervous as the first time, but I am kind of nervous because our downstairs bathroom is torn apart because we have to replace water-damaged walls and ceiling, and our bathtub has part of the wall missing from having pipes replaced. I know I'm being paranoid, but those are my fears.
Anyway, I do know that the executive director and the president of our agency are in Russia right now checking into the situation. They are also checking on each individual case. We will be called in a week or two to get an update on what is happening with our case and to also maybe even get a travel date. So, here I go...waiting at least another two weeks before we hear anything!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Second Dossier
Well, I was able to get most documents for our second dossier apostilled today. The financial statements were giving us problems. The woman who notarized the financial statement did not sign her name exactly as it appears in her stamp. We also could not get the CPA's license apostilled because a notary stamped them, but there were no signatures, and no statements like "I certify that this is a copy of an original....". So, once we correct them I have to take them back downtown. I will also have to take copies of our "State Adoption Law" that our social worker is sending us. That leaves only three documents for our second dossier to do after we return from our first visit. We need to have police clearances, medical exams, and the 10-day waivier.
As I looked at the calander, I realized that it has been two months since we received our referral. It has gone very quickly, but at the same time, I'm a little alarmed. Shouldn't we have been on our first visit already? Two months seems an awfully long time after the referral. You usually hear that people wait for months for a referral and then travel within two weeks on their first trip. You don't hear of people getting a referral quickly and then having to wait months for the first trip. I'm starting to get a little suspicious, but at the same time, I'm trying really hard not to panic and see problems where none exist. I just pray that we will hear soon when we will be able to travel. I have almost everything ready...we just need to send our applications out for our VISAS. I even have most of the information on the VISAS filled out, except for where we will be staying and the dates we will be there.
Well, that's all the news I have for now.
As I looked at the calander, I realized that it has been two months since we received our referral. It has gone very quickly, but at the same time, I'm a little alarmed. Shouldn't we have been on our first visit already? Two months seems an awfully long time after the referral. You usually hear that people wait for months for a referral and then travel within two weeks on their first trip. You don't hear of people getting a referral quickly and then having to wait months for the first trip. I'm starting to get a little suspicious, but at the same time, I'm trying really hard not to panic and see problems where none exist. I just pray that we will hear soon when we will be able to travel. I have almost everything ready...we just need to send our applications out for our VISAS. I even have most of the information on the VISAS filled out, except for where we will be staying and the dates we will be there.
Well, that's all the news I have for now.
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