10/6/06 What we are doing now?

It has been a while since we have posted. We've been home from trip 1 for three weeks now. We think about the baby and what she is doing and are just glad that we do not hear she is sick.

People are always asking when we will be going back. It is wonderful how supportive people are and how anxious they are for us to bring her home to join our family. Unfortunately, a lot of what goes on to schedule a court date is out of our hands. We have recently found that our region is one of the most paper intensive and it seems that the documentation required is a constantly changing/moving target. One of the first things we needed to get was a clearance from our state capital's social service dept. clearing of us of child abuse conviction. Unfortunately, this form often takes four weeks to get back, which it did. We just received it today and immediately fedexed it to back to Richmond to be apostilled. Every document we produce must be produced in triplicate and then must be notarized and receive the state's authentication that it is a valid document - this is what the apostille seal is.

We have been gathering documents from our doctors, our children's doctors and from financial institutions. The difficulty is that Russia often wants documentation to be presented differently than the way businesses present data in the U.S. Russia wants all data confirmed in a personal letter and businesses are not set up to do this or are not comfortable with the wording that translates confidence to Russia. It is very frustrating and I have sometimes had to go to businesses multiple times to produce the same document again, and this often means bringing a notary with me.

So... while we do not know when we are going back yet, we have submitted a stack of papers to be apostilled and hopefully they will be on their way to Russia in less than two weeks. As more time drags on it does become worrisome because our agency is up for re-accredittation at the end of January and for no real reason the accredittation could be delayed and prevent us from re-entering the region to finalize the adoption.

Despite some uncertainty, I have permitted myself a little down time to do some things to prepare for the baby's arrival. We bought an unfinished chest for her bedroom and we are in the process of sealing it. I've edited some photos of our sons and hung them above her crib. I thought that waking up to scenes of her brothers playing at the beach would be a nice way to start the day and help with her attachment to them. I've been putting together a lot of my boys clothing to consign at a consignment sale next week in hopes of raising some funds for the orphanage.

We appreciate the ourpouring of support for our journey and the enthusiasm for our daughter to be, but it is difficult to forget those that will be left in the orphanage. If you have a passion for these kids and would like to assist us, please let us know. Even a few dollars goes along way over there and can purchase diapers, medicine, or a new walker. So many of their toys and equipment are outdated, even unsafe.

We thank you again for your prayers, please pray we get a court date in November. She is getting older and turns 1 on November 14th. We'd love to be there then.