How This Works

For those of you that aren't familiar with IA (International Adoption) or new to our blog, I wanted to take a minute and explain the process for next week.

First of all, we are traveling "blind" which means we do not receive any information about our referral until we show up to the MoE (Ministry of Education) on Monday morning. Randy and I will arrive in Moscow on Saturday, weather permitting since we have a tropical storm headed our way. We are going to use Sunday to decompress and sight see, something we didn't really get to do when we traveled for Artem's adoption since it was so cold on all three trips.

On Monday morning we'll go to the MoE and meet with their representative. Our agency coordinator will go with us and translate and present the information about the child(ren) they have matched us with. We have asked for up to two children, boy or girl, healthy with only minor correctable issues, under 24 months old. We have not specified hair or eye color and are open to all ethnicities. Basically we are leaving it in God's hands as to who He has in mind for us. The MoE will give us some preliminary information about the child and we will decide if we want to pursue the child and meet them. We will sign paperwork that will allow us access to the orphanage and to see the child and at that point we'll leave for the orphanage. This could be a short drive if we are lucky or a very long 2.5 hour, one way, drive like we had with Artem.

We have arranged for a Western trained Russian doctor to meet us at the orphanage on Monday and meet with the child, review their medical file, and give us his take on the child's health. We also have an International Adoption Clinic out of Washington on standby to review our referral's file in case we want an additional opinion by a set of doctors that are well versed in issues facing children in orphanages.

When we adopted Artem times were very different and we knew the moment they gave us his information at the MoE that we would adopt him and wouldn't need a doctor's opinion, he was very healthy and it was obvious. Now the Russian fostering program is going strong and the Russian families are continuing to receive hefty stipends for fostering a child. While this sounds like a great idea to keep the children in loving homes in their own country, there isn't a screening process for Russian families to foster and many of the people fostering are the sick and elderly who have no other means for income, or in some cases they are families that are wanting the stipend to make a major purchase and after they have had the child long enough to buy that item, they return the child to the orphanage basically rendering them twice orphaned. The fostering program leaves very few "healthy" or "healthy with minor, correctable issues" children available for foreigners to adopt. Our coordinator will meet with the MoE on Thursday and officially make our match but in the past few months when she has made matches for other families with our agency, by the time the family made it to the MoE on Monday morning, a Russian family had already taken the child to foster. We are very aware of the fact that we could come home without a child.

But we are hoping for the best and if we are matched with a child that is healthy we will sign paperwork stating we wish to adopt them and fill out the paperwork giving them their name. Randy has shot down every name I've suggested We still can't agree on a name for a boy and we are six days from meeting our child. Let's hope they have a great Russian name we can keep.

Once we sign the paperwork to adopt the child, we will be able to visit them at the orphanage for the rest of the week until Friday. On Friday we will go before a panel of Russian doctors and prove to them that we are healthy and fit to parent the child, pay them a large stack of Rubles and be on our way. By Saturday it will be time to leave and begin the wait for a court date. Court usually follows the first trip by about 6-8 weeks, a very short time compared to many regions and one of the reasons we love the Moscow Region. After court, there is a mandatory 10 business day wait before the judge signs the official decree. We are planning on bringing Artem with us to court (he'll wait outside in the lobby unless the judge wishes to see him, which happens frequently when they know a previously adopted child has travelled back to Russia) and wait out our 10 days in Russia rather than come home between court and Gotcha Day like we did with Artem's adoption. We want him to be able to see Russia again now that he's older and we also hope to make several trips to the orphanage to visit his brother or sister and begin to bond with them before we pick them up.

This is how we have it planned now; no idea how it will truly unfold. Right now we need to get through Monday and find a child that's right for our family. We are taking it one step at a time and keeping our mind and heart open for what God is doing with our family at this time.