Our sweet little girl and boy !

I arrived here in Vladivostok a couple days ago. I have spent precious time with our soon to be little girl. She is a happy little one and sat on my lap being very content unpacking everything I had in her little bag.She then proceeded to unpack my purse and find all sorts of little goodies. She feed me lots of goldfish first before she finally ate one. She is just precious and although small for her age seems very much on track developmently.Looks like I will be shopping some more for a size smaller then I thought.We are so exited to bring her and little B home. I will spend the next couple days with both our little ones and then head back home until our court date.Things are very slow here still and but will pick up again when the treaty between Russia and United States is signed. Patience Patience Patience!!!

UP UP AND AWAY ! !

OK, so where do I begin? First, I will share what I have been wanting to for a while now that I haven't because of all the Russia adoption drama lately.We have recieved and accepted a referral of a little girl too! When I first saw her picture I immediatly thought she reminded me of someone. When my mother saw the pic she knew exactly who she reminded me of. It was me ! I compared pics of myself at her age when me and my own family still lived in eastern Europe when I was a little girl and it is amazing the similarities.There is even one pic that I found where we both are wearing the thick tights and a bandana and have very chunky cheeks!

I am traveling this weekend to Vladivostok to see Miss M and also visit our little B. I am traveling solo this time because we will be going back soon again hopfully to have court for both children. Long story we will save for LATER!Last few weeks I have started SHOPPING for little girl things again. I have bought mostly 18-24 months size cloths for her.
We will see if they fit! The last good piece of info is little B's release letter has come!

Life lessons

A couple days ago Victoria came home from school somewhat quiet. Apparently several kids at school were talking about the little boy sent back to Russia by his adoptive mother.Several kids at school asked her if little B was going to have stay in the orphanage now?( All the kids and teacher know about little B ). We had spent time talking to each of the kids about the reality of things possibly being delayed to bring little B home because we did not have a court date yet before all the fiasco started.Victoria then said "It is not fair Mom. We did not do anything bad and you would not ever do what that lady did. Little B did not do anything bad either.Besides we already have clothes and cool toys for him to play with and we WANT him to be in our family.Can you tell those people in Russia that?" If only it were that easy.Still waiting for a court date... hopefully.

Trying to keep the faith

I am still in shock and numb over the news of the Russian boy returned to Russia on a one way ticket with a note by his adoptive mother.I can not even grasp the idea that a mother can think about doing that!This little boy is from the same region as our little B. This incident has Russian officials outraged and want to suspend all adoptions to US families.I have literally felt sick and grief to think what this may mean for us.We are soo close to a court date! Please pray for all families effected by this and the children who have loving families waiting to bring them home. I wanted to share some good news but, now we will have to wait and see.This is just so hard!

The Good And Not So Good

So, why is it that good news seems to always come with not so good news in the world of International Adoption.I am so ready to get off this roller coaster ride but, we ARE going to stay on until it is over.The ups and downs are really wearing on me and yet I see the miracles along the way that keep me going on this journey.
The not so good news include...
1. Some judges in Vladivostok is now requiring FBI clearances on top of state clearances for court. We already have them from when we were adopting from Kyrgyzstan but,Russia requires them to be less then 6 months old.Of course this happens right before we get a court date! We did get them done but, they are normally taking 13 weeks to process!! We are working on getting them expedited so we will see what happens.
2.As told a few weeks ago our region is also now requiring the 8 doctor medicals to be done in Russia. Again we just finished up our medicals in the states going through hoops to do them!It was like a full time job getting medicals for 7 people!We were however informed we will probably be able to do them in Vladivostok and not have the extra expense of going through Moscow.
3.The release letter from Moscow for little B had not arrived in Vlad yet! It as been over two months!
Some times my human nature begins to just get so frustrated with all this but, then there is GOOD news that only God could orchestrate. Hopefully in about two weeks I will be able to share what it is. The timing would be perfect so,I am trying hard to remember God has it all under control.

Waiting,Teeth Woes, and Laundry Mania

So, we are waiting sort of patiently for a Court Date ! Honestly, I am not expecting it to come for another few weeks because two documents had be changed slightly. Since hubby and our oldest adult son have the same name they wanted us to designate one to father and one to son so there is no confusion. It was not a big deal to do but, it did entail us to get them authenticated again.I do not even want to know how much we have spent just on authenticating alone for this adoption since each document is 20
dollars here in California.

While waiting I have been spending WAY to much time at the dentist! I THOUGHT I was being smart by getting a crown that was recommended before I went back to Russia for a month. Well... my "experienced" dentist compromised a root in the tooth and now have mega nerve pain in my jaw ! Lets just say losing 5 pounds on my small frame makes my body look and weigh like a twelve year old ! Now we have to wait and see if I will need a root canal. This is not what I need or want before I leave for Russia ! ! UGH UGH UGH !!

My other keeping busy project has been to organize a better laundry system in our home. 7 people plus having kids in sports generates A LOT of laundry !!I am one of those that likes everything organized but, the laundry battle is uphill so I am working on a new and improved system.Now if only I could catch the sock snatcher !

Moving Forward

It has been a busy few weeks getting all the mega paperwork done for the Court Dossier. Trying to explain and convince people to do things a certain way with certain wording has proven to be quite challenging again. I spent HOURS on the phone trying to get a two sentence letter from our mortgage company. They kept telling me they do not write letters with an original signature and a recent mortgage statement and history is all they can do for me. Finally had to go to the main office building THREE times to get this one letter with a real persons signature! Good grief!! I also seriously do not want to have to go back to a CPA anytime soon and explain 1000 times that things have to be done a certain way!! Anyway, after feeling like this has been my FULL TIME job our Court Dossier is complete and on its way to Russia. We may have to redo medicals again because they are only good for three months and our release letter for little B had not arrived yet, so we will see.