Travel Expenses

Hi all, we were just putting some numbers down in writing the other day and we have heard all types of prices for lodging etc. for when you are in Russia. Any of you parents who have made trip 1 and/or 2 if you could give us an idea of what to expect while we are there we would greatly appreciate it. My email is ddenson@kc.rr.com if you do not want to leave info. on the blog. Also we have heard of people renting apartments while in Russia. Has anyone done that? Also, did you have to eat out every meal, or are the rooms equipped enough for making small meals in your room? We are planning on staying the whole time trip 2. If you could help it would be very beneficial to us. Thanks.

EDIT: We do not know what region we are in yet, but we will probably be in 1 of these 4 regions.
Kemerovo
Ekaterinerg
Rostov
Kaliningrad

THANK YOU!!

For the donation whoever you are! We were sitting in church this morning and one of our preschool directors came up and handed us an envelope and said that someone asked her to give it to us. Well we opened it up and inside was a financial donation for our adoption!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! You have just helped to change the life of a beautiful orphan in Russia!!!

Randy, Denise, and Camden

Grant #2

Is in the mail. We won't know until December if we get it though. Let's hope it is good news this time.

How this works.

I guess I have never really explained how this whole process works. Sorry to all who are not familiar with adoption, or international adoption.

What happens first is that you have to complete a home study that makes sure that you have a home and environment that is fitting for a child to be raised in. Once that is done you apply for Immigration Approval to bring a foreign citizen into the country to become a U.S. Citizen. That is the I-600A application and if you are approved you receive a 171-H Approval.

Once that is done, you send your Dossier to your Agency and they approve it, and then send it over to the country. Every country is different on what they want, but for Russia, we had to send our home study, pictures of our home, financial statements, proof that we own our home, and commitments to raise this child as if they were our own.

What happens then is the staff in-country, for us Russia, match us with a region that will best suite our wants in a child. We requested a female, 8-18 months old, with minor correctable special needs. Once matched in a region, kinda like our states, we then wait on a referral.

A referral is a match with a child that they feel is what you have requested. Depending on the region, it is either a blind referral, or you get information on the child. A blind you have to travel to Russia to see the child, see their medical information, and then you decided yes or no to adopt the child. A regular referral they send you pictures and medical information, that you can share with a doctor and then decide if you want to travel to meet the child. You can also decline a referral if you feel it is not a good match. You will not automatically get another referral though.

If you accept the referral you travel to Russia and meet the child, see for yourself if it is a good match, and if it is you sign an Intent to Adopt. Then the really hard part comes. You have to leave them there and come home.

After coming home you have to prepare another Dossier with more detailed information for Russia including medical exams. Then you wait for your court date. The average wait is 10-16 weeks between trip 1 and trip 2.

When you get your court date you go back to Russia for court, once your petition is granted they have a 10 day waiting period basically a last chance for biological families to come and get the kids if they want, many families come home during this time because you are not allowed to go visit your child during that 10 day time. Randy and I are not coming home, we are staying in Russia or going over to Europe during that time. Then you have "gotcha day" where you get to go take your child out of the baby home. ALL regions are different in how they do things. This is how OUR regions do this.

Then no matter where in Russia you adopt from all families have to travel to Moscow to go to the American Embassy to do more paperwork to get your child into the country. The average 2nd trip if you do not come home is 26-28 days. Once your child hits American soil they are American citizens!!! Some agencies offer a courier service, sending someone to Moscow in your place, but just another fee, we are opting out of that one.

Hope that helps a little, sorry so long winded.

Quick Update

Well it looks like almost everyone who is registered in a region for our agency will be getting their referrals in the next 4-8 weeks. That is good, that means those of us who are waiting for a region assignment will get their regions which means we will be that much closer to our referrals. I am so happy things are starting to really move for our agency!

Ideas

I really need some ideas. We were not granted our top choice grant application, we chose them to go with first because they did not have a preference over having a child. All the other ones that I have found that we "qualify" for give preference to people without children. I see pros and con's with that philosophy. Yes, they want people who don't have children to get their first child ever. But those of us with children, they are EXPENSIVE!!! So less money to go to saving for our adoption. Anyway, I am NOT going to be negative, I will just keep filling out grant applications till my hand falls off. What I need are ideas though.

I need ideas on how to raise money without asking people for money! I know, I just contradicted myself there. With Randy working overtime, it is awesome, but Camden and I never get to see him. Luckily the school year is starting up again, so I will be able to sub on days that Randy is home, but they cut our sub pay down $20 a day, which is a chunk. We will do another garage sale in late September, but we still need ideas.

If you have an inventive idea on how to raise money I would appreciate your ideas. Our church is not big on fundraisers, so that is out of the running for ideas. No spaghetti dinners for us! If you have an inventive idea I would really appreciate your input! Thanks so much.

Denise

P.S. On the positive, our agency gave out several trip dates and court dates last week, so thing are looking up for our agency. There are still many in front of us though, so we will see.

Grant...

Unfortunately we were denied our grant application. I guess we either
A.) Make too much money! Cough, sputter, gag!!! Please, we are a 1 income family!!!
B.) We have no debt, so we are seen as having the funds that other families might not have.
or
C.) They just didn't have enough money to go around.

I really hope it was C. But anyways, we are moving on, Grant Application 2 is getting worked on as we speak!

Please Pray

For this adopting family, their judge is not being cooperative at all. Thank so much.

http://fromrussiawithlove2009.blogspot.com/2010/08/any-suggestions-know-anybody-who-knows.html

You know you are in the middle of an international adoption when...

Please check out this post from a fellow blogger. It is absolutely hilarious!!!

click here

As for us, no real new news. Just waiting. Our agency's weekly update did come out and state that things are looking like Russia will be ending adoptions for single applicants and persons of "alternative lifestyles." This isn't a sure thing yet, but it looks that way. We don't know if they will finish out those that are already in process or not, so this could impact us greatly. We could get moved up the list a lot if that happens.

Paka,
Randy, Denise, and Camden