Here we go

Randy and I have officially applied to another agency as of today.  I mailed off the application about an hour ago to be exact.  After many talks with our current agency, it was looking at minimum of 12 months to a referral, and then up to 18 months to be home.  That just doesn't fly with us any more. 

You have to understand, when we started we were told 12-18 months from start to finish.  We are now in month 20 from the start, with the possibility another 18 months to finish we were finished with agency A, kinda.  I will let you know why the kinda in a moment.

So on to Agency B, between Randy and I we called and spoke to 5 agency's in the past week.  ALL of them were appalled at the wait we have had and were expecting.  Also, they were confused about why our agency told us to only apply for sibling sets up to the age of 3.  Their minimums are age of 5 for sibling sets because unless the set was taken from their parents, or parents turned them over to the orphanage right after the youngest was born, it is almost impossible to get a referral of two siblings that young.  When they explained this it really made sense, since the children have to be in the Russian database for 8 months before they are available for international adoption.  That is the second reason we are kinda leaving. 

So now on to agency B, where the director actually had to TURN AWAY a girl referral last week because he didn't have any one to adopt her!!!!!!!!!!!!!  OUTRAGE!!!  If only we had called two weeks ago!  So now we are on the fast track, there may be a few things that we need to change with our home study, because we are raising our age limit, and with Randy's new job at the hospital.  This agency doesn't see why we won't be traveling in the next 3-6 months. 

Now to the kinda part.  Our paperwork doesn't expire with Agency A until April.  So we are keeping our file with them active until April.  We are willing to risk the Agency fee with agency B, to have both hands in the cookie jar so to speak.  It is perfectly legal and nothing morally wrong with this.  So, we have now just have to be a little bit more patient. 

Another thing I like about Agency B is that we do a mini dossier, like 10 documents, and then we hand carry Dossier 2 to Russia with us on Trip 1, to expediate the court date.  With agency A, we had to do about 30 documents, which we have to redo every year, and then when we get home from trip 1 we then tackle Dossier 2 which has an additional 10 documents to Dossier 1, and oh yes, we have to redo everything in Dossier 1 again!  So needless to say, we are very happy and ready to go.  Oh yes, we are also on the wait list from the moment he gets our application, unlike agency A where you only get on the wait list when you turn in your dossier 1.