New Family Photos!

Well I was suppose to get these done this summer close to Camden's 3rd birthday but the week we had them scheduled it was right around 109 degrees outside, needless to say I called and rescheduled.  I am really glad I did, this way we got "fallish" pictures.  Here are a few of the best ones!  Notice the new one on top!

What Randy and I did today!

Well first we dropped Camden off at school, and then we headed over to the bank to get all 34 documents of our notarized.  That took about an hour, the poor notary didn't know what she was getting herself into!  Then we went home to continue on the quest for a CPA and a psychologist.  Since we are not real estate developers, or hold large assets, we have never used an accountant, or CPA.  We do our taxes ourselves.  So this is how our conversations went with the CPA's.

Randy or Me: Hi...(explain what we need here)...Can you help us?
CPA: Are you a current customer?
Us: No
CPA: Sorry, we can't.
or
CPA: Sorry it is not legal for us to sign that without a full audit of our assets.
Us: Well how much is an audit?
CPA: You don't want to know.
Us: Why do you need to do an audit?
CPA: So we can't get sued.
Us: Really? Who's going to sue you? Russia?

End of Conversation...

FINALLY, I put out a word of help on Facebook, and a friend of mine had a friend that is a CPA, I called her, explained what we needed, she hesitated, I stated I can email you the form, she said ok she would look at it.  Finally she emailed back, and said YES!!!!!  Wahoo!!!!!!!!

Hope we don't have to redo that document again!

Now on to Psychologists:

Randy:: Hi.....(explain what we need)... Can you help us?
Psy: You mean you DON"T want a diagnosis?
Randy: Exactly, we want you to say we are NOT crazy.
Psy: Sorry, I can't bill your insurance if you don't receive a diagnosis.
Randy:WHAT??
Psy: Blah, Blah, Blah

Finally we found one who will do it!  Insurance SAYS they will cover it, supposedly with a $25 co-pay for each of us.  We will see!

All together this took right around 5 hours, and at least 30-40 phone calls.  Never have I seen more people Unwilling to help someone adopt.  The funny thing though is that almost all the calls ended with Good Luck on your adoption!

Question?

For those who had to go to a Psychiatrist, how did you phrase the initial phone call.  Or how did you even know who to call?  We have to visit one for our new agency, and I am at a loss at how to find this particular one.  I got answers for everything else, just this one is tricky!  Help please!

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.

One Month Down

Well we are 1 month into Randy's new work schedule, and it has been different to say the least.  Randy is exhausted to be quite blunt, and Camden and I miss him a lot.  But it is only for a year, hopefully! 

As far as the adoption goes, I am not really sure where we are, on Thursday we were told to expect to wait another 12 months before a referral.  Yep you heard me right, another 12 months.  I was ready to jump ship that day.  I guess the region that we were assigned, yes they did give out a referral, but they have not given that family travel dates.  I guess that region has decided that the agreement that was signed was not good enough, and now they are waiting on the DUMA, don't know if that is spelled correctly, to sign the agreement into law.  Now we are talking government here people, it took the US and Russia, over a year to sign the original agreement.  So we were told no referrals and no travel dates until the agreement is law.  We are technically locked into this region, with not really a way out.  I was afraid of this when we were originally assigned to this region.  I was very skeptical that we would actually get a referral from them, followed by travel dates.

So here is the scenario, leave the agency, lose the $5,000 that we paid them, go to Agency B who said we can have a referral in about 3-4 months, Agency B is about $7,000 more than Agency A, for 1 child, and we can not afford agency B's sibling price, it is OUTRAGEOUS!!! Followed by another adoption a year or so after this one is finished. Out $12,000, plus the cost of another adoption down the road.

Or stick with this current agency, and just wait it out, get our siblings, whenever, and never mention the word adoption again.  Personally I HATE both options.  I am done.  If I wanted to wait 4-5 years to finish an adoption, I would of applied to China.  I picked Russia because they were suppose to be fast, then that horrible woman in TN did her thing.  I am not sure what direction we are going.  Please pray.  Also, if you are local to us or family, it would really help me out if, instead of asking how the adoption is going, please just say that you are praying for us.  It is just too hard to bring up the subject over and over.  Also, I encourage you to check in to the blog.  Don't want to be rude about it, but it just hurts to talk about it.

First Day of School!

I know that I said I would post pictures last week of Camden's first day of school, but my computer decided to quit on me again!  Luckily Randy got it up and going for me. So here we go!

Getting ready to go get in the car. He was so excited!

Had to take a picture of the Cars backpack.  He loves that thing!

Outside his preschool.

Unloading his backpack, and getting his folder out.

Camden and his teacher Miss Pam.  Wasn't too sure about taking a picture with someone he didn't know.

His backpack on his special hook.  Can't believe my little man is in school!

Letting go...

I think I am finally ready to let go of all my baby gear.  Car seat, swing, stroller, baby bathtub, bouncer, pack-n-play, etc.  You know, EVERYTHING!  It has taken me a year and a half to get to this point, but I think I am ready.  There is a great consignment sale coming up in October called Just Between Friends, and you can take all your stuff there for people to purchase.  You get 70% of the sales price on everything and you pay a $10 entry fee.  I think I got enough stuff stored in my attic to fill their whole sale. :-)  This has been a long time coming, but after this horrible experience with the adoption, and my horrible experience with the infertility specialist, I think after this adoption I will be done.  I have always vowed that I was NOT going to be an old parent.  I had set a limit of 35 of introducing new children into our lives.  Right now I am 32, will be 33 in January.  I know, not that old, but I want to be true to my convictions.  I don't think I can go through another adoption, at least with this current agency, and I know the chances of me conceiving naturally without intervention are slim to none.  So it is time to let go, and move on.  Don't worry the adoption is still going, but who knows I might be 35 by the time we are done at the rate we are going. 

On a lighter note, Camden starts pre-school tomorrow!  He is so excited to go to "school!"  He will go two days a week for 5 hours a day.  I am excited for him to go, he doesn't get enough time with other kids, since he is not in daycare, and has no siblings, but I am fearful that I am going to be BORED out of my mind.  I will post pictures tomorrow of his BIG day!