To San Diego, and beyond

After more than three weeks of intense paperwork, the Dossier is nearly complete! There are three documents left, all of which are currently out for completion. A special thank you goes out to Andrea, the notary in Kathy’s office. She has notarized ~40 documents for us so far.

One of the documents still pending is a required psychological evaluation. To our surprise, our therapist wanted two meetings with us, along with us each taking the MMPI-2 personality test. This was more thorough (slow) than we originally expected, and was a source of frustration. However, with the news that has been coming out of Russia the past two weeks, the extra scrutiny now may be beneficial to us in the future. It was also a good opportunity for us to practice patience.

We are soon planning on taking a trip to San Diego. While we are there, we are going to meet with the people from our agency, Adoption Options. They have been phenomenal during the past two weeks, keeping us up to date despite the conflicting reports coming out of Russia regarding U.S. adoptions.

Here’s what we know so far: While some individual regions have been postponing court dates for those families already in Russia, the press release earlier this week stating that all U.S. adoptions are suspended was incorrect. The State Department is sending a high-level delegation to Moscow to discuss the controversy and possible changes that need to be made. The delegation was originally supposed to arrive the 18th of April, but delays from the Iceland volcano have moved the meeting back to the 26th.

After consulting with our agency late last week, we decided to keep moving forward with our adoption as quickly as possible. If there are new requirements implemented before we complete our adoption, we will just need to add to/modify our current set of documentation. Thanks to all for your emails and other support. We may not have time to reply to everyone in a timely manner, but please know your support and prayers are very much appreciated.

-- Kathy

Sad National News Today

For those who have not seen today's news, there is a disturbing and sad story of a 7 year old Russian adoptee that was sent back to Russia (by himself) by his adoptive grandmother.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36322282/ns/world_news-europe/

Our heart goes out to this poor child: First he loses his birth family, spending part of his life in an orphanage. Hope arrives, and he is transported halfway across the world to become part of another family.. only to be brutally rejected by them and sent back to the other side of the world. The news article mentions that the mother claims he had psychological problems, but we feel that no matter what the circumstances, that adoptive family failed their child.

This family's actions have (understandably) upset the Russian government and people, prompting a backlash that may include suspending all Russian adoptions to the U.S. This could have a tragic impact to our current adoption efforts.

We are monitoring the situation very closely, and proceeding with the preparation of our dossier. It's all we can do, aside from praying that the thoughtless, heartless actions of a few individuals do not crush the dreams of many families and children that need to find each other.

-- Alan