Today, Its July 1st. I cannot believe we are in the month of July already! Wow!
I received an email from Marti, that she received a request from Tver to update, yet more documents!!! This is what she is requesting:
2 - Home study post adoption letter
2 - Agreement between agencies.
2 - Article 7
2 - Request for additional information
3 - Copies, each notarized and apostilled, Passport picture pages-Mauricio
2 - Application on rendering assistance (it has the age preference as ’18 months and
younger’ whereas in HS and HS recommendation it is ’24 months and under’ - this
difference can cause problems with registration)
2 - for each parent Questionnaires (it has the age preference as ’18 months and
younger’ whereas in HS and HS recommendation it is ’24 months and under’ - this
difference can cause problems with registration)
To be honest, I am a little puzzled..... most of these documents we submitted back in April. I do not understand WHY we have to do them again???? Ohhhh well, we have not choice, but to REDO THEM.... :(
I did sent an email to Marti asking why we had to redo all those papers, and her response was that Tver was requesting them again.....I was not really convinced with that answer, I think it is an easy way out type of answer.... but like I said, we have no choice :(
Then, I had to email Marti with some questions. You see, while as I was going through the paperwork, I came across this other form (Questionnaire of the candidate for adoption) and it had the age information of the child we are requesting, 18 months or younger. I wanted to know whether it needed to be updated too. Second, I noticed that the CHI license was expiring in August and I needed the new expiration date of the new CHI License. Well it turned out that the forms had expired and I had to redo them. Thanks God I noticed!!!
On July 18, 2008, we received an email from Gloria at CHI, in regards to the Hague accreditation. This is what it said:
"On July 9th, 2008 CHI was reviewed by COA for our Hague accreditation. Yesterday, July 17, 2008 we were informed by COA that our Hague application has been denied. Our denial was based on being non-compliant in one state where we are licensed. This was not brought to our attention until last week after the Hague review was already underway. We are currently working to resolve this issue and will be requesting from COA re-consideration to our approval."
At first, we did not know what to think or expect, but after doing some research we found out that the Hague Accreditation does not affect Russia, since Russia does not belong to the Hague. Only about 75 countries belong to the Hague, which include China. CHI was affected tremendously because of this and they are in the process of appealing. They've even had to close down the Kansas City regional office, in order to be in compliance with the Hague, at least in part. We pray that CHI can resolve this with a positive outcome.
On July 30, 2008 we found out through Marti that she had resigned from CHI and that her las that was going to be August 8, 2008. At first, I did not know what to think. We were really concerned. I even wrote to Andrey, the Program's Director with my concerns. After reading Andrey's response I felt a little better. We Thank Marti for everything she did and we wish her the best. On the other hand, we welcome our new Coordinator, Karla, and we pray to God that move its the best for us parents and for Karla as well. Welcome Karla and Good Luck!!!!
To end the month, right before leaving Marti left us a list of documents that we should need for court. What a list..... I feel that getting the dossier ready for registration was nothing compared to this list..... This is what we need:
List for Court:
2 Apostilled pictures of family and home.
2 Apostilled pictures of child's room.
2 Home Study Agency License
2 Social Worker license
2 Home Study Recommendation Letter. (This will need to be signed by both the home
study social worker and the hs agency director.)
2 Home study Post Placement consular registration letter (This will need to be
signed by the hs agency director and social worker.)
2 Agency licensing letter
2 Adoption training letter or certificate
2 Agreement Between Agencies
2 State Adoption Laws
2 State Median Income
2 Immigration Law
2 Post adoption report
2 Adoption Certificate and court decree
2 Police Clearance. (2 originals-Good for 6 months)
2 FBI (2for each parent) - 2 originals - A notary must attest that they are true and
authentic originals, you cannot. You need to complete two fingerprint cards for
each parent. Wait to complete this until you receive a referral as it has a
shelf life of 6 months
2 Passport picture page
2 Copy of original (or amended) I-171H
2 Marriage certificate
2 Medical report and Medical addendum
2 Doctors License
2 Psychiatric evaluation
2 Psychiatric license (as a medical doctor and as a psychiatrist)
2 Statement of legal residence. 2 originals
2 Deed of Trust
2 Statement confirming you are current on all mortgage payments.
2 for each parent Employment Letter
2 2007 Taxes
2 Bank statements
2 Financial Statement. To be Completed by an accountant.
2 Accountants license
2 originals Letter from the guardian
2 Letter from Secretary of State concerning apostille. 2 originals needed. Need to
be taken to the Secretary of State office. This the format that Tver would like
to see. I am putting this on your list, but we will complete this in our office.
2 Guardianship letter
3 reference letters. You will need two originals of each reference letter.
All those documents need to be Notarized, Apostilled and some of them need to be Incumbent also.
I am going to be very very busy for the next month :)
I am hoping to have everything completed by the end of August (with God's help).
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
JUNE 2008
Dear All:
June has been a really busy month for me at work. We are working on closing the Fiscal Year 2008-2009 and we are also working on a new FY 2009-2010. There have been a lot of late nights. School is also very hectic. I am in the last leg of the race (sort of speak). I am working on my Capstone Seminar. I have to do different projects throughout the semester, but there are 2 major projects that we have to complete, a Advocacy Paper and an RFP, Request for Response on a Latin American Country respoding to a USAID Request. I am praying that everything goes well. At the same time I continue to update papers on the adoption. We have still not heard anything about registration. We continue to hope that we will hear something very very soon. Nelson's Birthday its coming up. He is my sister's Ana Maria's husband.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NELSON!!!
We took him to take him to PFChangs for Lunch. We had a great time, Mauricio, Mom, Ana Maria and I. We did a little bit of shopping and then we went to get him an Ice Cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery. He really enjoy it.
Mauricio and I each received an email from Marilyn at CHI, requesting "Signat erifiat re Yadira Codina-Guillen re Application"
At first, we thought that Tver was actually looking at our file, but after asking Marilyn, she informed that this is an internanl procedure that they do to verify certain documents.
This is the formal verbage from her: "Children's Hope has an active Quality Improvement process, and we are verifying the authentication of random documents that are being sent to our international countries. We respectfully request that you verify that the attached document did indeed originate from your office and was signed by yourself, Yadira Codina-Guillen."
I am also in the process of requesting an extension of the from I-171H from Department of Homeland Security. I had to request an additional copy of the latest home study to our Social Worker, Lori, in order to prepare the package for INS.
For a while now, I have been in communication with some Mom's who are in the process of adopting, just as we are. I started talking to T., she is very nice. She and her husband already adopted a baby from Tver in 2006 and are now in the second round of adoption. They filed their dossier a little bit after us.
In one of the emails from the chat groups, one of the Mom's was asking if anyone had used or maybe knew any International Adoption Doctors. There were different responses from parents who had already adopted and some other thoughts of those who are in the process of adopting, just like us. We honestly have not decided whether we are to hire a IAD. Nevertheless, I already did my homework and just in case we decide to hire one, we have one lined up. Mauricio and I asked ourselves this: How can we turn down a child because he might not look "good" or because it is not what we had in mind. I think that its one of the most difficult decisions. #1, after waiting for so long to receive a referral, are we to turn down a child, for x reason?? #2 After we prayed and prayed, God has given you the answer by providing you with a referral for a child, and after you meet that child, he becomes part of your life experience! Can you you go against that. I understand, like in anything, there are different situations for everything, but I am just talking about our thoughts. Each family will do what its best for them....
Next month (July) it's my baby sister's B-Day (July 4th) and it is also my B-DAY :)
Until next time.....
June has been a really busy month for me at work. We are working on closing the Fiscal Year 2008-2009 and we are also working on a new FY 2009-2010. There have been a lot of late nights. School is also very hectic. I am in the last leg of the race (sort of speak). I am working on my Capstone Seminar. I have to do different projects throughout the semester, but there are 2 major projects that we have to complete, a Advocacy Paper and an RFP, Request for Response on a Latin American Country respoding to a USAID Request. I am praying that everything goes well. At the same time I continue to update papers on the adoption. We have still not heard anything about registration. We continue to hope that we will hear something very very soon. Nelson's Birthday its coming up. He is my sister's Ana Maria's husband.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NELSON!!!
We took him to take him to PFChangs for Lunch. We had a great time, Mauricio, Mom, Ana Maria and I. We did a little bit of shopping and then we went to get him an Ice Cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery. He really enjoy it.
Mauricio and I each received an email from Marilyn at CHI, requesting "Signat erifiat re Yadira Codina-Guillen re Application"
At first, we thought that Tver was actually looking at our file, but after asking Marilyn, she informed that this is an internanl procedure that they do to verify certain documents.
This is the formal verbage from her: "Children's Hope has an active Quality Improvement process, and we are verifying the authentication of random documents that are being sent to our international countries. We respectfully request that you verify that the attached document did indeed originate from your office and was signed by yourself, Yadira Codina-Guillen."
I am also in the process of requesting an extension of the from I-171H from Department of Homeland Security. I had to request an additional copy of the latest home study to our Social Worker, Lori, in order to prepare the package for INS.
For a while now, I have been in communication with some Mom's who are in the process of adopting, just as we are. I started talking to T., she is very nice. She and her husband already adopted a baby from Tver in 2006 and are now in the second round of adoption. They filed their dossier a little bit after us.
In one of the emails from the chat groups, one of the Mom's was asking if anyone had used or maybe knew any International Adoption Doctors. There were different responses from parents who had already adopted and some other thoughts of those who are in the process of adopting, just like us. We honestly have not decided whether we are to hire a IAD. Nevertheless, I already did my homework and just in case we decide to hire one, we have one lined up. Mauricio and I asked ourselves this: How can we turn down a child because he might not look "good" or because it is not what we had in mind. I think that its one of the most difficult decisions. #1, after waiting for so long to receive a referral, are we to turn down a child, for x reason?? #2 After we prayed and prayed, God has given you the answer by providing you with a referral for a child, and after you meet that child, he becomes part of your life experience! Can you you go against that. I understand, like in anything, there are different situations for everything, but I am just talking about our thoughts. Each family will do what its best for them....
Next month (July) it's my baby sister's B-Day (July 4th) and it is also my B-DAY :)
Until next time.....
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
May 2008
Mother's Day its approaching.... We also have my Mom's Birthday this month. Right after Mother's Day. My future Brother-In-Law's Birthday (Donnie) its coming too.....
Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!!
Happy Birth Donnie!!!!!!!!!
We took Mom to a nice restaurant here in Miami. The name is: 94th Aero Escuadron. They have a very nice and extensive Sunday Brunch. My sister Ana, her husband Nelson, my sister-in-law Patricia, Mauricio, Mom and I went to Brunch... We had a great time!!
For Mom's Birthday we took Mom to Bahama Breeze. We also had a great time!!! It is always so nice to spend time with the family you love and adore. It was just sad that my sister Claudia and Donnie could not be here with us to celebrate :( We really miss them! They are planning a vacation in July, so I guess we have to wait to see them....
We got the great news that American Airlines will start traveling nonstop from Chicago (ORD) to Moscow (DME), starting June 2008. To us this are GREAT news, since we always try to fly with AA. We have earned some miles during our travels. My Mom also told us that she is going to gift us her miles so we can use them for the second trip and we could fly Business/First class. That way we would be more comfortable with the baby. We also bought extra miles through American Airlines. We are hoping to gather enough miles so we can both travel comfortable with the baby.
On a different note, we are going on a mini vacation, Mauricio and I will be traveling to Acapulco, Mexico. We are very excited since we have never been there. We will be going for Memorial Day Weekend (yeahh). We really deserve a break, even if it is for a few days, I am sure we are going to enjoy it to the max!!
I am also registered for my last class at Florida International University. By the end of the summer I will be finished with the Capstone Seminar, and I will be eligible to receive my Master's in Public Administration. It has been a very hard road, with one full time job, a part-time job, and with school... Now that I look back, I am not sure how I have been able to do it all. If it hadn't been for my dear husband and my Mom, I am not sure how I would have done it. THANK YOU BOTH!!! I LOVE YOU ALWAYS!
On a sad note, we received an email from Dwyatt, the Gantt, the Executive Director at Children's Hope... This has to do with all the structural and financial changes that CHI is currently experiencing. For example, and I quote:
"There have always been changes and cycles in the ‘adoption world’ but probably never have there been so many as in this last year – and continuing right up to this moment. China has more restrictions and fewer referrals, Russia continues to invent new ways to make adoptions more complex and expensive, Vietnam and the U.S. are now in a tug of war over how not to work together. Kazakhstan is s-l-o-w. Colombia is stable and steady and Ethiopia is splendid. Hague Accreditation has inserted itself at this fragile moment of history to add complexity to whatever other changes are taking place. It is a good thing but not well instituted, and we and a hundred plus other agencies have experienced delay in getting approved. We expect it in August. It does not affect adoptions in process but we can’t take applications for China and Colombia until we are approved. (Hold on ! We’re coming.)
So all these things have added weight to your wait.
"For ‘your agency’, it has meant that we had to get ‘lean’. We have restructured our agency completely and are very pleased with what is resulting – and wondering why we didn’t do it years ago. The St. Louis office is now the location for adoption program consultants for all branches (SE excepted). That means this. YOUR adoption consultant, while located in St. Louis is an extension of whatever branch office you might be working with. They are up to date every day about what is going on in your country and will give you that information directly. Your branch office will still be very much involved with you in giving moral support and help for home studies, CIS and local questions and post-adoption issues. With a smaller staff in your branch and a larger staff in St. Louis, you will get better service – and that’s just the simple truth"
Mauricio and I, and I am sure most of the waiting families appreciated Dwyatt's honesty. It is better to be informed of what it's "really" going on than to be led to believe that everything its going "peachy" when actual reality its actually soo different. We just have to pray and hope that things will get for CHI and for all the families who are so eagerly waiting to receive a referral and/or to receive their child.
Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!!
Happy Birth Donnie!!!!!!!!!
We took Mom to a nice restaurant here in Miami. The name is: 94th Aero Escuadron. They have a very nice and extensive Sunday Brunch. My sister Ana, her husband Nelson, my sister-in-law Patricia, Mauricio, Mom and I went to Brunch... We had a great time!!
For Mom's Birthday we took Mom to Bahama Breeze. We also had a great time!!! It is always so nice to spend time with the family you love and adore. It was just sad that my sister Claudia and Donnie could not be here with us to celebrate :( We really miss them! They are planning a vacation in July, so I guess we have to wait to see them....
We got the great news that American Airlines will start traveling nonstop from Chicago (ORD) to Moscow (DME), starting June 2008. To us this are GREAT news, since we always try to fly with AA. We have earned some miles during our travels. My Mom also told us that she is going to gift us her miles so we can use them for the second trip and we could fly Business/First class. That way we would be more comfortable with the baby. We also bought extra miles through American Airlines. We are hoping to gather enough miles so we can both travel comfortable with the baby.
On a different note, we are going on a mini vacation, Mauricio and I will be traveling to Acapulco, Mexico. We are very excited since we have never been there. We will be going for Memorial Day Weekend (yeahh). We really deserve a break, even if it is for a few days, I am sure we are going to enjoy it to the max!!
I am also registered for my last class at Florida International University. By the end of the summer I will be finished with the Capstone Seminar, and I will be eligible to receive my Master's in Public Administration. It has been a very hard road, with one full time job, a part-time job, and with school... Now that I look back, I am not sure how I have been able to do it all. If it hadn't been for my dear husband and my Mom, I am not sure how I would have done it. THANK YOU BOTH!!! I LOVE YOU ALWAYS!
On a sad note, we received an email from Dwyatt, the Gantt, the Executive Director at Children's Hope... This has to do with all the structural and financial changes that CHI is currently experiencing. For example, and I quote:
"There have always been changes and cycles in the ‘adoption world’ but probably never have there been so many as in this last year – and continuing right up to this moment. China has more restrictions and fewer referrals, Russia continues to invent new ways to make adoptions more complex and expensive, Vietnam and the U.S. are now in a tug of war over how not to work together. Kazakhstan is s-l-o-w. Colombia is stable and steady and Ethiopia is splendid. Hague Accreditation has inserted itself at this fragile moment of history to add complexity to whatever other changes are taking place. It is a good thing but not well instituted, and we and a hundred plus other agencies have experienced delay in getting approved. We expect it in August. It does not affect adoptions in process but we can’t take applications for China and Colombia until we are approved. (Hold on ! We’re coming.)
So all these things have added weight to your wait.
"For ‘your agency’, it has meant that we had to get ‘lean’. We have restructured our agency completely and are very pleased with what is resulting – and wondering why we didn’t do it years ago. The St. Louis office is now the location for adoption program consultants for all branches (SE excepted). That means this. YOUR adoption consultant, while located in St. Louis is an extension of whatever branch office you might be working with. They are up to date every day about what is going on in your country and will give you that information directly. Your branch office will still be very much involved with you in giving moral support and help for home studies, CIS and local questions and post-adoption issues. With a smaller staff in your branch and a larger staff in St. Louis, you will get better service – and that’s just the simple truth"
Mauricio and I, and I am sure most of the waiting families appreciated Dwyatt's honesty. It is better to be informed of what it's "really" going on than to be led to believe that everything its going "peachy" when actual reality its actually soo different. We just have to pray and hope that things will get for CHI and for all the families who are so eagerly waiting to receive a referral and/or to receive their child.
April 2008
Happy April:
We just went through Easter Weekend. I hope everyone had fun and enjoyed a great weekend....
I received an email from my HS Social Worker to inform us that our upated dossier has been complete (yeahhh). She will be mailing it to us before the end of the week. That its great news. Now I need to have Apostilled....
I read in one of the Parent's blogs that you could open and account with Marriott Hotels and start receiving Rewards points. I went ahead and I opened one for Mauricio and one for me. I bought points for him and for me. We also opened a credit card though CHASE and Marriott Rewards so we could earn 20,000 points. That way we can pay for some of the nights during our stay in Moscow, since the hotels in Moscow are extremely expensive. So now everytime we use the credit card we earn points for "free" stays at the hotel. We hope and pray that this help us in a way....
On a quick note, all our updated papers have been shipped to Russia to be translated.... Yeahhh, what a relief.... With God's help we could be registered in the region of Tver very very soon.....
We just went through Easter Weekend. I hope everyone had fun and enjoyed a great weekend....
I received an email from my HS Social Worker to inform us that our upated dossier has been complete (yeahhh). She will be mailing it to us before the end of the week. That its great news. Now I need to have Apostilled....
I read in one of the Parent's blogs that you could open and account with Marriott Hotels and start receiving Rewards points. I went ahead and I opened one for Mauricio and one for me. I bought points for him and for me. We also opened a credit card though CHASE and Marriott Rewards so we could earn 20,000 points. That way we can pay for some of the nights during our stay in Moscow, since the hotels in Moscow are extremely expensive. So now everytime we use the credit card we earn points for "free" stays at the hotel. We hope and pray that this help us in a way....
On a quick note, all our updated papers have been shipped to Russia to be translated.... Yeahhh, what a relief.... With God's help we could be registered in the region of Tver very very soon.....
March 2008
We started this month very busy... We are in the middle of updating our dossier. We are also updating documents that were requested by our Coordinator, Marti. Our HS Social Worker, will be very busy preparing paperwork for us. This is a list of what it was requested:
(2) Apostilled pictures of family and home. This will need to be completed by our home study social worker.
(2) Home Study Agency License. The notary statement attached needs to be used for the home study agency license.
(2) Social Worker license.
(2) Home Study Recommendation Letter. This will need to be signed by both the home study social worker and the hs agency director.
(2) Home study Post Placement Letters. This will need to be signed by our HS agency director.
(2) Home study consular registration letter. This will need to be signed by our HS agency director.
(2) Agency licensing letter.
(2) Adoption training letter or certificate. It needs to by the HS agency director
(2) State Median Income
In the middle of all this crazyness, we just found out that the regional CHI office in Orlando will be closing in the next week. We are in shock, since the new Director just started in January. I guess with all the restructuring CHI is doing they thoght its for the best. I got an opportunity to speak with the new Director and she was very nice and eager to help. I wish Claudia Luck with her new endevours. I really think it was a loss for all the Florida families, but life continues on....
I think its going to take a few weeks before all the updates are completed since my HS Social Worker its going on vacation and nothing will be done until she returns :(
I have to patient and wait.......
(2) Apostilled pictures of family and home. This will need to be completed by our home study social worker.
(2) Home Study Agency License. The notary statement attached needs to be used for the home study agency license.
(2) Social Worker license.
(2) Home Study Recommendation Letter. This will need to be signed by both the home study social worker and the hs agency director.
(2) Home study Post Placement Letters. This will need to be signed by our HS agency director.
(2) Home study consular registration letter. This will need to be signed by our HS agency director.
(2) Agency licensing letter.
(2) Adoption training letter or certificate. It needs to by the HS agency director
(2) State Median Income
In the middle of all this crazyness, we just found out that the regional CHI office in Orlando will be closing in the next week. We are in shock, since the new Director just started in January. I guess with all the restructuring CHI is doing they thoght its for the best. I got an opportunity to speak with the new Director and she was very nice and eager to help. I wish Claudia Luck with her new endevours. I really think it was a loss for all the Florida families, but life continues on....
I think its going to take a few weeks before all the updates are completed since my HS Social Worker its going on vacation and nothing will be done until she returns :(
I have to patient and wait.......
February 2008
It's the beginning of February.... Valentine's Day is approaching. One of the highlights of this month has been that I discovered that my US passport got lost while I was visiting my Sister Claudia and her boyfriend Donny during the holidays. The weird thing was that it got lost right out of my backpack. I am under the impression that it was "lost" while I was in flight back to Miami. Anyways, I had to request a new one, which has been a little bit frustrating since I am always on top of important documents.. Well, as you can imagine we had to redo a bunch of documents because they had the old passport information on it and I needed to update everything. We also had to update our home study, not only because of the passport information, but also, because it has been a year since we submitted the original one to CHI with our original dossier.
Well, on January 29, I sent an email to our coordinator (Marti) because we had some questions and concerns in regards to Registration. It took well over a week, but we finally got a response. The following are some of the things I asked:
1. Info about replacing passport information on documents! What needed to be redone.
2. We wanted to know when we were going to receive a letter that would inform us what documents need to be updated. Some of the paperwork will expire soon and we would like to get a head start on them.
3. We wanted to know if there was an idea of when we would be registered!
4. Waiting time?
Well, unfortunately, the response I got from Marti was not very encouraging. We have to continue to pray...
A quick note, I have been looking for different aids to learn Russian, at least the basics, I came across a very interesting aid. Mauricio and I started using it, and to be honest with you, I Love It... Its fun and easy to learn.
Below it's the information, just in case anyone becomes interested:
Earworms Russian (Berlitz Earworms)
Inc. Berlitz International
List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.47
Book Description
Earworms MBT Rapid Languages plants more than 200 Essential words and phrases into long term memory, ready for instant recall. Simply listen to the music CD filled with rhythmic repetitions a few times and the sound patterns will get to deeper levels of memory. Listeners will subconsciously acquire a collection of verbs, nouns and connecting words, all the while picking up the correct accent. Effortless, enjoyable, fast and effective language learning through music. Stimulating and self motivating through tangible rapid progress. Linguistic material that is presented in such a way as to make difficult structures easy to grasp for the learner. Upload it to Ipod or other MP3 players for use on the go.
You can find it through Amazon
Well, on January 29, I sent an email to our coordinator (Marti) because we had some questions and concerns in regards to Registration. It took well over a week, but we finally got a response. The following are some of the things I asked:
1. Info about replacing passport information on documents! What needed to be redone.
2. We wanted to know when we were going to receive a letter that would inform us what documents need to be updated. Some of the paperwork will expire soon and we would like to get a head start on them.
3. We wanted to know if there was an idea of when we would be registered!
4. Waiting time?
Well, unfortunately, the response I got from Marti was not very encouraging. We have to continue to pray...
A quick note, I have been looking for different aids to learn Russian, at least the basics, I came across a very interesting aid. Mauricio and I started using it, and to be honest with you, I Love It... Its fun and easy to learn.
Below it's the information, just in case anyone becomes interested:
Earworms Russian (Berlitz Earworms)
Inc. Berlitz International
List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.47
Book Description
Earworms MBT Rapid Languages plants more than 200 Essential words and phrases into long term memory, ready for instant recall. Simply listen to the music CD filled with rhythmic repetitions a few times and the sound patterns will get to deeper levels of memory. Listeners will subconsciously acquire a collection of verbs, nouns and connecting words, all the while picking up the correct accent. Effortless, enjoyable, fast and effective language learning through music. Stimulating and self motivating through tangible rapid progress. Linguistic material that is presented in such a way as to make difficult structures easy to grasp for the learner. Upload it to Ipod or other MP3 players for use on the go.
You can find it through Amazon
January 2008
It's January already.... We start the new year with the great news that our adoption agency just got accredited (December 17, 2007, to be exact) by the Russian Federation (yeahhh). Russia, as we were informed, is still celebrating Christmas holidays. The first business day this year will be January 9th and we want to be ready for the fresh start next week, just in case we get to hear anything...
We received news from CHI on 01/08/08, informing us that for all the families whose dossier is already in Russia, in the next couple of weeks we are supposed to be contacted by our personal case worker in Saint Louis about the documents we will need to update for registration of our family by local adoption authority under CHI accreditation.
We also received the news that CHI is planning to add more new regions. I have heard that some parents have already experienced adoption in new regions in 2007. They are going to be asking families if they want to be volunteers in their new regions. At first Mauricio (my husband) and I thought, Yes, sometimes it is more adventure and risk, but at the same time you can be first in line and finalize your adoption quickly. We spoke to our Coordinator Marti and we told her to please consider us, just in case the opportunity came up. Then , we were warned that there might be additional fees, in addition to everything else. What a surprise.... we kind of expected that!
In addition, we were informed that fees for new families who apply in 2008 will be increased, and at the same time everyone that applied in 2007 would have an increase in fees too, due to the devaluation of US dollar vs. Russian ruble. In other words, in order to complete our adoption, we will have to pay adjustment rate in addition to our signed fees.
We were also informed that this is the first year when domestic adoptions in Russia and foster care system became more intensive. As the result of this many of Russian families consider to bring home baby girls from the orphanage. Unfortunately for some families who are waiting for girls – this process will be longer. For families who have submitted their application for girls, but have not submitted their registration package – if you want to proceed with your adoption with CHI, you should be open to other ages or gender, or both. Currently, CHI are not accepting new applications for girls only, unless it is for a special needs girl. Acceptable request can be “boy or girl, prefer girl”. This can be very frustrating for families how have their hopes and dreams on having a "girl". This process of adopting in Russia keeps getting to be more complex every day :)
We are approaching the the end of January, and unfortunately, we have no news as of when we are going to be registered :(
God willing February will be better.....
We received news from CHI on 01/08/08, informing us that for all the families whose dossier is already in Russia, in the next couple of weeks we are supposed to be contacted by our personal case worker in Saint Louis about the documents we will need to update for registration of our family by local adoption authority under CHI accreditation.
We also received the news that CHI is planning to add more new regions. I have heard that some parents have already experienced adoption in new regions in 2007. They are going to be asking families if they want to be volunteers in their new regions. At first Mauricio (my husband) and I thought, Yes, sometimes it is more adventure and risk, but at the same time you can be first in line and finalize your adoption quickly. We spoke to our Coordinator Marti and we told her to please consider us, just in case the opportunity came up. Then , we were warned that there might be additional fees, in addition to everything else. What a surprise.... we kind of expected that!
In addition, we were informed that fees for new families who apply in 2008 will be increased, and at the same time everyone that applied in 2007 would have an increase in fees too, due to the devaluation of US dollar vs. Russian ruble. In other words, in order to complete our adoption, we will have to pay adjustment rate in addition to our signed fees.
We were also informed that this is the first year when domestic adoptions in Russia and foster care system became more intensive. As the result of this many of Russian families consider to bring home baby girls from the orphanage. Unfortunately for some families who are waiting for girls – this process will be longer. For families who have submitted their application for girls, but have not submitted their registration package – if you want to proceed with your adoption with CHI, you should be open to other ages or gender, or both. Currently, CHI are not accepting new applications for girls only, unless it is for a special needs girl. Acceptable request can be “boy or girl, prefer girl”. This can be very frustrating for families how have their hopes and dreams on having a "girl". This process of adopting in Russia keeps getting to be more complex every day :)
We are approaching the the end of January, and unfortunately, we have no news as of when we are going to be registered :(
God willing February will be better.....
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Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, Red Square
