On July 30th, 2008, Our Russia Program Coordinator called us to let us know that she was leaving CHI. Her last day was going to be August 8, 2008. At first, I was very distraught. I could not believe that she was leaving and I was concerned for our case. I wrote a letter to the Head of the Russia Program and I explained to him my concerns. Unfortunately, his response was not what I was expecting, but I had no choice, but to wait and see. Thank God, Marti's replacement (Karla) turned out to be one of the best, if not the best thing that happened to us (sorry Marti). Not to discredit Marti, but she was too overwhelmed with so many cases to handle. Anyways, Karla and I have worked very closely together and she is not only great, but AWESOME! Thanks Karla!!!!!
Before leaving Marti sent us a list of documents to get ready for court once we are called to go to Tver to meet our little one.
On August 2nd, Marti forwarded us an email that was sent to all the parents, letting us know about a new way of communicating with the Russia Staff Coordinators (below):
Dear Friends,
It is no secret that the adoption process is extremely time-consuming and that much preparation is required on both the side of the families and the adoption agencies they are working with.
This is especially true in the case of Russia adoption where each region has its own requirements and regulations on how the adoption process is handled. Moreover, Russia is always undergoing changes, which means new regulations regarding international adoption are constantly developing in each of the regions.
Because of this, timely completion of documents is increasingly important. However, this has often been difficult because of the numerous steps that are involved in communicating in-country requests to adoptive families and also in conveying questions back to the respective regions.
In order to ease this process and improve the overall stream of communication, we are implementing a new communication system for all CHI Russia families. Our hope is that this will improve the speed and the process with which we process documents, convey requests, provide information, and ultimately complete adoptions.
Here’s the step-by-step description of how this will happen:
After the family’s dossier/registration documents are sent to the respective region in Russia, your consultant will send out an introductory email to you and your regional coordinator/translator outlining the guidelines for direct communication between you and your regional coordinator. The most important thing to remember is that in order to assure that this benefits your adoption process YOU MUST CC’ YOUR CONSULTANTS ON ALL OF YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR REGION! This is the only way everyone will be able to remain on the same page and ensure that no information will be lost.
After you have been introduced to your regional representative/translator, they will send you an email with an update on the status of your documents. In addition to this, they will let you know what other documents are needed from you in order to complete the registration packet for your specific region. For families that already have their documents assigned to a specific region, you will be contacted by your regional representative/translator with an email regarding the status of your documents.
CORRESPONDENCE GUIDELINES
- You must cc’ your consultant in the US on all of your communication with the regions. In return, the regional representatives are instructed to include the Moscow and US offices on all of their communication to you.
- This new communication structure is only intended for questions that are business related. This includes questions to regional representatives/translators relating to documents, the adoption process and other relevant requests.
- This is not intended for unrelated questions for regional representatives/translators such as the weather in the region, how many bags one can bring with them on their trips, etc. Our in-country representatives are extremely busy ensuring that everyone’s adoption process goes as smooth as possible, so questions of this nature will not be answered. However, please continue to direct these, and all other questions to your consultants who will be happy to assist you.
- This communication tool is strictly for information related to your documents. Notices of travel/court dates, etc. will continue to come from your Adoption Consultants. Questions of this nature will not be answered by the regional representatives in Russia and will be forwarded to your consultant.
- Each representative is instructed to reply to your requests within 24-hours to notify you that they have received your email. They will also give you an approximate timeline of when they will be able to provide you with an answer to your question if it’s something that requires additional research and preparation.
- Please be courteous and follow the same principle when you receive an email from your consultant in the US or your regional representative/translator.
We are confident that if the above mentioned rules are followed, this system will greatly improve our communication structure and as a result will improve the entire process of your adoption from Russia.
If you have any questions and/or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact your adoption consultant, and you may also reach me via email at Andrei.Skurtu@ChildrensHope.net
Please note – this new communication structure is a work in progress and is subject to change. You will be notified of all changes in writing as they occur.
Well, that was a long email. We hope that information will start to flow better between Russia and the parents. We will see....
Right after Marti left I received a call from Karla letting us know that we were missing the Agreement Between Agencies and the Home Study Post Placement Letter. As it turns out, I had sent the letter twice already to Marti, once at the end of March 08 and then in July 08. Unfortunately, the letter were misplaced (lost) when Marti was there, and we had no choice but to redo them a third time! How frustrating!
I spoke to Karla about it and I even sent her a copy of the the email from Marti confirming that she had received the letter. Karla did well, she took the bull by the horn and told me to just redo the papers. That she would make sure they got to Russia okay. Well, I took care of the "missing" documents and the left to Russia, thanks to Karla.
On 8/11/08, I wrote an email to the Tver staff, for the first time, inquiring about the status of our documents. They answer to Karla on 8/12/08 and then she forward me a list of documents that we were missing in order to get registered. Well, at first I was happy to get to hear from the Tver staff. Finally, a sign of movement. Then, as I read the email, I became really really upset. We had to redo other documents because they too never made it to Russia. At that point, I was furious, because It is not fair that they keep loosing documents left and right, and then we are caught up in the middle. How irresponsible, but anyways, I have no choice but to redo them. This time, since the documents that we send every time to be apostilled take about 2 1/2 weeks to come back, Mauricio and I decided to drive ourselves to Tallahassee to take the documents to be apostilled and get them back right away. We left to Tallahassee at 11:00pm. At about 5:00am, Mauri and I started to fall asleep, so we stop at a reststop's parking lot and we took a nap. At first, I was very nervous and scared that someone could mug us or something (too many horror movies), but I was so tired that I decided to just sleep and try not to worry about anything. A few minutes before 6:00am, I woke up and decided to keep going and let Mauri continue to sleep while I drove for a couple of hours. We still had quite a bit of a drive. Once we arrived in Tallahassee, we stop at a Publix Supermarket to freshen up and wash our teeth. It was like in the movies. I had never "freshen up" at a supermarket before. Mauri did not want to do it, but he had no choice. :)
We followed the directions we had and we finally made it to the Apostilles office. We went in and requested the documents to be apostilled. Once I started talking with one of the ladies that works there she told me that their hole entire system was not working, that only the apostilles office was working because they were in a different system. Can you believe it???? God is great!!! Can you believe driving for more than eleven hours straight to make it there and find them "closed". Well, much to my surprise, the certification took about 15 minutes, 15 minutes, I could not believe that they took so little time, after it takes more than 2 weeks for us to get the paperwork back in the mail. Anyways, the important thing here is that we got what we came there to do. There was another document we needed, that took a little bit more time, because it had to come directly from the Director of Divisions and Corporations explaining the process of the Florida Apostilles. Again, we are grateful to Karla, because she email me a copy a recent letter that had been submitted, so I could what to ask for. After we left the Apostille office, we rushed to the Post Office to Overnight the papers to Karla, so she could rush them ro Tver. After that we went to check in at the hotel we had reserved so we could sleep. We were so tired, but happy and grateful that we accomplished everything that we set out to do :)
That same evening we went out to dinner to Red Lobster and the food and the service were amazing!!!! Mauri and I had a great time!
On Saturday we left the hotel to head back to Miami and we encountered heavy rain and a lot of traffic. We stopped briefly in Orlando and we got lost trying to find and address (my fault) and we encountered one of the worst traffic jam on a regular street that I had ever been on!!! We made it home really, really late, but Thanks to God we made safe and sound!
Before leaving Marti sent us a list of documents to get ready for court once we are called to go to Tver to meet our little one.
On August 2nd, Marti forwarded us an email that was sent to all the parents, letting us know about a new way of communicating with the Russia Staff Coordinators (below):
Dear Friends,
It is no secret that the adoption process is extremely time-consuming and that much preparation is required on both the side of the families and the adoption agencies they are working with.
This is especially true in the case of Russia adoption where each region has its own requirements and regulations on how the adoption process is handled. Moreover, Russia is always undergoing changes, which means new regulations regarding international adoption are constantly developing in each of the regions.
Because of this, timely completion of documents is increasingly important. However, this has often been difficult because of the numerous steps that are involved in communicating in-country requests to adoptive families and also in conveying questions back to the respective regions.
In order to ease this process and improve the overall stream of communication, we are implementing a new communication system for all CHI Russia families. Our hope is that this will improve the speed and the process with which we process documents, convey requests, provide information, and ultimately complete adoptions.
Here’s the step-by-step description of how this will happen:
After the family’s dossier/registration documents are sent to the respective region in Russia, your consultant will send out an introductory email to you and your regional coordinator/translator outlining the guidelines for direct communication between you and your regional coordinator. The most important thing to remember is that in order to assure that this benefits your adoption process YOU MUST CC’ YOUR CONSULTANTS ON ALL OF YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR REGION! This is the only way everyone will be able to remain on the same page and ensure that no information will be lost.
After you have been introduced to your regional representative/translator, they will send you an email with an update on the status of your documents. In addition to this, they will let you know what other documents are needed from you in order to complete the registration packet for your specific region. For families that already have their documents assigned to a specific region, you will be contacted by your regional representative/translator with an email regarding the status of your documents.
CORRESPONDENCE GUIDELINES
- You must cc’ your consultant in the US on all of your communication with the regions. In return, the regional representatives are instructed to include the Moscow and US offices on all of their communication to you.
- This new communication structure is only intended for questions that are business related. This includes questions to regional representatives/translators relating to documents, the adoption process and other relevant requests.
- This is not intended for unrelated questions for regional representatives/translators such as the weather in the region, how many bags one can bring with them on their trips, etc. Our in-country representatives are extremely busy ensuring that everyone’s adoption process goes as smooth as possible, so questions of this nature will not be answered. However, please continue to direct these, and all other questions to your consultants who will be happy to assist you.
- This communication tool is strictly for information related to your documents. Notices of travel/court dates, etc. will continue to come from your Adoption Consultants. Questions of this nature will not be answered by the regional representatives in Russia and will be forwarded to your consultant.
- Each representative is instructed to reply to your requests within 24-hours to notify you that they have received your email. They will also give you an approximate timeline of when they will be able to provide you with an answer to your question if it’s something that requires additional research and preparation.
- Please be courteous and follow the same principle when you receive an email from your consultant in the US or your regional representative/translator.
We are confident that if the above mentioned rules are followed, this system will greatly improve our communication structure and as a result will improve the entire process of your adoption from Russia.
If you have any questions and/or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact your adoption consultant, and you may also reach me via email at Andrei.Skurtu@ChildrensHope.net
Please note – this new communication structure is a work in progress and is subject to change. You will be notified of all changes in writing as they occur.
Well, that was a long email. We hope that information will start to flow better between Russia and the parents. We will see....
Right after Marti left I received a call from Karla letting us know that we were missing the Agreement Between Agencies and the Home Study Post Placement Letter. As it turns out, I had sent the letter twice already to Marti, once at the end of March 08 and then in July 08. Unfortunately, the letter were misplaced (lost) when Marti was there, and we had no choice but to redo them a third time! How frustrating!
I spoke to Karla about it and I even sent her a copy of the the email from Marti confirming that she had received the letter. Karla did well, she took the bull by the horn and told me to just redo the papers. That she would make sure they got to Russia okay. Well, I took care of the "missing" documents and the left to Russia, thanks to Karla.
On 8/11/08, I wrote an email to the Tver staff, for the first time, inquiring about the status of our documents. They answer to Karla on 8/12/08 and then she forward me a list of documents that we were missing in order to get registered. Well, at first I was happy to get to hear from the Tver staff. Finally, a sign of movement. Then, as I read the email, I became really really upset. We had to redo other documents because they too never made it to Russia. At that point, I was furious, because It is not fair that they keep loosing documents left and right, and then we are caught up in the middle. How irresponsible, but anyways, I have no choice but to redo them. This time, since the documents that we send every time to be apostilled take about 2 1/2 weeks to come back, Mauricio and I decided to drive ourselves to Tallahassee to take the documents to be apostilled and get them back right away. We left to Tallahassee at 11:00pm. At about 5:00am, Mauri and I started to fall asleep, so we stop at a reststop's parking lot and we took a nap. At first, I was very nervous and scared that someone could mug us or something (too many horror movies), but I was so tired that I decided to just sleep and try not to worry about anything. A few minutes before 6:00am, I woke up and decided to keep going and let Mauri continue to sleep while I drove for a couple of hours. We still had quite a bit of a drive. Once we arrived in Tallahassee, we stop at a Publix Supermarket to freshen up and wash our teeth. It was like in the movies. I had never "freshen up" at a supermarket before. Mauri did not want to do it, but he had no choice. :)
We followed the directions we had and we finally made it to the Apostilles office. We went in and requested the documents to be apostilled. Once I started talking with one of the ladies that works there she told me that their hole entire system was not working, that only the apostilles office was working because they were in a different system. Can you believe it???? God is great!!! Can you believe driving for more than eleven hours straight to make it there and find them "closed". Well, much to my surprise, the certification took about 15 minutes, 15 minutes, I could not believe that they took so little time, after it takes more than 2 weeks for us to get the paperwork back in the mail. Anyways, the important thing here is that we got what we came there to do. There was another document we needed, that took a little bit more time, because it had to come directly from the Director of Divisions and Corporations explaining the process of the Florida Apostilles. Again, we are grateful to Karla, because she email me a copy a recent letter that had been submitted, so I could what to ask for. After we left the Apostille office, we rushed to the Post Office to Overnight the papers to Karla, so she could rush them ro Tver. After that we went to check in at the hotel we had reserved so we could sleep. We were so tired, but happy and grateful that we accomplished everything that we set out to do :)
That same evening we went out to dinner to Red Lobster and the food and the service were amazing!!!! Mauri and I had a great time!
On Saturday we left the hotel to head back to Miami and we encountered heavy rain and a lot of traffic. We stopped briefly in Orlando and we got lost trying to find and address (my fault) and we encountered one of the worst traffic jam on a regular street that I had ever been on!!! We made it home really, really late, but Thanks to God we made safe and sound!
After that long drive, I got kind of concerned because I was not sure how we were going to do once we were in the middle of preparing documents for the 1st trip and then for court. I knew that I did not want to endure that type of drive unless we really had to. Then, I tought of other options, maybe fly to Jacksonville and then rent a car and drive 2 hours to Tallahassee and back. I am not sure why, but flying to Tallahassee its really really expensive. It is cheaper to fly to Jacksonville, rent a car and have lunch before heading back. Well, I emailed April, one of the CHI adoptive parents to ask her a question and I kind of mentioned what we had to do in order to get the missing papers rushed and she emailed me the link to a courier service in Tallahassee (tallydocs.com)
The company its called Capitol Document Express. April also mentioned that they had been recommended by CHI, so I decided to give them a try.
Once I started trying them, they were like a Gift from God. They have worked out great. Karen Rubin, the owner, its fast, affordable and reliable.... I am very happy we started using her! Thanks April!!!
I have been back and forth with additional documents needed for registration. Tver has requested more documents. At the same time I started preparing the documents for court. It is a huge list of documents that need to be notarized and apostilled!!! God help us!!!
At the same time, Mauri and I started watching the CD Seminar, Heart of the Matter Seminars, and to be honest with you I found it to be really boring. I understand that we have to do whatever it takes to get our child, but that seminar still really boring! Mauri and I took the online tests and we passed them. We still have to watch the last CD and we still need to take the written test. I am really eager to get that part done and over with.
Unfortunately, I received another email from the Tver Staff saying that they had found mistakes in 2 documents that our social worker had prepared. They had the wrong passport on them. I blame myself too for not checking them, but that has taught me to check, double check and triple check everything before I send it to Tver. I had to ask God for a mini miracle so I could get all that paperwork completed by the HS Social Worker, sent to Tallahasse to be Apostilled and the Overnighted to St. Louis in less than 3 days and then have it in Karla's hands before noon Friday so they could leave in the batch that leaves for Russia every Friday at noon. Thanks to God, the HS SW, Karla at CHI, and my smart thinking I was able to get it done.... Yeahhhh.... They left for Russia as planned!!!!!!
Did I forgot to mention that on August 9, I finished my last class......... I AM FINISHED!!!!! I just finished my Master's Degree in Public Administration. Isn't that awesome!!!! I would like to formally thank my Dear Husband Mauricio and my Mother Thelma for all their unconditional support. Thanks guys, I would have never done it without you!!!!! I just have to wait for my degree to appear on my transcripts so I can request a degree incentive (1,200)! I am very very happy and proud of myself! Yeahhhhhh.......
Well, that concludes the month of August. We hope and pray that after everything we have been through this month, we can get registered very very soon.
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