WEEK OF OCTOBER 27th THROUGH OCTOBER 31, 2008
Well, we have GREAT NEWS to share, We were REGISTERED on October 28, 2008, YEAHHHHH. I will give you a brief description of how we found out..... About 2 weeks ago, I connected my pda through my hotmail email, in order to be informed if I received an email from Tver. Well, it paid off.... Yesterday morning when I got out of the shower I decided to check my phone and see if I had any emails. Well, what was my surprise, that as I was skimming through the list of emails, I came across an email from Tver. As you can imagine, I was a little nervous at first, I was afraid to read it.... But what was our surprise, the email read:
Dear Yadira and Mauricio,
Your dossier was registered with Tver adoption center on October 28, 2008. when we have any news concerning referral for you, we’ll let you know.
Best regards,
Alexey
CHI – Tver Regional Coordinator
Ohh my God, I started crying, shaking, and jumping...... I could not believe what I was reading, we had waited so long to see those words..... Well, the first thing I did was to call Mauri to give him the news. He was already at work, and when he heard me crying he got a little worried, but I immediately told him that there was nothing wrong, but that I had to share some news with him, and what news...... He started crying too and we both got very emotional. We can't wait to get "the Call" so we can finally go meet our son/daughter. We will keep you posted. That's all for now.... please continue to pray for us.... God Bless you!!!!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
WEEK OF OCTOBER 20th TRHOUGH OCTOBER 24, 2008
After my last post, a lot things have developed.... There are two very important news to share with all of you.
First, my friend "A" and her husband "K" were registered with Tver adoption Center. That means they they are acknowledged by the Russian Legal Authority for Adoption and the MOE (Ministry of Education) They were registered on October 10th, but they were not informed until October 14th. They are really really happy. We are truly happy for them and we hope they are called soon to meet their baby. They are, according to the Russian Govt. "officially" on a waiting list waiting for their child..... Yeahh, another family who gets registered in our same region, yeahh. She is a great person and we have become really good friends. I am personally happy for them.
Second, we now have an idea why we have not been registered as of yet. We received an email from our Coordinator on Friday, October 24, with the following:
TVER
We recently received news that any international adoption agency working in Tver region can only register two families at any given time. This means, that a family can get registered only after one of the two families that is already registered there receives and accepts a referral. Please speak with your adoption consultant if you have any additional questions about this change.
That explains why there has been a delay in us getting registered (well, at least to some extent). We have no choice, but to trust and wait.
On a different note, I decided to go visit my dear friends in Honduras. I leave today in the early evening.... I know some of you might think that I am not thinking this through.... well, you are right, but there are some important things that I need to go to take care of.... It will be a very quick trip....I also found a great flight with a great price, so I consulted with Mauri and he agreed for me to go and "clear my head". I just wished he could come with me. I am going to miss him terribly. Wish me luck, I will post when I return. Until then...............ciao..................
After my last post, a lot things have developed.... There are two very important news to share with all of you.
First, my friend "A" and her husband "K" were registered with Tver adoption Center. That means they they are acknowledged by the Russian Legal Authority for Adoption and the MOE (Ministry of Education) They were registered on October 10th, but they were not informed until October 14th. They are really really happy. We are truly happy for them and we hope they are called soon to meet their baby. They are, according to the Russian Govt. "officially" on a waiting list waiting for their child..... Yeahh, another family who gets registered in our same region, yeahh. She is a great person and we have become really good friends. I am personally happy for them.
Second, we now have an idea why we have not been registered as of yet. We received an email from our Coordinator on Friday, October 24, with the following:
TVER
We recently received news that any international adoption agency working in Tver region can only register two families at any given time. This means, that a family can get registered only after one of the two families that is already registered there receives and accepts a referral. Please speak with your adoption consultant if you have any additional questions about this change.
That explains why there has been a delay in us getting registered (well, at least to some extent). We have no choice, but to trust and wait.
On a different note, I decided to go visit my dear friends in Honduras. I leave today in the early evening.... I know some of you might think that I am not thinking this through.... well, you are right, but there are some important things that I need to go to take care of.... It will be a very quick trip....I also found a great flight with a great price, so I consulted with Mauri and he agreed for me to go and "clear my head". I just wished he could come with me. I am going to miss him terribly. Wish me luck, I will post when I return. Until then...............ciao..................
Monday, October 13, 2008
OCTOBER 2008
WEEK OF OCTOBER 1st THROUGH THE 9th
As you can imagine, I was livid..... I got really upset because I thought that our Coordinator should not have send the email copying everybody and their mother (figure of speech). She should have sent it directly to me or even better, she could have picked up the phone and talked to me about, but she chose to embarrass me instead. My response to them was very professional. I wrote 2 emails, once to Tver, explaining to them that the only thing we want is to know about our paperwork. I wrote a very very lenghty email to the Russia Program Director and our Coordinator, where I politely, spoke my mind. Since our Coordinator was not aware of everything we have had to endure, in the almost 17 months since our paperwork left to Russia, I tried to explain to her that we had the right to know what the status of our paperwork is. That besides being Prospective adoptive parents, we are also paying customers to them... Well, the email goes on and on and on, but I rather not disclose everything I wrote. At the end, we received an email from the Coordinator apologizing and sympathizing for everything we have had to endure throughout this process, and she gave us green light to get in touch with Tver anytime we deemed necessary. The only thing she requested was to be cc'd on the emails so she could be kept abreast of what it's going on with our case, which is what we have been doing all along. We always do things by the book. We are not perfect, but we are fair, loving and respectful individuals who cannot wait to meet their beautiful little angel.
Today, it's October 9th and we got an email from Tver in regards to the latest email I had sent to him. What he wrote was, "of course, when we have any news, first thing we’ll let you know."
I wish he was a little more specific somethimes. Don' they realize that the wait its excrutiating and that we need to be fed with some news. To be fair, I know he is trying his best to get us registered and there are some things that are well beyond his control, but at the same time, it would be nice to know a little more.
We start the month of October with a new Coordinator Pam, we will see how things go. We are being positive and hopeful. It is so hard to start with someone new when we are son far into the adoption process. The truth is that we don't know her and she does not know us, but we have to give her a chance. With that said, we hope to get her introductory email very soon. We already sent our introductory email.
LATEST NEWS!!!
We just found out that our friend's who were in 5th place (2 families after us) received a referral of a 9 month old baby girl. We are more than happy for them. We wish them all the happiness in the world. At the same time, we VERY upset and CHI, because they are not following any order of who applied when. I really don't think that it is fair that they jumped the 2 families that were before them, but they got the referral after all and there is nothing we can do at this point. That does not make it less dissapointing though. To be honest, there is no real method that we could explain to the families how they decide who goes first. I know for a fact that we all submitted our paperwork at the same time, but they were the lucky one's chosen to receive a referral. They will be traveling to meet their baby girl on the 18th. We trully wish them the best. We pray to God and all our Angels that our turn will come very very soon.
On a different note, today we finally finished our Heart of the Matter Seminars. Finally, we thought we were never going to finish watching those DVD's. We watched the entire workshop about three times. We wanted to make sure that we really understood all the materials. We took all the test and we passed them (yeahhhhh) We also got our Certificates of Completion. How exciting!!!! Once less task to worry about.
Today, we received news from Tver (Alexey). They confirmed that they received both packages containing court documents. Praise the Lord..... That's a relief!
We had requested to know the status of our papers and we were informed that the Legal Authority has not finished checking our registration paperwork. They also told us that since there are many families applying to adopt in Tver from different agencies, that they have a lot of documents to review. It is frustrating, not knowing when they are going to look at our paperwork. We are sooooo close, but yet so far.... We need a miracle!!!
I have made several attempts to contact Tver via email this week, but I have not received an answer yet. I think that Tver it's getting tired of hearing from me since I keep asking when do they think our paperwork will be ready for registration after being checked by the legal authority, but I have not been very successful. I even got in trouble with the new Coordinator, she sent me an email telling me that I should limit my emails to Tver (see below).
"Please limit your questions to Alexey about any documents that might be missing or that he says you might need. He is very, very busy with lots of families at this time. We will notify you of any thing to be aware of.
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. I know the wait is very difficult and our Regional Directors understand this too. If Alexey spends his time answering questions like these for every family he is working with in Tver, he wouldn’t get much done for them and your family when the time comes for you to get a Referral and travel."
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. I know the wait is very difficult and our Regional Directors understand this too. If Alexey spends his time answering questions like these for every family he is working with in Tver, he wouldn’t get much done for them and your family when the time comes for you to get a Referral and travel."
As you can imagine, I was livid..... I got really upset because I thought that our Coordinator should not have send the email copying everybody and their mother (figure of speech). She should have sent it directly to me or even better, she could have picked up the phone and talked to me about, but she chose to embarrass me instead. My response to them was very professional. I wrote 2 emails, once to Tver, explaining to them that the only thing we want is to know about our paperwork. I wrote a very very lenghty email to the Russia Program Director and our Coordinator, where I politely, spoke my mind. Since our Coordinator was not aware of everything we have had to endure, in the almost 17 months since our paperwork left to Russia, I tried to explain to her that we had the right to know what the status of our paperwork is. That besides being Prospective adoptive parents, we are also paying customers to them... Well, the email goes on and on and on, but I rather not disclose everything I wrote. At the end, we received an email from the Coordinator apologizing and sympathizing for everything we have had to endure throughout this process, and she gave us green light to get in touch with Tver anytime we deemed necessary. The only thing she requested was to be cc'd on the emails so she could be kept abreast of what it's going on with our case, which is what we have been doing all along. We always do things by the book. We are not perfect, but we are fair, loving and respectful individuals who cannot wait to meet their beautiful little angel.
Today, it's October 9th and we got an email from Tver in regards to the latest email I had sent to him. What he wrote was, "of course, when we have any news, first thing we’ll let you know."
I wish he was a little more specific somethimes. Don' they realize that the wait its excrutiating and that we need to be fed with some news. To be fair, I know he is trying his best to get us registered and there are some things that are well beyond his control, but at the same time, it would be nice to know a little more.
SEPTEMBER 2008 (CON'T)
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 15th TO THE 19th
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 22nd TO THE 26th
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 29th TO THE 30th
September has been a very busy month so far... in regards to news and communication with Russia, we hope to hear great news very soon.
On September 18th we received an email from Alexey saying that the documents are currently being Translated and Notarized. After that they are going to be sent to the legal authority that deals with adoption papers for a check. This week was kind of slow. There were really no news. We are eagerly awaiting to receive "The Call", but so far it has not happened!!! We will see what next week brings!!!
Today, I sent an email to Karla asking her if there had been any movement in Tver and she told me that there was a family who had received a referral and CHI was waiting to see if this family was going to accept their referral and therefore, travel to Russia. We know from a good source that this family had turned down a referral before and this was their second referral. I found out that they did accept to travel. That leaves us with the W's, another family who was placed on the Tver list (after being transferred from 2 different regions), the us, then our friends the G's and the I's. What we do not understand is why this family who was transferred from another region has to go in front of us, I honestly do not think that it is fair. After we have been waiting for over 16 months to get a referral, all of the sudden CHI just puts a family ahead of us. Very deceiving and disappointing on CHI's side.
Today its September 24 and Karla just received our second package with court documents in order to be sent to Russia. It took us a month an a half to get 90% of the requested documents for court. We are hoping that by doing all that required work, it will help us along the way once we go to Russia on the first trip and then getting a court date and therefore, going on the second trip.
I emailed Alexey today asking him for an update on our paperwork. We wanted to to know were we were! He answered the next day and this is what he had to say:
"The translation and notarization of your documents was completed, and they were submitted to the legal authority which deals with adoption papers, for a check. When we have any news, we’ll let you know."
That's it's great news to us. We have been waiting a long time to hear that. Now we have to wait and see how long more do we have to wait in order to get registered. Praise the Lord!!!
Today, I decided to get registered for our future Baby Shower at Babies"R"Us. I did it online. We won't have the Baby Shower once we go on the first trip to meet our baby, not before....
I also went ahead and I opened another registry at Wal-Mart. I also did it online! For now, we wait. At least that its ready!
Finally, CHI notified us who our new Coordinator is going to be, since Karla's last day is tomorrow. This is what their email said:
Dear Friends,
Last week you should have received an email from your consultant in regard to some of the changes that are currently taking place in international adoption, at Children’s Hope, and in the Russia program in particular. One of the changes mentioned in the previous email was in regard to the restructuring that is going on within the Russia program at CHI, and how that will affect your adoption process.
Basically, starting on October 1, 2008 all of our consultants in St. Louis will be specializing in a small number of regions instead of everyone working with families from across the regions. For the most part this will only affect new families; however some of the families that are currently assigned to a region will be assigned to a new consultant as well. If you are a family that is will be affected by this change, you will be notified by your consultants prior to this change taking place.
From October 1, most of the current application families and all new applications that are approved for the Russia program will be handled by Karolyn Tucker (contact information bellow). Once your application is assigned to a specific region, however, you will be assigned to a consultant who specializes in that region. Furthermore, if for some reason you end up switching regions during your adoption process, you will be reassigned to a new consultant or a team of consultants that specialize in that particular region.
Last week you should have received an email from your consultant in regard to some of the changes that are currently taking place in international adoption, at Children’s Hope, and in the Russia program in particular. One of the changes mentioned in the previous email was in regard to the restructuring that is going on within the Russia program at CHI, and how that will affect your adoption process.
Basically, starting on October 1, 2008 all of our consultants in St. Louis will be specializing in a small number of regions instead of everyone working with families from across the regions. For the most part this will only affect new families; however some of the families that are currently assigned to a region will be assigned to a new consultant as well. If you are a family that is will be affected by this change, you will be notified by your consultants prior to this change taking place.
From October 1, most of the current application families and all new applications that are approved for the Russia program will be handled by Karolyn Tucker (contact information bellow). Once your application is assigned to a specific region, however, you will be assigned to a consultant who specializes in that region. Furthermore, if for some reason you end up switching regions during your adoption process, you will be reassigned to a new consultant or a team of consultants that specialize in that particular region.
We were assigned to Pam Bischoff. One of the region's she was assigned to is Tver (our region). I know she was a Coordinator from China. We pray that we will be able to get along with Pam, just as we did with Karla, which was Great. I am really going to miss Karla. Many Blessings and great things to come is what we can wish Karla. She really made a difference in our case and in our lives. Good Luck Karla!!!!
Today, September 30th, I sent an email to Alexey, I wanted to know if he was in receipt of the 2 packages containing court documents that we previously sent. He responded by saying that they had not received it yet. That really worried us. They should have received them by now. At least one of the packets. I pray to God that nothing has happened to the documents. They took so much work on our behalf, that I could not bear it if something happened to them. But we have to be positive. God is in our side and he will look after us and after our papers.
We close the month of September a little bit sad because we have not received "The Call" yet, but we are very hopeful that we will get to hear great news very very soon. Please keep us in your prayers
SEPTEMBER 2008
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 1st TO THE 5th
We start the month of September with news from Tver. Alexey wrote us an email in regards to our documents. (See below)
We received the requested documents in Tver: CHI agency license and Agreement between the agencies.
But our translator found mistakes in two documents:
- HS agency post-placement letter
- HS agency recommendation letter.
There is a mistake in your passport number in each of these documents, so these document have to be corrected, so we could submit your dossier for registration.
As you can imagine I was really upset at me and at our SW. I should have checked that our SW would have included my new passport information (since my passport got stolen at the Chicago airport on 12/07), but no she for got to include it. So now I have to rush, rush, rush so I can get to CHI by Friday morning so it can leave in the bag to Russia. This is my game plan. Our SW will have the documents ready by Wednesday, I already spoke to her and I asked her if I could overnight a Fedex envelope to her so she can place the documents in another Fedex envelope directed to our Courier service in Tallahassee, so then she can place them in another envelope to be directed to Karla at CHI. All this in less than 3 days. Pretty stressful and a great deal of expectation on my part, but I know that with God's help and all my guides it can be done!!!
Well, today its Friday, September 5th and Fedex just sent me an email that CHI just signed off on the documents, and the documents will be leaving to Russia by noon (yeahhh). I already asked Karla if she could be so kind as to send me a scanned copy of the documents. So there, we made it possible.... yeahh.... I don't feel as guilty anymore. Thanks to God the delay was of about a week, instead of 3 weeks or a month. Thank you everybody!!
I also went ahead and I sent an email to Alexey letting him know that the corrected documents will be leaving to Russia today, Friday, September 5. I also attached a scanned copies of the documents to see if it was possible for Russia (Ana) to start working on the translation from the copies while they gets the originals next week. Alexey wrote back saying that he will forward the scanned documents so the translator can start working on them while they get the originals next week.
I just wanted to let you know that the corrected documents will be leaving to Russia today, Friday, September 5. Please let me know when you receive them. Also, I have attached a scanned copy of the documents to see if it was possible to start working on the translation from the copies while you get the originals next week. That way we won't have lost so much time in between. Any assistance that you can kindly provide us in order to get registered sooner will be greatly appreciated.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 8th TO THE 12th
Today it's Monday and I wrote a question to Alexey in regards to which Medical Form to use, since we are already working on getting documents for court ready. There are 2 forms in the CHI website, regular form and an addendum to the form and I would like clarification from him in which form to use. We will wait to see what he has to say tomorrow.
Well, Alexey wrote me back this morning in regards to the email from yesterday and this is his response:
"Thanks for your e-mail, and thank you for your hard work with the documents.
Regarding medical form, one of them can be used – Addition to the medical report, but you can wait with preparing it as most likely you’ll have to update it, because it’s valid only for 3 months’ period. And the psychiatrist’s conclusion is also valid for 3 months only."
Based on Alexey's response I am only supposed to prepare the Addendum to the Medical report. In regards to the Psychiatrist's conclusion, we already got the letter from our Specialist. Sweet Dr. Iglesias, but I think that at the rate we are going we are going to have to have those letters redone since they expire on November 25. We will see what happens.
On a happy note, today it's Mauri's Birthday!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FUTURE DADDY
May God Bless you today and always.....
Today it's September 10th, and its the day after we celebrated Mauri's B-Day.... I am a little tired. We went to Tony Romas for dinner. We had a blast! All of Mauri's close relatives called him yesterday from Nicaragua and I know he really liked that! We are planning to take him out to dinner on Saturday with side of the family. We want to go to PF Changs at the Falls. They should be reopening soon, after going for 2 months of remodeling. We can't wait!!!
Well, in regards to Russia, I wrote another email to Alexey asking him whether I was to hold on to all the court documents that I have ready or whether I should mail them to Karla so she could mail it directly to them. He answered back by saying that I should mail them to Karla so she could mail it to them, so they could start the translation with some time to spare....
So, I am getting my packet ready to send to Karla. This time, since there are soooo many documents I am sending a packet of copies for Karla so she does't have to make the copies herself. I know it cost me double to send, but by being proactive, I am making sure that the documents will leave tomorrow Friday to Russia!!!
Today, I also received an email from Karla with answers to several questions I had enquired earlier last week. This is what she responded:
Today, it's Friday, September 12th, and we end the week with a devastating email from Brenda Barker:
Dear family,
Last Friday, I let our social work families know that the SE Branch office of Children’s Hope International will be closing, as of September 30. I know more information will be forthcoming from our STL office of Children’s Hope, but let me assure you that Children’s Hope is NOT closing! For current families, since all of the adoption consulting work has been transferred to our main office in STL, this should not affect you, if we did not do your social work. Those families that we are currently doing social work for in Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas, we are working with an agency in each of these states to take our social work cases to make this transition as easy as possible.
I wanted to share with you excerpts from the letter I sent last Friday:
On behalf of Children’s Hope International, I wish to thank you for your loyalty and commitment to providing homes, health, and hope to children in need. We feel privileged to be your agency of choice to assist you in this rewarding journey.
This past year has been full of learning experiences, speed bumps, and transitions for all involved in the adoption process. We have shared prayers and sadness with you as we learned together that the Memorandum of Understanding Agreement between Vietnam and the United States will most likely expire in a few weeks. We all have watched and waited as the China adoption program extended from a 6 month to now a 3 year program. And just a few weeks ago, all of us mourned together with you as we learned that we did not receive Hague Accreditation. But during this sadness, we must also remember the times of joy we had welcoming home our first Ethiopian baby, my own Ethiopian daughters coming home, in receiving accreditation in Russia, and our expanding the Child Sponsorship and Humanitarian Aid programs. These are all reminders that with every uncertain step, we also have many sure steps full of reward for the world’s orphans.
At this time, we are doing what we believe is in everyone’s best interest and voluntarily terminating our license as a Child Placement Agency in the State of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
I have had over 15 years of serving families through international adoption, and helped close to 2,000 children find homes in the Southeast during this time. I started the Russia program, and helped CHI get licensed in several countries. I have been to over 20 countries through my adoption experiences. But what I will miss the most is each of you. It is with great sadness that I leave you. I will miss talking to you, laughing together, and sometimes even crying together. I will miss not being a part of bringing your child home…many of you I remember that first time we met at an information meeting! I know I will miss seeing God’s daily miracles. You can not be a part of adoption as a consultant, a social worker, or as a family, and not see God’s hand and heart as He builds your family.
Please know that I hold you dear in my heart, and consider you a part of my family, as I hope you do me as well. It has been an enormous privilege in watching your families grow, and feeling that I was a part of that, at least in some small way…from seeing your baby come off that airplane, to the first day of school, and some of you to college graduations. You have been indelibly etched into my heart, and have made my life so much richer in so many ways. For those of you waiting please know that your time will come as well…there is nothing better in this world than giving a child a home and watching them grow!
I hope you will all continue to mail me your Christmas letters and pictures as every year that is what I look forward to the most during the holidays. Please see my contact info below. Please delete any other contact info you have for me and only use that info below after September 30th. I may be leaving international adoption as my career, but I have always been a mom and I am always available to help families and children.
Thank you once again for your understanding, cooperation and grace in this time of transition.
I wish you many blessings on your adoption journey!
Blessings,
Brenda Barker
Regional Director
Children’s Hope International
This is very sad news for everyone. We feel really bad for all those people who are being let go. We pray for all the families, including ours.
We start the month of September with news from Tver. Alexey wrote us an email in regards to our documents. (See below)
We received the requested documents in Tver: CHI agency license and Agreement between the agencies.
But our translator found mistakes in two documents:
- HS agency post-placement letter
- HS agency recommendation letter.
There is a mistake in your passport number in each of these documents, so these document have to be corrected, so we could submit your dossier for registration.
As you can imagine I was really upset at me and at our SW. I should have checked that our SW would have included my new passport information (since my passport got stolen at the Chicago airport on 12/07), but no she for got to include it. So now I have to rush, rush, rush so I can get to CHI by Friday morning so it can leave in the bag to Russia. This is my game plan. Our SW will have the documents ready by Wednesday, I already spoke to her and I asked her if I could overnight a Fedex envelope to her so she can place the documents in another Fedex envelope directed to our Courier service in Tallahassee, so then she can place them in another envelope to be directed to Karla at CHI. All this in less than 3 days. Pretty stressful and a great deal of expectation on my part, but I know that with God's help and all my guides it can be done!!!
Well, today its Friday, September 5th and Fedex just sent me an email that CHI just signed off on the documents, and the documents will be leaving to Russia by noon (yeahhh). I already asked Karla if she could be so kind as to send me a scanned copy of the documents. So there, we made it possible.... yeahh.... I don't feel as guilty anymore. Thanks to God the delay was of about a week, instead of 3 weeks or a month. Thank you everybody!!
I also went ahead and I sent an email to Alexey letting him know that the corrected documents will be leaving to Russia today, Friday, September 5. I also attached a scanned copies of the documents to see if it was possible for Russia (Ana) to start working on the translation from the copies while they gets the originals next week. Alexey wrote back saying that he will forward the scanned documents so the translator can start working on them while they get the originals next week.
I just wanted to let you know that the corrected documents will be leaving to Russia today, Friday, September 5. Please let me know when you receive them. Also, I have attached a scanned copy of the documents to see if it was possible to start working on the translation from the copies while you get the originals next week. That way we won't have lost so much time in between. Any assistance that you can kindly provide us in order to get registered sooner will be greatly appreciated.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 8th TO THE 12th
Today it's Monday and I wrote a question to Alexey in regards to which Medical Form to use, since we are already working on getting documents for court ready. There are 2 forms in the CHI website, regular form and an addendum to the form and I would like clarification from him in which form to use. We will wait to see what he has to say tomorrow.
Well, Alexey wrote me back this morning in regards to the email from yesterday and this is his response:
"Thanks for your e-mail, and thank you for your hard work with the documents.
Regarding medical form, one of them can be used – Addition to the medical report, but you can wait with preparing it as most likely you’ll have to update it, because it’s valid only for 3 months’ period. And the psychiatrist’s conclusion is also valid for 3 months only."
Based on Alexey's response I am only supposed to prepare the Addendum to the Medical report. In regards to the Psychiatrist's conclusion, we already got the letter from our Specialist. Sweet Dr. Iglesias, but I think that at the rate we are going we are going to have to have those letters redone since they expire on November 25. We will see what happens.
On a happy note, today it's Mauri's Birthday!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FUTURE DADDY
May God Bless you today and always.....
Today it's September 10th, and its the day after we celebrated Mauri's B-Day.... I am a little tired. We went to Tony Romas for dinner. We had a blast! All of Mauri's close relatives called him yesterday from Nicaragua and I know he really liked that! We are planning to take him out to dinner on Saturday with side of the family. We want to go to PF Changs at the Falls. They should be reopening soon, after going for 2 months of remodeling. We can't wait!!!
Well, in regards to Russia, I wrote another email to Alexey asking him whether I was to hold on to all the court documents that I have ready or whether I should mail them to Karla so she could mail it directly to them. He answered back by saying that I should mail them to Karla so she could mail it to them, so they could start the translation with some time to spare....
So, I am getting my packet ready to send to Karla. This time, since there are soooo many documents I am sending a packet of copies for Karla so she does't have to make the copies herself. I know it cost me double to send, but by being proactive, I am making sure that the documents will leave tomorrow Friday to Russia!!!
Today, I also received an email from Karla with answers to several questions I had enquired earlier last week. This is what she responded:
- In regards to Tax Returns - Do we need the last 3 years? (Notarized and Apostilled) or do we need only the most current (2007) Yes, last 3 years notarized and apostilled.
- In regards to Bank Statements - Do we print them right of the Internet or do we need to get a letter from the bank indicating our current balance? You will get from bank – but wait they will want it at a later date.
- In regards to Dr. Puffer Letter - (from the Tver Checklist) - Does CHI takes care of it? I will send the Dr. Puffer Letter to Russia tomorrow and I will scan you a copy for your file.
- In regards to State and Local Police Reports - Do I have to get from both or only from State. Also, how long is the shell life? One year or 3 months? For Tver, it is best to get both. The checklist states it is good for a year.
- In regards to the Letter about HS Agency authority in International Adoption - Is there a Template that you could send me to see what the letter it's supposed to look like? This is a Letter of Good Standing from your home study agency.
Today, it's Friday, September 12th, and we end the week with a devastating email from Brenda Barker:
Dear family,
Last Friday, I let our social work families know that the SE Branch office of Children’s Hope International will be closing, as of September 30. I know more information will be forthcoming from our STL office of Children’s Hope, but let me assure you that Children’s Hope is NOT closing! For current families, since all of the adoption consulting work has been transferred to our main office in STL, this should not affect you, if we did not do your social work. Those families that we are currently doing social work for in Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas, we are working with an agency in each of these states to take our social work cases to make this transition as easy as possible.
I wanted to share with you excerpts from the letter I sent last Friday:
On behalf of Children’s Hope International, I wish to thank you for your loyalty and commitment to providing homes, health, and hope to children in need. We feel privileged to be your agency of choice to assist you in this rewarding journey.
This past year has been full of learning experiences, speed bumps, and transitions for all involved in the adoption process. We have shared prayers and sadness with you as we learned together that the Memorandum of Understanding Agreement between Vietnam and the United States will most likely expire in a few weeks. We all have watched and waited as the China adoption program extended from a 6 month to now a 3 year program. And just a few weeks ago, all of us mourned together with you as we learned that we did not receive Hague Accreditation. But during this sadness, we must also remember the times of joy we had welcoming home our first Ethiopian baby, my own Ethiopian daughters coming home, in receiving accreditation in Russia, and our expanding the Child Sponsorship and Humanitarian Aid programs. These are all reminders that with every uncertain step, we also have many sure steps full of reward for the world’s orphans.
At this time, we are doing what we believe is in everyone’s best interest and voluntarily terminating our license as a Child Placement Agency in the State of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
I have had over 15 years of serving families through international adoption, and helped close to 2,000 children find homes in the Southeast during this time. I started the Russia program, and helped CHI get licensed in several countries. I have been to over 20 countries through my adoption experiences. But what I will miss the most is each of you. It is with great sadness that I leave you. I will miss talking to you, laughing together, and sometimes even crying together. I will miss not being a part of bringing your child home…many of you I remember that first time we met at an information meeting! I know I will miss seeing God’s daily miracles. You can not be a part of adoption as a consultant, a social worker, or as a family, and not see God’s hand and heart as He builds your family.
Please know that I hold you dear in my heart, and consider you a part of my family, as I hope you do me as well. It has been an enormous privilege in watching your families grow, and feeling that I was a part of that, at least in some small way…from seeing your baby come off that airplane, to the first day of school, and some of you to college graduations. You have been indelibly etched into my heart, and have made my life so much richer in so many ways. For those of you waiting please know that your time will come as well…there is nothing better in this world than giving a child a home and watching them grow!
I hope you will all continue to mail me your Christmas letters and pictures as every year that is what I look forward to the most during the holidays. Please see my contact info below. Please delete any other contact info you have for me and only use that info below after September 30th. I may be leaving international adoption as my career, but I have always been a mom and I am always available to help families and children.
Thank you once again for your understanding, cooperation and grace in this time of transition.
I wish you many blessings on your adoption journey!
Blessings,
Brenda Barker
Regional Director
Children’s Hope International
This is very sad news for everyone. We feel really bad for all those people who are being let go. We pray for all the families, including ours.
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