No News...

Sometimes waiting is harder when there is no news to report. Everyone keeps asking, "When are you going to Russia? Have you heard anything yet?" The answer we have been given is to expect at least a 10 month wait from the time your dossier is submitted to the time of your second trip. However, there is a small glitch. Currently there are NO AGENCIES in the USA that are accredited in Russia to process adoptions. Some regions are allowing agencies to work with you independently, but this requires some additional work for the parents. What all this boils down to is that adoptions from Russia are very slow right now. There is a huge push from within the Russian Federation to encourage it's own citizens to adopt, foster, or become legal guardians for its 800,000 orphans. While this is good for Russia, and we are happy that children are being placed in homes there, there are still thousands of thousands of children waiting for placements. We have heard that many orphanages have waiting lists for children to enter once they are relinquished at the hospital.

In the past few weeks, there have been a few indicators and rumors that the accreditation process is imminent and will be resolved soon, but until the accreditation certificates are in the possession of the agencies, things will continue to move slowly. Also, there is a fairly large backlog of parents waiting for referrals to travel and complete their adoptions, so it is unlikely that we will get to travel before the end of 2007. Our agency told us to expect at least 10 months, but plan on it being more like 14. Still, we hope for the best (and quickest)!

In the meantime, I read a lot and chat with our yahoo group, and frequent the Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption (FRUA) website looking for any sign of concrete NEWS with detailed facts. So far, its only speculation and lots of HOPE!!!