12/115

The accreditation process continues to move ahead slowly. Yesterday the Russian Federation issued five more US agencies accreditation certificates giving them permission to operate in Russia. So far only 12 out of 115 US agencies have received their certificates- Our agency is not among them as of today, though it is still very early in the process, relatively speaking. I heard a rumor that there would be more acreditations at the beginning of August- we'll see!

Jason is handling the wait much better than I am. Every chance I have I am searching the Internet looking for signs of hope. Last night he had to tell me not to stress over it so much. "It will happen when it happens." HA! That sounds exactly like what everyone says month after month when you are trying to conceive. Every month, you wait and wait and hope and hope for the chance to take a pregnancy test. Every month its negative. This feels very much the same to me. The one consolation I have is that at least we aren't waiting for a birth mom to "choose" us from a million other parents. Though working with the Russian government is slow, it won't be endless. From what others on the FRUA website have said, it seems as if the Ministry of Education has given agencies some notice a week or two ahead of time that their "next in line" to receive the certificates.

CHI sent out an email explaining that they will notify us when we should be expecting re-accreditation, and will call each family when they have the certificate. I'm keeping my cell phone charged up and ready to go for that big day!

In the meantime, I am trying to focus on self-improvement- ie. weight loss, time management, parenting information, finding support groups, organizing my house, deepening my spiritual life, and enjoying my marriage. Jason is primarily focused on building a new house! He says # 2 is easier and more enjoyable because there are more people helping, and less pressure to get it done by a certain deadline.

Please keep us in your prayers- we need all the encouragement we can get to keep our hopes up and endure the wait.