All over news in Russia

Ugh! Why is it that one person can ruin things for an entire group? And why do people do such dumb things?

I just read the article below on another persons blog. They are in Russia now, and I guess it's all over the news there.
How horrible! I hope this doesn't add to wait times even more. For us they already slowed things down due to a death of an adopted child in US so hopefully this doesn't increase those times.

I feel horrible for this little boy, I don't understand some people at all!

Here is the article.....

American parents send adopted 7-year-old back to Russia – by himself
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Published 08 April, 2010, 19:57
Edited 09 April, 2010, 04:12
A seven-year-old boy arrived at a Moscow airport from the United States on Saturday morning. “I refuse him”, read the note the boy carried with him.
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The Russian representative on children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov, as saying the child had been earlier adopted in Russia by an American couple. The boy was adopted six months ago.
The fact that a seven-year-old arrived by plane without accompanying adults was revealed only at immigration control. Astakhov learned that the boy had been adopted earlier from the care taking bodies. The boy was taken to a police station in Moscow and the hearing representative went there, too, to clarify the situation.
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Later in the day Astakhov said the boy’s name is Artyom Justin Hansen. The boy was born in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, and arrived in Moscow from Washington.
“The procedure for returning an adopted child has been violated. We face such situations when adopters return adopted children quite often within the first year, including international adoptive parents, though it happens less frequently. But, nonetheless, there is a procedure. They were to send a corresponding application to the guardianship bodies, social protection authorities in the US. In America there is a child service which is in charge of children protection. And they were to send a corresponding application,” Pavel Astakhov said.
“But the mother decided to make her life easier, as she writes in her application, and says that she abandoned the child because she does not want him to destroy her life, her family, and lose her friends. She thinks that she has been misled as to what the boy was going to be like. But we have the boy’s history and we can see that he is a normal boy and has no mental or physical abnormalities, he is psychologically stable. Our task now is to find out what was the reason for the abandonment. The boy was taken to a hospital in order to find out whether he has any diseases, signs of beating or trauma. So if he’s fine, he will be in quarantine for two weeks and after that he will be sent to a child care center.”
Further, Astakhov said he would ask the authorities to suspend the practice of Russian children’s adoption by Americans. “We must tighten the control over candidates for international adoption. I will raise this question now as it is possible that we must even suspend American adoptions to clarify how many similar cases we have there,” the Russian official said.
Now Artyom is being treated at one of the hospitals in the Russian capital. According to a preliminary examination by doctors, his condition is satisfactory.
This latest case is just one of many adoption scandals with Russian orphans and American adoptive parents being involved. In another case, a two-year-old boy died after his American adoptive father left him inside a car with temperature outside about 30 degrees Celsius.
Andrey Fedorov from Alaska international adoption agency says families who adopt a child should be closely monitored by social services, at least in the first couple of years.
“Every family should be screened and they should get much more attention from social workers, especially in the first couple of years when the child just came to the family and he is trying to adjust himself in this new environment. And, of course, this is a new environment for the [adopted] parents, too, so this situation should be under the control of the social services,” he said.

New information on our referral

We got some new information on our referral today. We had asked a few weeks ago if they had any developmental milestones for him.

The information we got back said he is an active boy, can sit with help and started to sit up by himself. He is crawling and can stand with support. He takes toys and babbles.

It doesn't sound like we will travel until at least June. The DOE is limiting the number of families able to travel. We just hope we do get to travel in June to meet him.
It is super hard waiting!

Jenny

USCIS fingerprinting today

We FINALLY had our fingerprints done for the USCIS Immigration.

It only took 3 months to get this far.

We had to go downtown by the airport to get them done.
Everyone was super nice there. They have been very responsive ever since we contacted our Sentator for help.

So now we wait for approval to come back, we have some time there since it's not needed until trip #2.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jenny

Accepted a new referral today!

We are happy to post that we accepted a new referral today!
We are super excited, but also being more cautious this time.

Our little guy will be on the Russian DB a little longer due to his age and then he will be available for us to go visit. We are hoping we will be able to go sometime in May.

We are hoping and praying that it all works out this time...
We know first hand things can change quickly but we are going to try and stay positive and hope for the best!

Hopefully the next few months go fast and we get to go visit soon!

Hey at least it won't be the middle of winter when we go to Siberia!!!
I am actually looking forward to the visit there, especially Moscow, so nicer weather would actually be good for any site seeing we do.

Now I can take back the new winter coat I got just for this trip! Rich HATES it so he will be very happy when it's gone!!!
Jenny

Finally some progress with the USCIS

We FINALLY have some movement with the USCIS. They have scheduled our appointment to be fingerprinted on 3-17. Ya, that only took 3 months!

We emailed and called the department several times and wouldn't get responses. We finally contacted our Senator, now we are getting some movement. We don't know if they put some pressure on them, or if they are finally getting to our case and read our 2nd request letter sent in. Anyway we are happy that we finally have some movement.

Of course we still need a referral to accept! We are waiting for some more information on a little boy. We will see, hope to have sometime this week. We are remaining hopeful that we will find the child meant for us soon.

I still think about the boy we turned down every day...

I have faith though that we will find our child soon. I am confident and happy with our agency. I feel confident now with our region and care in the orphanage. So hopefully someday soon all will work out.

Jenny

Starting to feel a little better...

I haven't posted anything yet on our referral falling through, it was too hard.
When I found out, I lost it. I haven't cried that hard or for that long in a very long time. My poor mom, I was hysterical talking to her. I almost threw up I was coughing so hard from sobbing so much. Poor lady! She just listened and said it would all work out in the end. Without the support of my family and Rich of course, I would never get through these hard times. I am so glad I have people to talk too and are there for me.

I am starting to feel better today and I think Rich is too. We asked our social worker yesterday for more information on one referral. We will see what she comes back with. I think there is a possibility there if things check out, but we will have to wait and see. We are being cautious here and not getting our hopes up.

I had been thinking about our referral we turned down a lot. I still have a little question in my mind, with the pics we did get. I concur for the most part, but I still have a little nagging doubt. I talked with Rich today and he agreed to try and set my mind at ease if possible. So, I sent our social worker an email just to see if I could get other pics of him at a better angle and him not smiling (smiling distorts and they ignore those pics). It probably won't make a difference and just really confirm 100% for me, but I would like to just erase all my doubt. I think we owe it to him also. I told her I understood if we can't or if they offer him to someone else and they take him... But at least I tried and can in my head feel like I did all I could. I know in my head that our IA Dr. is right, but I guess if possible I would like all doubt gone. Maybe I will never know 100%. I just hope and pray he is adopted by another family that loves him and can handle his special needs.

We also told our agency we plan on staying in the Russian program. We have read blogs, talked to people and seen the orphanage they stay in. We know families get the children of their dreams and have been very happy. The orphanage also looks VERY nice and it seems the kids are well cared for and the staff cares. That is very important to us. There is risk with any country and we realize that. We have been very happy with our agency so far. They have been very understanding and I can tell our social worker cares and felt bad for me when I called crying!
She gave me good advice, just to keep trying and I appreciate that.

Anyway, I will always remember our first little guy. I have put his pics away but I will always wonder about him and I really hope he is happy and loved in his life...

Jenny

Major setback, but for the best...

Yesterday, 3/1, we received more pictures of our referral. What should have been a very happy day turned into a very sad one. We forwarded the pictures on to our international doctor, as he was the one that requested them in the first place. Unfortunately his first diagnosis wasn't right. He probably has a medical condition we felt we could not handle. So after lots of tears, we emailed our agency and told them we have to turn him down. Partly our fault. We put too much into a picture. It will be hard to forget his face, but he just wasn't right for us.

Our agency understood and sent us a few more boys to look at today. One has some promise, but we are taking a step back and making decisions using our head, not our heart. The key word there is trying. It's a long, difficult process. I guess my advice to anyone that might be reading this going through the same process is to disconnect yourself as much as you possibly can. All these boys are cute. I'd take them all home if I could. I hate seeing little kids suffering. They didn't do anything wrong, and all they want is a mom and dad. You have to make decisions based on what is best for you and your family. Jenny and I decided a long time ago we could handle lots of different things. We made a list, and so far have stuck to it. Hopefully that will lead us to him eventually.

Rich