So we are on vacation in Estes Park, CO for the 4th of July, when Rich gets a phone call!
Maeven contacted him to let him know we get to travel earlier than expected. We get to leave on July 19th! Yes only 2 weeks away.Depart July 19th
When we got home I immediately called the travel agency and got everything booked. We used a company out of CA and they were very nice and helpful. Victor did all of the searching for me and found me the best rates he could. We do have a day at the end of our trip where we can stay at the airport hotel or go into Moscow. We are unsure yet what we will do.
Victor suggested the airport hotel, he thinks we will be exhausted. Maeven however advised that the other couple we are traveling with is going to go ahead and go into Moscow for the day. It may be nice to sight see when the weather is nice there.
Anyway, here is our itinerary, we are SO excited. It looks however that we don't get to any kind of hotel until the 21st and we leave on the 19th. Yes we will be very tired!!!
Depart July 19th
Arrive Moscow July 20th
Fly Moscow to Kemerovo July 20th-21st
Arrive Kemerovo July 21st
Visit DOE on July 21st, then drive to Novokuznetsk ( get to go to hotel this night and sleep in a bed)
Visit Orphanage July 22nd and 23rd
Depart Novokuznetsk July 24th
Arrive Moscow July 24th and depart to US
Rich and I have been waiting for this day and so excited it's so close!!!
Jenny
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Delays
It appears we won't be traveling in June as we were hoping.
We are hoping and praying the US and Russia wrap things up with the new treaty soon.
We learned today that Kaz has stopped taking new dossiers effective 5-15. They are in the process of signing the Hague so there is no ETA on when they will take new dossiers again.
It's so sad, I feel bad for everyone in the process.
We just got our USCIS approval last week, so if we were still with Kaz we would have been impacted and on hold.
We just pray we still can travel soon to meet our little guy...
This really has been a roller coaster. I read other blogs and yahoo groups and know other people have been through worse things. So trying to be patient and have hope it will all work out in the end. Easier said than done on some days though!!!
Jenny
We are hoping and praying the US and Russia wrap things up with the new treaty soon.
We learned today that Kaz has stopped taking new dossiers effective 5-15. They are in the process of signing the Hague so there is no ETA on when they will take new dossiers again.
It's so sad, I feel bad for everyone in the process.
We just got our USCIS approval last week, so if we were still with Kaz we would have been impacted and on hold.
We just pray we still can travel soon to meet our little guy...
This really has been a roller coaster. I read other blogs and yahoo groups and know other people have been through worse things. So trying to be patient and have hope it will all work out in the end. Easier said than done on some days though!!!
Jenny
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
We got USCIS approval today!!!
We finally got our USCIS approval today!!!
It took over 5 months, we submitted our completed homestudy on Dec 1st. We paid and sent all of our other documents even earlier, in Oct 09.
We are just so happy we got it and it all looks correct!
Well except for we were just approved for 1 child. We were told to ask for 2, but they just granted one.
We only plan on 1 so ultimately not an issue.
So excited to have this, so far getting this approval has been the hardest and longest part of the paperwork.
Yeah!
Jenny
It took over 5 months, we submitted our completed homestudy on Dec 1st. We paid and sent all of our other documents even earlier, in Oct 09.
We are just so happy we got it and it all looks correct!
Well except for we were just approved for 1 child. We were told to ask for 2, but they just granted one.
We only plan on 1 so ultimately not an issue.
So excited to have this, so far getting this approval has been the hardest and longest part of the paperwork.
Yeah!
Jenny
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Talk continue, we are confused...
We checked the news today and it was reported that the talks between Russia and US went well but now they are not meeting again until 5-12. Ugh.
In the article it stated some of the Russian's demands. They want a Russian social worker to check up on the child. We would have no problem with that, we have to do home study visits anyway.
They also want American's to maintain the Russian customs, language and holidays.
Ok the Russian lang would be hard for us, not even sure how we would do that? The article stated Russia would have no issues closing and it is only 1 line in their law so will have no problem just closing it's doors!
Rich and I are confused. We moved to the Russian program for opportunity and really fell for our 1st referral. Since then things have not gone well.
We are checking with our social worker on things so we have an option #2. Seeing if we can easily move back to Kaz if it comes to that.
The lady in TN really ruined things for a lot of us. I wonder if she has any idea what her actions have done.
I guess we will know more (hopefully) after the 5-12 meetings. We are starting to think though that it was a mistake moving from Kaz...
Jenny
Friday, April 16, 2010
Still waiting and hoping
We are still waiting and hoping all goes well with Russia adoptions.
We are getting mixed messages in the press, but as of now it seems like nothing has stopped.
We hope next week that US and Russia are able to come to an understanding and Russia doesn't stop their adoptions!! We are hoping and praying all works out and we will still be able to travel soon to meet our little guy....
Jenny
We are getting mixed messages in the press, but as of now it seems like nothing has stopped.
We hope next week that US and Russia are able to come to an understanding and Russia doesn't stop their adoptions!! We are hoping and praying all works out and we will still be able to travel soon to meet our little guy....
Jenny
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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
dragable_items[dragable_items.length]="doc561226";
permalinke-mail story to a friendprint version
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.
Read more
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.
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
dragable_items[dragable_items.length]="doc561226";
permalinke-mail story to a friendprint version
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.
Yahoo StumbleUpon Google Live Technorati
del.icio.us Digg Reddit Mixx Propeller
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.
Read more
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.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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
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
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