And We Wait...

Foreign adoption is so funny. Rush. Rush. Rush. Get lots of paperwork done and then wait. We spoke with our adoption agency earlier this week to see what is the next step. We found out we are waiting for the initial court hearing. We gave Olga in Bryansk power of attorney to represent us in Russian adoption court for the initial hearing. (If we had not done this we would have to make 4 trips to Russia!) Russian adoption court gives her 2-4 weeks notice of the court hearing. Hand In Hand is communicating with Galina to see if she can get the court to give her any kind of an idea when they might schedule the preliminary hearing... So... for that we wait...

Travel Packet!

We received our travel packet and there are a 'few' things we have to have for the trip:

• copy of I-171H
• copy of State Home Study Approval
• copy of all birth certificates and marriage licenses
• copy of passport's
• proof of USCIS Poverty Minimum Guidelines
• copy of employment letters
• copies of last 3 years tax returns
• I-600 (Blue Form)
• I-604 (Determination on Child for Adoption)
• Form DS-230 (application for immigrant visa)
• Affadavit concerning exemption from Immigrant Vaccination Requirements for a foreign adopted child
• Powers of Attorney for U.S. Embassy

The travel packet also contained a 'few' forms:

• notice regarding passport
• your region information sheet
• estimated expenses for an adoption from your region
• suggested orphanage donations
• things to bring for adoption travel
• copy of important numbers
• hotel information
• humanitarian aid letter for customs
• department of state caution
• questions for the caregivers
• referral/travel affadavit
• visa packet
• U.S. embassy moscow registration form
• authorization to publish
• placement agreement
• progress report agreement

Travel Packet

We just received word from Hand In Hand International Adoptions that they are sending us our travel packet in preperation for when we receive permission to travel to Russia.

Note from our Adoption Agency on January 13, 2008

No info on your appointment yet. Things are moving well in Bryansk however. We had some court dates and a first trip in December. You are next in line.

Our Dossier is in Russia!

Our dossier was sent to Russia the week after Thanksgiving. This is a significant piece of the process that has taken 6 months to accomplish. There were a few additional documents required for the adoption court in Russia that I had apostilled at the Texas Secretary of State office in Austin the Monday after Thanksgiving on the way to Fort Worth when I was taking my mother home after she had spent Thanksgiving week with us.

Now We Wait

I drove our completed dossier to the Texas Secretary of State Office in Austin on Monday November 3 so that our I-171 H could be apostille'd. The Secretary of State office is just across the street south of the Texas state capitol. A frind of ours in Colorado suggested that it could save a couple of weeks in our timeline by hand carrying our remaining documents for apostille in case there were any docuements that had to be redone. As it turned out the I-171H was not done correctly. The requirement is to send a copy of the I-171 H that is notarized and apostille'd to Russia. The problem was that we had not signed the copy that we had notarized so a new copy had to be made and notarized before it could receive an apostille. After a brief scare I ran down the street to the UPS store to have a new copy notarized. The whole process took about two hours after which I anxiously packed up the dossier and next day'd it to Hand In Hand.

The dossier contained: an 8x10 family photo, two 5x7 family photos, 12 pictures of our house, a photo notary statement, a letter of intent to adopt, 'Form 1', 'Form 2', three marriage certificates, three copies of our passport pages, letters of committment and obligation, psychological evaluation, letter of medical approval, doctor's license, financial statement, copy of deed to our home, declaration of attorney regarding property ownership, letters of employment, FBI clearances, Power of attorney for Olga in Bryansk, I-171 H, and a check for $6500. All of these documents were notarized and apostille'd. One document had two notarizations!

One of the more amazing things we have discovered is the Russian Ministry of Education searchable orphan database. (There is a link at the right bottom of this blog.) It contains pictures and information about Russian orphans. It currently appears to contain information about 75,795 boys and 52,007 girls. It can be translated via google translate...