Hello friends and family,
As most of you know, Victor and I officially began the process of adopting two children last summer. Since that time, things have progressed slowly, but steadily. Many of you ask us, from time to time, how things are going. I thought it might be fitting to send out an update to answer that question.
Home Study
The normal adoption process begins with a home study done by a licensed social worker. Wanting to get started as soon as possible, we began working with an independent social worker last summer before we made our final choice of an agency. Our social worker came to Bellingham last August to see us and our home.
He took down some contact information for some people we gave him to serve as our references, and then handed us a pile of papers. We worked through the paperwork last fall, which involved getting a physical, a statement of assets, an auto-biographical questionnaire with 105 questions, and other stuff, all stamped and notarized. Our social worker took this information and used it to complete the home study. International adoptions must have home studies completed by licensed adoption agencies, so we also paid him an extra $250 to use the letter head of the agency he normally associates with.
One important aspect of this stage was defining our adoption as follows:
Two children, ages 0 – 5 years old, from Russia. We have stated that we would prefer siblings, and would prefer one boy and one girl, yet we are open to any configuration. We have also expressed openness to accepting some physical disabilities on the part of one of the two children, as long as the disability would not prohibit the child from growing into an independently functioning adult.
Adoption Agency
In November, we officially applied to WACAP (World Association of Children and Parents) in Renton, WA. This is a secular adoption firm which has been around for 30 years and has an excellent and lengthy track record of adoptions in Russia. They have full time staff working in both Moscow and Vladivostok, and are known for being above board and professional. We have been greatly pleased with them so far.
As it turned out, WACAP works with their own social workers for Washington State adoptive families, but they have been able to work with the social worker we had contracted with. Even so, our plans to save time by starting our home study earlier backfired because WACAP has experienced quite a bit of slow and poor communication on the part of our social worker and the adoption agency he works under, including losing the $250 check we had given him back in August!
The Home Study portion was finalized and approved by WACAP in late January, at which point WACAP moved us from their “intake” department over to their “Russia Programs” department.
Russia Programs -- Dossier Section One
We worked with WACAP to complete more paperwork specifically required by Russia. This paperwork is called a “dossier,” and it differs from country to country. Our first step was to choose between one of seven regions of Russia in which WACAP does adoptions. We chose to adopt from the region of Vladivostok, which is known to have many Ukrainian descent families (from Stalin-era deportations), and is a port region with a university. (Probably just like Bellingham, we surmised.)
WACAP has divided the paperwork into two parts. Much of this paperwork, which includes the home study, is a repeat of the first part. These papers are completed and notarized, and then get “apostilled” -- even more stamps from the State of Washington. They then get translated and sent to your region in Russia. Once Vladivostok receives these documents, they will begin looking for a match.
This is the stage we are now at. The paperwork is completed and currently being apostilled. We get weekly phone calls from WACAP, and they will inform us when those papers arrive at their offices in Vladivostok.
Unpredictable Turns
Some of you may remember that we began a year previous with the idea of adopting from Ukraine, but Ukraine stopped all international adoptions just one month after we decided to pursue adoption. We had been told for months that Ukraine would re-open shortly, but we saw no movement for months and months, and finally decided to pursue Russia as a plan B. You may also be aware that international adoptions are magnets for unscrupulous people and organizations, so we took our time to evaluate various agencies before deciding upon WACAP in November.
Just one month later, in December of 2006, Ukraine did indeed re-open their doors to international adoption under a revamped adoption system. We didn’t learn of this until recently, and at this point do not wish to re-do our home study, or find a new agency. WACAP has never done adoptions in Ukraine.
Even so, Russia has developed a few of its own delays. Historically it has re-accredited American agencies annually, asking them to fill out a few forms. At the end of 2006, they announced a separate, much more involved re-accreditation process, and only invited some of the existing agencies to apply for re-accreditation, of which WACAP was included.
We were happy to discover that WACAP was the first agency to submit all of the documents they required, and were told they would receive approval by the end of March. I had my doubts about this time-table (6 years overseas has jaded me a bit), but was pleased to learn they were indeed given partial approval in mid-March. What WACAP learned, however, is that approval from one office does not mean approval from all offices. Their paperwork is now being evaluated by several other ministries in the country, and they are told they should get final word by the end of May. Meanwhile, dossiers are not being processed from any agency.
Many other agencies were told to redo various documents, or had several things missing altogether. And there have been some agencies who were not invited to participate in the re-accreditation process at all. This has created a situation where families from other agencies have flocked to WACAP, making the wait that much longer for us. Our paperwork will arrive to Russia, only to get in a long line of dossiers, all of which are awaiting WACAP’s final re-accreditation approval.
In spite of these facts, we are confident that the Lord has been with us from the beginning and for His reasons, has led us to adopt from Russia. We do not feel any need to change our plans.
Dossier Section Two
From what we have been told, once the re-accreditation happens, assuming our dossier is in Russia at that time, we can count on a wait of 6 to 12 months for a match. The second half of the dossier paperwork is time-sensitive, so it would not be wise to start it until we are closer to that point.
As part of this process, tomorrow we will go to Seattle to be fingerprinted, and an FBI background search will be done as part of the department of Homeland Security’s (formerly the INS) petition to adopt a foreign-born orphan. This portion takes awhile, and we cannot apply for a VISA to visit Russia without it.
The Referral Stage (most likely between September 2007 and March 2008)
Once children are found that match our request, we will receive some limited information about them. This will include a photo and some brief medical history. We have the option at that point to contract with some University of Washington doctors who specialize in international adoptions, and can evaluate medical history.
Within 2-4 weeks of the referral, if we agree to proceed, we will fly to Russia for one week to meet the children. From what we understand we will have daily visits, or possibly twice-daily visits with the children at the orphanage. At this point we have the option of sending digital footage of the children to the university doctors for further evaluation. We must decide whether to proceed with these children or not while we remain in Russia. If for some reason we do not feel like it is a good match, they will try to find us new matches while we are still in Russia. The worst case scenario is that we would go home and await another referral.
Finalizing the Adoption
Once the referral is accepted, we will return to Bellingham without the children and continue waiting. 3-4 months later (Christmas 2007???) we will be invited to return to Russia to finalize the adoption. We will stay in Russia for almost one month on our second trip, but we will be given custody of the children almost immediately. We will be visiting a judge to formally request the adoption, but mostly spending a lot of time awaiting approval. Towards the end of our stay, someone will fly to Moscow for us (9 hour flight!) to obtain our children’s visas so they can return with us the U.S. We are told there is a hotel in Vladivostok which was built with adoptive families in mind. It is located near walking trails and the shore, and has several play areas on their own grounds as well.
Following the Lord’s Path
In closing, I want to emphasize that we have been at peace through it all. We have felt support from all around, and the Lord has confirmed and reconfirmed to us that this is His will for us. We do not feel in a hurry and are happy to be patient with the timetable.
It is evident that this process is a long one, and it involves various turns and unpredictable moments. We are only about half way through, and we can expect more turns and twists to be in the road ahead.
We certainly have had moments of fear regarding the future, but I think these are mostly normal fears any parents in the “expecting” stage can identify with. In a couple different moments of uncertainty, the Lord graciously gave us some words of encouragement. I will end this update with them:
Victor read John 14 aloud one afternoon when we needed some encouragement from the Lord. As I listened, I immediately identified with the orphan hearing these words: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. … I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
In an online study about joy by Beth Moore, she asked us to remember a moment of deepest joy. The image that came to me was not a memory, but rather was the moment a child is placed in my arms. Then she read the following passage from Isaiah 60: Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.
We wish to express thanks to each of you who have asked for updates about our adoption. We know you care about us and our future family, and it means a lot to us. As things develop further, we will try to keep you informed, and we covet your prayers for our little ones who we have not yet had the joy of meeting.
