Waiting!

Well we are officialling "Waiting"...Our file is in Russia at the Ministry of Education in Vladivostok. Now it is up to them to match us with a child and forward the childs info to our agency for us to review, forward to our doctor, and decide if we wish to persue the adoption. Once we notify the agency that we wish to proceed the Russians will extend an invitation for us to go to Russia for our first visit. We had hoped to hear something before Christmas, however we have not. Now we continue to wait until we hear from WACAP. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We know our son is out there waiting for us......

12/08/08 Update

Phone meeting with WACAP on Friday revealed that our Dossier was completed and being shipped to their Vlad office today! (Shipping will take 6 to 10 days) The bulk of the documents had been sent ahead for translation into Russian and only the hard copies of the Apostilled documents were needed to submit our Dossier to the Russians for matching with a child. What does this all mean? WACAP seems to think that we will have a refferal prior to Christmas! That should include pictures and medical information and any family history they may have. We will then have the med records reviewed by an adoption specialist (M.D.) here and review all of the other information to determine if we want to go to Russia to meet the child. Due to Russian Privacy concerns we will not be sharing any of the official refferal information. We want to make sure that this is the right child for us before setting any expectations. If this is not the right child we will ask for a new referral. Based on all of the information we have, we feel we will probably be travelling to Russia sometime Mid to late January of 2009.

More of Where we are headed

Here is a link to youtube. This video was shot by an american couple on their 1st trip to Russia. The have adopted a cute little boy and are returning soon using WACAP to get a 2nd son.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg1QBCxklaw

Where is Pimorsky Krai and Vladivostock?

Here is a map of the Eastern half of Russia. You can see Alaska in the upper right hand corner. In the lower-middle portion of the map you can find Vladivostok. This part of Russia is borderd by China to its West and Japan off its Eastern Shore.

On this Map you can see that Vladivostok is on a Peninsula very close to the Chinese border. Besides Vladivostok there are Child Homes in Ussuriysk, Nakhodka and Artem. I know what your thinking...What do kids from this region look like? Well they look just like kids from the U.S. This is a melting pot area just like our entire country!

Dear Family and Friends,
Gloria, Keegan and I wanted to update you all on the status of our adoption plans. We have been working hard since last December to move forward with our plan to adopt a boy between 4 and 7 years old from Russia. Things are starting to come together for us now. We have completed our Home Study, Submitted for our I-171H (adoption Visa) and received formal approval from our agency (http://www.wacap.org/) into the Russian program. During a long phone call last night with WACAP we have narrowed our search for our new Son to the region (state) known as Primorsky Krai and specifically in and around the capital of Vladivostok (well known by you Tom Clancy novel readers). Although there are many reasons for this decision the biggest reason is that our agency recommends this region as one that has a large number of boys (4-7 years old) as well as it being a region that they have a long term working relationship in. Our agency has assured us that they have a full time salaried staff in their office in Vald. and that this staff will be supporting us fully during our travel and processes in Russia. These services will include a car and driver, a translator for all official visits and functions at the orphanage as well as any court or adoption related appointments. Our travels will most likely take us from Chicago to Seoul South Korea and then into Vladivostok. There are direct, non-stop flights from Chicago to Seoul (9 hours) and then a short (2.5 hour) flight into Vlad. So you are all wondering when?? Well actually so are we! Our agency expects things to move along rather "quickly" using the international adoption standard...what exactly does this mean? Well we should have some info regarding the child, including picture(s), possibly sometime around Christmas...They say that we should expect to travel on our 1st trip of 7-10 days (5 Russian working days) sometime in the middle to end of January. After meeting the little guy and agreeing he is the right son for us (I know it sounds kind of cold). We will then have to wait for the Russian government to process all of the paperwork and set a court date for us to go back for. WACAP's educated guess is that this will take 45 to 60 days. We will then have to return to Russia for a court date and for the "Gotcha day" (No brothers this has nothing to do with long underwear!). This is adoption slang for the day your adoptive child is legally yours and you pick him/her up from the orphanage. It is usually celebrated by the adoption family each year, similar to a birthday. Taking all of this into account and allowing for some delays our best guess is that our new little guy will be home with us sometime in early to middle of April of 2009!
Gloria and I truly feel that he is over there waiting for us and we just have to link up to make him part of the family. We hope you all can share in our excitement and optimism as we travel down this path that god has chosen for us and our new son.

Love,

Kenny, Gloria and Keegan.