A Dad's Journey Through International Adoption: Sixth Month Check Up

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Sixth Month Check Up

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

We starting our adoption process six months ago so I thought I'd just give a recap on where we've been and where we are going. Six months is not very long at all and we've accomplished a great deal during that time which is a chief reason both of us are not really stressing right now. If fact, compared to other adoptions we're moving at light speed.

But anyway, my recap...

On May 9th we started our adoption process by having an intro/interview meeting with what turned out to be the Home-Study agency we went with. That was actually the day we really decided to "go for it" so that's what we call our official starting date even though we had been discussing adoption for many many months. Anyway, over the next couple of months we went through the home-study process (for details on what that entailed look at the posts during May and June).

In June we nailed down which placement agency we wanted and in July we started getting things done for our dossier. There is a whole bunch of stuff one needs for the dossier and it took us until September to get it all done (some of the documents you have to wait for so the timing isn't always in your hands). Again, for the gory details check out the archives.

We also started to fix up a bedroom for Lil' G at that time. We're not completely done with it (more decorations and such are needed) but we do have a crib, dresser, and of course a theme (Winnie the Pooh).

During this time (actually it had been going on even before we started with the process) the Russian government was working out the means to implement some special legislation that required adoption agencies to register for something called NGO (Non Government Organization). It is a new requirement that the agencies must have in order to carry on business in Russia. Our agency (and most others) had to first get this NGO and then apply for what was in the past yearly accreditation.

Our agency got it's NGO in mid September and about that same time our dossier was completed and sent to Moscow to be translated. Throughout October we just waited for some news on the process for reaccreditation since our agency had the coveted NGO. However, the Russian government needed to rewrite a key part of the accreditation process (essentially the "recipe" for how one applies for accreditation).

That key document (known now as decree #654) was just completed last week. So now our agency needs to review the new requirements (fortunately there are very few new ones) and then they can submit their request for accreditation. If you've been follow my blog you know I have great admiration for our agency and believe they will be one of the first (if not the first) agencies to get reaccreditation.

Of course once that happens things will really start to move for us. We're hopeful our agency gets through the accreditation process by the end of the calendar year. And if that happens we're hopeful that we'll get a referral soon thereafter and may be "lucky" and get to travel to Siberia in February.

posted by Steveg @ 11:33 AM

1 Comments:

At 4:28 AM, Deb said…

THanks for the recap. You really did get a lot done in really just 6 months. SInce you've been waiting for 1 of those six.

I like the new look.

Contributors:

steveg

yorkiemom

Our Story:

I'm Steve and this is my wife Stefanie. This is our story, mostly seen through my eyes, of the journey to create our family by adopting a child from Russia.

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