A Dad's Journey Through International Adoption: So let's see what the next steps look like

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So let's see what the next steps look like

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Stef and were trying to analyze the next steps in accreditation (and when they would most likely occur). This is no easy task because little is known of what goes on behind the scenes at the MOE.

It really stems from a culture that has been heavily influenced by years under communist rule. In the U.S. if you get an unfavorable answer from a government official (or anyone else for that matter) you often ask to talk to the person's supervisor. Well, that's not exactly how you handle yourself living in a communist ruled country (or any totalitarian rule). If they say the answer is "No", that's it, it's no and please get out of my office.

Also Americans are...well how shall I put this...somewhat a pestering arrogant people who are determined to get their way. And if they can't get their way, they will certainly let you hear about it. If we hear "No" we want to know "Why Not!!!" and in detail. In Russia, the answer is the answer and you should not be interested in knowing why. I've been told that this is partly due to very random way Russian officials make decisions and often they don't wish anyone to know why they did something because it will open up a can of worms. There would be questions to which they don't have answers (or even worse, the answers would highlight some incompetence on their part).

So it's pretty hard to figure out what all the details are for the next steps in accreditation and how long they will take. However, we can look at the last major delay which happened in 2004 to 2005. At that time a mass of agencies (like 40!!!) all got reaccredited at once (on May 17, 2005). Our agency was one of those, but it's been hard for me to find out when agencies at that time had learned about the impending accreditations.

I have learned that our agency had their certificate a day after it was signed. The big question is how long will it take the MOE to get all documents ready for signing. My guess and it's only that since I have literally no information to back it up, would be three to four weeks. Now, that may seem slow but based on what I've seen in the past, I'd say that's a "Moscow Minute" (a very slim play on the "New York Minute"). What I mean is that the MOE IS going to move fast, but fast by Russian standards and that could mean a month.

Then will come the communication from the federal MOE out to the regional MOE offices. And that's not going to be shot out in an email. Now I don't know about the Russian postal service but I suspect it's in line with ours (which is a really bad sign). So it could take another three to four weeks (six to eight weeks in total) till the regions start allowing agencies to start working again on adoptions. We're not the first people in line at our agency and there are other agencies which work in the same region we're headed to, so a referral could come very fast or take a bit of time. And that range could be a mere two weeks to a lengthly eight weeks or more.

Rolling that altogether, and again this is with very little historical evidence so my guesstimate here is more of a "guess" than an "estimate", is the following scenarios:

Best Case
Accreditations are signed by end of June
Regions begin working with agencies mid July
We see a referral end of July/early August

Most Likely Case
Accreditations are signed mid/late July
Regions begin working with agencies late August
We see a referral September/October

Ironically this is the exact timing we had thought we would be headed to Russia...of course that was a year ago!!! But it's nice to see that the Russians are being considerate enough in trying to stay within my original estimate even if it is a year behind.

posted by Steveg @ 9:53 AM

2 Comments:

At 11:25 AM, Unknown said…

Let's hope it is sooner rather than later. However if it is winter then at least you will get to use those winter clothes you bought last year.
Love, Mother
At 11:27 AM, Deb said…

All I can say is; I know that it's coming and that's enough for me.
We don't expect a referral until next year so we've got a bit more to wait you. But I really hope your timelines are right.

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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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