Saturday, November 17, 2007
Pskov Kremlin (photo Yaroslav Blanter). An ancient Russian fortress, is situated at the confluence of Rivers Pskova and Velikaya, at the right bank of River Velikaya. So how did we find out about M?
It was November 8th. The day after we talked to our agency director about the girls who are waiting for Russia foster families. He called to see if we would consider a referral of one girl. "She's a very beautiful girl" and then read from the orphanage director's notes on her personality. Her character sounded strong and fun. I said "Sure! Send over her information." I called Michael and told him about M.
The agency director was right. She's a gorgeous little girl and I could totally picture her as ours. She has long, light brown hair (two big pigtails on each side) and gray-blue eyes. The picture we had was dated 2004, but we learned later that it was taken in May 2007.
We also got 2 pages of medical information and orphanage notes to review. Wow, what a difference between this referral and our previous blind referral experience. I'm happy that we have this information but of course a little information brings more questions. But it's all good.
On Thursday night we discussed going over for M versus waiting for a referral of 2 girls. It was an easy decision for us to make. We had some additional questions for our agency director about M and the process in Pskov and got the answers to them on Tuesday. We officially accepted M on Wednesday and started the latest round of paperchasing.
We need (1) new copies of 3 registration forms, (2) new employment verification letters, (3) new police clearance letters, (4) 8-doctor medical form filled in by our primary care physician, and (5) letter from state licensing board that our doctor is in good standing. Everything needs to be notarized and apostilled.
We will have everything except #5 completed before we leave and we'll take those with us. #5 takes up to 10 days to process but we are hoping to get it sooner. It is ambitious to think we can get a court date by the end of the year but it's worth a shot!
10 Comments:
Adopt A Child.orgAdopting from Russia
Eastern European Adoption Coalition, Inc
Embassy of the Russian Federation
Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption
Karen's Adoption Links
Older Child Adoption
Russia Adoption Blog
Russian Adoption Medical Services
Russian Family Search
Russian Toys
Vernissage Press
In 2004 the kids who came here for summer hosting (the year before I hosted Peanut) were all from Pskov. I met the families in 2005 and they all had a great experience adopting their kids. Several of them mentioned how the judge they had was short and clipped but very smart and fair. That's a good thing!
P.S. Thanks for the link to Russian-Toys. It's great!