23 Days and Counting

Yesterday I took Evan to our local pharmacy for his Visa photos.  He was so excited, he walked up to Martina at the photo counter and said, "I'm here for my passport picture!"  She started laughing and then I gently reminded him it was a visa photo and that he already had his passport.  He did a great job standing still and did his best to not smile.  I still don't understand the Russian request (or culture) of asking for a photo without a smile.  Pretty hard for a seven-year-old who can't wait to meet his new little brother.  His was definitely cuter than either mine or Jose's.


Visa application:  CHECK!  Jose fedexed our passports, visa photos, and Russian visa application (and another big check) to Go To Russia, a company that specializes in assisting with travel visas.  


Airline Tickets:  CHECK!  Jose also worked out our travel arrangements with an awesome travel agent.  While we will be taking the long way around (Tampa, to DC, to Moscow to Vlad), the good news is, it was less expensive than the short way around (through South Korea) and we get to see Moscow!  I kept saying to Jose, "I just can't imagine us making two very long trips to Russia and not getting to see Moscow."  Who knows how many years it will take us to get back there.  With family in Spain and Michigan and many other favorite places we love to travel, I just don't see Russia near the top of our list any time soon.  Maybe when little M is a teenager.  We'll depart June 17 and due to the time difference, arrive on June 19.   Happy Father's Day!   


We'll then get ourselves settled into the Vlad Motor Inn for about three weeks while we journey through doctors appointments, our court date, visits with little M, our ten-day waiting period, and more paperwork to get a Russian passport for little M.  After that, the four of us (God willing) will board an airplane and head west toward Moscow where we'll do the necessary work to obtain a visa which will allow little M to enter the U.S. with us.  We'll spend six nights in Moscow and hopefully we'll be capable of communicating enough with  little M to be able to survive a little sightseeing.


All this AND the final Oprah Winfrey show in one day.  It's been a very good day in spite of one of my favorite shows ever ending.

We Have A Court Date!

I was 15 miles into my Monday morning ride on the Suncoast Trail with my friend, Kathy, when I heard my cell phone sounding.  Today, summer showed up in Florida; the thermometer peaked over 90 degrees before 9:00.  I quickly braked and dug into the sweaty pocket on the back of my biking jersey attempting to retrieve my phone, hoping I'd get to it before the ringing stopped.  On Saturday, we had received an email from Michigan; our Vlad coordinator learned that we had finally been assigned a judge.  Apparently this judge has the reputation as the "fast" judge, whatever that means.  We were just thrilled to have something, anything.  If having the "fast" judge is a bonus for us, then all the better... we are grateful.  The waiting game plays tricks with your mind, attitude, good humor, patience, faith...  Everything gets tested.  Every day that passes during this wait is another day that a wrench could get thrown into the mechanical process and anything is possible.  There are no guarantees in this game and it's a challenge to keep a positive attitude through it all.

I saw that the caller was, indeed, our coordinator from Michigan and I signaled a big thumbs up to Kathy, since we had just been discussing whether today would be the day that we'd finally get "The Call."  I answered, "Hi Lorien!"  I heard from her excited voice, "We've got a court date!"  I don't think I could have had a bigger smile on my face and my heart started pounding.  June 24.  Further off than we were hoping, but perfect nonetheless. I explained to Lorien that since I was miles from home on a bike in the middle of a wooded trail, I'd get myself home, connect with José and then call her back right after lunch so we could discuss the details of visa requirements and travel dates.  

Three months and eight days after meeting little M in Children's Home #2 in the outskirts of Vladivostok, we have a court date... and the fast judge.  Oh happy day.  I called José to share the news before pedaling off toward our Starbucks pick-me-up.  "José, I just had a call from Lorien.  We've got a court date!"  I could feel his smile through the phone. I told him we were headed back and that Lorien was expecting our call.  

I celebrated with Kathy over an iced Starbucks soy latte and celebrated with José over a big kiss. It's a very good day.  

Now down to business...  acquiring visas and figuring out our travel route.  Since Evan is out of school as of June 7, our travel calendar is clear.  Jose´s employer is extremely understanding and supportive of adoption, so his travel schedule is clear.  We plan to return to Vladivostok via Seoul, Korea, as we did the first trip.  Our biggest question is whether to travel to Moscow after our court date and ten-day waiting period for little M's visa or to use the courier to do it for us.  Apparently it's an 11 hour flight from Vlad to Moscow.   While we would love to see more of Russia than just the quaint and industrial port city of Vladivostok, it's probably more prudent (and cost effective) to send a courier.  That way we only have to pay for one airfare to Moscow rather than four.  We're running numbers now and working with a travel agent to see what we can come up with.  It would be a shame to travel twice to Russia and not see Moscow.  In this case, I just keep reminding myself why we're going to Russia...    

This afternoon when Evan came out of school before our daily bike ride home together, I shared the news with him.  He nearly jumped off his bike with excitement.  Just this morning he was asking when does he get his little brother.  Every night he asks if he can sleep in their new bedroom — I reply, it's not quite finished yet.  And it's not.  A few more details.  Tonight when I tucked him into bed, I said, as I often do, "do you know how lucky Mommy and Papa are that out of ALL the little boys in the world, we've got you?"  He replied, "and M!"  Yes,  and M.  Almost.  It's a good day.

More paperwork, please!

On Monday, we learned that our court dossier was accepted and that everything was complete.  Unfortunately, we also learned that little M's court dossier package was still in need of something that the coordinator there was now trying to round up for the judge.  We've been told it's something not commonly requested by the judge but the US coordinator couldn't tell us what it was exactly.  This puts us a little on edge... at least until we learn what that document entails.  After Monday's call, we feel like we're sooooo close, just still waiting for a court date.

Then yesterday, we learned that the Department of Education in Primorsky Krai (Vladivostok) just had to undergo a review by the Ministry of Education.  The MOE is based in Moscow and they are the governing organization federation-wide for all of Russia.  Apparently all went well during the review, but one change was made to policies and procedures which affects every family from now forward attempting to adopt in Vladivostok, Russia.

All families adopting from this region are now required to fill out an Anketa (registration) form.  For us, at this stage of the game, it's like a doctor telling a couple that they need to have another first date once they're already pregnant.  Seriously?  The most frustrating part of this is that every single tidbit of information requested on the Anketa is something that's already been provided, at least in triplicate at this point.  And the kicker is that yes, once again, we've got to get them (one for Jose and one for myself) notarized and then sent off to Tallahassee for more apostilles (that's like a notary of the notary stamp).  More running around, more document fees, more fedex charges, just to give them information they already have.  Bureaucracy at it's best.

Okay.  I'm done venting now.  Just can't wait for little M to come home with us.

Another small step...

It has been two months and five days since we met little M, the precocious and funny small fry we are hoping to adopt and bring home to the U.S.  He is waiting for us in the Children's Home #2 in Vladivostok, Russian Federation.  In another post, I'll get around to describing our first trip which happened in February.

We find ourselves waiting, very impatiently, for the news of our court date and our second trip to bring little M home.  Apparently what has held everything up since we finished our court dossier is a letter from the Department of Education in Moscow.  We learned that they send it snail mail... considering it had to cross about 10 time zones, probably pony express, it's amazing anything ever arrives in Vladivostok.  Today we learned that our DOE letter, which officially releases little M from the national adoption registry, has finally arrived in Vladivostok!

Now our coordinator takes our court dossier package, along with the DOE letter to the courts,  a judge will be assigned to our case and hopefully we'll learn of our official court date.  That is, unless we need to provide any additional information to the pounds of paper we've already sent.  Wish us luck!  Fingers and toes are crossed here.

Names

I just finished sending little M's full Russian name, which we learned on our first trip to Vladivostok, to our US coordinator for her records.  It seems so strange to me to have his entire name... mostly because of my own adoption.  For 42 years, I never knew my birth name and my mother (adoptive) didn't know it either.  I often wonder what the future will bring... will he want to search for his mother when he gets older?  I did, ever since I was a teenager.  I wanted to know everything.  Funny thing is, we've been told lots of things about his mother by the social worker already.  In my search for my past, I always had the hope that there would be a positive outcome... a happy ending.  I am one of the lucky ones, my birth family reunion was a dream come true.  I learned that I was loved from the very beginning, that I was held and kissed and snuggled and wrapped up in her arms full of love.  I learned that my birth mother never wanted to give me up and that my adoptive parents always told me how much they wanted me.  How lucky am I?  Knowing what I know about M's parent, I don't see that as possible for him and it makes me very sad.  Maybe I need to just give it up to the universe to decide and stop trying to decide how things will be for him.  It's his story... his choice, his past, his life.  We'll never know what type of reunion is possible for him and his birth family.  Maybe it could be something amazing and positive.  All I can do is love him and always provide for him a place to come home.  I am so very blessed to have this opportunity.

Court Dossier Document Done!

It's been a long road, paved in paper and Fedex envelopes...  As of today, I believe all of our documents are complete and headed to our coordinator in Michigan.  Now we just wait... for a phone call with our court date.

The latest documents to arrive were our FBI background checks (just José and I).  They came quicker than expected, only taking three weeks and two days before we received a Fedex tracking number from our friends at the FBI.  This seemed incredibly swift considering we had been told it could take up to 12 weeks for processing.  Once Fedex delivered, all that was needed was an apostille from Tallahassee and another Fedex to Michigan.

We have our own account number with Fedex now and the customer service reps at the Fedex Brooksville airport location are my new friends.  I almost feel as if a night out celebrating were in order, but José was sent to Madrid this week for meetings and I'm on single-Mommy duty until Sunday.  I'm sure we'll find a moment to toast to this momentary achievement when he returns.

Curiosity...

Roots...  As long as I can remember, I possessed a burning desire to know who I am, where I came from, what "they" looked like.  Were they in love?  Had I ever been held by "her" arms?  What would my name have been?  Did they like music?  Did she love to cook?.. Those questions went on and on.

When I was a teenager, I remember asking my mother, Mary, for her blessing to search for my birth parents.  My dad, George, had already passed when I was 13 years old, so it was up to her.  I'm sure she wasn't sure what the right answer was since from each of her adopted children, we wanted something completely different.  As far as I recall, my brother never wanted to know who his birth parents were.  For me, it was a gnawing necessity to know from what gene pool I'd arrived.  I'd imagine what sort of people they might be.  Each time I traveled internationally, I'd wonder if my blood lines had roots that reached across that particular country or continent.  Mom told me quietly, in her own loving way, that she understood my need to know.

I must have been somewhere between 16 and 18 years old when she presented me with my adoption documents, unearthed from the safe deposit box where my mom kept all her most valuable papers.  My "non-identifying information" pages written by the adoption coordinator at Children and Family Services will forever be the number one, most-read document of my lifetime.