Happy Birthday and First Day of School

Luke celebrated his 9th Birthday by having to head off to the first day of school. He was none too happy about the timing, especially the getting up early again part. To add insult to injury, it rained all morning for the first day of school.

Fortunately, he has the teacher he was hoping for and will be starting in the gifted program this year. I think it will be a really great year for him.

That night he had the birthday honor of choosing the dinner menu, so we had ribs, cheesy potatoes, corn and lava cake with ice cream for dessert. (I know, not what is typically thought of as kid food, but that is what he wanted.)

Then afterwards there were presents to open, so the day wasn't completely non-birthday. Next week he will bring in a treat for his classmates and celebrate with them. His teacher thought that a birthday celebration would be a little much for the first day of school. I can't say I blame him.

Beth is starting 7th grade. It doesn't seem possible that she is in the middle grade of Middle School. Last year she was so scared about starting at the Middle School (getting lost, not being able to get her locker open, not knowing where her class was... all the normal worries with making the big step to Middle School.) Her biggest worry about this school year has been whether she'd be able to keep up with classes when she is in Russia. (YES, we plan to take Beth and Luke with us to Russia this time.) We sent a letter into the school before classes started to inform all of her teachers about what is going on. I am very thankful for all the encouragement from all of her teachers and the willingness and support they all are giving her. She came home so relieved and excited that she will be okay. Thank you GMSE Teachers!

What we Know and Don't know

Many of you have asked if we have a court date yet and how things are going.

Here is what we know . . .
1. Our Court Dossier is in Stavropol, Russia...WooHoo!
2. Our Children are in Stavropol, Russia waiting on us.
3. We want to go to Stavropol, Russia...ASAP!

What we don't know . . .
1. How far along our documents are in the translation process.
2. If our Acceptance and Petition letters have made it to Mosscow.
...If they were approved in Mosscow.
...If they have made it back to the Ministry of Education in Stavropol.
3. If Yana and Gena have had their medical evaluation in preparation for court.
4. If the Russian social worker has finished his or her report.

And Most importantly . . .
5. When our Court Date will be.

We are still waiting and praying.

Georgia on my mind

A lot of people have been asking about how this whole Russia-Georgia conflict will affect our adoption. The honest answer is that I don't know. There are a few things that I do know, but not many.

First, our kids are in the city of Stavropol, which is in the "state" of Stavropol located in the southwest part of Russia between the Black and Caspian Seas. You've probably seen far too many maps of that part of the world on the news over the past 3 weeks, but I've included one here anyway. If you look at the map, you'll see that Stavropol Kray (think "State") is close to Georgia, but does not border it directly. The city of Stavropol is almost 200 miles exactly from Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia and location of much of the fighting. The kids are far enough away that it does not appear that they are in any direct danger. Praise God for that.

The part that scares me is not the fighting... it's the political posturing between Russia and the United States. It seems that everyday we see another headline where the US and Russia are moving further apart. We say stern things about Russia's actions in Georgia and they say stern things about us putting a missle defense base in Poland. NATO says there can't be business as usual until Russia pulls out of Georgia and Russia says it will no longer cooperate with NATO. It's pretty clear that we are on a path to a new cold-war. I hope it stays cold, but even cold is a big problem for us and our kids.

Our greatest fear right now is that Russia will decided to up the ante and suspend travel visas for Americans, or worse yet, they may suspend the foreign adoption programs. If that happens, we won't be able to go there for court and to bring the kids home. Right now, we have been told to expect a September court date. In fact, we could be given a date at literally anytime now. I pray that it comes soon and that we can get there and get the kids before the strained tensions between our governments get any worse. I know that God is in control and that through Him all things are possible. I hope his timing is quick however. Keep praying for us and for Russia to keep their borders open.

A Quick Break

Saturday afternoon we drove up to Akron to Mark's parents' for a little family get-together. Mark's brother is in Japan (he's a Staff Seargent in the Marines), but his wife and boys came up for the cookout. It's been 3 years since we've seen them because they were stationed in California. Mark's sister Tonia and her kids came over as well.

We had a great time eating, eating some more, and then making S'mores (in case we were still hungry). The kids had loads of fun "roasting" (think "incinerating") the marshmallows. It was a great day.

No More Paperchasing ... Almost

On Wednesday we obtained the final apostille on the final document (a medical report) for the court dossier. We had already faxed the whole thing for translation a few days ago (minus the missing medical report). Wednesday night we visited our friendly neighborhood FedEx hub where the nice folks sent off our entire 14.95 pound dossier to California to our caseworker... at a cost of around $170. Ouch. Our caseworker emailed today that it went out to Russia. WooHoo!!!! It should arrive in Stavropol in 5 - 7 days.

Now, all we have to do is put together our Moscow folder... a few more pages of documents and photos for registering in Moscow when we get there. Shouldn't be too hard. We could hear something about our court date anytime after the 22nd of August. Let's hope we hear soon! Keep praying...

Luke's 9th Birthday Party

Luke's actual Birthday is the first day of school, so we decided to celibrate early. Yesterday, a group of the neighborhood kids joined Luke at the pool for a party. Enjoy some of the pictures of it.

Divine Intervention... yet again

Alright God, I get it. You are in control. I know, I know... just quit worrying and have faith.

We've spent much of the past week in a disappointed mood about missing our chance to get to Russia before October for the court trip. We missed our deadline after working REALLY hard to make it. We relied on ourselves to make this happen a bit too much (alright, more than a bit). You allowed us to stumble in our vanity of thinking we could pull it off all by ourselves... but once again you didn't let us fall.

This afternoon we received an email from our case worker at our agency letting us know that the judge in Stavropol has decided to NOT take vacation in September. The vaction will be in October instead. It looks like we are going to get a September court date.

Court Dossier Anyone?

Lisa was able to get the document described in our previous post re-done, certified, and apostilled today. We spent the evening (and into the morning) assembling the dossier. Here it is with the exception of 4 packets of physicals that we will get on Monday. Tomorrow I will fax a copy to our caseworker who will forward it to Russia to begin translation. I'm so glad that I don't work as a document translator... this looks to be no fun at all.

God only you could make this happen …

Note from the blogger-in-chief: The following is a stream of consciousness post from Lisa as she engaged in yet another round of the Great Paper Chase…

Great news today! Andy brought over the redone papers that we needed. (Thank you again Andy! If anyone is looking for a realtor in the Columbus area, I’ll give you his number.) He even found out which notary we have used in the past and used her, so I know the notary is good.

OH NO!!! One of the pages was skipped in the signing and notary process. Andy takes them back and runs out to get the missed pages notarized.

I call Mark to tell him I’m going to run downtown to get them certified and apostilled as soon as Andy brings them by. Andy gets them back to me about 3:30. Okay this is going to be a rush but I can do this, or can I.

It’s after 3:40 by the time I give Beth and Luke instructions and get out the door. I’ve got to hurry because both offices close at 5:00.

I’M OUT OF GAS in the van!!!! I go to get gas. It’s 4:03 before I’m on the road again. I SO want these papers done but there is no way I’ll make the Franklin County Court House and the Secretary of States office before 5:00. I keep asking myself "Why am I even wasting the gas today?"

It has taken me close to an hour to park downtown before, so I’m not optimistic. For some reason I keep heading downtown but with a prayer “God you’re the only way these are going to get done today.” I make it downtown in great time and get off the highway at 4:18. At least I have a chance of getting the certifications today if I can find a parking spot. I head down by the courthouse, and turn right, right in front of the courthouse to start circling the blocks to look for a spot to park. As I’m turning the corner a car is backing out four spaces from the corner. (4 spaces, I’ve never parked within 4 blocks of the courthouse before.) I get parked and there is still an hour on the parking meter, Thank you God.

I grab the papers and head for the security line. WHAT? there is no line!!! Walk right up, the guard is waiting there as I drop my purse on the x-ray belt hand the papers through the slot and walk through the metal detector. I’m in. Now up two floors to the Clerk of Courts office, turn the corner and an elevator is standing open and empty. Thank you God.

I’ll be in the amusement park-like maze of line in the Clerk of Courts office before five, so I’ll get the certifications today. What? The maze is open? And 3 clerks are sitting there with open windows. Thank you God this just doesn’t happen. Its now 4:32 and I’m leaving the courthouse with my certifications. Thank you God you just performed a miracle.

Am I actually going to make this? Normally I walk between the two buildings, 5 blocks north, 3 blocks east, and a ½ block north but I’d never make it. God you gave me one parking spot can you do it again? I get in the car and head up to the Secretary of State’s office. All the parking spots on the road I am on are listed ‘no parking 4pm to 6pm’. Basically that clears open an extra lane for rush hour but where am I going to park??? I pass the office I need and the first road I come to is one way left and I’m in the right lane. Oh well one more block. The next road I turn right onto. There in front of me, the first spot is sitting open. Thank you God!!! I get parked (this time I did have to feed the meter.)

I head down the street and head into the building. The guard remembers me from last week and doesn’t even ask for two forms of ID, he just hands me a visitor’s pass and I’m in. I’m going to make it?!?! Inside the office I walk right up to the counter and hand her my papers. I get the papers back all apostilled and ready for international travel. I turn in my ID and start walking to the car. I look down at my watch as I get to the car, 4:53. I still had time and I was done. I call Mark to tell him that I was heading to make copies. Thank you God, only you could have pulled this off!

An Open Letter to Notaries Everywhere

Let me begin by saying that, No, we did not make our end-of-July goal for the paperchase so that we'd have a chance at an August Court date... but we came DARNED CLOSE! We've been nagging, begging, pleading and making just plain annoyances of ourselves to everyone from whom we needed documents. At least it has felt that way to me. We probably weren't all that bad about it, but when you REALLY hate to ask others for things and hate to be an inconvenience to others (a big weakness of mine), paperchasing with a deadline isn't the most fun thing you can do.

Lisa, God bless her, has been running around all week like a maniac trying to run down documents, make sure they are notarized, getting county clerk of courts certifications that the notarizations are valid, and then getting apostiles. At $2 for certification of a notarization and then $5 for an apostile, we've spent hundreds more dollars this week. Wednesday she went to London to hand pick-up our Ohio Criminal Background checks from the BCIandI (faster than having them mailed) and also stoped by the Madison county courthouse to get the notaries certified. Then, on Thursday, we thought we had everything except the physicals. The physicals can go a little later than the other documents, so that wasn't the end of the world. Lisa ran downtown (where she ought to have her own parking space by now) to the Franklin County Courthouse and the office of the Secretary of State to get our last certifications and apostiles. We were planning to fax everything to our caseworker for pre-sending to Russia that night. We'd send the paper copies on Friday morning. We were going to make it. Court Dossier completed in 16 days! Yahoo!

At the Clerk of Courts office, Lisa learned that one of the notaries public (or is it notary publics... I can never remember) wasn't registered in Franklin County. Drats! Oh Well... not that big of a problem. We called the bank where the notary works and he indicated that he was registered in Fairfield County (the next county over). OK... we can handle that. So on Friday, Lisa drove to Lancaster (40 miles each way) to the Fairfield County Courthouse to get the certification for the notarization so that she could drive back to downtown Columbus to get the last apostile. We were still going to make it!... and then it blew up in our face.

It turns out that the notary WAS NOT registered in Fairfield County afterall... but he COULD HAVE BEEN. You see, he took his notary exam there (2 years ago). He was sent his notary packet from there that included his stamp... and that's where it all fell apart. The Clerk of Courts office explained that although the notary packet listed in AT LEAST FOUR PLACES that his notary was not valid until he returned the registration form, he never did so. He has been notarizing documents for two years, but his notary is technically not valid. KABOOM! August court date dreams blown away. We have to have the document re-issued and then notarized by a VALID notary public so it can be certified and apostiled. Hopefully we can do that on Monday and Tuesday, but it probably doesn't matter too much. It looks like we are relegated to an October court date despite our mad dash to do the court dossier in just 16 days. Oh how fun it is to know that we were just one invalid notary stamps away from making it.

Ahhh, the joys of the adoption process. Be prepared for some frustrations. We were pretty unhappy on Thursday and Friday. Now, it's just part of the process. Time to move forward and to remember that this will happen in God's time, not ours. Keep us (and our notary) in your prayers.