Pure Panic

I had a moment this morning. One of those moments that I finally realized how badly I want this little person and how much I love the idea of this peanut that I don't even know. I was driving in my car at 6:45 this morning, on my way to our 2nd home study visit and I got an email from a co-worker. The subject was BECKY. History proves that when there are CAPITAL LETTERS in an email, it's never a good thing.

The email said "Adoptions have stopped in Russia. It's on the cover of USA Today." I immediately panicked. Felt sick to my stomach and then I reeled myself in. "Get the facts." I told myself. I found the article on my blackberry (don't worry, I wasn't driving - I was sitting on the parking lot we call a highway in Atlanta) and read through it. The first sentence said "Russia is effectively shutting its doors, beginning today, to most Americans who want to adopt Russian children. " HELP. CAN'T. BREATHE. I continued to read the article (which can be found here if you're interested) and slowly talked myself back to reality.

Russian adoptions are in a state of flux right now - I knew that. Due to several horrible situations with American families and Russian adoption (and other governmental changes), Russia has decided to put all agencies that were operating in Russia through a reaccreditation process. This is every single agency. Up until April 1st, all but 3 agencies had lost their accreditation, the other 3 were going to lose it, it just had not expired yet. This was NOT new news. The media just took this as an opportunity to put a spin on it which put everyone in a panic.

The facts: 11 out of 50 agencies have been given temporary orders to work in Russia. Ours is one of those. 9 regions in Russia were given the opportunity to accept this temporary order. 6 of those regions have chosen to continue to work with CHI during this interim period. The agency has 6 families in Russia right now and 8 court dates scheduled before the end of this month. The bottom line? CHI is still processing Russian adoptions. Russia is still processing international adoptions.

The reaccreditation will most likely go on for a few more months. Once it is complete, more regions will open and everything will flow again. There is NO indication that Russia is going to shut their doors anytime soon. Of course, the glass half empty part of me is required to tell you that yes, it could happen, albeit unlikely.

As for the home study - that went great! Took about an hour and we were asked a multitude of questions. Give 3 words to describe yourself, what was your childhood like, tell me about your parents, etc... I know I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE our social worker. She is just the best. If you are in the GA area and need a good home study agency, be sure to contact me!! Next appointment is April 21st and then we're done!

The social worker told us today that a couple she is working with received their I-171H approval (approval from Immigration/Homeland Security to adopt internationally) in 4 weeks! This is unheard of! It typically takes 90 days, so we're cautiously optimistic that we will be sending paperwork to Russia earlier than expected.

Hope everyone is doing well!!!! I'd like to make a "shout out" (I've always wanted to make a shout out and now since I have my own blog I can shout out to whoever I want!) to Shan to thank her for showing me a really cool leopard print car seat that will TOTALLY match my leopard print fuzzy dice (cause every Expedition needs fuzzy dice). And I'd also like to make a shout out to my cousin, Gretchen, for swooping in and writing me a letter of recommendation in such a short period of time since Mandy can't! (Because she is my notary... long story). Also, congrats to Gretchen and Chris - they are expecting!!

Have a great night everyone!
Becky