Krasnoyarsk

(View of Krasnoyarsk from the Yenisei River)

It's official! Our Peanut is somewhere in Krasnoyarsk, "Kras" for short! I called M at CHI today and told her we decided to go with Kras and that I would start the additional paperwork. There were only 5 additional documents to do and they are very similar to forms we had already filled out for our dossier. I worked on them today and they are ready to be notarized and apostilled! I'll be fedexing them to CHI on Monday and next Friday our dossier will be taking the 10 hour flight to Moscow or to wherever it ends up!

Why did we choose Kras? There were so many different reasons and I'm not sure I'll remember them all because it's been a whirlwind 24 hours. I'll try to list them out and then I'll have to expand on them later, I will have plenty of time to blog during the wait right?? :-)

• We liked the idea of going to a "new" region. K was feeling especially adventurous and thought it would be cool to go there and I really couldn't find a reason to disagree!
• The list for this region appears to be relatively short. I'm not sure if I should post where would we be on the list, but I'm comfortable where we'll be.
• Although this is a "new" region, there are 2 families that have already gone on their first trip so we feel we have someone paving the way (Thank you to the two families, whoever you are!)
• I spent hours reading through a message board about Kras adoptions. I was very comfortable with the success rate, the health of the kids, the conditions of the orphanages, the hotel accommodations, court and many more things.
• The paperwork required for the region was easier to complete. As mentioned about, they were basically the same forms we filled out for our dossier but region specific (questionnaire of the candidate, post placement, registration, etc...)
• The in-country coordinator is very well talked of and is a neuropathologist. Thought that was interesting!The major deciding factor?? Gut feeling. I would say gut feeling and movement within the region were the two top things that led us to Kras.Not to mention the fact that I unknowingly put the Peanut in Kras on the map was pretty cool. :-)

A little info about Kras:

• It's a 5 hour flight from Moscow, located in central Siberia.
• There are 5 baby homes (orphanages) throughout the region - one right in the city, one 2 hours away, one 4 hours away and 2 others somewhere in between.
• They believe the wait time between trips one and 2 will be about 6 weeks. I've done some research and I really can't substantiate the 6 weeks and I think that's because of the lack of accreditation, seems more like 12 weeks.
• They do not waive the 10 day wait and time in the region during the first trip is 3 days and the second trip is 17 days.
• From what I've read (and this isn't set it stone) it seems as though, during the 10 day wait, you can visit your child as much as you'd like.
• The average temperature in Kras in January is -4*F. Yes, -4. Want to know what the record low was? -68.8*. I kid you not. The average temperature in July is 64.4*, with a record high of 96.8*.

That's all I have for now! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am! You spend all of this time doing more and more paperwork and all you know is "you're going to Russia". Once you know where you're going and you learn about your child's home it becomes SO much more real. I'll be posting a lot more about Kras in the coming months and hopefully, after I talk to a few other families, I will have a rough draft timeline for bringing the Peanut home!

Hugs!