A weeks gone by

... and I'm just now posting! Wow! Either I've been busy or lazy. Maybe both?

There are so many adoption things to update you on! None of them earth shattering, but I feel a little bit more at peace with our adoption going n.o.w.h.e.r.e. Let's start with what set me off. For a while now, I've been feeling a bit uncomfortable about the lack of communication coming from our agency. I kind of let it pass and then began to see some people leaving our agency and going to another. Obviously, when you see things like that you start to get worried that other people know something you don't know. Not wanting to be last to know, I decided it was time to give the Russian Program Director a call, introduce myself and find out where things stand.

I didn't learn much more than what I already knew, but it was nice to express my concerns. I explained my frustrations, asked how things were going in our region and things like that. Things aren't moving in Kras, but they aren't standing still if that makes sense. Basically, there isn't a "reason" we aren't getting referrals, we're just waiting for them to come in. He said the same thing our coordinator said a few weeks previously - that we're in a good region, with a shorter "line" and once things start moving, it will be a great region to be in. We talked briefly about accreditation - no big news... still waiting!

After talking to him, my coordinator called and I had a good talk with her as well. I told her some of the same concerns and she was receptive. She encouraged me to call anytime I want a status of things. I told her we were open to be a "pilot" family if/when they open new regions. She said she is really excited about Kras and she had some info to share since she had a chance to talk to the 2 families that completed their adoption.

Some new things I learned about the Krasnoyarsk region:

~ Even though it's the "Kras Region", the city name is actually Abakan which is to the southwest of Krasnoyarsk in the Republic of Khakassia.
~ Abakan is the city they can work in while awaiting accreditation.
~ When flying to Abakan, you can get their directly from Moscow on Vladivostok Air.
~ We'll need an in-country 8 doctor medical which will be about $350 per person.
~ The judge in Abakan is a adoption friendly.
~ They seem to be waiving the 10 days in Abakan but we all know that can change at any given point in time! :-)
~ When the families were there it was "dump water on your neighbor" day and everyone was running around dumping water on each other. No, I couldn't make that up. It's true.

There isn't much info on the Internet about Abakan but I did find a very itsy bitsy Abakan yahoo group that I joined. I haven't had much time to read through the archives and post anything yet, but I will as we get closer.

So what are our next steps? We continue to wait! Thankfully we have the holidays coming up to keep us busy. We're going to give ourselves until the beginning of the year to see what happens with our agency and referrals. We love the agency, that's why we chose them! It's where we want to stay, but we want to bring the little Peanut home too! We'll do whatever we need to do, but no crazy spur of the moment moves for us. We'll take time to think, enjoy each other and Alex (while he still likes us) and on January 1st we'll see where we are headed!

In happy, happy news one of my work friends is in Colombia picking up her son!!! Congratulations to Laura and Andres!! It's so much fun to watch someone go through this process (especially a different country) and see such a happy ending. She'll be in Colombia for 5 weeks and I've made her promise to post while she's there. :-)

Off to bed.... busy 2 work days coming up. Not looking forward to it! Hope everyone is doing well!!!