Start

We are taking off, with nothing more than a picture and some advice, and have just bought the tickets for Next Thursday to Khabarovsk! I thought this might be a great time to start this blog, although we are so nervous to be getting ahead of ourselves. We consider Her part of our family already, but are trying to be careful not to get too excited, in case something tragic happens. We want to be careful, but are So Excited! We are not sure if we can post pictures of her and the orphanage, until this is over-but will keep things as updated as we can.



She is 9 months old, named V (we can't post her Russian name yet), her mother gave her up immediately upon birth, a single woman. She is in an orphanage (baby home) with 40-50 other infants, in the city of Khabarovsk, Siberia, Russia. Khab is in Far-Eastern Europe, 12 miles north of the Chinese border, extremely cold, barren, and gray part of the world. We think, based on pictures, anyway.



We fly (Thursday) 11 hours to Seoul, overnite there in the airport hotel, never leaving customs; and then fly the next morning (Saturday there) 3 hrs to Khab. Khab is 18 hours ahead of our time, so we lose a day going there.



This will be our first trip, we have been going through the Russian process and application with an agency that we were recommended to by some relatives and friends that had great success with. It is a smaller agency, but we are very happy with the attention and service. We started the process in March '08. Anyway-it has been a very complicated, time-consuming process up to this point. Paperwork, dossiers, letters, applications, Visas, trips to Apostille Office in Olympia, fingerprinting in Stanwood and Yakima, background checks, home study and hundreds of emails and calls; all come down to this little picture and our trip.



The Russian process requires both Kaia and I to make two trips-no exceptions. The first trip is relatively short-6 days total, in which we meet V, interact with her at the orphanage for three days, and get to make our decision on accepting her, or not. We will take pictures and videos, also a 'sticker picture' where a specialist at UW can better diagnose facial features of Fetal Alchohol Syndrome. This is an important step in the Russian adoption process, as we are willing to accept correctable conditions, physical impairments, but FAS is a major concern, and we can't take it lightly.



It seems cold and calculated, after wanting, hoping, praying, and waiting so long for our little girl. We will be devastated, and it will be so incredibly hard for us to hold her, play with her, and love her; to have to make the decision. We leave it to Faith, and that He has a plan for us and her. Enough said on that.



So-this first trip is the shorter-but such a BIG one for us, emotionally. We feel the weight growing more every day.



Then, if all goes well, we accept her-and apply for a Court Date. We leave her at the orphanage, with as many items as we can-and come back home to nervously await our court date to be assigned. This might take 2 - 4 months, agonizing all the while. Then, when we get it assigned, we go back to Khabarovsk for the court date, they should rule to allow us to Adopt her, then wait 10 days there in Khab, for the decision to be final, where we can visit her and even possibly take her for outings. Then, we fly further away, to Moscow, to take her to the US embassy to become a US citizen, and then fly home with our new daughter. It seems so long, and far away.



We are haunted by her eyes.