Press On

I write this post with tears flooding down my face. It's been a difficult day. I thought our papers would be ready to go to Russia this week.  It seems I have more papers to chase, noterize, and apostille. Several months ago when we started the process we had all of our papers ready to go only to find out that our social workers agency had been black listed in Russia. (Long story) The best option at that point was to have our social worker re-do our homestudy and supporting documents indep.  We were not able to secure one document needed. (Letter from the state supporting my social workers liscense) The state will only write this letter for an agency. We thought we had enough supporting documents to work around that but found out this morning that it would not work. So, back to the drawing board. 
I'm totally overwhelmed and emotionally spent. I know once my paperwork makes it to Russia there won't be any problems..I just feel like it will never get there. I'm starting to doubt..maybe I'm not supposed to adopt? Did I not understand God's calling? At this point I don't think my paperwork will make it until the end of May at best. I'm tired of waiting.. I'm not a patient person and I did not pray for patience... I know better=) I just don't understand how Russia can have so many children in their orphanages that need a good home but they make it almost impossible to give them a good home. I know God's timing is perfect... but today.. I don't like it.

ASC Appointment Notice

I'm not real sure what ASC stands for. I just know this is an important step in the adoption process. Back in mid Feb. we sent our I600A-Application for Advance Processin or Ophan petition to the Department of Homeland Securtiy-U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...We now have an appointment on April 9, at 12:00pm to get our biometrics (fingerprints) done. Once our fingerprints are done it apperantly takes a long time to process. All I know is that we can make our first trip to Russia without our clearance but we can not recieve a court date until all is clear. This is what holds families up.. I am praying for a quick turn around=)
The bottom of our notice says, no cell phones, cameras, or other recording devices..limited seating.. and if you have open wound please reschedule...huh?? This could be interesting!

Good News, Bad News

Well... our agency did recieve our dossier first thing this morning just like Fedex said they would. Thats good! I kept checking my email all morning like a crazy lady just waiting to hear some sort of confirmation from them..either a) all is good or b) corrections need to be made... Email finally came through and the subject line was "problems with apostilled documents"... no, no, no, no!!! Mostly, just minor things that were correctable via email but the main problem was .....drum roll please.. passports! Imagine that..If you remember a couple of weeks ago the state sent my copies back to me and told me I could not have the notery state that it was a copy of my passport.. that I had to make the statement,sign, then have it noterized... so I did just that.. and they apostilled.. The agency however says that Russia will not accept this.. They want it done the first way..but Texas won't etc. etc.. to make a long story short.. every state has different apostilling laws so now I amovernighting copies of my passports to our agency in NH and they will noterize and have them apostilled there.. This will of coarse delay our papers going to Russia at least another week..I just keep telling myself that God's timing is perfect. I have to add that I am very thankful we are working with such an awesome agency. I would much rather catch all the mistakes state level instead of in Russia!

Spring Break Fun

Spring Break came and went all too fast. We had good times! We spent lots of time at the park, sleeping in late (well until 8:00), and spending time with family and friends. On Tuesday evening the girls and I met Michael in Grapevine to go iceskating..You might notice in the pictures that my girls have on short sleeves...when we were leaving the house I told them to put on their shoes and get their jackets..(guess we will work on following 2 step directions?) It's a good thing mommy and daddy had their jackets-=) They both did really good.. at first they were holding onto the rail but by the end of the night they were skating all by themselves..

By the end of the night Mika was so tired that she kept "falling". When I asked her if she was ok she said, " I didn't fall mommy, that's just my new trick!"

On Friday Mimi took all her grandkids to the Dallas Zoo! We had lots of fun and it was a beautiful day.

All the cousins... I gave up trying to get them to all look at the same time!

Finally=)

I just sent our 195 page, 4lb dossier to our agency!! They should recieve it first thing Monday morning. All they have to do is make sure everything is in order then they will ship it off to Russia... woohoo!!!!