Nothing to report on Alex, given the "pause" on our paperwork for the Thanksgiving weekend. We do continue to pray for him daily -- today, our oldest child's prayer was for Alex to find something new and interesting to occupy his time.
On this Sunday evening, I popped over to another adoption blog -- specifically, to a post by a family who just brought home an 11-pound girl named Katerina...who is nine years old. You did read that correctly. In her post, "Free, Safe, Loved," her mom describes their first few days together -- both heartbreaking and heartwarming. And the pics of her new siblings meeting their sister for the first time will bring a smile to your face.
One more thing to be thankful for this weekend....
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
And a day late but heartfelt--we are THANKFUL for everyone's support! We hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving Day!
--Susan
--Susan
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
More preparations for Alex
While Susan has been knee-high in paperwork, I have been trying to take care of some practical preparations for Alex's arrival in a few months (March or April, we're thinking). This past weekend, we met with a native Russian who moved to our town four years ago. She visited (introduced by a mutual friend) with a view to learning how she might be able to help Alex's transition. She is happy to provide translation services on occasion, especially around appointments and other events that might be a bit scary. She's also going to try teaching me Russian...we'll see how that goes. And then at the kids' school the other day, I ran into another acquaintance (from Early Childhood Family Education) who is also a Russian immigrant, and she offered to help with translation as well. We were late for teacher conferences, so I didn't have a chance to follow up, but I expect that to be on my to-do list. And then we have a friend who lives three blocks away who took five years of Russian in college who will also help out in a pinch.
Another thing I'm working on is establishing relationships with our support circle. Through our good friend (and doula to three of our kids!) who works in the local early family education department, we got a referral to a good family therapist. It is hard to imagine someone growing up in institutions for their first five years not having some adjustment issues -- and it's possible that that adjustment period could be pretty bumpy. We're going to see her on December 1 to establish a relationship, and then we'll probably schedule an appointment with her for shortly after we come home with Alex. Even if he has no immediate adjustment issues, having someone to help him think through what it means to be adopted may be helpful down the road.
Another interesting tidbit...we've been praying for Alex to have a playmate at the adult institution where he's living now, someone to help him pass the time. Today we received an e-mail from someone we know through Reece's Rainbow who is adopting another child from the same country as Alex. She wrote to say that she had a vivid dream in which she was playing with Alex...and apparently, she didn't know this was something on our heart that we were praying for. So maybe that is another "nudge" from God, a little reassurance that there are angels (some perhaps in human form) watching over him.
Another thing I'm working on is establishing relationships with our support circle. Through our good friend (and doula to three of our kids!) who works in the local early family education department, we got a referral to a good family therapist. It is hard to imagine someone growing up in institutions for their first five years not having some adjustment issues -- and it's possible that that adjustment period could be pretty bumpy. We're going to see her on December 1 to establish a relationship, and then we'll probably schedule an appointment with her for shortly after we come home with Alex. Even if he has no immediate adjustment issues, having someone to help him think through what it means to be adopted may be helpful down the road.
Another interesting tidbit...we've been praying for Alex to have a playmate at the adult institution where he's living now, someone to help him pass the time. Today we received an e-mail from someone we know through Reece's Rainbow who is adopting another child from the same country as Alex. She wrote to say that she had a vivid dream in which she was playing with Alex...and apparently, she didn't know this was something on our heart that we were praying for. So maybe that is another "nudge" from God, a little reassurance that there are angels (some perhaps in human form) watching over him.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The other children....
Jerry has mentioned that when we were discerning to adopt Alex, there was a list of children we were praying for, and we felt it was one of these children. I want to list them here...one, Molly, is getting adopted (yay!!!), but the others are waiting. Maybe you know someone who can adopt them...spread the word! They all deserve a home and don't have a good future in their home country at all. They all live in different regions of the country from Alex, so there is no way we can even see them.
Alexander and Kory
They don't have to be adopted together but could be. Both have Down Syndrome, and Alexander is considered happy and high functioning, while Kory has great personality.... Alexander also has a huge adoption grant, $8000! That is a massive help to the adopting family right away! They also live in a region where the court often waives the 10 day wait for special needs adoptions, which reduces overall costs.
Reese is a 5 yr old girl with CP, in a wheelchair, very friendly and has said she wants a family of her own. I know, that breaks my heart. She is in a wheelchair; at the moment, she is in one of the better orphanages....
Francine , to my mind, is barely special needs--she has CP but has learned to walk (albeit with a tiptoe walk) on her own. She's pretty strong! She is also a charming child, and I talked with a mom who met her--she thinks she would do really great in a family! I could give you this mom's name for more information.
Genesiswas off our list almost immediately because a family committed to adopt her--and then had to pull out after we committed. :-( She is blind and does have some hearing problems. On the other hand, she is smiling and playing on a rocking horse in the picture.... Unfortunately, she is not in a good place now. But with hearing aids (perhaps?) and attention, she could do so much better.... Reece's Rainbow has more information about Genesis, so contact them for details. Yay!!!! Genesis has a family coming!
Reid also has CP and what looks like a laundry list of diagnoses (note that some of the diagnoses listed basically say the same thing, different words!), but seems to be doing well. Let's be clear: epilepsy can be controlled with meds. Delayed physical development is the norm for kids who grow up in orphanages--even in the best, it is not an ideal situation for kids and their bodies show it. Mental retardation--OK, maybe. But kids in these circumstances have some mental delays--again, in the best orphanages, it still isn't ideal for brain development. Spastic diplegia means the CP is primarily in his legs. Crossed eyes can be helped by wearing a patch. Etc. This is all to say I read this and think, basically, Reid has CP. Period.
***
All of these children are 5 or 6. That means they are available for adoption NOW. (Their country currently has restrictions on adopting some of these "special needs" until age 5, but these kids are free and clear for international adoption.) It also means that they are on the edge of getting transferred to an institution (if they aren't there already, like Genesis). Care is generally much worse in institutions. Adoption is their ticket out. Please spread the word! And contact us (or better yet Reece's Rainbow) if you are interested in adopting any of these children yourself.
--Susan
Alexander and Kory
They don't have to be adopted together but could be. Both have Down Syndrome, and Alexander is considered happy and high functioning, while Kory has great personality.... Alexander also has a huge adoption grant, $8000! That is a massive help to the adopting family right away! They also live in a region where the court often waives the 10 day wait for special needs adoptions, which reduces overall costs.
Reese is a 5 yr old girl with CP, in a wheelchair, very friendly and has said she wants a family of her own. I know, that breaks my heart. She is in a wheelchair; at the moment, she is in one of the better orphanages....
Francine , to my mind, is barely special needs--she has CP but has learned to walk (albeit with a tiptoe walk) on her own. She's pretty strong! She is also a charming child, and I talked with a mom who met her--she thinks she would do really great in a family! I could give you this mom's name for more information.
Genesis
Reid also has CP and what looks like a laundry list of diagnoses (note that some of the diagnoses listed basically say the same thing, different words!), but seems to be doing well. Let's be clear: epilepsy can be controlled with meds. Delayed physical development is the norm for kids who grow up in orphanages--even in the best, it is not an ideal situation for kids and their bodies show it. Mental retardation--OK, maybe. But kids in these circumstances have some mental delays--again, in the best orphanages, it still isn't ideal for brain development. Spastic diplegia means the CP is primarily in his legs. Crossed eyes can be helped by wearing a patch. Etc. This is all to say I read this and think, basically, Reid has CP. Period.
***
All of these children are 5 or 6. That means they are available for adoption NOW. (Their country currently has restrictions on adopting some of these "special needs" until age 5, but these kids are free and clear for international adoption.) It also means that they are on the edge of getting transferred to an institution (if they aren't there already, like Genesis). Care is generally much worse in institutions. Adoption is their ticket out. Please spread the word! And contact us (or better yet Reece's Rainbow) if you are interested in adopting any of these children yourself.
--Susan
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
What we're praying for these days...
...is a playmate for Alex, in his current "home." It's that simple: someone to pass the time with, someone to have fun with. We're praying for this every night with the kids during our "family prayer time." Maybe you can pray for this with us!
Monday, November 14, 2011
One hurdle hopped...
OK, the home study is completely, utterly DONE. Woo hoo!
That means we sent our I600a application to US Immigration today, along with a personal letter with a picture of Alex, and a medical expedite form from our family physician. This ultimately is permission to allow a foreign orphan into the USA. It will involve fancy-smancy fingerprints taken in St Paul. This is part of the waiting game--we hope this moves relatively quickly.
Also requested a new criminal background check, since the one our home study did used the name Windley Daoust -- that is, they missed the hyphen. Yes, this paperwork is THAT detail oriented. I mean, we are the ONLY family of Windley-Daousts on earth. It ought to be pretty easy to realize its the same couple, right? Oh well, it's irrelevant: they set the hurdles, and we jump them. Period. There are worse things than paperwork.
And those of you in the know about adoption changes in Alex's home country--we re-did the CSPs to match the newly named department that handles adoptions. They are off to get apostilled. So that continues as well!
It's not terribly interesting, but there it is: more paperwork put in the "OUT" box. Someday, there won't be anything left in the "IN" box! I can't tell you how much I look forward to that day!
--Susan
That means we sent our I600a application to US Immigration today, along with a personal letter with a picture of Alex, and a medical expedite form from our family physician. This ultimately is permission to allow a foreign orphan into the USA. It will involve fancy-smancy fingerprints taken in St Paul. This is part of the waiting game--we hope this moves relatively quickly.
Also requested a new criminal background check, since the one our home study did used the name Windley Daoust -- that is, they missed the hyphen. Yes, this paperwork is THAT detail oriented. I mean, we are the ONLY family of Windley-Daousts on earth. It ought to be pretty easy to realize its the same couple, right? Oh well, it's irrelevant: they set the hurdles, and we jump them. Period. There are worse things than paperwork.
And those of you in the know about adoption changes in Alex's home country--we re-did the CSPs to match the newly named department that handles adoptions. They are off to get apostilled. So that continues as well!
It's not terribly interesting, but there it is: more paperwork put in the "OUT" box. Someday, there won't be anything left in the "IN" box! I can't tell you how much I look forward to that day!
--Susan
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Setbacks
Well, it's been a hard week on the adoption front. Without going into too much detail, the pickiness of the government agency in Alex's home country has resulted in us having to re-do several documents...in one case we're being told that the lack of a hyphen in our last name in an official document means it has to be redone. When I went to get the paperwork from my doctor's office, it took more than an hour to get it done, mostly because of issues with notarizing the doctor's license. This isn't surprising given that there's half a page of very exacting specifications about how these documents are to be completed, down to the color of the ink. On top of that, my doctor initially didn't want to provide a copy of his license -- which he's never been asked for before -- out of concern that it might be used for illegitimate purposes (i.e., selling Viagra over the Internet). (He did provide it in the end, though.) After all that, we found out that one of the foregin government agency's codes had been entered wrong, so we had to go back to the doctor and have them complete the document again and notarize it again.
And today we got the great news that because the foreign government's adoption bureaucracy has been re-organized -- and therefore renamed -- we will have to re-do much of the paperwork that we've already completed for the dossier, including new apostilles (basically a type of document certification done at the state level)...just so that the new name of the reorganized government bureaucracy will be on them.
Meanwhile, Alex continues to languish in a mental institution intended for adults...waiting, waiting, waiting.
I hereby take back every bad word I've ever spoken about American government bureaucracies...including the IRS, which took seven months to process our income tax refund. We have no idea how good we have it.
Obviously, we're pretty frustrated by this setback, which may kick our timeline out by several weeks, at least. Our other preparations for Alex -- figuring out bedroom space, connecting with doctors and schools, learning a few words of his native language -- are going fine. We continue to get great community support, both locally and through our extended online community. Please pray for us as we take deep breaths and start over on this paperwork nightmare.
- Jerry
And today we got the great news that because the foreign government's adoption bureaucracy has been re-organized -- and therefore renamed -- we will have to re-do much of the paperwork that we've already completed for the dossier, including new apostilles (basically a type of document certification done at the state level)...just so that the new name of the reorganized government bureaucracy will be on them.
Meanwhile, Alex continues to languish in a mental institution intended for adults...waiting, waiting, waiting.
I hereby take back every bad word I've ever spoken about American government bureaucracies...including the IRS, which took seven months to process our income tax refund. We have no idea how good we have it.
Obviously, we're pretty frustrated by this setback, which may kick our timeline out by several weeks, at least. Our other preparations for Alex -- figuring out bedroom space, connecting with doctors and schools, learning a few words of his native language -- are going fine. We continue to get great community support, both locally and through our extended online community. Please pray for us as we take deep breaths and start over on this paperwork nightmare.
- Jerry
Thursday, November 3, 2011
We've got passports and medical records!
Here's another general update on our progress with the adoption...
- Susan continues to slog through the endless paperwork necessary for the dossier. The latest news is that my (Jerry's) passport just arrived in the mail (a big shout out to Suzanne for funding that!)...this is good because the passport information was needed in order to complete anothe ream of documents that will need to be notarized and apostilled.
- Also, Susan has completed her medical examination and lab tests, and I will do the same on Monday. The only hitch there is that Susan's doctor's license (which the country requires a notarized copy of) expires in a month, so probably we will need to wait for her to renew it.
- And our Minnesota home study agency says that the home study should be done early next week, which means that they will be sending it, along with a big fat check from us, to Homeland Security so we can get on a waiting list for the fancy-shmancy fingerprints they require.
- The typical wait time for getting the fingerprints is apparently about two months...pray that we get in sooner than that, because that is one of the main factors determining how long we'll have to wait before going to Alex's home country.
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