Updating Our Blog

Well, we have not posted since January 3, 2007. So much has happened in our lives but we are still in the waiting room.

I thought I should add to our timeline and give a bit of an update on what has transpired since Summer 2006:

• September 2006
  began collecting documents to update our homestudy
  traveled to Tampa for our fingerprints (second set)
• November 2006
  had difficulties with our physician's office personnel getting medicals completed properly
  all documents sent to homestudy agency in Florida
  unfortunately, our DCF approval is delayed at the State level
• December 2006
  updated documents for Dossier and sent to our agency
  DCF approval finally received by the homestudy agency
  scheduled homestudy update visit for after Christmas
  traveled to Ohio to visit family for Christmas
• January 2007
  home visit by social worker for homestudy update
  homestudy update sent to USCIS
  updated apostilled documents sent to our agency
• Spring 2007
  continuing our wait for reaccreditation of our agency in Russia
• June 2007
  our dossier and USCS I-600 application need to be updated but we were
  feeling discouraged and decided to put redoing paperwork on hold until July 15
  hoping some movement will occur in the reaccreditation process in Russia

That's the short version!

We just received the following message from our agency on July 10, 2007 and feel very encouraged by it:

On July 6, 2007 the first group of 12 agencies was accredited in Russia, 7 of which were US adoption agencies. America World's partner agency is in the second group of agencies at the Ministry of Education. The first group of agencies took approximately 3 weeks at the Ministry of Education prior to being granted reaccreditation. AWAA's partner agency's last documents were submitted to the Ministry of Education on July 3. If the same timeframe holds true for the second group of agencies as the first, it is possible that reaccreditation could be given in approximately two weeks. Please recall that once reaccreditation is granted, it may take a few weeks to receive the appropriate paperwork and accredit all staff in the regions which is necessary before we are fully functional again. The facilitator staff in the regions has started informing the regional governments regarding expected reaccreditation in order to be prepared to work as soon as possible. We will continue to keep you updated as information becomes available.

We are praying that progress will be steady and we will be bringing home our little girl soon.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22

Praising the Lord,
Elizabeth