Update to the "One Year" Update!!

Wow, a lot can change in four days! When I posted the update on Monday, we were one of three families waiting in our region. As of this afternoon, we are now one of only TWO families in our agency still waiting for our referral/invitation to travel in our region. Just two months ago, we were one of seven families waiting. One month ago, we were one of four. One week ago, we were one of three! And now it looks like we'll be invited to travel and meet our little girl very, very soon! :)

One Year Update

It has now been just over one year since we submitted our dossier and began our wait to meet Hope. We have had a lot of inquiries lately, so we thought it was time for an update on our travel status. After months of inactivity in our region, a family from our agency was invited on their first trip this week. They will travel at the end of this month. That makes us one of three remaining families in our agency to be invited to travel in our region. We remain hopeful that we will receive our first trip invitation in the next few months (or less). When we were assigned to our region in March, we were told it would be 2-4 months until we travel, which would have had us going on our first trip this summer. However, the incident involving the adoptive mother who put her son on a plane back to Moscow in April caused a major disruption in the process. You can read our previous blogs for a series of updates on the status of a bilateral agreement in progress between the United States and Russia resulting from this incident. There are several advantages that will come with this new agreement. There will be even more transparency in the medical and emotional history provided about adopted children. There will also be more training for families wanting to adopt. And the process will be more streamlined, which ultimately benefits all parties. Now that an agreement is near finalization, it appears that adoption activity is increasing again and families are finally being invited to travel in all regions, so we are confident that our turn is coming soon! Please continue to pray for us as we wait to finally meet Hope! We are so close ...