FTIA Annual Reunion Picnic

We went to the annual Families Thru International Adoption reunion picnic on Saturday. Over 1200 people attended ... families that have adopted or are currently in the process of adopting from Russia, Azerbaijan, China, Guatamala, Vietnam, India, Brazil, Ethiopia and Panama. We got to meet our Russia Coordinator in person (pictured below) and she gave us some good news ...


She said that when our dossier arrived at her office, she already had several on her desk she was working on. However, ours was so well organized and accurate that she was able to bypass the ones on her desk and mail it to Russia immediately! So all that hard work paid off! It is currently being translated by FTIA affiliates in Russia and will be prepared to be sent to Russian officials soon. Let's hope that the Ministry of Education has the same impression of our dossier and expedites the process, too!

The picnic was a great opportunity for us to meet other families who have adopted or are adopting from Russia. We met a wonderful family who lives in greater Cincinnati who just brought two adorable little girls (sisters) home from Russia in March. They had nothing but wonderful things to say about our agency and their role in the process. FTIA was right by their side every step of the way! Needless to say, it was so encouraging to hear success stories and to see these families who have waited so long enjoying their new families!

That said, we have a few prayer requests: (1) That our applications for grants and loans from various organizations would be looked upon with favor, (2) that we would be assigned to a region that would expedite the adoption process (preferrably Kaliningrad, which currently takes 3-6 months for a referral!) and, (3) that we would be able to find other creative ways to raise money for our adoption (we are planning another garage sale fundraiser this fall).

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. They mean so much to us!!

Dossier Sent to Russia!!

We received an email today saying that our dossier has been accepted and mailed to Russia ... everything rides on HOPE now ...



"We waited for you against all hope. We came for you with the greatest of hopes!" ~ Parents of an adopted child

Dossier Complete

Sorry it has been so long since our last entry. We have been busy collecting everything that is needed to complete our dossier. With that said, Benjamin and I went to the Secretary of State's office in Columbus to have our documents apostilled this week and our dossier is now complete! I have two tasks to complete this weekend: prepare our dossier for submission to our agency on Monday and finish another adoption grant application.


It's been a tearful morning as I sit in the kitchen trying to find the words to express our journey on one single page for our latest grant application. I have told the story so many times, written it so many different ways, that I find myself at a loss for words and praying for God's ... and Abby's ... help. I have been thinking about her all morning. For some reason, the reality that we are at the threshold of submitting our dossier has brought bittersweet tears to the surface. One little girl is gone ... another has HOPE ... brings Hope ... is HOPE!! And soon will be ours!

Needless to say, we are at the place we have hurried to get. We have hurried up and now we wait! Our paper chase is complete and we are ready to submit our dossier (all the required paperwork we have spent the last three months collecting with notarizations, certifications and apostilles) to our agency to be forwarded to Russia so they can match us with a little girl. The process can take as little as 3 months and up to 14 months, depending on what region we are assigned to and how the process goes for other waiting families. But at last, we have our place in line! The wait is already killing me and it's only just begun. There is still so much to do ... more grant applications, finding additional ways to raise money, meeting with the experts at Children's Hospital's International Adoption Center, updating and executing our will, planning for our travel including immunizations, preparing her room, etc., so I know I will be busy and my time will be filled. I'm just a little tired right now from the race to get to this poinnt and can't wait until the day when we finally have that precious little one in our arms for good!!

Many of you have been asking, "what's next?" So, I thought I'd take a moment to let you know what is going to happen from this point ...

* We will send our completed dossier to our agency with our first installment of agency fees ($2,800) and payment for translation and processing in Russia ($1,540) on Monday
* Our agency will review our dossier to make sure everything is in order and send the originals to their staff in Russia
* Our agency's staff coordinator in Russia will have our dossier translated and certified in Russia
* Our translated, certified dossier will be delivered to the Ministry of Education in Russia in the region where our agency anticipates we will receive the most expedient referral according to our preferences as stated in our documents
* We will wait to receive word from the Ministry of Eduction in that region for a referral (photographs and available background/medical information on a child)
* Travel arrangements will be made and we will apply for entry visas for our first trip to Russia to meet our referred child!!

From the time we accept a referral to our first trip is approximately 4-12 weeks. A representative from our agency will be with us during our entire trip upon arrival in Russia. While we are there, we will meet with the orphanage director/doctor and visit with our referred child. The trip will last 6-7 days and we will send all additional information we receive on the child to Children's Hospital from Russia for review while we are there. If we accept this child, we will file a petition to adopt to the court clerk and give her a new legal name. Then we will go home and wait to be assigned a court hearing date for our adoption. During this time, we will collect the required forms, etc., to compile our second dossier before we travel to Russia to bring her home. The wait between trips is approximately 4 months and we should expect to stay in Russia for 3-4 weeks.

Of course, there are a lot more details ... some big ... some little. I will post more as we enter each new phase of the process. Since I'm a detail person, it's an easy job to make sure none of the details get overlooked, but I do get tired, so please pray that God gives me the strength and energy to continue to do everything that is needed to climb this mountain. And that He continues to provide for us financially. Our biggest expenses are yet to come, but we have faith that He will provide everything we need. Thank you for following along with us on this journey, and for your friendship, patience, support, understanding and prayers as we go through this process. We love and appreciate each of you and all you have done to help us get to this point.

And now, we wait ...