We have had several people ask us details about how the adoption will work, how long it will take, and what it involves. From all we have read and been told, we can expect a lot of the unexpected when it comes to international adoption. In dealing with 2 governments and ever-changing laws and regulations, there can be changes and bumps in the road. So, even as we attempt to explain the process as we understand it at this point, we are expecting that time frames and details may change along the way.
Most likely, it will be 18 months-2 years before the adoption is finalized. Things could go quicker, but those are the best estimates based on the way things are right now. In order to be able to adopt internationally, we have to obtain approval from both the United States and Russia. This involves a lot of paperwork! We are in the process of preparing that right now. This includes everything from extensive financial information, medical exams and records, questionnaires about our personal history, our marriage, and our parenting, and recommendation letters. In addition, a social worker comes to our house to do a homestudy. This includes a licensed social worker coming to our house, interviewing all of us (kids included), studying our home, and writing a report based on her findings. Once all of this is complete (we expect it to take 4-6 months) and once we have the approval of the United States, our information is put together in what is called a dossier by our adoption agency. It is then translated to Russian and sent to Russia. At this point, we select a "region" of Russia that we will be adopting from. Russian officials in that region are given our dossier and information about the type of child we are willing to adopt. Then, the waiting begins.
The amount of time we wait can be unpredictable. We are requesting to adopt a child around 2-3 years old. We are not requesting a specific gender for the child, so we could get a boy or girl. Most likely, we will get a boy, as girls are more "popular" to adopt. Time frames can vary a lot, but we have been told it will likely be between 6 months and a year before we get matched with a child. This matching is called a referral.
When we receive a referral, we will be notified by our adoption agency that we have been matched with a child. We may receive a lot of information about this child, or we may know very little. Then, we will travel to Russia for about 5 days to meet the child, accept the referral, and begin the adoption process. We will then come home and wait again for 2-4 months before returning to Russia for about 3 weeks to complete the adoption and to bring our child home! We plan to take Maddie and Dylan with us on this second trip. We had concerns about leaving them for that long, and our adoption agency has recommended this as a good opportunity for the kids to bond with their new sibling. We are looking forward to it as a family adventure! When our child lands in the US, he or she will be an American citizen! Here is a link to our adoption agency's website for more information about the process involved: http://adopt.childrenshope.net/programs/russia/index.php.
One aspect of this that is really exciting to us is the reality that, most likely, our child has already been born and is waiting in Russia for a home. So, even though we do not know who he or she is, we know that God does and is preparing us and this child to be together soon!
If you are interested in reading more about some of the things that have motivated us to adopt, we can highly recommend the book "Fields of the Fatherless" by Tom Davis (http://www.amazon.com/Fields-Fatherless-C-Thomas-Davis/dp/0971410011#_). This book has been very inspirational to both of us in driving us to step out in faith in what we believe God is calling us to do.
