[Abdulina]

I'm back. It's pouring outside and Alex is content watching a movie today. Usually we have story time and play time after lunch but it is just one of those days for a good movie and some quiet time "vegging out." So, I get the chance to write. Here goes.

I left off with the kids leaving. Did not know a heart could ache that way but it can. I'm sure so many of you can relate. Especially after living with them for 24/7. I have theories on why are son only just turning 3 was allowed to come. Won't get into it but there was very good reasoning behind it. ANd no, typically they are much, much older. But we were thankful, nonetheless. I went in that Monday and filed the paperwork. Made the homestudy appointments and had already sent off the I-600A. Yeah, on my way. Things seemed to be rolling and was told everything was a-okay.

Fast forward to October, when we should have been going. Nope. Turns out, miraculously that the mother had supposedly visited and signed her rights away. But b/c she had technically visited her (by stepping into the orphanage--yes, that counts) she had to be put back onto the database. Now, keep in mind, we were still keeping in contact with our kids over there. Sending things and writing. Our daughter was expecting us soon. And by everything being approved and done, we should have travelled. Our region, however, was not so kind.

Okay, here is the deal. Our agency was going to a brand new region for them. We were the first people to adopt from this region under this agency. This was uncharted territory for them. Found out through a bit of research that Stavropol tended to be a bit corrupt. Don't fly off the handle those of you who've adopted from there, please wait till the end of the story. (thanks) See, Stavropol has a certain # of agencies working in that region. That don't take kindly to "newbies." WE are going to leave it at that for now. I ended up having to constantly change paperwork for them. ALWAYS changing paperwork. In fact, the dossiers alone cost me $4K to do. We had 4 dossiers on each child. We said throughout the process when the paperwork weighs as much as the chld, we could go.

They were having so much trouble getting clearance for our daughter that we were asked to go ahead and pick up our 3yo son in December. I said absolutely not! We get them together, no exceptions. This would prove to be vital in the whole process. See, what the agency didn't know is that we were getting feedback of what to do and how to handle certain things from contacts in Stavorpol. All the while being told to switch agencies b/c they didn't want them there. Crazy, and almost science-fiction it seems. But all completely true, unfortunately.

Won't go through all the lies constantly told to us. Too many to recall. Just know that we contemplated switching agencies in January but couldn't afford to lose the money. Didn't have it to lose. Stuck to it knowing we had to bring our kids home. Well, we got two false alarms to travel. 3rd time's a charm. Got the call while I was visiting my husband at work. That's right...3 days to line up airline tickets (got majorally ripped off on this ), babysitting, wills, poa's, paperwork, etc. What I failed to tell you all is that we were stuck in a bit of a dilema the month before. In April, a developer bought our home. We bought another but backed out last minute. We had 2 days to find a home and were due in Russia that same week. So the Lord works in mysterious ways and that's when the 2nd court date had been changed. We had all our stuff together and we were on our way to Moscow. Yeah! Or so we thought. Stay tuned for the next part of our journey. And that's where it gets interesting.....