[Steffanie]

Here are my two cents for what it is worth. Yes, it is untrue that you cannot get a boy from Russia. We were trying to adopt a baby boy. You can. We waited 16 months for a referral that never came b/c of the accreditation issue. Our agency lost its accreditation last May 10, 2005. Russia, for whatever reason only re-accred. half of the agencies that were previously accred. I know that 3-5 were not going to be reaccred. b/c they did not follow up on post placement reports and other stuff. Our agency along with others had done everything correctly. Now the agencies that were re-accred. are due to lose their accrd. in May and Sept. I do not know if Russia is planning on re-accred. these agencies or not. The paperwork for Russia was more than China. We just finished re-doing our paperwork for China and are hoping for a DTC in early May. There have also been a lot of cases of abuse in the media about children that have been adopted from Russia. This also slowed down things. I am not saying don't adopt from Russia, I have heard of 2 families in my city that just adopted successfully from Russia in the past few months. My husband and I felt that it was not a good time for us to be adopting from Russia. Our agency is telling us that the referral time for China is 10-12 months. I take this with a grain of salt now, knowing that anything could change at anytime. It has been a long process, but it is what was supposed to happen for us. God has a plan for us and we are just following it. I hope you make your decision with peace of mind and peace in your heart. I say this b/c I have had more sleepless nights in the past 17 months than I have had all my life, wondering if we made the right decision. IA can be very stressful, trying, emotional and absolutely exciting, heart warming, eye opening all at the same time. When I first joined the Russian forum, I was welcomed by one member by saying welcome to the roller coaster ride of IA. This sums it up. I wish you luck with your journey whatever you decide. May God bless you.
Steffanie