[alibrad94]

Hi! My name is Allison. My husband and I are really close to making our first trip to Russia. We have one bio son. We are looking to adopt in the age range of 3 year old boy. Is there anyone who has done this. Successful stories? We are scared to leave our son at home while we travel abroad to find him a new brother. I just want to touch base with someone who has been through this. We are working with Gladney Center.

[waitinginnj]

Congratulations on all of your progress. There are many of us who are active on the Russian board who are in the various stages of the process.

A couple of us are preparing to travel, some are waiting for referrals, some of us are in the process of preparing the dossier and several have successfully adopted

We have created a nice support system and would love to have you join us!

I think that there may be another person working with Glandney too.

Good Luck!

[alibrad94]

Thanks for your reply. It makes the waiting easier if you have someone to talk to who is going through this. We are trying to prepare the final documents while we wait. I would expect that once we get our referral that time will fly. I am anxious to hear stories.

[schroeder]

Like Waiting said- we have many people in different stages- we now are waiting for our referral- the clock tends to move so slow now

You will grow to love the board and look for information like the rest of us.

Anna

[cbkiely]

I'm new to this too and still trying to decide on an agency. I'm looking for feedback on International Assistance Group (IAG) in Pennsylvania. I've heard good things about EAC also. We're so afraid to comit to one and then hear something bad. We have 2 bios at home and will also have the same issue of being afraid to leave them.

[schroeder]

We are using EAC and have been very happy. I love our caseworker. She is the best and puts up with me calling all the time with questions. There is a yahoo message board for EAC- see about signing up for a few days to read the posts and see what people have to say- you will get positive and negitave opions about all issues- much more positive though. The website is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eacfamilynetwork/

Good luck. It is a hard first step.

Anna

[plgorzell]

Hello,

Everyone is right, this is great that we are not alone in this process. We have one bio daughter at home and we are having our home study tomorrow. We are waiting and have submitted everything we can think of at this point and are just waiting for the agencies to check our background, get our fingerprints, sent our passports etc. hopefully things will get moving. Thanks for being out there.

[ahnasmom]

My husband & I successfully adopted a 10 mos girl in July 2002. Our entire process only took less than 7 mos.
I am a bit baffled by the wait that seems to be out there in relation to our adoption. We had 2 referrals with in 2 1/2 weeks, we did not accept the 1st. Our agency handles the entire dossier/paperwork/homestudy aspect. We did very little.
We are looking to adopt another infant girl from the same region, Tomsk, and our agency said we would get a referral within a week?? I have not heard anything but glowing reviews on our agency, they use AMREX for the Russian adoptions. I was told by my agency that if I didn't specify the region, I would get a young infant girl referral within 1 to 3 days. They have had babies as young as 5 to 7 mos brought home recently?! They are currently doing a lot of adoptons from Samara region.
Has anyone else had such a short wait time??

[alibrad94]

I have not heard of such short wait times. What agency do you use? We are with Gladney in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. They have been very good, but we have to do alot of paper work. We are currently waiting about 6 weeks now for our referral. We are being told to be patient. We are trying to adopt an older boy about 3. I am glad you had such a great experience. Sounds exciting!

[plgorzell]

That was my question also. We are using Lutheran Social Services and they have told us that the average time is 6 to 8 months. We did not believe it at first but I now have renewed hope. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

[cherylanderson3]

hi all

we are doing our adoption with journeys of the heart who works thru AMREX also. we rec'd our referral within 2 weeks, which was way faster than i ever thought. he was 4 mos at time of referral and is from samara. we are traveling on 10/20 for our first trip

how did you find out that AMREX was doing many adoptions from samara region, just curious.

cheryl

[ahnasmom]

When I called our agency to inquire, they simply mentioned that Samara was a newer region for them and they were getting a large number of referrals from there.

They said they had had much success with the region. VERY quick 1st and 2nd trips, with very young infants. Sometimes the 2nd trip date was scheduled prior to the familiy returning from the first.

Of course, this is always subjest to change at any moment, as is anything related to Russian adoptions.
Best of luck on your trip...

[BHEFFL]

My wife and I have just started to process of selecting a agency. I would love to know the name of the agency that ahnasmom used or any other agencies that someone would recomend. I have done a large amount of research but nothing is better then personal experiences. Thank you.

[alibrad94]

I would love to refer our agency. Gladney Center for International Adoption. I can speak from personal experience. My husband and I returned on Sunday from our first trip to the Chuvashia region in Russia. Gladney took care of every little detail while we were there. We are adopting a little boy age 3 years old. We were very pleased with the orphanage and the level of care. He is very healthy and beautiful. Gladney worked very hard to match us with a child that would be perfect for our family. Gladney is based in Fort Worth, Texas. They have many other locations nationwide.