[proudmommyof 2]

For those of you still waiting for court dates, what are you hearing?

Will you please share your region, when/if you made 1st trip, when you accepted your referral, and if you are being given a time frame (or if there is a holdup, like you are waiting for your child to come off of the database)? Thanks!

We are Moscow City, our child was born March 15, 2004, we accepted the referral November 1, 2004, and made our first trip on February 5, 2005.

Originally, when I talked to someone in our agency while we were in Russia, she said we would hear in 2-3 weeks (which would have been back in February). The time passed, and now we are being told that many release letters are being issued this week and next and we should hear then, court 3 weeks later. This is our second child through this agency, and everything has always happened much faster than they said. For example, they said INS would take 4 months, it took 3 weeks. We wouldn't get a referral until January, we got one the day after Halloween. This is is the first time that it has gone on longer than they thought. I can't bear another week or month without knowing. What are you all hearing?

[Beaglepup]

I don't really have any information for you, but am interested in hearing what others have to say as we just got a referral from Moscow City.

OUr agency said the usual wait in between trips is 4-7 weeks. However, it may be longer due to release letters, but our agencies contact in Russia said that release letters could be organized very quickly. Let's hope that's the case.

[skling69]

We are waiting for our release letter, we traveled blind so the children we saw were all off of the database when we saw them. We accepted a two year old, he is off of the database, but we have no idea when we will receive the letter, as the request is being completed incorrectly and rejected, all I know for sure is it is numerous times at this point. See signature for dates etc.

[cindyc]

We're in the Arkhangelsk region. Our son was off the database in late Jan, but we're waiting for the release letter and court date. It's been 3 months since trip one.

The agency is positive that things will get rolling again soon, but we're still having a hard, hard, hard time living in the Land of Limbo.

I really appreciate all the support of everyone here in this forum. It helps to know we're not alone in this.

Wishing everyone court dates,
CindyC

[HollyB]

Our children our in Bryansk. We are waiting for the release letter to be received and a court date to be assigned. We hosted this past Summer.

[aimeemk]

Hi,

We are adopting from Volgograd. We received referral on November 5, and travelled November 20th. Court date for Jan 20th was cancelled after receiving 1st release slip, (Judge wanted to follow new law and wait until she came off data base according to the new law). She came off on February 5th for the 6month requirement. We are now waiting for the release slip. Our agency says SOON!!!!!
They have sent us updated pictures twice and my has she GROWN!! She is doing well and looks happy.

[RAKK]

We're also adopting a baby girl from Moscow City. We accepted our referral on December 10th. She turned one on February 7th. We just found out that we'll be going to court on April 1st (our first trip). The agency told us that the second trip will be three weeks later. So, we are expecting to have her home by the end of April. She'll be 14 months old. Sad when we received her referral back on December2nd. The pictures and video we have of her are from last October. Nothing new since then. It's amazing to think that we're going to meet our little angel in less than 2 weeks!

[CarsonsMom]

We are going to Stavropol. We received our referral 6 Oct 04, travel first trip 20 Nov 04, and found out TODAY that we have a court date of 12 Apr 05...YEAH!!!!!

[ATwinkleofHope]

Traveled blind Oct 15. Accepted referral Oct 20th and was suppose to go back to court in Nov. But the hold up has us still waiting.

-Jo

Married: 05/02/98
4 years ttc & 2 failed IVF's
Sent in application - 10-03-03
Sent in I-600A - 10-24-03
Homestudy completed - 12/24/03
Homestudy received - 01/21/04
Fingerprinting for INS - 02/10/04
Received the I171-H - 02/25/04
Assigned to Astrakhan region - 03/08/04
Dossier sent to region - 03/12/04
GOT THE CALL -> 09/20/04.
Leaving for 1st trip- 10/15/04
Met our baby girl – 10/18/04
Waiting for trip #2

[alex12303]

We received his referral and accepted it during the second week in October. We traveled to Stavropol on November 26th. We officially accepted the referral on November 30th, 2004. We thought we would go back in January, as Stavropol Court tends to move quickly.

We are waiting for his release letter. We were told Thursday (3/17) that they have re-requested his release letter from Moscow. They hope to hear on the status of the letter next week. Still waiting.

Judy
__________________________________________________ ___
8/03 First considered International adoption (for 2 siblings)
9/03 Bulgaria is the Country
12/03 Homestudy Complete (for 3 children)
2/04 INS approved (for 3 children)
2/04 Dossier Complete (sitting at agency)
2/04 Agency waiting for Bulgaria to start up after reorg. before submitting Dossier to Bulgaria
4/04 Agency convinced us to change to Russia (more paperwork)
6/04 Dossier submitted to Russia (for 2 siblings under the age of 4)
6/04 Agency said it would be a year wait for a sibling group (or even unrelated children) that young
7/04 Decided to adopt one child this time. A boy between 8 and 18 months old
8/04 Declined first referral
10/04 Declined second referral
10/04 Accepted third referral of 9-month-old boy from Starvopol. He is great!!!!!
11/26/04 Depart for trip 1
Waiting for his release letter

[DelMarie]

We met our daughter in Krasnodar on October 20th. We were supposed to go to court in Dec. but our trip was cancelled due to MOE shutdown. Today is 5 months since we have seen her! A LONG five months. We too have gotten updates and photos. She is so beautiful with big blue eyes. She is a little over one year old. We have been told SOON also! Praying that this week or next week we will hear some news. Just resubmitted a whole new updated dossier.

[misshawna]

We are adopting from Krasnoyarsk. We received our referral on Christmas Eve 2004 , travelled on trip 1 January 10 - 16, 2005, and are currently waiting on a release letter and court date. Our little one turned one on March 14.

We have had no news whatsoever since our trip. We don't even know for sure if the letter has been requested or not. We are getting very frustrated with our agency. They keep saying it should be "any day now."

This is the hardest thing I have ever been through. It breaks my heart that there are so many of us going through this, but it breaks my heart more that there are this many children who have the opportunity for a loving home, but are waiting on a piece of paper. The whole thing is insane!

Shawna

[eyefull]

We recieved our referral December 27th 2004. We accepted on the 29th after doctor looked over video and med report. We have yet to even make the first trip. I can't believe that this is normal either. Absolutely no information from our agency, except keep waiting/send more money!!!

[MomofOne426]

We received our referral in August 2004, traveled on the first trip Nov 2004. We were supposed to have a court date Jan 18 2005 but it got cancelled--no surprise there...!!!!

We have been told that March would be the magic month, but our paper work got kicked out of Moscow 2 times... It was resubmitted by the region MOE a third time and now we are waiting to see if it passes muster...

Our little pumpkin turns one in a few weeks.... Our region is Tula, and to be honest, I don't hear (read) much activity there... it is frustrating...

Mari

[jgljrl]

We hosted this past summer. We were told last week that our databank request was being sent back to the region (Ulan Ude) because it was not filled out correctly. When they received it back it also said that they would not accept requests from agencies that are not accredited. We were told this 2 days ago. We are still waiting to find out what we need to do now. They had a meeting yesterday in the region and we have no news on what happened or was decided at the meeting. We are very discouraged (actually beyond discouraged). I think we were discouraged in November, we were originally told we would travel in late September or early October. Well I didn't think that meant in 2005 not 2004.