[tbogardus]

Has anybody adopted from the St. Petersburg region lately? We just took our first trip to visit our daughter who is in an orphange in Luga, Russia, which is about 3 hours south of St. Pete's and they are telling us that area is not waiving the 10 day waiting period. We adopted a little boy from this same orphange in 2003 and they waived it and most other people we have spoken with that are adopted (or have recently) adopted from other regions in Russia have told us that they had the 10 day waiting period waived.

Has anybody had any experience with this recently?

Any assistance or feedback from you guys would be great.

[Theatrenerd]

We were told never to expect the 10 day wait to be waived. In the last year this has become a rare occurance. Typically it is now waived if there is a concern for the childs health if they stay in country any longer or if you can prove that there is a pressing need for you to return home asap. In fewer cases still it is waived if the judge is having a good day it really is up to chance but don't hold your breath and plan accordingly financially I agree it would be better but what can you do. Think of it as bonding time, it will be roughly 10 more days you can bond with your child exclusively before you have to return to the hustle and bustle of daily life and people dropping in to see the new addition.

[tbogardus]

Originally Posted by Theatrenerd

We were told never to expect the 10 day wait to be waived. In the last year this has become a rare occurance. Typically it is now waived if there is a concern for the childs health if they stay in country any longer or if you can prove that there is a pressing need for you to return home asap. In fewer cases still it is waived if the judge is having a good day it really is up to chance but don't hold your breath and plan accordingly financially I agree it would be better but what can you do. Think of it as bonding time, it will be roughly 10 more days you can bond with your child exclusively before you have to return to the hustle and bustle of daily life and people dropping in to see the new addition.

Are you talking about the St Petersburg region or all of Russia? Because our adoption agency is telling us that in many other regions they are waiving the 10 day waiting period.

One thing that bothers us though is that they told us that if we stay in the country for those 10 days that we would not be able to see the child. If we could it would make this a little more easy to swallow.

[Theatrenerd]

our agency works in the st pete region and the moscow region. as for not seeing the child for that time that is actually up to the actual orphange. from what i have read some will encourage it for more bonding time obviously but there are those few who don't allow it but I would try to get your agency to look into that further so you really do know what you are looking at.

[Ktates]

just so you know - there is a difference between the court systems of the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region - just like Moscow City and the region of Moscow.

Have you checked the St Petersburg yahoo board? may have better luck there - it's been pretty active recently.

HOpe it's a short wait!

[verukasalt]

We adopted for the City of St. Pete this past March. Our 10 day wait was waived as was the same for 3 other families who adopted the same day. We did not have to appeal for special consideration. I agree with PP that I've heard there's a big difference with City of St. Pete and the closeby regions. It seems from what we were told the City of St. Pete tends to waive the 10 day wait often. However, it's really never something you can count on unfortunately. We were very lucky!

Best Wishes!

[Seasu]

Originally Posted by tbogardus

Has anybody adopted from the St. Petersburg region lately? We just took our first trip to visit our daughter who is in an orphange in Luga, Russia, which is about 3 hours south of St. Pete's and they are telling us that area is not waiving the 10 day waiting period. We adopted a little boy from this same orphange in 2003 and they waived it and most other people we have spoken with that are adopted (or have recently) adopted from other regions in Russia have told us that they had the 10 day waiting period waived.

Has anybody had any experience with this recently?

Any assistance or feedback from you guys would be great.

Wife and I just returned Friday from completing the adoption of our son Eli from St Pete. This is our 2nd adoption from there. In 2005 when we got Peter, our 10 day was waived. As I understand things, there are currently 2 judges performing the court proceedings in St Pete for the city adoptions. I belive one of them is the same one we had back in 2005. She will on occasion waive the 10 day, although this is getting more and more rare. The other judge (think Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty) would probably never waive the 10 day. She is the one we had for our court process this time. Between poor interpretations of what she was asking and what I was responding it made for a difficult court session. We couldn't use our coordinator as our interpreter during the session. Between that and the judge misreading some information in the translated home study (questioning a 2 week trip with our church, when it was a 2 day trip.) it made for a quite unpleasant experience.

[tbogardus]

I know how nerve racking those things can be. We are adopting from the city of Luga, which is about 3 hours south of St. Pete's. We adopted (interestingly enough) from the same orphanage in 2003 and we had to go through St. Pete's courtsf and the waiting period was waived, so I don't know if we will have the same wonderful judges as you did or now. I don't know if different judges preside over the city adoptions and other ones preside over the outer cities.

So I take it that you didn't get the 10 day waived? Are you going to turn it into three trips?

[tbogardus]

I can't find the St. Pete's board. How do i find it?