TIME FOR A CHANGE

Hi everyone,

I know I haven't kept you updated lately, but we have been VERY busy. Yes, busy trying to pull together a whole NEW dossier. Joe and I have decided to switch agencies! We just didn't feel like we were getting anywhere at CHI and decided to make the change to a smaller agency, who seems to have a very good reputation.

We signed the contract with the new agency and I pulled together our new dossier and had it sent to them in 2 weeks. Russia received our documents on Sunday and it will take a couple of weeks to translate them.

Our new agency mostly works out of the Moscow Region and St. Petersburg. The timeline they gave us for a referral is 6-12 months (could be more...could be less). As you all know by now, girl referrals take longer. As for now, we wait to be invited to Russia when a little girl is available for us to go and meet.

Joe and I both feel confident about switching agencies, although it WAS very stressful. I felt like we were starting all over, but once I got our dossier in and it was sent to Russia, the change felt good. Hopefully in a couple of months we will get our call we have been waiting for for almost 11 months now. We cannot WAIT to bring a little girl into our family.

So, after all of the stress of switching agencies and putting together a new dossier, my husband wisked me away to the Florida keys. It was 90 degrees and beautiful....not to mention, we caught ALOT of dolphin on the Charter boat that we went out on.

Once again, I have to congratulate my son Michael for getting all A's his final semester. I couldn't be more proud of him! He will be a Junior in college next year, I can't believe how fast it has gone.

good night for now,

Renae and Joe

UPDATED HOME STUDY SENT TO RUSSIA...CHECK

Our home study expired April 4th and I was a nervous wreck because our home study agency said that they would not be done with the updated home study until the 11th. So, I picked up the updated home study, drove to Trenton to get it apostilled and then off to CHI on Monday. Our coordinator, A, at CHI said she sent the updated home study, along with registration paperwork for Krasnoyarsk, to Russia on Wednesday...whew!!! What a relief to have that taken care of.

We really just have to wait to hear about being registered and then an anticipated wait for our baby girl referral. I get a little nervous with some of the news letters that come out every Friday regarding updates on the Russian adoption. The one that just came out this past Friday from Ludmilla (Moscow) stated that the Russian families actually are waiting in line also for baby girls, and that when there is a girl given out for referral internationally, it is most likely one that the Russian families have passed up, most often because of medical conditions. Now, this makes me a little nervous. I'm going to have to call A at CHI to ask exactly what this means for us. Does this mean that we would possibly get a referral for a baby girl that has some sort of medical problems? I really don't think CHI would try to match a family up with a rerral that does not match what was requested by the family. Still, these kind of things can make you a little nervous.

Congratulations to every one of my blog friends who have been on their first and second trips! I get so excited for you all, and hope you are on cloud nine with your little ones!

So for now, we just patiently wait for our call to go and meet our daughter.

Take Care,
Renae and Joe

PRAYING FOR SOME GOOD NEWS SOON

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but there really hasn't been anything new happening. We are still in the process of updating our home study, which expires April 9. Our social worker has to come to the house again and then, hopefully, all the paperwork will get completed and notarized in a timely manner, so that I can drive it to Trenton to get apostilled, and then off to CHI. Luckily, we have had no problems with the required documents. Our doctor has been excellent in helping us to complete the necessary medicals. We'll see how smooth things go on the agency's end in regard to getting all necessary documents back to us correctly.

Joe and I both pray that we will soon be registered and get our "call" to go and meet our little girl. It will be 9 months on April 13 since our dossier went to Russia. We are soooooo ready to travel to Russia to meet her! In the meantime, we pray that she is well taken care of until we can finally bring her home.

I am so happy to see my blog friends traveling for their 1st trips to meet their children and those of you who were lucky enough to be able to bring their beautiful children home! Congratulations to all of you!

Take Care

FISHING THE FLORIDA KEYS

Hi Everyone! Joe and I went to Islamarada, Florida on a little fishing trip. We had a nice, relaxing time and caught some really nice fish, including Joe's trophy sailfish (below). I went out with him on the first trip on the "Hattitude" chartered by Captain Ron and his son Danny. They are so nice and we really enjoy fishing with them.....not to mention they put us on fish like this!!!!! The next time Joe went out on a small flats boat by himself with Captain Jim out of Hawkes Cay Resort and Spa, and yes, THIS was my time to enjoy every bit of that spa. I'm talking back massage, foot massage and a facial. Oh my goodness, talking about RELAXATION!


It was just what I needed because I just got finished gathering up all our documents we had to send to our home study agency in order to update our home study which expires on april 9th. I was getting a little stressed, so it was good to get away. I sent everything fed'ex on Friday the 7th to our home study agency, along with the new updated documents for the home study....so, they say our case worker has to come to our house again for another visit and then I will wait for them to send me all of the completed, notarized documents so that I can drive to Trenton to get everything Apostilled and then send in to CHI and off to Russia, again. Most of my other paperwork expires in May, so I'm sure I will be updating alot in about a month or so.

I haven't heard anything else yet regarding us being registered. So, hopefully it will not be too long for this to happen. It really makes me feel alot better seeing all this movement happening lately! Congratulations to all of the families who are traveling on their first trips and to those who have gone on their second trips to pick up their children......so exciting!!!!

I decided that I was not going to even start on our daughter's room until AFTER the first trip. It would just be torture looking at it all the time and I figured it would really give me something to do between trips in order to make the time fly a little quicker.

Let's keep that ball rolling in the Russia Program!!!!!!

NO NEW NEWS

I sent an e-mail to our coordinator on Thursday just to check in. She informed me that our dossier is not registered in Krasnoyarsk, but that they were considering our dossier "flexible" so that if any other region has girl referrals available first, they will hurry and send our dossier to that region. Joe and I LOVE the Siberian region and hope that we will still be able to adopt from Siberia, but will go anywhere.

She also informed me that they have opened several more regions to try and make the referrals go quicker, and will be opening several more regions within the next two months. This is good news and hopefully it will make things speed up a bit.

My husband and I sat down on Friday and he really made me realize that I have to be a little more patient and that our beautiful girl WILL come to us soon.

Congratulations to those who are traveling soon to get their children!

Take Care,
Renae

WAY TO GO GIANTS!

This is a picture of me, my son Michael and Joe at our Superbowl party last Sunday - WHAT A GAME! All of my family are actually STEELER fans (we are originally from Pittsburgh) but we like the Giants and were sooooo glad they beat New England. Joe and his family have always lived in New Jersey and, of course, were cheering on the Giants (except for my brother-in-law who is a HUGE Dallas Cowboy fan....he got abused all night!) It was alot of fun!

Congratulations also to my son for making the Deans list at Monmouth University....I'm so proud!

VACCINATIONS WERE A BREEZE

Joe and I went to our County Department of Health to get our vaccinations. The doctor there recommended the Hep A/B series, Typhoid and DPT for the region we were going...so, that's what we got. The shots did not hurt at all! Joe and I both were so surprised how smoothly it went. We did feel a little sore the next couple of days, but nothing serious. We have to go back for one more in a month...the second Hep A/B vaccine.

I called our insurance carrier BCBS of New Jersey and explained our situation and they said that "yes, you are covered up to $500 each." I was sooo excited to hear this because these shots, when added up, are NOT cheap!

We are now taking Wendy's (who just traveled to Kras on their first trip) advice and finding a travel agent now so that we know WHO to call when we get "The Call."

She also recommended getting a storage bin and putting things aside for the trip so it's less you have to stress about later. So, I went to target got a bin and already started to fill it with a few necessary items. Thanks Wendy for the good advice!

We are still up in the air with the IA doctors...I'll let you know when we decide. They are BOTH supposed to be so good.

Hopefully we will all start to get some good news now that the Russian Holiday is over.

Take care,
Renae