faster than a speeding bullet

Yes, that's how Steve and I feel this process is moving.



We received additional pictures and medical information this week. I think Samuel (Aleksey) is going to be very ornery, and Rowan (Vladimir) is going to need lots of love.



Anyway, we had a conversation with the physician at Children's this morning. Her assessment:

These two are two of the better referrals she has seen from Russia. They both are very small (height and weight) for their age, however, they do have good sized heads, which is very telling of normal brain growth and development. Based on the photos, she does not see any physical characteristics of fetal alcohol syndrome. She expects there are likely some developmental delays, which are typical of children who live in orphanages. Overall, she sees nothing unusual, or indicative of greater medical issues.


That said, we will accept the referral of the boys in the morning. We have a few pieces of paperwork to complete, and then the waiting game begins again. The anticipated time frame to travel is 1-2 months. We think that we could be traveling within a month, if not sooner.


Keep us in your thoughts as we wait to hear about travel dates to finally meet our boys.

Our referral info is complete. We got the medical history yesterday, along with some additional pictures. The pictures are really telling, not so much of the boys, but of how they are currently living, but I will save that for another post.

All the information is currently being reviewed by an amazing physician at the local children's hospital. She specializes reviewing medical documents for international adoptions.

The Russian officials are asking us to provide a response by this Thursday the 19th. If we say yes, we wait for an invitation to travel. If we say no, we must provide the Russian officials with reasons for not accepting the referral, and we wait for another referral.

introducing...

Aleksey, age 2 and half... and his brother Vladimir, age 18 months.

I know, wow that was fast. You have no idea.

As seen in previous posts, our paperwork was just sent to Russia on January 21st. The general timeline we were given was 2-7 months. Thursday, February 5th, we got an email saying that our dossier had been assigned to a region, and this region often sends referral info prior to the first trip. We sat in bed that night talking about what the day would be like to finally see our children.

The next morning, I emailed our coordinator, telling her of our excitement, and inquired about the time frame for this particular region. Within 5 minutes, I had an email stating that a referral was ready, pictures were available, and I should call to get the info. I'll save my emotional response for another post.

So here is the skinny...Aleksey, who we will call Samuel, was born on August 22, 2006. Vladimir, who we will call Rowan, was born July 29, 2007. They are currently living in an orphanage in Siberia, near Mongolia and Khazakstan. They share the same mother, but have different fathers.

As far as timelines, we have no idea. What was supposed to take 2-7 months, took 2 weeks. We had hoped to have the boys home before Christmas, and now it looks like it might be before Halloween.

It's kind of surreal still. We've thought about what our kids would look like, and when we would finally get to see them. We've also thought a lot about the day we would finally become parents. It's been a long time coming, but so worth the wait.