The bane of my existence

Toads!

Every spring since I have lived in this house, the toads come out of hiding and congregate in my pond to have an orgy! They are pretty much here from May thru September, sometimes into October. The first year it happened, I was totally grossed out, but now I have just come to accept it; my alternative is to fill in the pond which I don't want to do. These creatures only come out after dark and and most nights there are two or three of them, but some nights there are so many it looks like a science fiction movie! They are ugly and excessively loud. These are not cute little green frogs, these are ugly, gray/brown/black reptilian looking creatures. The noise they make while calling their mates is indescribable! Not a nice little "rrrbbbittt", more like a "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" and this goes on well into the night, until day break. My little Scottie dog Rosie absolutely flips out when she hears them, crawls under chairs, shakes, and just wants to hide. All the neighbors know when the toads are in my pond as they can hear them as well. One night last summer, my neighbor and I had had enough of them and after a little liquid courage stood over the pond and caught at least 10 of them, put them in a bucket and carried them to a creek and set them free. The one thing we forgot to do was mark them with spray paint to see if the same ones made it back to my yard, because they were back in full force a few days later. Well these things being not the smartest of God's creatures, sometimes find their way into the pool instead of the pond and I am forced to fish them out in the morning. I take the long pole with the skimmer net on it and scoop them up and flip them over the fence into the alley. I am just waiting for the day when some unsuspecting driver finds a flung toad land on his windshield and gets an up close and personal view of "Mr Toads Wild Ride"! Well this morning was no different and of course found one in the pool. This time I think he landed in the neighbor across the alley's yard, maybe he'll make that his new home. I have attached a picture below of the one I fished out this morning just so you can understand my absolute disgust at these amphibians. If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of them, I am welcome to suggestions!



On the adoption front, it appears that several agencies are going to receive their accreditation certificate on July 4th! WHOOOHOOOO. This is what we have been waiting for for the past seven months! It should not be too much longer before I get my courtdate, but I am beyond speculating when that might be. I just hope Katia and Pasha like toads!



Jane

We're lining the animals up two by two!

I am sick of rain! It has been raining here in Dallas nonstop for the month of June, there is flooding all around us, my pool looked like it was about to spill over until I drained several inches of water off of it today. I am sick of fishing toads out of the pool! One went to toad heaven the other day and thank goodness Jose was here to do the yard and he got that one out, I wasn't about to touch it. The pond is spilling over. The dogs hate to go outside in the rain, heaven forbid they get a drop of water on their paws, they might just melt! Daisy I can understand (Hurricane Katrina survivor, had her share of water then) but the other two are just being doggy divas. They look so bored, I wish they could color, that's a great rainy day activity! The air conditioning in my house went out today, I am waiting on the AC people to call me back to let me know when they can get over here and fix it. We may have to go stay at a hotel if the weather gets too hot and they can't get over here until next week. There's not much you can do outside with all this rain, so after looking at Katia's room, I decided I didn't like the quilt I originally got for her and found another one that I like better; look below and I posted some pictures of their completed rooms, her's with the new quilt.

Nothing too new on the adoption front. My agency is not very forthcoming with information so I glean most of the updates on reaccreditation from other's blogs and various chat sites. It does appear that 12 agencies have gotten word that all their paperwork has been approved and are awaiting their accreditation certificates. As soon as the certificates arrive, they will forward them on to the regions and hopefully courtdates will be set. There is some indication that the certificates will start arriving next week, so we all have our fingers crossed that this is the case. Keep those good thoughts and prayers coming.

Love, Jane

Katia's new quilt

Pasha's finished room:

I couldn't resist posting this silly one:

Rosie on Toad Patrol over the pond

Rumors

There is a rumor circulating that a few of the U.S. adoption agencies have received word from Moscow that they will be getting their reaccreditation certificate very soon. If this is true, this is very good news! But the rumor mill is a very scary place. I have been down this road before with promises made and yet they never came to fruition. It does appear that this one has some merit to it as there is more than one agency reporting this; we will see.

I also got a call from my agency saying that the court is wanting some updated documents, is this a sign of good things to come? I hope so!

Do you understand why we call this thing called Russian Adoption a rollercoaster ride? Stayed tuned for any further updates!

Jane

Nothing New

I really wish I had some news to share, especially good news; but I don't have anything. I am still endlessly waiting for this re accreditation of my adoption agency. I have begged to get some updates on the children, measurements, weights and pictures; I am hoping they will at least come thru with that. I am so afraid these kids will not remember me or worse, feel like they have been abandoned yet again. This is so unfair to them. There is also the possibility that a Russian family could come forward and try and adopt them. This is a remote possibility as these kids are older and most Russian families want infants or really young toddlers, but it is something that concerns me. Even though I signed papers indicating my intent to adopt, Russians have precedence and they are not mine until the Judge says they are mine. I really don't think I'll hear anything this week as it is a holiday week in Russia and everything seems to shut down. Please continue to pray and send good thoughts that this will end soon, this really is becoming unbearable.

Jane

Edited to add:

Here are some statistics about orphans in Russia, this is why we need these kids home now!!

The statistics are alarming...

More than 700,000 orphans are living in 2,000 state-run orphanages.

Of those, 95 percent have a living parent unable to or unwilling to care for them.

That doesn't include the estimated 2 million to 4 million homeless orphans living on the streets and in railway stations.

More than 80 percent of Russian orphans in state care fall 2 or more years behind in school by the time they are 12 years old.

Of those who are not adopted and leave the orphanage between the ages of 16 and 18:

50 percent of the girls become prostitutes
40 percent of the children become addicted to drugs or alcohol
40 percent commit crimes
10 percent commit suicide
Just 1 in 10 former Russian orphans becomes a functional member of society.

132,500 children are abandoned to the state in Russia every year, up from roughly 67,000 in 1992.

Nearly 4,640 Russian orphans were adopted by Americans in 2005, down from a record 5,865 in 2004.
13 out of every 100 children adopted by Russians are eventually returned to the orphanage.
40 million children in the former Soviet Union are living in poverty.

Sources: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Commission for Children at Risk, Human Rights Watch, European Children's Trust, Rosstat Agency

What to do?

What's a girl to do with all this time waiting? As you can see, I have made some minor changes to my blog. I've added some widgets (see the right side of the page), I've changed the colors and the format. I'm trying everything and anything to keep myself occupied by this most excruciating wait. The rooms are picture perfect, their closets are filling up, my yard is meticulously groomed, I'm learning and practicing my Russian phrases for adoptive parents. I am driving myself crazy checking my e-mail 50 times a day to see if there is any news about accreditation.

The latest from my agency's new case manager is that accreditation will happen the end of this month and we will be travelling in June for court; but I feel like I have been down this road and heard this soooo many times that is hard to even get hopeful, but if I don't have faith, then what is left? The only one thing I am certain of is that this adoption will happen, but we just don't know when. I may be pushing a walker across Siberia to get them, but they will come home eventually. I am just asking for continued prayers and good thoughts to get these kids home. I miss them so much.

Love,
Jane

Latest news:

Here is the latest statement regarding the impending accreditation:

"On Wednesday, April 25, 2007 the Hague Implementation Staff of U.S. Department of State issued an official notice confirming the news that "no U.S.-based adoption service providers are currently accredited with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.” The following day, NCFA President and CEO, Thomas Atwood, along with NCFA staff Lee Allen and Chuck Johnson met with Alina Levitskaya, Director of the Department of Youth Policy, Upbringing, and Social Protection of Children of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Ms. Levitskaya was in Washington, DC to meet with senior staff within the U.S. Department of State to discuss the status of Russian intercountry adoption and the accreditation of U.S. agencies. Ms. Levitskaya told NCFA that her visit had been scheduled in response to recent publicly-stated concerns that the ongoing delays in re-accreditation process appeared to be aimed primarily at American agencies and that these delays were hurting children. During the meeting, Ms. Levitskaya offered explanation of reasons why the Russian government’s efforts to initiate adoption reform measures have taken much longer than anticipated. The NGO registration requirement and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science’s requirement to involve other Russian ministries in clarifying adoption procedures have presented huge challenges that, in Ms. Levitskaya’s opinion, appear to be near resolution. She confirmed receipt of the U.S. Department of State’s recent statement regarding the rights granted to Russian children adopted by American families – and thanked NCFA for acting as a liaison with the U.S. Department of State on this issue. Ms Levitskaya expects several agencies to receive renewal of their accreditation in the imminent future, as well as a steady processing of applications from other countries. Further, Ms. Levitskaya informed NCFA that, after clearing the backlog of pending accreditations, the Ministry of Education and Science will then explore the notion of accepting applications for accreditation by additional agencies."

I have no idea of their definition of "imminent" is; hopefully that means by the end of the month of May.

Jane

Another week of waiting

Well, another week has passed and still no travel dates; I guess the 5 to 6 week time frame I was given back in March is not going to happen. I am probably the only person who loves Mondays, as that means the work week has begun in Russia and maybe, just maybe, we might get some good news! I spoke with my agency late last week and their best guess is accreditation will happen the end of May. In the meantime, they are trying to to process the three families in Birobidzhan as independent adopters. This would mean that we essentially don't have an agency representing us, although our agency still does all the work, whatever.

I am willing to do anything at this point, including just flying over there and waiting it out in the Hotel Vostok in Biro. I do feel kind of sorry for these agencies as they really cannot take on new clients until this mess is cleaned up and without new clients, they have no revenue coming in. My agency is having to lay people off and rent out part of their space in their office just to keep the lights on! It amazes me how far reaching the consequences of this delay is having. Nothing else new to report. Thank you all for your e-mails and prayers; I am sorry I have not responded to everyone, I will try and be better going forward.

I do have some new babies to report on, here is what has set up home on my courtyard. At least someone is having babies around here!!!

Will the waiting ever end?

Here it is, April 24 and I still have no word on when I will travel to pick up my children. My agency says they are doing everything possible to pull strings to get the families in Biro court dates, but we still have no date. There has been a recent media blitz stating the all Russian adoptions are on hold until this accreditation issue is resolved. Well that is not entirely true as there are some families traveling right now to meet their prospective children and also who have secured court dates to bring them home, the caveat to that is that they are all in different regions than the one my kids and I are in. The Birobidzhan region apparently will not commit to any court dates until the agencies get their accreditation and the accreditation issue is tied up in the bureaucracy of Russian politics. All the while, these kids are sitting in crowded orphanages while they could be home with families that love them and want to provide a terrific life for them, what is wrong with this picture??? My agency says this media campaign was started by various different adoption agencies here in the states to "light a fire" under the Russian officials to get the program going again and it will take a little time to see if it works. I am so thankful though that I have met a family in Long Island that is in the same boat as I am in, so we commiserate together. They also are bringing home a little boy who is in the same group that my Pasha is in, he is absolutely adorable and I hope they remain friends when we both get them home.

I am asking anyone that is reading this to say a prayer that all the families who have been waiting so long to get their children home be granted that desire very, very soon. As soon as I have any other news, I will post it right away.

Love,
Jane

Another document

My agency called last week and told me the judge is asking for one more document; on my medical report it is stated that my hepatitis test is negative, Russia wants it to say I am both Hep B and Hep C negative, this is how picky they are! Well I got it done, notarized and off to Austin for apostille in less than a week, so Russia should have it by early next week. Hopefully this is the last thing they need before assigning a court date. I keep thinking as long as they keep asking for things, we are making progress. That's the latest.

Jane

Map of where my kids are currently living

Click on the map and look for the white star in the far southeast portion of Russia just north of China and that is where Birobidzhan is located

Still on tract

I got all the required updated documents to my agency this week. I asked if we are still on tract with the time frame they gave me a couple of weeks ago, they said yes, this would make it 3-4 weeks from today. I honestly will believe it when I see it; I'm certainly not making any plane reservations yet.

One thing I must make mention of is this most frustrating process. When you get your documents notarized for an adoption, you must also get them apostille by the state that the notary is registered in, mine being Texas. Well when I sent these latest documents to the Secretary of State of Texas for apostille, I enclosed a self addressed FedEx envelope for their speedy return; I received them back this past Monday, not only did I receive my documents, I also received documents of three other families! All very private information. Talk about a breech of confidentiality! I immediately called them and told them of the issue and they seemed to not think anything of it! and just asked that I send them back; no wonder why we have such identity theft issues in the country!



Pasha's room is finally finished! I have to say, it is adorable! Daisy the dog now thinks this room belongs to her and it is not at all uncommon to find her napping on Pasha's bed. I'm hoping she becomes Pasha's dog and I can finally get her out of my bed for good!


Okay, gotta give equal time to the other two four legged children:

Miss Rosie

Miss Violet

Sometimes I think I have lost my mind! Three dogs and 2 kids! What was I thinking???

Jane

A glimmer of light

Received a call from my agency on Friday telling me that my file is in front of the Judge in Birobidzhan and that they have requested two updated documents. This is progress! She also told me that most likely their accreditation will come in 5 to 6 weeks and to expect to travel at that time. That would put me at mid to late April with travel dates. I am telling you this with a lot of trepidation as I have waited so long and have had many false hopes that I really don't want to get excited until they call and tell me to get on a plane and come and get my children. But this is the most news I have received in 12 weeks, so I have chosen to look at this as promising.

Jane

Still Waiting

Still waiting for a court date! All adoption agencies that place children in Russia need to be accredited to do so. About 95% of the agencies right now are waiting for their accreditation to happen including my agency. The region that my children are in will not allow any adoptions to proceed without this accreditation, so we wait, and wait and wait! My agency tells me this will most likely occur in March, when it does happen, things will proceed quickly. This is honestly the most frustrating and depressing process I have ever experienced. I wish that when we were in Russia in November that they would have told me to expect to come back in June, not the middle of January like they did; that way, if they called in March with a court date, I would have been surprised and happy, not disappointed and depressed as it is now. In the meantime, I am almost finished with the rooms, just waiting on the furniture to arrive for Pasha's bedroom, it is on back order. Many people have asked for me to post pictures of the rooms so far, so here they are:








Katia's Room

Pasha's Room

I hate the wait!

Okay, the holidays are over both here and in Russia and I still don't have a court date. This waiting is killing me, I want my kids home! My agency tells me they have no news, I keep thinking this will be the week I hear something and then nothing; I am willing the phone to ring. All I can think about is bringing these babies home. The rooms are about 50% done, so that is keeping me busy, but if they called and said come and get them tomorrow, I would so be there! I can't stand this, ring phone, ring!!!

Jane

Almost Christmas

Christmas is right around the corner. This is probably one of my favorite times of year yet I am so engrossed in whipping this house into shape to welcome these children home that I have done nothing to get into the spirit of the holidays! My home is remodeling central, I have hardwoods about to be installed in the bedrooms, children's furniture is scattered all over the house. I am waiting for my housekeeper to remove the current furniture so we can move the kids furniture into their rooms; it looks like a tornado has hit it! It is driving me a bit crazy as I can't stand all this disorganization. I will be spending the holiday in Chicago with my sister and her family, so at least I can be away from it for awhile and don't have to look at it everyday. I am wishing for a Christmas miracle that while I am away, all of Santa's elves will sneak in and put the house together!

I have not heard any word on when my court date may be, I am still hoping for mid January as they indicated while we were in the region meeting the children. I still have so much to do, learn some Russian, train the dogs, just about everything I should have been doing over the past 2 years!

I wish all of you a happy holiday season and a healthy and happy new year!

Jane

Home Sweet Home

Monday, November 27

Made it to the airport and said our goodbyes to Arlena and Viktor, we could not have asked for a more gracious hostess and conscientious driver, they were great! The flight back was uneventful, just some loud and rowdy 15 -16 year old hockey players from Detroit, they settled down though pretty quickly. Slept a lot and visited with another pre-adoptive mother from Wisconsin, she just met her 18 month old little girl, just precious! Made it to Atlanta, Gail and I said our goodbyes and we both found our respective gates to home.

This truly was an adventure of my heart. So many stories to tell these kids, I can't wait to be their mom. The people we met along the way have been fantastic, I could not have wished for anything better. It looks like I will be going back in mid January for my court date and to finally bring my family home, I'm open for a travelling partner, any takers???

Love and thanks to you all,
Jane

Back in Moscow

We survived the flight! We were met at the airport in Moscow by Arlena and Viktor and driven to the President Hotel. This was a different hotel than when we were here a few days ago, it is in another part of the city. The President Hotel was wonderful! After the awful experience we had at the Hotel Vostok, this was pure luxury! Two double beds, a great view, large space and best of all: A clean bathroom with lots of towels and bathrobes and slippers! We thought we went to heaven!
Here is the view outside our window:
This is a statue of Peter the Great in the Moscow river; apparently the story is: the statue was supposed to be of Christopher Columbus and a gift for America, but is was so big that they couldn't figure a way to get to the United States that they decided to turn it into Peter the Great and keep it in the Moscow river. Okay, my little history lesson for the day.
After we got settled in the room, we took a walk around the neighborhood of the hotel. It had great shops and cafes and a Mexican restaurant called Pancho Villa that we stopped and got some nachos. Not the greatest nachos, but not too bad!! The corona tasted great!! Did some final souvenir shopping and made it back to the hotel. We ordered room service, repacked all of our treasures and went to bed for our final night in Russia.

The trip back to Moscow

Jet lag is a killer! Sorry it's taken awhile to get to the end of the trip.

Tamarra and our driver met us in the lobby early Sunday morning to drive us to the Khabarvosk airport. Gail and I were pretty tired so we didn't talk much and just enjoyed the peaceful 2 1/2 hour drive. The road was pretty much covered with snow except for one lane which was used by cars going in both directions, thank goodness there was not much traffic. The Russian version of speed bumps is to travel along a paved road and then it will turn to gravel/dirt for about a 1/4 mile, this was the case in about 4 or 5 spots along our route. The countryside is dotted with villages every few miles which consist of a few shacks that constitute someones home, very dreary.

We finally arrived in Khabarovsk about 2 hours before our flight was due to leave. Tamarra helped us with all of our luggage which was considerably lighter since leaving all the toys and clothes for the kids at the orphanage and the gifts for the caregivers, although we still ended up being over the limit and had to pay a small amount. We got our boarding tickets and then Tamarra suggested that if we needed to use the restroom, now was the time to do so and she pointed to it down this flight of stairs. She also whispered to me to "take my sense of humor". Gail and I followed this group of women to the restroom and stood in line (just like America), when it was my turn, I opened the stall door and found a small step up and a hole in the ground!!! I about died! There were two places to put your feet and you were expected to stand up and take care of business! No time for a bashful bladder - when in Russia, do as the Russians do!! Gail was up next and as soon as she saw it she said "no way"!! I told her the alternative was using the disgusting airplane bathroom, she chose the stall. Back upstairs to say our goodbyes to Tamarra and then on to the gate to wait to board the plane. Everything they are announcing is in Russian, Gail and I just pray we get on the right plane headed for Moscow and not China. We board the bus to take us to the tarmac to board the plane, everyone just pushes and shoves their way on, no semblance of order, it is insane. We are finally seated in our seats and pleasantly surprised to find we are on a much newer jet and there is no ugly smells. Now only 9 more hours till we are back to Moscow.

More Pictures:

Here is a picture of Katia's bedroom.

This is a picture of some of Pasha's group taking a walk around the grounds of the orphanage.

Saturday night, November 25

Well, we're back in hotel hell and packing to go back to Moscow, the towels have never shown up. The Hotel Vostok is hosting a wedding in it's restaurant and will not serve us. I am tempted to crash the reception just for the cake and vodka! Unfortunately, Americans stick out like sore thumbs and there would be no way to blend in! This time we are a little more adventurous and decide to take a walk around the neighborhood in search of a restaurant. We walked two blocks in every direction from the hotel and could not find anything except one place that had all men eating dinner (not one woman in sight) and we were not about to crash that party! So we are right back where we started! After a light dinner of yet another Special K bar, topped off with animal crackers for dessert, we really started getting silly. Gail started modelling the latest in Siberian fashion which consisted of pajamas, socks and boots and her new fur hat! I really would love to show the picture, but I have been threatened with my life if I did! You all will just have to have a mental picture!

Jane