Questions and Answers

Good evening! I thought I'd answer some of the common questions Norm & I have been asked since we created the blog. So, grab a cup of coffee, sit back & relax for a bit. Happy reading!

Q: Are you adopting a boy or a girl?
A: We're not sure because we didn't specify a gender preference. However, there are more boys available for adoption in Russia than girls. We're assuming at this point that we will most likely receive a referral for a little boy. (KERI - read that sentence again!!)

Q: Referral? What's that?
A: Once a child is available to be adopted by a US family, the family receives a "referral" for that child. In most instances, the family has 2 weeks to either accept or decline the referral. The referral may give us limited medical and personal info, as well as photographs. (NOTE: There are some regions in Russia where you travel "blind", which means that you do not receive a referral prior to traveling. You are just given dates and are introduced to a child or children when you arrive.)

Q: When will your baby come home?
A: Again, we're not entirely sure. Here's why -

• In addition to the home study, there is a ton of paperwork that needs to be done, known as the Dossier (pronounced dah-see-ay). A lot depends on how quickly we can complete and submit our Dossier.
• Once the Dossier is submitted it is translated into Russian and we are assigned a region.
• After we are assigned a region we will eventually receive our referral. If we accept our referral, we will make our first trip to Russia shortly thereafter. The first trip is typically 5-7 days. We will meet our child during this trip and, hopefully, officially accept the referral. Sadly, we will have to return home without our child and wait to receive our court and travel dates for the 2nd trip.
• Between the 1st and 2nd trips, we will have to complete MORE papers for our Dossier. Again, the quicker we get the 2nd set of documents ready, the quicker we may receive our travel dates for the 2nd trip.
• Once we do get our 2nd travel dates, we will go back to Russia for our court date. This trip will last approximately 21 days. Then, we come home again but this time with our child!
• NOTE: Our agency currently seems to be receiving referrals and travel dates much quicker than other agencies we spoke to. On average, the couples we spoke to who used (or are using) the same agency as us said their timeline, from start to finish, was between 6-8 months.

Q: Are you adopting more than 1 child?
A: Possibly. We would be open to adopting twins/siblings but we are also open to adopting 1 child.

Q: So, how old will your child be?
A: Guess how I'm going to answer this one? That's right...we're not exactly sure! Seems to be a theme here, huh? You see, children in Russia must be on a national database for 9-10 months prior to becoming eligible for adoption by foreigners. This gives their birth family a chance to make sure they made the right decision and also gives other Russian families a chance to adopt them. So, our child will be at least 9-10 months old when we bring him/her/them home. When you factor in all of our travel time, realistically our child will be closer to 12-15 months old. Here's what I CAN tell you - we requested a relatively healthy child who is 24 months old or younger.

Okay, I think that covers the questions re our little one. If I left anything out, drop us a line. We'll be here!