Our journey to bring our Russian princess home

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Region Paperwork and a phone call (don't get too excited)

So, 3 weeks ago we received an email from our family coordinator at our agency. She said to call her as soon as possible because the facilitator in Krasnoyarsk wanted to know if we would accept a Eurasian baby, and needed to know quickly! I immediately called Scott and after a few "no-brainer, really" moments, I called her back to say, "YES, of course we would accept a Eurasian girl."
You are probably wondering what a Eurasian is , right? Since I have read SO many blogs and done a lot of research of Krasnoyarsk, I knew that it, in a nut shell, is a cross between a European and an Asian. Krasnoyarsk is extremely close to the Mongolian, China, and Kazakhstan border.
We were really leaning towards China in the beginning but found out it was a 5 year minimum wait for a baby girl. So, Russia it was!
Since our coordinator asked us that question, naturally I thought that our girl had been picked out! Wrong, she said that it doesn't necessarily mean that a Eurasian girl has been chosen for us. It could still possibly be a Caucasian baby as well. It's just that typically, Eurasian babies don't get adopted domestically, making it easier to get a child faster internationally if she is Eurasian.
So, in true Kirsten form, I pressed our facilitator for some more info on our referral status. Once again, she said she doesn't know anything, but BELIEVES it will be soon...a week or two to be exact...but that was almost 3 weeks ago!!! We've been going crazy every time the phone rings or I get a new email. We were told to start on our region paperwork, (yes, MORE, LOTS more) now and start dating it today (which again, was almost 3 weeks ago), when we were originally told to start them in JULY!!! The only other clue she could give me (which once again, I can't hold her to it), was that she thought she overheard the facilitator saying a 10-12 month old baby. Yikes, it's getting real!!
So, the last 3 weeks we've been working like crazy to get the forms done. A lot of the forms are renewals from our dossier which our social worker has to do (I should be getting them all in the mail today). Pray that it is all correct. We had a difficult time getting the forms correct for our dossier! It's insane the paperwork that is required for Kras. 3 different forms stating we are home owners, which I am STILL chasing one form down which has to come from the Travis County Appraisal's office, with their letterhead. That's been the hardest thing...getting all these forms on specific letterhead! Ugh, a nightmare to be exact.
But through all this tedious paperwork, stressful days and nights of waiting and racking my brain thinking I filled out a form wrong, or I forgot to put my middle name on 1 form (ALL forms have to have our middle names...who does that?), it doesn't mount up to the pain and loneliness of little children all over the world who are waiting for a home. It puts my troubles and trials in perspective. Not that it makes me feel any better (actually worse because I want her YESTERDAY), but it calms me down and forces me to trust God. Trust me, it's hard! Knowing that His timing is perfect for our lives and her life is difficult but necessary to get through this. Prayers greatly appreciated!
We'll let you know ASAP when we get a referral. Hopefully it is coming any day now!