THE ISRAEL FAMILY ADOPTION: August 2008

Friday, August 29, 2008

SEPTEMBER IS HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No ones knows how difficult it is to wait through the summer months unless you have been there. It is September in 3 days YEAH!!!!!!!! Can we be a little more excited! This is because things are starting to move again in Moscow City. We were told that we can't guarantee we will get a call this month but we are hopeful. It's been a long long long road, over 1 1/2 years. IT'S TIME.

Hope to update with good news soon.

Monday, August 18, 2008

TROPICAL STORM -FAY-

AS MOST OF YOU KNOW WE LIVE IN HURRICANE ALLEY (FLORIDA). WE LIVE IN PALM BEACH COUNTY WHICH IS ABOUT 1 HOUR NORTH OR MIAMI AND ABOUT 3 HOURS SOUTH OF ORLANDO ON THE EAST COAST. WE HAVE HEARD A LOT OF WARNINGS THAT TROPICAL STORM FAY IS GOING OVER CUBA AND THE TRACK WILL BE JUST WEST OF US. WE WON'T KNOW UNTIL AFTER TONIGHT WHERE IS REALLY IS HEADED AND IF IT WILL STRENGTHEN TO A HURRICANE,IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE WARM WATERS BY KEY WEST. I JUST HOPE WE DONT LOOSE POWER.

WE HAVE A GENERATOR AND WE GOT GAS YESTERDAY JUST IN CASE. PRAY WE DONT HAVE TO USE IT.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Moscow City - Registration

On August 13 th I had received a call from my Rep Leslie. She said I have good news you are registered as on August 12 th, I sat quietly and said after a minute, WHAT! We were told we were registered in May on the 8th to be exact. Well apparently when Arati wrote the email to me we were registered it meant something else. Moscow city MOE informed everyone in May that during the summer months they will be taking a break and not registering any dossiers between May and August. OKAY well we were registered in August so I am not sure what really happened. We still hope we will travel in Sept/Oct for our 1st trip. Keep your fingers crossed. I dont have anymore information but when I do I will post.

Also there is a Tropical Storm- Fay south of us and heading North through FL. I hope it's not a bad one. Keep watching the Atlantic.
DONT WE LOVE HURRICANE SEASON............
I hope school still starts Monday, depends on the storm.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Keeping Busy

Well, while most of my paperwork is on its way to Russia. I have one more Power of Attorney and 2 Petitions to adopt that are being notorized and will be sent to be apostilled in Tallahassee. I know it will take the state a little while to get them done so I will be sending them out today.

On the other hand I am keeping busy watching my neighbors little girl who is 2 years old named Chloe. Getting ready to have a little one around here, I need the practice again. Girl's are so different than boys that's for sure. So for the next 3 weeks I will keep busy watching her. Allen & Zachary return to school on Monday so it will be quiet. I have had a good summer spending time with them, they are growing into fine young men.

That's all for now. We are counting down the days until September, 3 weeks to go and hopefully we will hear something.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Updated Documents

So Friday I was so excited to received all our documents back from Tallahassee . Going through all of them with Leslie or coordinator we realized Department of State stapled two power of attorney's together with only one Certification. So in a mad rush I called them, no offense to Gov. workers but they could care less what was missing. I explained to the women over and over certification # was missing finally after 20 minutes of the phone with her she said they would send it to us they found which one they left out. So that was good, but then she states well our mail has already left for the day so it wont go out until Monday. Okay well it could be worse. So i still went to UPS took all other 21 pages to be mailed to CHI. I sent it by ground shipping since I was still waiting for the other document. It would be delivered Wednesday.

I have been waiting for the other document from the state No document Tuesday and Finally Wednesday I received it. The boys and I rushed it over to UPS they wanted 68.00 to overnight it. I am like no way, so I called Leslie and said since she was receiving the other documents today what could be the latest I could get this one document over to her to send to Russia by Firday. She said Friday morning so it was only 21.00 to get it to St Louis by Friday Morning 10:30am, okay its done. All documents should be going to Russia Friday. That is great. Hope we dont have too much more to update.

PS I found someone to do our Financial.

Now all we are waiting for is the call then we need to update our Medical's and Florida Department of Law Enforcement stuff. ALMOST THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Allen - Football

This has no realation to our adoption but the love for our children. Allen has started football. Here is a pictures of him in his practice uniform with pads and all. He is on the Dolphins, of course we are big Philadelphia Eagles Fans but when it comes to our boys we can become Temporary Dolphins Fan's. Zachary didnt want to play tackle so we will most likely be putting him in Soccer.
I give all the Boys on the Dolphins team credit -2 hours of practice M-F for 2 weeks in this HOT HOT Florida Weather. We got rained on big time yesterday, but that is great football weather.

School starts in 2 weeks, YEA !!!!!!!!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Ava's Crib

Here is a picture of Ava's crib. It is all finished. Now I am working on her room.
More pictures will be coming soon.

Friday, August 1, 2008

August is Here !!!!

I am so happy that August is here. Hope to hear something next month when the MOE (Ministry of Education) gets back from Vacations. I FINALLY got our Documents back from Tallahassee. It took 3 weeks for them to get them back to me. My goodness i am glad it wasn't a rush. I will be sending all our documents to St Louis, MO and then they are off to Russia. YEA !!!!!!!! I am so excited.

Ava's room is getting there. I am still trying to decide what color to paint her room. Allen & Zachary are getting excited too.

Hope to update with more good news soon.

PS I wanted to say CONGRATS to Meghan & Bill whom are in Moscow City now and have offically adopted a little boy named Nick. Yeah !!!!!

Foreign adoptions down in Russia as foster care grows

Foreign adoptions down in Russia as foster care grows

Fewer Russian children are being adopted abroad, although the number of total adoptions in Russia is declining, figures show. The statistics point to a complex future for the country's orphans as the government struggles to implement additional means of foster care even as it tries to encourage more Russians to adopt.
According to the U.S. State Department, which released figures for the 2008 fiscal year, the number of foreign children adopted by Americans fell by 12 percent.
In 2008, there were 17,438 adoptions for abroad, while there were 19,613 in 2007. Much of this decline is due to fewer adoptees from Russia and China. Although Russia has not yet released statistics for 2008, the numbers from previous years confirm the trend.
There were 6,689 foreign adoptions in 2006, and only 4,536 in 2007 - a decline of over 30 percent - according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Education and Science, which is responsible for developing adoption programs and legislation in the country.
The United States is the chief destination for Russia's foreign adoptees - in 2006, American parents adopted 3,468 children, making up well over half of the total number of foreign adoptions.
But these numbers do not indicate that Russians are adopting more children. Of the adoptees, the share of those who remain in Russia has increased - from 7,767 in 2006 to 9,537 in 2007. But overall adoptions decreased in 2007 by about 3 percent. Indeed, the number of adopted children peaked in 2004 at 16,434, and has been declining ever since.
This is explainable by foster care programs. While adoptions declined, there has been a rise in the number of children in new, alternative foster care initiatives. While not adoptions formally, these included various kinds of foster care in which a child lives with a guardian or a family that is paid by the government. There are at least three kinds of foster categories apart from adoption. Although the government officially considers adoptions the best option for orphans, it has opted to develop these programs to bring down the number of children without parents.
Since 2006, more stringent laws regulating foreign adoptions have gone into effect. According to Yekaterina Bridge of the World Association for Children and Parents, that has meant more paperwork.
"In 2007, adoption agencies were getting accreditation based on new rules, and that has led to fewer adoptions," she told The Moscow News.
"The first accreditations were received only in June, 2007, and this caused a delay."
Explaining the decline in the number of adoptions, Bridge cited alternative forms of foster care, but noted that these forms had their drawbacks.
"Local officials in the provinces are wary of developing foster care because of the money issue. They fear children could be taken advantage of for the government subsidies."
While she said her agency was supportive of the government efforts to develop newer forms of foster care, she cited the latest figures for children without parents as "staggering."
As of December 31, 2007, 171,044 children were listed in the official adoption data base.
Officials acknowledge the need to encourage more Russians to adopt.
"Adoption is the top priority in placing children with families," says Alexandra Ochirova, who chairs the Public Chamber's Commission on Social and Demographic Policy.
"But the statistics do not show that the problem is being solved. Since not enough children are being adopted, other forms of foster care are being offered."
Ochirova does not believe that foreign adoptions will solve the problem, however.
"There are various points of view, and the interests of the child should be put first," she told The Moscow News. "But I believe that this problem should be solved inside the country. This doesn't mean we should have a ban on international adoptions, but considering the demographic situation, it would be good to make the population better prepared to adopt Russian children."
Ochirova says that raising awareness, advertising, and easing bureaucracy would lead to more adoptions. There are many Russians willing to adopt, she says, but they are daunted by the bureaucratic process.

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