Emotional Pinball

Welcome to the world of Russian adoption. We've been on this journey for so long, and yet I'm always amazed at how crazy things can get.

I just posted on Friday on how excited we were to get the dossier in the mail to our agency in NC. Well, excitement hit a wall yesterday.

We found out, through some good friends in the adoption community and the FRUA website, that the Russian government (the Ministry of Education, which oversees international adoptions) has JUST released a list of homestudy agencies that, according to them, have not followed through with their commitment to produce their post placement reports (for those of you reading who are out of the International Adoption loop, once an adoption is completed, the families are obligated to particpate in a specified number of documented visits from a social worker, usually from the homestudy agency. These reports are sent back to the child's country of origin, as a confirmation that everything is going well in the adoptive family. This has been a big issue with the Russian government. Some families have not been followed up with, and this has fueled the view there that adopted children are not being taken care of.)

Getting to the imporant part---our new homestudy agency (that just finished and notarized our homestudy on Feb 6) is on this list. According to the official document from the MOE, the regions of Russia were supposed to be aware of this ruling on the agencies, primarily in regards to adoptions that being conducted independently (ie not through an accreditied adoption agency.) However, there could be potential problems for people who are working through accredited agencies like we are. It is "possible" that judges will not accept these homestudies, even if people are working through accredited adoption agencies.

Holy cow! Finding another agency to redo AGAIN our homestudy, wait AGAIN to have this done, and pay for it AGAIN?!! Suffice to say that we have been already on the phone with our social worker, and have already contacted our agency. Our social worker is trying to find out what she can, and promises to get back with us as soon as possible. C, the coordinator at our adoption agency has told us not to panic--yet--and to wait and see what happens. She is being told by her contacts in Russia that this ruling is only for independent agencies. However, there are many people out there in our same position who have been told by their agencies that they need to get their homestudies redone by an agency not on the list.

So, the news now is that we just need to wait for the moment and see what happens. I am SO not good at this. I feel like an emotional pinball, and it has been a very long week already. I know that, if we need to, this is what we'll do, but I am so very disappointed and discouraged at this point.