Waiting...

We are waiting to hear from our caseworker, having decided that we would pursue adoption of the three kids that we were told about (see prior post for the few details that we have so far about them). This week is supposed to be the time when these three kids are officially becoming available for an adoption referral. The way this works now should be:

1. The Russian government formally approves matching these kids to us as adoptive parents, and informs Bethany's central office in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
2. Bethany contacts our caseworker here in Minneapolis.
3. Our caseworker contacts us.

As of right now, none of these have happened yet, but we are hopeful. Our caseworker is asking the central office to check with their partners in Russia to see how things are going.

A is travelling to Dallas later this week for a conference. It would be a little sad to have official word of an approved referral arrive while he's down in Texas.

One more document...

We're back to our helpful notary, since last week we missed one document that we had to get signed: Statement of Risk.

This is a four page list of everything that might not go well in our adoption process: higher costs in travel, the Russian or US government deciding to decline our request to adopt, undiagnosed illnesses or conditions in the children that we discover later on, etc., etc. It's a long list, and sobering.

At the end of the list, we make an agreement not to sue Bethany should any of them happen, since none of them are the kind of things that an adoption agency can really guarantee or do much about. I wonder if people having children born to them biologically have to sign any releases like this...

It's a good reminder of just how much we are in God's hands in this process. Many things can, and sometimes do, go wrong. We need to keep praying for wisdom and protection, always, and trust that whatever does happen, we will be given grace and strength to bear each day as it comes.

Notarized!

Linda's smiling because we're getting our dossier documents notarized. These are the documents that are going to Russia to formally request the permission of the government to adopt children.

Next, we take them to the secretary of the state of MN to get them apostilled (kind of a super-notarization that makes them legal documents internationally).