The Wait Continues

We continue to wait for a word, any word, from the Russian government on this whole accreditation issue. Right now there are no agencies approved to do international adoptions from Russia. Outside of a very few agencies whose accreditation recently expired, there hasn't been any approved to coordinate adoptions from Russia for well over a year now. Russia began accepting applications for this accreditation mess in December of 2006. Any agency that wanted to begin or continue to do international adoptions in Russia had to apply. Russia promised to begin accrediting agencies by March 20th of this year. That date has long passed and now Russia wants more paperwork from these same agencies. This time they're asking for statutory proof that any child brought to the United States will have the same rights afforded to American children. The U.S. State Department is assisting agencies in getting that paperwork collected.

The delay has allowed us ample time to continue researching different agencies to chose from. Without a doubt, this is probably the most important part of the process. The right decision has led many families to realize their dreams of having a family. Conversely, the wrong decision has led many families to empty promises and complete destruction of their dreams while possibly going bankrupt in the process. Not unlike any other business, we never forget that international adoption is indeed a business. There are good people and there are not-so-good people. We would prefer to work with the former and so we've spent countless hours at seminars, listening to sales pitches on the telephone, corresponding with other families by email and telephone, partaking in internet chat room discussions, becoming members of various web-sites, email lists and forums. This, all in an effort to assure we make the right choice.

After all of our research, we finally have our list narrowed down to four agencies. Children's Hope International out of St. Louis, Lutheran Social Services, who happened to also do our home study, Children's Home Society & Family Services out of St. Paul and Catholic Social Services out of Asheville, North Carolina. The last three have absolutely impeccable reputations. Children's Hope International also has a great reputation. They have a few unhappy families though, but this is probably attributed to how large of an agency they are and with how many adoptions they do each year.

We think we would be comfortable with any one of them. Having said that we are compelled to chose an agency soon so that we can began this process and take our chances that the agency we choose will be amongst the first groups of those who are re-accredited. We have sat idle for long enough and are tired of waiting!