Hello All,
Well some dissappointing news conveyed via phone conference with our agency. Cathy and I had put together a list of questions for our Russian Coordinator Danielle N. Danielle answered them I assume as honestly as possible.
The first thing we asked, has the the line of families changed. 3 weeks ago, we were #5 overall, #1 for siblings. No change here, but preferences of the familes may allow us to move up sooner.
I questioned the siblings preference on our file. Danielle told us that we were listed as siblings as our first preference. Of course this was not our first preference, but a healthy boy under the age of 18 months was. She stated she would update the Excel spreadsheet with our preferences.
Cathy and I took this to mean that really there is no line per se but that we are predetermined to travel at a certain time regardless.
Second, we asked about the sibling fee of $9500.00 Specifically, what does that entail, what does it cover, etc. Danielle stated that the 9.5K covers their expenses and nothing that would we incur. Of course this was never explained to us. Furthermore, we were under the impression that this fee was adjustable based on the older siblings age. Well, she tried to tell the us the fee went up to 10.5K, and that the fee is based on the youngest siblings age. I knew we signed a fee agreement at 9.5, but does this really matter at this point.
Third, when does the 5 to 9 month waiting period start? Danielle stated that when our dossier is submitted and registered the clock starts ticking. Well our dossier was submitted the second week of Sept. Of course if you have been following our blog enteries, you know that we had to redo 4 documents. This stalled our registration till the end of Oct. So if you split the difference of the 5 to 9 month waiting period, getting 7 months, we should now travel in April.
I asked Danielled to give me her best estimation of when we would travel on the first trip. I also expressed that we needed this answer to give ample time for our schools to prepare. She stated that March now would be the earliest, most likely April. When I questioned why she stated that we maybe traveling in the February time frame, her answer was the Tver region was moving faster but now has slowed down.
We informed Danielle, that Cathy's dad woudl not be travelling with us.
Fourth question, we asked if other families will be traveling with us. She stated that maybe a possibility, but it is too early to tell.
Fifth, I asked about accredidation and what may happen if accredidation lapses in the middle of our adoption. She stated that we should be long done before this happens.
Overall, we realized that our time of departure is probably preset, and that it will sometime be in April now. Although this is very disheartening, the positive is we will be closer to the end of the year and the summer break.
Till next time.
