Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Welcome to our blog!!!


Welcome as we tell our story of the adventure of adopting our daughter, Haylie Ann Holl from Russia. We are Rich & Jody and we live in a small town in central Kentucky. We have been married for 10 years. Unfortunately, we were never blessed to have a child of our own. We began thinking about adoption seriously in the past year, and decided to start the process of an international adoption from Russia. We are currently "paper ready" and just waiting for our referral of a baby girl. We are hoping to get a baby between 9-12 months old. Nine months is the youngest age the children can be released for adoption in Russia. Just getting the paperwork together for the dossier has been an adventure. Our timeline so far has been:

November 2006--Began researching adoption agencies
December 2006--Checked multiple references before deciding to go with Adoption Ark
January 2007--Received packet of initial paperwork from Adoption Ark
February 14, 2007--Sent in contract to Adoption Ark & began working on dossier
February 16, 2007--Sent in I600A to apply for permission to bring Haylie to the US
March 5, 2007--1st Homestudy visit
March 13, 2007--Fingerprinting in Cincinnati for I600A & all documents notarized
March 19, 2007--2nd Homestudy visit
April 6, 2007--All documents apostilled in Frankfort, KY
April 19, 2007--Completed dossier mailed into Adoption Ark
May 1, 2007--Dossier hand carried to Russia by another adoptive family--the wait begins!!!
June 6, 2007--Jody re-fingerprinted in Louisville (1st set "lost" by US govt!)
June 16, 2007--Received I-171 from US Government giving permission to legally bring her back to the USA--yea!!
June 18, 2007--Notified of possible referral of 18 mo. old (who would have be 2 years old by the time she came home)--rejected to wait for younger child
July11, 2007--still waiting, and waiting, and waiting

If all goes well, the next step will be a "referral" of a baby girl in the age range of 9-12 months who is available for adoption. They will send us some basic medical information and hopefully a picture. If we agree to accept the referral, we will travel to the Kemerovo region of Russia (which is in south-central Siberia) to meet our little girl. We will visit with her daily for 3-5 days and get more detailed medical information on her and begin the bonding process. We then have to leave her there, and come back home for 2-3 months--boo!! This is a mandatory waiting period in place by the Russian government. We then wait for a court date to travel back and go before the judge to make the adoption final. Then we fly to Moscow to complete paperwork for the US consulate to get her a new American passport. Once that is completed, we will be able to bring her home for good and she will be all ours!!! They tell us the 1st trip will last 5-7 days and the 2nd trip 7-14 days.

Stay with us as we make this journey on the adventure of a lifetime--the "Adventure to Haylie".

We will post periodically to keep you updated. Once we get to travel, we will post as often as possible while over there to let everyone know what is happening. We would appreciate everyones prayers for us and especially for Haylie that all goes quickly and smoothly.
Love,
Jody & Rich

1 comment:

adrin said...

Finally you have sent the papers of adoption to Russia. Lets see what will happen next.

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