Picky, picky, picky!

Here's the low down on the whole region thing for the mini dossiers. One of our dossiers will be submitted to Krasnoyarsk, so we will definitely be registered there. The other mini dossier will be held by our agency's Russian staff whose office is in St. Petersburg. They will keep a look out in that region and the one nearby (Pskov), and if a baby comes available within our parameters, they will file the other mini dossier in that region. Joylyn said as fast as things have been moving in Krasnoyarsk over the last several months, she feels that is where our referral will come from. I, too, have a strong feeling about Krasnoyarsk!

I've been working on the documents for our mini dossiers this week. It seems like I am filling out hundreds of the same thing all week. We have to fill out applications for each of the three regions, their obligation letters (which essentially says we will care for the orphan and submit the post placement reports), and questionnaires. It is odd how Russia wants everything. Doug and I each have to have separate applications and questionnaires. The only difference on the papers is our names. The applications and questionnaires contain the same information only in a different format. Some regions want each spouse to have 2 applications and 2 questionnaires per adoptive parent. This is truly a paper pregnancy--instead of morning sickness there is carpal tunnel syndrome; in lieu of sonograms--a scanner; instead of ob-gyn appointments--a dossier specialist to check on your progress.

A note about the scanner: this will be my first time I will use one! I know, I know, it's 2010 [Doesn't that sound so Buck Rogerish when you say like twenty ten???!!], but you need to understand that until December the desk top computer and the inkjet printer we had been using was made in 1995. Yeah, read that again. No typo. When our school district bought computers for all the teachers' classrooms, they offered us the same computer to buy personally. It cost around $2500 and we could pay it out of our paycheck for 2 years interest free. We have simply been upgrading the windows software, but really, enough is enough. Let the poor dog die. Doug has had his laptop, which I had pretty much taken over the last two years, and when we moved, I still haven't unpacked the dinosaur. I broke down and ordered one on Black Friday. Imagine my surprise when our new desk top came in from Dell and the computer cable for the inkjet wouldn't fit into the new CPU. It seems that USB cords are the way to go in the 21st century!

So, it's a good thing, a very good thing actually, that we bought this new printer because Joylyn wants us to scan all our documents to her so she can check them for accuracy. Russia is VERY particular, and although I haven't experienced anything first hand yet, I have heard stories. The friends of ours who adopted from Russia a few years back signed a document with only a middle initial instead of writing it out. It cost them 2 months because they had to redo it. The lady at the court records department yesterday told Doug (as he was getting a copy of a record from his delinquent years some 2 decades ago--sigh), we need to find out what color ink Russia wants everything in, or we'll be back to see them. Uggghh! So, my baby boy could be hung up in an orphanage because we used black ink instead of blue???? I know from all my reading that Russia in recent years has made it more and more difficult for foreigners to adopt from their country; only a few years ago Russia was the number one country for adoptions. Now it is like 3rd or 4th. A lot of people just don't want to go through all the red tape. It just creates such a burning when I think about something so frivolous keeping children bound to a system that cannot nurture them into the gifts that God created them to be; unfortunately, since Putin came into power, Russia looks at it as losing a citizen instead of moving the child to a better environment. So, I'll be taking a blue pen with me every where I go.