Approved

We got our I600A approval letter on Saturday. Now we are officially in the "waiting with nothing to do" stage. I figure we should enjoy it while it lasts because once December hits we will be redoing medicals, clearances, and lots of other documents I'm sure.

Maybe, But Probably Not

Our agency is working to try to let us move forward with these referrals but it looks like it won't happen. Honestly, since we were planning on next May or June I'm totally fine with this. We could use more time to save money! Also we have a wedding in Colorado this fall and a family trip to Disney planned for December. Adding Russia into all of this would be great of course, but we don't mind waiting. With Oscar's adoption I never would have said we don't mind waiting and I'm sure I won't be saying that once the long, cold winter sets in! But for now, we wait and we enjoy our plans for the fall and December and hope for referrals for those that have been waiting much longer than us!

Hold that thought!

It looks like these referrals may be a false alarm. Lots of miscommunication and/or misunderstandings between Russia and our agency. Our agency got a hold of some people today but not everybody to try to figure out our registration in the region and where we stand with these potential referrals. Of course it is a three day weekend so we get to sit and wait and wonder. Thank god I did not have the pictures sent to us!!!! I will update next week.

What? What? What?

So I planned to post tonight just to report that Joe and I got our USCIS fingerprints done which marks the end of the first round of paperwork.
Then as I was leaving work I saw I had a voicemail. It was our agency. I called them back to find out we have two, yes two, potential referrals. What? What? What? It is September 2nd and we were told we should not expect a referral before next summer.
Nothing is really happening yet because they have to check our registration in the region because it doesn't look like it was not completed in June as they thought. They can't give us any medical info until we are officially registered. Our director said she has pictures and can send them but I said absolutely not!!! I am the type of person that can't walk into an animal shelter without bringing a puppy home. How on earth would I be able to say no to children if I can't say no to a dog!
Joe and I decided that if our registration is going okay then we want to get medical information about the girls before they send pictures. We don't think it would be smart to have a picture of these children for several weeks before we can get any medical info. Why get attached to a picture that may not come home with us if we can avoid it?
My biggest concern is that there are two. We do not have the funds to adopt 2 children so I think this will be difficult. I'm trying not to think about it too much because a lot of things could happen and this could all fall apart. At this point I'll just wait by the phone and go with my gut, just like we did with Oscar.
I still can't believe it is September 2nd and I got the call today. Crazy!!!