Scratch that!

Well at about 10:30 today we were told that the birth mother had submitted a letter stating she did want an American family to adopt her child. So we are no longer on our way to Russia tomorrow. From the info we got it sounds like someone drafted the letter for the birth mother and got her to sign it.
Now I know that it is something that Joe and I should be very sad and angry about. The thing is all I feel bad about is this poor little girl. Our agency said that now she will have to sit in the orphanage for at least 6 months before ANYONE can adopt her since the birth mother submitted a letter. Whether it is an American or a Russian family it doesn't matter to me. I just wanted her to have a home! It is just so very sad!
Before Oscar came home we lost our referral to a Russian family. Although I was very sad and upset I at least knew that he had a family. I could hope that he was healthy and happy. This scenario just doesn't give me any piece of mind!
Our agency said that they would work very hard to send us as soon as possible since we have every document updated and as we all know, they are only good for 3 months. Honestly, I am nearly certain we will be redoing them all. I do still have faith though that it will happen, this just wasn't meant to be.

medical

So we actually got medical info today!!! Yippee!!! The miracle is that the info was good. We talked with two different doctors and everyone is optimistic. Now we just hope that when we get there on Monday she is still there waiting for us!
Four more days and we are off to Moscow!

Visas being processed and...

Steffen schedule 10 days prior to departure:

Thursday - Lisa fingerprinted for IL police clearance
Friday - Completed CPA assets form, received our employment letters, and psych letter/license
Saturday - chest x-rays and blood work
Sunday - packed and made lists
Monday - processed visa, Joe got fingerprinted for IL police clearance, called to get our police clearances notarized, emailed home study dossier docs to social worker
Tuesday - Get Oscar's medical info
Wednesday - Oscar has an eye surgery (yes-surgery was scheduled 2 months ago)
Thursday - Social worker is coming out on Thursday to do Oscar's post placement and hopefully bring us home study documents for our dossier. That night we have our medicals.
Friday - Joe is going downtown to get documents apostilled. Visas should arrive.
Saturday - We are on a plane to Russia.

Thought I should make a list of all the insanity!!!! Just trying to keep it all straight. Through all of this we have been calling constantly to see if our agency got any more info on our referral. Today we found out that they spoke with the coordinator and she spoke with people at the orphanage that she was "really good." At this point we are just going on a good gut feeling, knocking on lots of wood, and hoping for the best. We sat with Oscar on Sunday and watched the videos that we took of our first visit with him and looked at the info we received about him. The info told us nothing about him other than that he was small. I guess we just figure that the information they most likely would have sent us wouldn't have been enough to keep us home. Wish us luck!

Booked and crossing fingers and toes

So I booked our flight and hotel tonight. We have 24 hours to make any changes if needed, but I just couldn't watch the prices go up anymore! Still waiting on medical info.
The one thing I am looking for suggestions on is doing a tour in Moscow. We will have the day on Thursday to sight see. We really saw very little of Moscow when we adopted Oscar. Our translator walked us through Red Square but that was it. We would like to go on a tour of the Kremlin if possible. I was wondering if anyone had a company and/or website that they would recommend. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions!

Adjectives now

So thanks to another blogger I found our referral on the Russian database. Since all we have is a picture it was nice to find her there. It was the same picture, but we also now have two adjectives: active and capricious. Based on those two words I think she may be a hand full. It will be interesting to see how accurate this description is.
Our agency is hoping to get a medical by the end of this week. Here's to hoping. Ticket prices went up $120 from yesterday to today!

Woody for Halloween

Oscar wanted to add a picture to the blog. Of course the picture is of Woody! We had a great Halloween.
Now we are busy getting ready for the trip and trying to spend lots of time with Oscar. If things go well, he will no longer have mommy and daddy all to himself.

Not possible

So today we got travel dates for November 20th-25th. The problem is we won't get any medical information until the 16th. That makes it impossible to get visas and tickets. Our agency is working on getting more info because they don't want us to get visas without any medical info. Hopefully they will figure something out! I love the idea of traveling over Thanksgiving though! Saves some of my vacation days for when the baby is home! We shall see if it all works out!