Stuck

We are approaching the two year anniversary of the day Putin put a stop to adoptions from Russia. While we were affected by this, we had at least not had a referral or met a child we had hoped to adopt when this happened. We were crushed nonetheless, but others had already met children they planned to call their own.

This is Natasha. Natasha was only 6 years old when a loving family met her and agreed to adopt her. She has spent an extra 2 1/2 years in an orphanage because of the adoption ban and most likely will spend the rest of her life without ever knowing the love of a family if changes are not made.


In honor of Natasha's 9th birthday and the 2 year anniversary of the adoption ban please join together with us to get 10,000 likes on the Parents United for Russian Orphans FB page by the end of the year.
https://www.facebook.com/parentsunitedforrussianorphans
Our goal is for people around the world to come together to help the children stuck in Russian orphanages by providing information and supporting groups that help the children have better lives. We are begging the Russian government to bring about change for the better and continue to ask them to work with our government to allow the remaining pipeline children to come home. If this is not possible, we pray the children will speedily find loving homes in Russia and that the government will provide the necessary support system for them.






And the link to our blog and this beautifully written article by Russian journalist and volunteer for Downside Up Julia Kolesnickenko that has links to our documentary that will be shown in Russia on December 13th.

http://parentsunitedforrussianorphans.blogspot.com/

And the link to the documentary FB page. https://www.facebook.com/childrenofthestate

No news does not mean good news in the adoption world

This is a post that has been in the back of my mind for a few months now and I just never get around to posting. Well, after hitting an all-time low today, I feel it's time to post.

Back on August 21st we received word that our Article 5 has been approved - that's the last step on the US side of the adoption (and basically the last step we had any control over). It had a few spelling mistakes on it, but we brought it to the attention of the Embassy and they fixed it immediately. Since that day, the ball has been in India's court so to speak. The steps needed from there to bring "little brother" home are ARC (state level approval), NOC (national approval), court and finally passport. Each step cannot happen before the step before. Since August 21, I have started each week with the thought "this is our week to get ARC". At the end of each week, I'd feel defeated. But with each new Monday I'd get a renewed sense of hope. At first, we still had hope to have him home by the end of the year. But the weeks and months went by and it became painfully clear that it most likely will be spring before we have gotcha.

In November, "little brother" celebrated his 5th birthday. FIVE YEARS of not knowing the love of a family. At our begging, the orphanage threw him a small birthday party. When they brought out cake and sang to him, he was confused. Apparently this is the first time they've "celebrated" him. He didn't understand what a birthday was, and it breaks my heart. I pray it was his last one there.

In the meantime, families waiting for ARC in the state of M@h@r@shtr@ were "piling" up (as many as 4 that we know of). Last week, two of the four families we know of to be waiting, got ARC - the two that had been waiting the least amount of time, the two that were at the top of the stack so to speak. So of course I got excited and emailed our caseworker to find out if we too got ARC (I mean, we should, right? How could that committee meet, give out approvals to some and not to others? Oh wait, this is Ind!a.....). As of today, we are still waiting to hear what our status is regarding our ARC approval. And the 2 families that got ARC? In the meantime they have also gotten NOC and are now waiting to be filed in court. While I WANT to be happy for these families, it's.so.hard! Why them and not us? Why does our guy have to wait a day longer than he already has?

So anyway, our caseworker will be calling our orphanage tonight (Ind!a is 10 and a half hours ahead of us) to try and get some answers. Did we get ARC? If so, great, file whatever paperwork that is necessary so that we can get NOC soon. If not, why the heck not?? It's been confirmed in the past that the committee did not see any other paperwork was needed from us to issue ARC, so what's the holdup?

In the meantime, please pray for our situation, and as always, pray for "little brother". I pray that he knows we are doing everything we can to get him home as soon as possible! Please pray we have good news soon!

~paula

Start of a new adventure...

So, it’s been 5 years now since Cecelia has been home and a major part of our lives. Through the last few years we decided that she shouldn't be the only child. Thus began our adventure to expand our family again. 

At first we thought we would be going back to Kazakhstan but they had already closed their adoption program down for reform (which never really opened back up since). Then we thought we would go to Russia. The thought being that Cece's sibling would have a stronger tie to her since they would be both Russian. Nice thought, but then Putin decided to be an a-hole and close the adoption program down for Americans. So be it. We moved on. We then looked into Bulgaria, got pretty good into it but then fate decided that our child just was not meant to be from Bulgaria. It was then that India was brought to our attention and both Paula and I knew from hat moment that we were destined to go to India for our child.

Now, during all this time, the last four years or so, Cecelia has been crying the blues about being the only child, about being all alone and not having a brother or sister to play with. It hurt her more when our friends would be over and they would have siblings. Cecelia would play nice, be bossy most of the time (like a typical big sister) and then would throw a fit or start to cry when they would leave. "I'm all alone!" was all we would hear for days on end. Currently, all we hear from Cecelia now is "We'll have to teach my brother this!" or "I know what we will need to show him!" Big turn around and makes us, as parents, happy that we can finally create a "whole" family. 

From this point on, we have start getting ourselves prepared to have a new addition to the O'Brien family, get Cecelia more prepared and ready to be a new big sister. A change for her? You betcha. She'll no longer be the center of attention and no longer to be soul grandchild to Grandpa Chuck or Grandma Joanne. That will be the shock we'll be waiting for her once her brother comes home.

It will definitely be a new challenge for Paula and I, I know, but a challenge we accept from day one. This whole experience is different from what we went through with Cecelia, and once we get to travel, that will be a bigger shock than living in Kazakhstan for a month (at least when we were in country, I was able to blend in. India, oh lord, no matter what, we'll be sticking out as "tourists" the moment we arrive!). 

I also want to take this moment in thanking all our family and friends for all your support in this! Without any of you, this would, could, never happen. It makes us more humble in knowing that we are surrounded by such loving and caring family and friends, makes us more blessed! Thank you all from the depths of our hearts!

~Scott