Anthony on Adoption

So on our final trip as part of the adoption, we found ourselves in Moscow for several days.  We opted for an apartment instead of a hotel room.  Some of the motives that inspired a choice of apartment is: 1) Apartment is cheaper than any decent hotel- by almost half.  2) Apartments have a full kitchen allowing us to cook meals rather than eat out every meal- another significant savings. 3) Most important to us- by having a kitchen we were able to stay in when Daniel was napping and not obligated to go out unless it was what we wanted (vs what we needed). 4) Having an apartment gave us more space than most hotel rooms. With that said, here are some pictures of the Old Arbat Rainbow Suite. View down the street from the balcony View out the window View down the hallway View of the kitchen View of 'master' bedroom View of second bedroom View of living room So what worked well?  Well the most obvious thing that worked well was location, location, location!  We were...

I could talk about the experience... and I probably will at some point, but I suspect people are often just as interested in the pictures as the experience... and to that effect, I now present Daniel Morris.  (Due to a paperwork oversight, he doesn't have a middle name until we re-adopt him here in the states). A closeup picture from our initial meeting A pic from the airport from Krasnodar to Moscow Picture of Daniel beside the Kremlin wall And the obligatory shot with St. Basil's in the background More posts to come at some point in the future but I found I could get these up quick.

Finances A generous and unexpected financial gift from family made it possible for us to complete the adoption and remain debt free. Bonus from work covered the plane tickets on second trip within a $50 difference Work/Vacation Always had enough vacation time without claiming FMLA  (although it came close many times). A security event at work called the on-call analyst to make an international trip with only 3 days notice.  Had Anthony been the on-call analyst, there is no way we would have completed our court dossier before the judge went on extended vacation.  (By the way... he missed it by only two days.) A particular work trip had been scheduled to travel in September back in May- even before we had received the referral.  Additionally, other travel plans for managers would have also restricted Anthony's travel availability.  God worked out the timing of all trips perfectly. Timing We had planned months in advance for Lori to be in Houston to renew Ana's Rus...

As mentioned previously, I am excessively cautious about being too revealing in my details.  I wish to balance this with a desire to provide enough information to help other families that are looking for information on adoption from Russia. The timeline for our adoption went something like this: Nov 2009 - Initial Application to adoption agency Mar 2010 - Homestudy Q2 2010 - Refused first two referrals due to overwhelming physical/medical needs Q3 2010 - Placed adoption on hold due to international political uncertainty Nov 2011 - Resumed adoption Jan 2012 - Homestudy (again) Mar 2012 - I-171H filed May 2, 2012 - Refused third referral due to overwhelming physical/medical needs Jun 12, 2012 - Accepted fourth referral. Jun 25, 2012 - Leave for trip 1 to meet child. Jun 30, 2012 - Return from trip 1. Aug 18, 2012 - Leave for trip 2. Aug 20, 2012 - Court. Aug 23, 2012 - Return from trip 2. Sep 22, 2012 - Leave for trip 3. Sep 24, 2012 - Pickup our new child. Sep 29, 2012 - Return from...

Eph15 is short for Ephesians 1:5- "In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." I can't think of a better verse that captures the spirit and value of adoption.  There are so many wonderful parallels between our spiritual adoption in Christ and physical adoptions in this life.  It is comforting during the stress of international adoptions to know that we are allowed to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Second... this is my second attempt at an adoption blog.  I was chastised on my first for revealing too much information too early.  Consequently, this blog won't reveal the child's name, city or even region within Russia until the adoption is ENTIRELY finalized and we bring our new child home.