Year of the RAT!

2008 is the year of the RAT - the year of our Russian Adoption Tale!

Yes, we're adopting! We have decided to adopt a child (or a sibling group of two) from Russia, and this blog will be a record of that experience. We are at the very beginning of the process, and realize we have a ways to go before we become a family of three...or four.

We have just sent in our application to Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA), an international adoption agency located in Evansville, Indiana. We chose this agency based on its successful program in Russia and the fact that it comes highly recommended from others who have adopted with FTIA in the past. Oh yeah, and it was one of the few agencies willing to work with expatriate couples of dual nationality!

Why Russia? After researching different countries that are currently placing children with adoptive families from abroad, Russia has everything we are looking for - a relatively short waiting time (we hope to be placed with a child before Christmas 2008), a long history of international adoptions, and young children who will blend into our family with ease.

The process includes the following steps: (1) completing a home study and submitting our dossier, (2) receiving a referral or an invitation to travel, (3) traveling to Russia to meet our potential child, (4) accepting a referral, (5) waiting for a court date, and (6) returning to Russia to bring our child home. Step 1 will most likely take the longest, as it requires gathering and authenticating several documents, meeting with a social worker, and relying on others to pass along our paperwork in a timely manner. After our dossier is submitted, we should receive a referral or an invitation to travel within 2-5 months. Since we haven't specified a gender, our wait could be shorter. Apparently, many families have received referrals for a boy in less than two months. After our first trip to Russia, we will return to Japan to wait for our court date. This tends to be about 2-3 months after the first trip. On the short end, we could be looking at 6 months to completion. However, we realize it will probably take closer to 9 months to complete the adoption.

We'll keep you posted!