What happens next...

I've had several questions about what happens at this point, when we get to bring our baby home, etc. So, just so we are all on the same page... :)

The adoption process in Russia will take three trips...the first trip lasts about a week and we will meet our child. We will spend about three days in Volgograd, visiting at the orphanage during designated hours, and the rest of the time will be spent in transit. At the end of the three days in Volgograd we will sign an intent to adopt.

Then we wait to hear back from Russia about our court date. In the meantime there will be a TON more paperwork to complete. It typically has been about four months between the first and second trips, but this time frame can vary greatly. Our prayer is that things go so much faster than anticipated and that we will be back in Russia in much less than four months. During that trip we will go to court and appear before a judge...we will probably have to make speeches about why we will make good parents, details about our income, our home, etc. The judge will determine if we can adopt this specific child. Then we come back to the US...

And we wait 30 days. This is new as of 2012. There used to be a 10 day waiting period between the court hearing and when we can actually take custody of our child, but they have now increased it to a 30 day waiting period. This is the reason why three trips are now the norm instead of two. It's not so practical to stay in the country for that whole time. After 30 days then we get to go back to Russia and take custody of our baby!!! This third trip lasts between 7 and 10 days.

So there it is. Our rough time line for when we will be a family of three living under the same roof!