"The things seen are temporary..."

OK Sorry! We have been hearing things all week, but really very little has changed. Diana has been staying on top of everyone in Estonia, so she's keeping the fire hot underneath them.

Here's the deal for now:
Diana has told us that she is 100% sure that this adoption WILL happen, and not to worry that this is a potential failure type thing. This is just another piece of paperwork and a delay.

The Estonian citizenship by naturalization IS a possibility. Apparently, based on the official Estonian and Russian gov't websites, they are entitled to either citizenship. Problem is, which one is quicker to get??? It might be that the Russian citizenship and being released from it might be quicker than the Estonian. With the Estonian process, they would have to apply through their guardianship authority (orphanage/the state), and it takes approximately 3 months for the application to be processed and approved or denied. Ugh.

So currently Signe is investigating the options and finding out which is the quickest and easiest way. Also involved, possibly, are any diplomatic concerns... So inevitably whatever keeps people from getting mad is also going to be what is done... But it will be done one way or the other.

We are still unclear on what exactly the problem is. The main reason is because the problem is stupid. We're not even sure if the problem is based on an actual law. There is no law, that we can find, that says that a stateless child cannot be adopted. Diana thinks that the problem may be that after their adoption, they can't get immigration stuff done at the US Embassy without a current passport, which they can't get without a citizenship.

Correction: They CAN get an alien passport as a stateless person.
Correction: They CAN'T get an alien passport, because they can possibly obtain travel documents through acquisition of citizenship through a country.

So who knows what is actually the real issue. Bottom line, a citizenship will take care of the problem.

Diana also explained that in the culture, laws are not all there is... For instance, the US is bound by the Hague convention, and so is Estonia. Which means any Hague accredited agency CAN have an adoption program in Estonia... But just because it's legal, doesn't mean Estonia will allow it or will give that agency any children to place. They don't have to do it just because it's legal. It's about connections, trust, social relations... Not just if there is a law that prohibits something or not.

So at this point there is no need for us to hire an attorney over there or anything like that. Even if we find out that there is no legal requirement for any of this. Doesn't matter - this is what they feel needs to be done in order to prevent... something... I don't know what.

Don't try to understand ridiculous un-understandableness. It doesn't work.

But for now, at least we know (or at least are repeatedly assured), this is temporary and will be fixed, if it's the last thing we all do!

In the meantime, we sent a package to the kids with gifts and letters. The letter we had professionally translated to make sure it's completely accurate because we explained the delay in more detail and told them not to worry.

We got emails from them earlier this week. Their response to our email briefly letting them know that there is a delay with their documents and not to worry was "OK We love". Then they asked about their friend "Masha", who was adopted by a family in Texas last June. We told them how she is doing. Katya wrote back "I would like to see her, Masha was my best friend." How cute. :)

Oh also Katya tells us her ears are pierced now. So we sent her earrings. Cute little flower ones. :) And in the letter we told Roman to make sure he doesn't get his ears pierced too!

All for now, I'll keep you posted when we learn more.

Love,
Molly