You know that game called "Telephone"?

Update!

I talked to Liina for about a half hour today. I love talking to her, she is very thorough and very determined. She likes to tell me all the details, which I love. But of course I can't write them all!

First of all, I got questions about whether this is a personal thing with Kersti that she just wants to stop this adoption no matter what. I can't list all the reasons why, but we definitely have enough information to know for sure that it's not personal. This is a country-wide problem from a misunderstanding and story that basically ran wild, and the story did not originally come from Kersti. All of the Russian children adoptions are on hold until this is resolved, not just ours. So resolving this would mean helping all of the Russian kids in Estonia.

By the way, we also learned enough details to marginally justify the kids having been given Russian citizenship. It might have been debatable on a number of topics, but it's too late now. They have Russian citizenship and dissolving it, even based on legal reasons, would be nearly impossible because that would mean involving Russia. Which obviously we're trying NOT to do.

The news from Liina today is basically this:
The bilateral agreement misunderstanding basically came from a diplomatic letter that was sent to the Estonian internal affairs office from Russia a long time ago, which was read and commented on in a letter to the MSA from someone at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereafter "MFA"). Both letters were very vague, and said that the bilateral agreement should be taken into consideration in regard to adoption of Russian citizens. No one looked into the law to check for exceptions. The primary exception being that it doesn't apply when the kids are going out of Estonia.

In the meantime, Kersti and the entire MSA, as well as the Citizenship and Migration Board, and other organizations in Estonia all came to believe that the consent from Russia was necessary for ALL adoptions of Russian children. From this came other stories about what the Russian Embassy is doing and saying, which can't be confirmed without risking inadvertently making the Russian Embassy interested in something they probably don't even know about now.

But basically Kersti was being told different things from different people and no one was figuring anything out. They came to believe consent was necessary for so many months, that when the lawyer came with all this new information it shook everyone up and now it just has taken a little time for everyone to re-collect their ideas and make a new opinion.

Liina tells me that the MFA legal department is analyzing this as a group - sitting down with all the laws and figuring out whether this adoption applies to us at all. She said they are international law experts and the ones responsible for writing bilateral agreements like this one in question. We expect to get their official response next week, but the unofficial word is that everyone seems to believe that it is very difficult to apply the bilateral agreement to our adoption. If that is what they write officially to the MSA, then the MSA will continue with the adoption. They will do what the MFA says, using that as the basis for setting the procedure to be followed. If the MFA gives a reason why the consent IS needed (which doesn't seem to be likely), then Liina believes that there must be a real reason that she is not considering (which will be outlined in their letter). So basically what they say, goes. If they decide the adoption is legal now, then everything is good and the kids can use old passports (if they have them - Igor is checking that now) and get out of the country with them in their old names. If they don't have them, then they'll get them in their old names before the adoption, I think. If the MFA says consent is needed, then the MSA will be able to communicate with Moscow with a clear expression of what is needed and exactly why. The reason no consent has been received from Russia now is basically the letter that was sent through Dmitry has confused reasons about WHY consent is needed. Which makes the Russians basically be confused and ignore it.

Either way, the MFA will be helping clear this up. The best option is of course that they do write agreeing that the bilateral agreement does not apply to this adoption. That seems now to be the most likely scenario.

It's so nice to finally be getting to the bottom of all this. Liina thinks that it's all crazy that this has gotten so confused, lost in translation, blown out of proportion and took so long to figure out. But if it wasn't for her and Rutt, we wouldn't get anywhere because no one would have considered that they were wrong all this time.

I'll let you all know what we hear between now and the time when the letter comes from the MFA. But all of you please keep us in your prayers. It's a very stressful situation that has taken a huge toll on the whole family, especially us and the kids. Honestly I'm not sure how our nervous systems have survived this long.

Please, let all of this be over soon.

Love,
Molly