Thank for the nice comments on the last post. :)
Dmitri is actually visiting the US for Thanksgiving (he has family in DC apparently). He visited Myrtle Beach to see Diana and her family yesterday and that's when they planned to discuss Dmitri's schedule for going to Moscow. She wrote me last night to tell me that he would be in Moscow on Monday. So Signe and them will be sending the letter to his Moscow office (hopefully right away this coming week) so he can walk it into Moscow while he's there. I'm guessing he'll be there for a week or two, to receive the letter and take it to the MOE.
I'll keep ya posted.
Love,
Molly
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Help me Obi-Wan Dmitri, you're my only hope.
Hi everyone. So sorry for not keeping in touch like I should. It's been a rough 3 weeks! We did get another letter in the mail from the kids, so I'll post that on here as soon as I can find it again. We got our friend Larisa to translate it again.
Since the last post we also talked to the kids on the phone twice. The first time was for about 45 minutes (with Larisa on 3-way to translate) and the second time was about 15 minutes. The first time the kids were energetic, talkative and sweet. They said lots of nice things. Katya asked permission to wear longer earrings, but she wanted to make sure it was ok with us first. I thought that was so cute. The second conversation was a little different - the kids seemed to have a lot on their mind. They told us that they were getting moved to another orphanage in Tallinn because some of the kids were getting shuffled around to make room for other kids. They said they were a little nervous, but knew things would be ok. We got so upset for them, because that shouldn't have even been necessary.
They were moved last Friday and we got an email from them Monday with their new address and phone number as they promised.
Now for the paperwork mess:
There was no news and no news and no news for weeks while Estonia tried to work with the Russian Embassy to get the kids released. They weren't having success, so on Monday the 10th Diana told them that she thought it was time to get her people to take care of it. They agreed, but also told Diana that the Embassy told them that one thing that COULD be done right away is to (... hold your breath...) send the kids to live in a RUSSIAN ORPHANAGE and adopt them through Russia. Gasp. Diana ranted and raved to Signe and then to us, saying that that is a terrible idea. The kids would have to go over the border to the closest region to Estonia, to a place they've never been, to live with people they don't know, be put on the Russian adoption database (mandatory 6 month wait after that before they can be adopted), and then WE would have to do an entire new homestudy and dossier for Russia. So we said that's not an option, they have to figure out a way to get them adopted through Estonia.
We spent the rest of that week freaking out about the idea of having to go to Russia. Diana reassured us that that was always a worst case scenario, not the current recommendation. That only did a little to help our feelings about it.
So then this past Monday, Diana forwarded me an email that Kersti (Signe's helper) sent her, which said:
"I contacted Russia , concerning Shitov siblings they want our Ministry to send official letter with explanation of situation and they will give their consent for adoption.
We are trying to stay positive, but it's very hard because honestly we know that there is chance that none of this will work. But we have to try everything.
In the meantime, (sort of off subject), we were called on to be a backup family for this hosting program that's going on 12/15 to 1/15. A hosting program is not an adoption program, but it's where orphans from another country (in this case Latvia and Russia) come for a visit to live with an American family as sort of a cultural exchange. Most of them are available for adoption also, but the primary purpose is for hosting. Adoption is sometimes a by-product of it, sometimes by a family who meets a host child while they are in the US. Not always by the family hosting. Anyway, we were recommended by someone to be used as a backup family, which means if a child's host family suddenly couldn't do the program, that we would be called on to host the child at no charge because the other family had already paid for the child's travel. We agreed to be a backup because we figured it would be fun to have a kid here for a few weeks, even just as a temporary fun thing to do.
So we got a call earlier this week that a 10 year old girl needs to be moved because her host family has a major health issue going on. So we may have a visiting Russian girl next month. That's kind of exciting at least. But (note to the local family!)- no getting attached. She is only here for a visit. :)
All for now. I have a cold and a lot of work to do today, but I wanted to go ahead and update you all. More later, I promise. Diana should be talking more to Dmitri tomorrow.
Love,
Molly
Since the last post we also talked to the kids on the phone twice. The first time was for about 45 minutes (with Larisa on 3-way to translate) and the second time was about 15 minutes. The first time the kids were energetic, talkative and sweet. They said lots of nice things. Katya asked permission to wear longer earrings, but she wanted to make sure it was ok with us first. I thought that was so cute. The second conversation was a little different - the kids seemed to have a lot on their mind. They told us that they were getting moved to another orphanage in Tallinn because some of the kids were getting shuffled around to make room for other kids. They said they were a little nervous, but knew things would be ok. We got so upset for them, because that shouldn't have even been necessary.
They were moved last Friday and we got an email from them Monday with their new address and phone number as they promised.
Now for the paperwork mess:
There was no news and no news and no news for weeks while Estonia tried to work with the Russian Embassy to get the kids released. They weren't having success, so on Monday the 10th Diana told them that she thought it was time to get her people to take care of it. They agreed, but also told Diana that the Embassy told them that one thing that COULD be done right away is to (... hold your breath...) send the kids to live in a RUSSIAN ORPHANAGE and adopt them through Russia. Gasp. Diana ranted and raved to Signe and then to us, saying that that is a terrible idea. The kids would have to go over the border to the closest region to Estonia, to a place they've never been, to live with people they don't know, be put on the Russian adoption database (mandatory 6 month wait after that before they can be adopted), and then WE would have to do an entire new homestudy and dossier for Russia. So we said that's not an option, they have to figure out a way to get them adopted through Estonia.
We spent the rest of that week freaking out about the idea of having to go to Russia. Diana reassured us that that was always a worst case scenario, not the current recommendation. That only did a little to help our feelings about it.
So then this past Monday, Diana forwarded me an email that Kersti (Signe's helper) sent her, which said:
"I contacted Russia , concerning Shitov siblings they want our Ministry to send official letter with explanation of situation and they will give their consent for adoption.
As far as I understand then we can adopt them through Estonia if they give us permission."
Diana contacted her top coordinator in Russia, named Dmitri (who incidentally is the one that works in the nearest region to Estonia, called Pskov), who will hand deliver this explanation letter to the MOE (Ministry of Education) in Moscow, and hopefully get the letter approving them for Estonian adoption shortly thereafter. Dmitri has many contacts at the MOE, so Diana is optimistic that this will work. She said nothing works in Russia without contacts and/or other means of motivation. So Dmitri will do what it takes.We are trying to stay positive, but it's very hard because honestly we know that there is chance that none of this will work. But we have to try everything.
In the meantime, (sort of off subject), we were called on to be a backup family for this hosting program that's going on 12/15 to 1/15. A hosting program is not an adoption program, but it's where orphans from another country (in this case Latvia and Russia) come for a visit to live with an American family as sort of a cultural exchange. Most of them are available for adoption also, but the primary purpose is for hosting. Adoption is sometimes a by-product of it, sometimes by a family who meets a host child while they are in the US. Not always by the family hosting. Anyway, we were recommended by someone to be used as a backup family, which means if a child's host family suddenly couldn't do the program, that we would be called on to host the child at no charge because the other family had already paid for the child's travel. We agreed to be a backup because we figured it would be fun to have a kid here for a few weeks, even just as a temporary fun thing to do.
So we got a call earlier this week that a 10 year old girl needs to be moved because her host family has a major health issue going on. So we may have a visiting Russian girl next month. That's kind of exciting at least. But (note to the local family!)- no getting attached. She is only here for a visit. :)
All for now. I have a cold and a lot of work to do today, but I wanted to go ahead and update you all. More later, I promise. Diana should be talking more to Dmitri tomorrow.
Love,
Molly
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sweet kids
Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted anything in a couple weeks. I was in SC for a few days and also trying to get some dogs in here for training so we can make some money! It's been really slow the last couple months. Things seem to pick up and then slow down again. I think November will be better but still slow.
Not much going on with the process of Katya and Roman's release. We are supposed to get an update soon. In the meantime, we have been hearing from the kids a LOT. We got another set of letters from them in the mail. We had sent them envelopes with our address on them along with money for postage, and they sent one of those envelopes back to us almost right away. We will probably get more letters from them soon too. We told them to send letters, even if they couldn't get them translated first, and we would translate them here. We took pictures of the letters and emailed them to a Russian friend we've made over the last few months, and she wrote out what they said.
They say:
Hello mom and dad thank you for the money that you sent us I spent them so quick. At first I was taking by 10 Kroons to buy sweets and than rest 50 Kroons I spent on the ticket to children disco. Now I try to speak a little bit in English and hope that this quarter I will have a good grade. In a week we will have a fall school break. Thank you so much for everything, you are the best parents. We love you and wait for you. I am sending you flowers that I made by myself for you. I love you , Katya
HELLO mom and dad, Thank you for the letter and money that you sent to us with Katya. At first I bought some candies on them so I can give a treats to my classmates on my birthday. For the rest of money I got a ticket for a ice-skating ring. We celebrated my birthday at my group and I had 12 people that came for my birthday. My educator (or activity director) made a pizza and cake by herself we put eleven candles on the top of the cake and I could blow out them at first try! My guests were friends and students that I know for 5 years. I am doing good at school even with a math my grades are better this quarter that were last year. I am waiting so much for our documents to be ready so we can be with you.
With love, Roman
They sent little drawings and artwork things, and the flowers Katya refers to are these little green beads on wires that are twisted into flower shapes. Very cute. :)
We also get cute little emails from them very often, about every other day. They say they have been practicing English and if we want to call them then they will talk to us more in English. We plan to call them next week so we'll let you know how that goes!
One of the recent emails said:
You the most best parents
We love you very much
We can't be without you
We have sent you mail
We also miss you
We wait for you so much
Come soon.
Very sweet kids, huh? :) We feel so sad for them for having to wait. More sad than we are for ourselves.
Also recently Katya wrote back to an email Jason sent them telling them about the 6k race he ran in a couple weeks ago. She wrote that she is also fast and can beat Roman and Jason. LOL
I guess they don't suffer from an extremely low self esteem. ;)
More as we hear it, as always...
Molly
Not much going on with the process of Katya and Roman's release. We are supposed to get an update soon. In the meantime, we have been hearing from the kids a LOT. We got another set of letters from them in the mail. We had sent them envelopes with our address on them along with money for postage, and they sent one of those envelopes back to us almost right away. We will probably get more letters from them soon too. We told them to send letters, even if they couldn't get them translated first, and we would translate them here. We took pictures of the letters and emailed them to a Russian friend we've made over the last few months, and she wrote out what they said.
They say:
Hello mom and dad thank you for the money that you sent us I spent them so quick. At first I was taking by 10 Kroons to buy sweets and than rest 50 Kroons I spent on the ticket to children disco. Now I try to speak a little bit in English and hope that this quarter I will have a good grade. In a week we will have a fall school break. Thank you so much for everything, you are the best parents. We love you and wait for you. I am sending you flowers that I made by myself for you. I love you , Katya
HELLO mom and dad, Thank you for the letter and money that you sent to us with Katya. At first I bought some candies on them so I can give a treats to my classmates on my birthday. For the rest of money I got a ticket for a ice-skating ring. We celebrated my birthday at my group and I had 12 people that came for my birthday. My educator (or activity director) made a pizza and cake by herself we put eleven candles on the top of the cake and I could blow out them at first try! My guests were friends and students that I know for 5 years. I am doing good at school even with a math my grades are better this quarter that were last year. I am waiting so much for our documents to be ready so we can be with you.
With love, Roman
They sent little drawings and artwork things, and the flowers Katya refers to are these little green beads on wires that are twisted into flower shapes. Very cute. :)
We also get cute little emails from them very often, about every other day. They say they have been practicing English and if we want to call them then they will talk to us more in English. We plan to call them next week so we'll let you know how that goes!
One of the recent emails said:
You the most best parents
We love you very much
We can't be without you
We have sent you mail
We also miss you
We wait for you so much
Come soon.
Very sweet kids, huh? :) We feel so sad for them for having to wait. More sad than we are for ourselves.
Also recently Katya wrote back to an email Jason sent them telling them about the 6k race he ran in a couple weeks ago. She wrote that she is also fast and can beat Roman and Jason. LOL
I guess they don't suffer from an extremely low self esteem. ;)
More as we hear it, as always...
Molly
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Neverending story
Hi all,
In answer to everyone's question: No they don't know how long it will take to do the next step. Signe says she has no idea. But she did ask Diana to help as much as she can with her contacts in Russia, so hopefully that will speed it up.
No other real news. We still might go on a trip to visit them, but we have to wait and see how things are going with the process and hopefully find out more about how long it will take before we plan.
As always I'll keep you all posted!
Love,
Molly
In answer to everyone's question: No they don't know how long it will take to do the next step. Signe says she has no idea. But she did ask Diana to help as much as she can with her contacts in Russia, so hopefully that will speed it up.
No other real news. We still might go on a trip to visit them, but we have to wait and see how things are going with the process and hopefully find out more about how long it will take before we plan.
As always I'll keep you all posted!
Love,
Molly
Sunday, October 12, 2008
First part done!
Hey all,
We got a little news today. Diana forwarded this message from Signe:
"The Russian passpost has been issued for now and we go on with prosess to give up Russian citizenship and issue Estonian one."
We got a little news today. Diana forwarded this message from Signe:
"The Russian passpost has been issued for now and we go on with prosess to give up Russian citizenship and issue Estonian one."
More news as we get it!
Love,
Molly
Friday, October 10, 2008
Letters and emails!
Hey everyone! No news on the kids' papers, but we did get new emails and letters in the mail!!
We just sent them last week letters along with envelopes with money for postage, and extra money for each of them to spend on whatever they want (the equivalent of $10 each of the Estonian money we had left over). I guess they didn't need the postage because before they received the money they had already sent us another letter. But maybe they'll send more now that they can give the money and envelope to anyone.
Here's what the email said:
Thanks for the cash you us have very much pleased
We want that you were our parents
And the letters we got from them today say this:
Hello, Mum and Dad!
Thank you very much for the ball, a hat, chocolate, Orbit. Biscuits I keep for my guests who will come to my birthday on 12 October.
I visit trainings every day during 2 hours. On Fridays we play with other teams, we have won 5 games and lost only one!
At the end of October, when we have holidays at school, we will go to Sillamae town (North Estonia) for several days. There we will have some games with other football teams.
Katja and I are waiting when the trial begins. It was said, that we must wait a little, because we have no passport and there are some problems with getting this passport.
I want to meet all our relatives and be friends with them.
Miss you very much, love you,
Roma
(Clarification: Orbit is gum. Biscuits are Oreos. LOL "Trial" is our court date. Trainings are soccer practice. Roman is turning 11 years old on Sunday.)
Hello, Mum and Dad!
Today we got a parcel from you, thank you very much! We are very happy! Especially I am thankful for earrings, they are really beautiful.
I do not go to school now, because of being ill, I had a cough and a temperature. But now I am getting well again and on Monday will go to school.
I also visit some extra lessons to learn faster English!
Roma and I are very often thinking of you, missing you. Wait and it is sure we come.
I liked your photos very much, especially Mummy's one, where she is near the seashore. She is very beautiful there.
Thank you for Katja's and Masha's photos, they look very happy. Masha looks like her sisters. Send them my regards.
We also send our photos. We went to Poltsamaa (south Estonia) for autumn days. We played there and had some competitions.
Love you very much,
Katja
(Clarification: Katja and Masha are their friends who were adopted by a family in Texas last June, remember. Camp in South Estonia or Katya being sick must've been the reason we were not getting emails from them for a couple weeks.)
Here are the pictures they sent, and the artwork they drew for us.
I assume the extra people on the left is a boy from their camp and a teacher. I think Katya's animal picture is a cat or a bear. Very cute. :) Roman appears to like abstract artwork. Interesting!
It was so nice to hear from them. We miss them so much! They are so sweet.
That's all for now.
Love,
Molly
We just sent them last week letters along with envelopes with money for postage, and extra money for each of them to spend on whatever they want (the equivalent of $10 each of the Estonian money we had left over). I guess they didn't need the postage because before they received the money they had already sent us another letter. But maybe they'll send more now that they can give the money and envelope to anyone.
Here's what the email said:
Thanks for the cash you us have very much pleased
We want that you were our parents
And the letters we got from them today say this:
Hello, Mum and Dad!
Thank you very much for the ball, a hat, chocolate, Orbit. Biscuits I keep for my guests who will come to my birthday on 12 October.
I visit trainings every day during 2 hours. On Fridays we play with other teams, we have won 5 games and lost only one!
At the end of October, when we have holidays at school, we will go to Sillamae town (North Estonia) for several days. There we will have some games with other football teams.
Katja and I are waiting when the trial begins. It was said, that we must wait a little, because we have no passport and there are some problems with getting this passport.
I want to meet all our relatives and be friends with them.
Miss you very much, love you,
Roma
(Clarification: Orbit is gum. Biscuits are Oreos. LOL "Trial" is our court date. Trainings are soccer practice. Roman is turning 11 years old on Sunday.)
Hello, Mum and Dad!
Today we got a parcel from you, thank you very much! We are very happy! Especially I am thankful for earrings, they are really beautiful.
I do not go to school now, because of being ill, I had a cough and a temperature. But now I am getting well again and on Monday will go to school.
I also visit some extra lessons to learn faster English!
Roma and I are very often thinking of you, missing you. Wait and it is sure we come.
I liked your photos very much, especially Mummy's one, where she is near the seashore. She is very beautiful there.
Thank you for Katja's and Masha's photos, they look very happy. Masha looks like her sisters. Send them my regards.
We also send our photos. We went to Poltsamaa (south Estonia) for autumn days. We played there and had some competitions.
Love you very much,
Katja
(Clarification: Katja and Masha are their friends who were adopted by a family in Texas last June, remember. Camp in South Estonia or Katya being sick must've been the reason we were not getting emails from them for a couple weeks.)
Here are the pictures they sent, and the artwork they drew for us.
I assume the extra people on the left is a boy from their camp and a teacher. I think Katya's animal picture is a cat or a bear. Very cute. :) Roman appears to like abstract artwork. Interesting!
It was so nice to hear from them. We miss them so much! They are so sweet.
That's all for now.
Love,
Molly
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
We want quickly a life
Hey all,
We haven't heard any news from Diana since Friday. I am trying not to call her because even if I do, it won't help. If there is any news, she'll call me. Asking questions rarely gets us anywhere.
But we did get emails from the kids finally so I thought I'd let you know what they said:
"We also you love we very much without you miss we want quickly a life with you." (or, "to live with you")
"We have you sent letters with almost you have received or not." (They sent letters and want to know if we received them yet)
"Thanks for gifts we are glad. Greetings forward to Masha and Katia I am very happy for them. Mom, can you ask Masha’s email address for me, I want that her and I start to write to each other."
(Masha and Katia, remember, are their friends from their group who were adopted in June by a family in Texas. We met Katia while we were in Estonia.)
All for now. Nothing else to report. Still trying to hang in there! It really helps to hear from the kids.
When we get news, more emails, or the letters they mentioned, we'll let you know!
Love,
Molly
We haven't heard any news from Diana since Friday. I am trying not to call her because even if I do, it won't help. If there is any news, she'll call me. Asking questions rarely gets us anywhere.
But we did get emails from the kids finally so I thought I'd let you know what they said:
"We also you love we very much without you miss we want quickly a life with you." (or, "to live with you")
"We have you sent letters with almost you have received or not." (They sent letters and want to know if we received them yet)
"Thanks for gifts we are glad. Greetings forward to Masha and Katia I am very happy for them. Mom, can you ask Masha’s email address for me, I want that her and I start to write to each other."
(Masha and Katia, remember, are their friends from their group who were adopted in June by a family in Texas. We met Katia while we were in Estonia.)
All for now. Nothing else to report. Still trying to hang in there! It really helps to hear from the kids.
When we get news, more emails, or the letters they mentioned, we'll let you know!
Love,
Molly
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