I guess it can be good when things aren’t going your way because that means one of these days things have to turn around. Today was one of those days. This afternoon we got emails from both Ilga (the hosting chaperone) and Agnese (our attorney) to let us know that the first orphan court ruling is in…(drumroll please….). That court has denied Kristine’s relatives’ request for guardianship so they will not be allowed to take Kristine. HALLELUJAH!!! This clears the way for the process to officially match us with Kristine as her adoptive parents. It’s like finally the obstacles in our path are starting to crumble away. Talk about a HUGE weight being lifted. We had no idea how the court would rule, so we didn’t even want to start getting Kristine’s room ready just in case. Now we can go buy the pink paint to start fixing up her princess room.
Even though we've received word of the orphan court's ruling, our attorney later told us that our case is still moving very slowly. We’re not sure if that’s because of the slow court system or because our attorney is now working on so many cases at once and is too busy. We’ve done our best to be patient but now that things seem to be moving forward, we want to keep that momentum going. We really don’t know when to expect to travel. We could get an email any day with new court dates or it could be weeks more. We have no idea and our attorney has been slow with information since she’s so busy.
We are also excited to report that we will be allowed to host Olegs at Christmas. So that means if we travel to Latvia and bring Kristine back before then, we’ll have both kids with us at Christmas!! One possible problem would be if our travel dates are postponed until mid December. We would hate to be in Latvia getting Kristine while Olegs is here for Christmas. We’ll have to cross that bridge when it gets closer. We’re hoping that won’t be an issue. In the meantime, we’re just so excited that we’ll get to see our kids soon. YIPPEE!!
Monday, October 30, 2006
10/30 - The Wait is Taking It's Toll
Today was a hard day because we talked to Kristine and she seemed so depressed. She was very quiet and when we asked her if she was okay, she just said “no” and that she was sad. Today she said she has no friends where she’s staying. We feel like she knows that other families from our hosting group are traveling to Latvia for their court dates now. She must be wondering why we haven’t come for her yet. We just have to keep telling her that we’re waiting for the Latvian government to give us permission to travel. We did our best (in our garbled Latvian) to reassure her that everything will be okay. All we can do is pray that it really will be okay.
In the meantime, we tried to call Olegs again because we heard he’d be back at the children’s home today. Lately when we call his children’s home, we’ve found ourselves playing this frustrating game with the staff there. The last couple of times we called and asked for Olegs, the person answering the phone would rattle off something in Latvian and promptly hang up on us. Of course, having no idea what they said and being the persistent person that I am, we kept calling back. It's funny at first but my blood starts to boil after having it happen over and over. LOL! After being hung up on about three times, we finally decided we’d better cool it and just try another day. We don’t want to get on the bad side of the staff, that’s for sure. It’s all these little things that compound the frustration. We just want to talk to our boy!
In the meantime, we tried to call Olegs again because we heard he’d be back at the children’s home today. Lately when we call his children’s home, we’ve found ourselves playing this frustrating game with the staff there. The last couple of times we called and asked for Olegs, the person answering the phone would rattle off something in Latvian and promptly hang up on us. Of course, having no idea what they said and being the persistent person that I am, we kept calling back. It's funny at first but my blood starts to boil after having it happen over and over. LOL! After being hung up on about three times, we finally decided we’d better cool it and just try another day. We don’t want to get on the bad side of the staff, that’s for sure. It’s all these little things that compound the frustration. We just want to talk to our boy!
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
10/24 - Grandmother has to be Fingerprinted!
I forgot to mention this in the last post…I got a call from a security officer at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration office today informing me that my 98-year old Grandmother (she had a birthday last month) needs to be fingerprinted after all. This officer was working on our I-600A application and said everything is in order except this minor detail. If you’ll recall, my Grandmother lives with us and we were originally told that she did not need to be fingerprinted due to her age. It turns out that we were misinformed. UGGGHHH! The immigration authorities have to run fingerprints to confirm that a criminal is not living among us. Luckily, Rob and I passed with flying colors, but Grandmother is still a suspect. I only hope her prints haven’t worn off her fingers after all these years. LOL! I suppose that’s not possible, but one can wonder. A stiff breeze could blow my tiny Grandmother over but they have to rule out she’s not a criminal. WHATEVER! You can’t argue with the government.
So, as instructed by the officer, I sent off a letter requesting the earliest possible fingerprinting appointment. They are supposed to get back to me right away with a date & time. Grandmother actually thinks it’s funny and is looking forward to her upcoming trip to the immigration office. She reminded me that I have no idea what she does all day while we’re at work. She could be up to all kinds of criminal activity for all we know. She’s a hoot!!
So, as instructed by the officer, I sent off a letter requesting the earliest possible fingerprinting appointment. They are supposed to get back to me right away with a date & time. Grandmother actually thinks it’s funny and is looking forward to her upcoming trip to the immigration office. She reminded me that I have no idea what she does all day while we’re at work. She could be up to all kinds of criminal activity for all we know. She’s a hoot!!
10/24 - Being Patient Is Tough!
We’re still waiting to hear the results of the first court hearing for Kristine’s case and have heard little since we were originally told we’d have to wait. Our attorney is now working on many adoption cases so she’s very busy and it seems at times that her nerves are worn thin as well. She is also expecting a baby in a couple of months, so she may not be feeling well either. Rob and I couldn’t help but get a little annoyed when we emailed her a couple of questions about our case and she replied that she’s not an “information office.” We just have to remind ourselves that there is a language barrier and that just might have been her way of saying she didn’t know the answers to our questions. We’re not going to take anything personally. We know she is doing what she can to help us. It’s just frustrating because it almost feels like our case has gotten pushed aside and maybe it has only because there’s nothing anyone can do right now until the first orphan court in Kristine's relatives' region has ruled on her case.
We're trying to stay positive while we wait and to focus on the good side of things. We’re able to live vicariously through the experiences of the other families who are traveling now. They've been able to share some great information with us about their trips to Latvia. It will only help us to be as prepared as possible when our turn comes. One family who is already home from their first trip got to bring their little girl home to stay with them in the U.S. between court visits. We had planned to ask the court to let us do that with Kristine so that gives us hope that we will be able to bring her home after our first trip as well. Our dream is to have Kristine with us by Christmas. We’ve also requested to have Olegs come for a visit again during the Christmas hosting so there is a chance we’ll have both kids with us for Christmas. We’re trying not to get our hopes up too high just in case it doesn’t happen though.
We talked to Kristine this past weekend and she sounded great and was acting silly. She was giggling and chomping on an apple the whole time. Down the road we’ll have to explain to her that it isn’t polite to talk with your mouth full but that’s for another day. LOL! Right now, we'd give anything to have her here spilling her drinks at the table and talking with her mouth full. LOL! She asked us again when we’re coming to Latvia and we told her we’re still waiting for the government to give us permission. We have been told that she may be going back to her children’s home soon. I hope that happens because she really misses her friends there. We're just thankful we've been able to call her regularly while she's been at this other facility.
We haven’t talked to Olegs yet this week because he’s been away each time we’ve called. After calling a few times, we finally got someone on the phone who spoke English and explained that Olegs is away for the week and will be back next Monday. It turns out that this week is the kids’ autumn break so they are out of school. We will look forward to talking to Olegs when he gets back.
It was at the beginning of this month that our attorney told us we'd have to wait a month to hear how the first court rules on our case. The month is now almost up so we hope to hear something very soon. Rob and I will be able to breathe a sigh of relief once we get official word that the first court has ruled in our favor. In the meantime, about all we can do is wait and pray.
We're trying to stay positive while we wait and to focus on the good side of things. We’re able to live vicariously through the experiences of the other families who are traveling now. They've been able to share some great information with us about their trips to Latvia. It will only help us to be as prepared as possible when our turn comes. One family who is already home from their first trip got to bring their little girl home to stay with them in the U.S. between court visits. We had planned to ask the court to let us do that with Kristine so that gives us hope that we will be able to bring her home after our first trip as well. Our dream is to have Kristine with us by Christmas. We’ve also requested to have Olegs come for a visit again during the Christmas hosting so there is a chance we’ll have both kids with us for Christmas. We’re trying not to get our hopes up too high just in case it doesn’t happen though.
We talked to Kristine this past weekend and she sounded great and was acting silly. She was giggling and chomping on an apple the whole time. Down the road we’ll have to explain to her that it isn’t polite to talk with your mouth full but that’s for another day. LOL! Right now, we'd give anything to have her here spilling her drinks at the table and talking with her mouth full. LOL! She asked us again when we’re coming to Latvia and we told her we’re still waiting for the government to give us permission. We have been told that she may be going back to her children’s home soon. I hope that happens because she really misses her friends there. We're just thankful we've been able to call her regularly while she's been at this other facility.
We haven’t talked to Olegs yet this week because he’s been away each time we’ve called. After calling a few times, we finally got someone on the phone who spoke English and explained that Olegs is away for the week and will be back next Monday. It turns out that this week is the kids’ autumn break so they are out of school. We will look forward to talking to Olegs when he gets back.
It was at the beginning of this month that our attorney told us we'd have to wait a month to hear how the first court rules on our case. The month is now almost up so we hope to hear something very soon. Rob and I will be able to breathe a sigh of relief once we get official word that the first court has ruled in our favor. In the meantime, about all we can do is wait and pray.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
10/17 - The Wait Continues!
Even though it’s supposed to be a few more weeks before we’ll hear news of the first orphan court’s ruling for Kristine’s case, we are constantly checking email now hoping to hear something sooner. One thing that helps us get through the wait is the fact that we’re able to talk to the kids. We found out that Kristine was moved to a new place last week so she could get some more individualized attention right now. She’s okay but just has a lot of issues to sort out. Of course, upon hearing the news that she was moved, we wanted to call her right away and make sure she was alright. Thankfully, our attorney got the new number for us. We were a little nervous to call this new place (it’s so intimidating not being able to speak their language). We called and asked for Kristine, throwing in a couple of Latvian greetings in the process. Next thing we knew the person on the other end started speaking English to us. WHEW!! This nice lady gave us a direct number to call to get directly to Kristine so we called and got her right away. This was last week and Kristine had just gotten to this new place. She was a little down and asked when we are coming to Latvia. We have to keep telling her that we’re waiting for the government to give us permission, all the while praying that they WILL give us that permission. We reminded her to pray and told her that we love her and miss her so much.
We talked to Kristine again this past Sunday. It was a little more challenging to get through this time. I don’t know if the lady who answered the phone just didn’t like us or if Kristine wasn’t there. It was pretty comical. When we called and asked for Kristine, the woman simply said “NO” and hung up. So being the persistent person I am, I called right back and asked for Kristine again. The woman rattled off something in Latvian and hung up on us again. So we called a 3rd time but this time there was no answer. Obviously, they weren’t picking up on purpose. So the whole time Rob and I were asking ourselves, What was up with that? WHATEVER! We called back a couple of hours later and got a really nice woman who got Kristine to the phone right away. Kristine was much more cheerful on Sunday. She said she was happy and actually liked it at the new place. She had made some new friends. That put our minds at ease to hear that she is okay and that the people are nice there.
We couldn’t get Olegs on Sunday (no answer at his children’s home) so we tried again on Monday. It’s hilarious when we call there because the woman who answers that phone yells at the top of her lungs for Olegs to come. We could tell she was walking down the hall hollering for him because the volume got lower and lower until finally we heard footsteps running to the phone. That was our boy! He was in rare form when we talked to him this time. He had friends with him and they were picking on him and making noises into the phone (typical annoying kid stuff). He kept cracking up and it was the most wonderful sound to hear that laugh we love. At one point, Olegs’ friend yelled something into the phone and then they hung up on us. We called right back and Olegs was yelling at this particular friend (who was a girl by the way) to tell her to leave him alone. Of course, we asked if that was his “girlfriend” and he said “NOOOOOOOOO!!” We had a good visit and he said he was happy and doing good.
Each day we remind ourselves that we’re one day closer to traveling. We know that we’ll look back on this after it’s all over and the long, agonizing wait will seem so insignificant once we have our kids home. Doesn’t make the wait any easier NOW though!
We talked to Kristine again this past Sunday. It was a little more challenging to get through this time. I don’t know if the lady who answered the phone just didn’t like us or if Kristine wasn’t there. It was pretty comical. When we called and asked for Kristine, the woman simply said “NO” and hung up. So being the persistent person I am, I called right back and asked for Kristine again. The woman rattled off something in Latvian and hung up on us again. So we called a 3rd time but this time there was no answer. Obviously, they weren’t picking up on purpose. So the whole time Rob and I were asking ourselves, What was up with that? WHATEVER! We called back a couple of hours later and got a really nice woman who got Kristine to the phone right away. Kristine was much more cheerful on Sunday. She said she was happy and actually liked it at the new place. She had made some new friends. That put our minds at ease to hear that she is okay and that the people are nice there.
We couldn’t get Olegs on Sunday (no answer at his children’s home) so we tried again on Monday. It’s hilarious when we call there because the woman who answers that phone yells at the top of her lungs for Olegs to come. We could tell she was walking down the hall hollering for him because the volume got lower and lower until finally we heard footsteps running to the phone. That was our boy! He was in rare form when we talked to him this time. He had friends with him and they were picking on him and making noises into the phone (typical annoying kid stuff). He kept cracking up and it was the most wonderful sound to hear that laugh we love. At one point, Olegs’ friend yelled something into the phone and then they hung up on us. We called right back and Olegs was yelling at this particular friend (who was a girl by the way) to tell her to leave him alone. Of course, we asked if that was his “girlfriend” and he said “NOOOOOOOOO!!” We had a good visit and he said he was happy and doing good.
Each day we remind ourselves that we’re one day closer to traveling. We know that we’ll look back on this after it’s all over and the long, agonizing wait will seem so insignificant once we have our kids home. Doesn’t make the wait any easier NOW though!
Sunday, October 08, 2006
10/8 - Lighthearted talk with kids
This morning we made our normal weekly call to the children’s home and asked for Olegs first this time. We looked up more Latvian words so we could talk to him better. He says “yes” to everything, whether he understands us or not, so we have to speak more Latvian with him so he can really understand. We asked about the weather and if it was snowing. He said “no” but it was rainy. He said he was happy and having a good day. We had to talk loud at times. In the background, we could hear someone screaming and gunshots going off!! Turns out they were watching some violent movie and had the volume turned up way loud. We talked with Olegs a little more about his school and updated him on what’s going on here before we asked him to get Kristine. We signed off by telling Olegs how much we love him and miss him and then said, “We talk to Kristine now. You get Kristine?” He said “yes” and promptly hung up on us! We definitely need to work on our Latvian! LOL! Rob and I chuckled and then called right back. One of the older boys answered the phone and when we asked for Kristine, we could hear Olegs in the background going “OOOYYYYY” which is what he says when he realizes he misunderstood something.
We had a good chat with Kristine too. She was happy and very chatty. She wanted to know when we are coming to Latvia now and we told her we’re waiting for the Latvian government to give us permission. We just told her to pray that it will be soon and we will pray too. We talked about Halloween coming up soon in America and asked if they celebrate Halloween in Latvia. Kristine got very excited and said “oh yes, my costume is witch.” The kids in Latvia also get lots of candy. Kristine always tells us how much she loves dance, so we normally tell her she should be a ballerina. She can't stand it when we say that. She says, “I no like ballerina, I only like hip-hop dance.” We joked that she could be a hip-hop ballerina and dress up like a hip-hop ballerina for Halloween…she’d be the first and only one. She had a good laugh, but I’m sure she must think we’re crazy at times. HA!
Throughout the conversation, that dang TV seemed to get louder and louder…more ladies screaming and people being shot! We asked Kristine if the children at her children’s home had hearing problems because their TV is so loud. She laughed and said “no.” She’s in for a big reality check when she gets here…mom and dad will be controlling the remote and her TV watching will be censored. We’ll wait to spring that on her when she gets here.
All in all it was great to have a light-hearted conversation with the kids and to have a relaxing weekend this weekend. The events of the last couple of weeks had definitely added some stress but that has since subsided somewhat. We'll continue to await the various court rulings and try to keep busy in the meantime. We have every reason to believe the rulings will be in our favor so we're focusing on that and remaining positive.
We had a good chat with Kristine too. She was happy and very chatty. She wanted to know when we are coming to Latvia now and we told her we’re waiting for the Latvian government to give us permission. We just told her to pray that it will be soon and we will pray too. We talked about Halloween coming up soon in America and asked if they celebrate Halloween in Latvia. Kristine got very excited and said “oh yes, my costume is witch.” The kids in Latvia also get lots of candy. Kristine always tells us how much she loves dance, so we normally tell her she should be a ballerina. She can't stand it when we say that. She says, “I no like ballerina, I only like hip-hop dance.” We joked that she could be a hip-hop ballerina and dress up like a hip-hop ballerina for Halloween…she’d be the first and only one. She had a good laugh, but I’m sure she must think we’re crazy at times. HA!
Throughout the conversation, that dang TV seemed to get louder and louder…more ladies screaming and people being shot! We asked Kristine if the children at her children’s home had hearing problems because their TV is so loud. She laughed and said “no.” She’s in for a big reality check when she gets here…mom and dad will be controlling the remote and her TV watching will be censored. We’ll wait to spring that on her when she gets here.
All in all it was great to have a light-hearted conversation with the kids and to have a relaxing weekend this weekend. The events of the last couple of weeks had definitely added some stress but that has since subsided somewhat. We'll continue to await the various court rulings and try to keep busy in the meantime. We have every reason to believe the rulings will be in our favor so we're focusing on that and remaining positive.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
10/5 - Hurry Up & Wait!
This week we found out that the orphan court in the district where Kristine’s relatives live must now rule on the issue of us adopting Kristine. Once that ruling is in, the orphan court in Riga will be able to rule on the matter. Our attorney says it will take about a month to get the first ruling. We’re not sure how long after that we’ll get the second ruling. So now we have to sit tight and wait. It’s a little frustrating considering we were supposed to be leaving for Latvia tomorrow! :-( However, now that we know we won’t be traveling until next month sometime (hopefully), we can put this all aside for a little while and relax a bit. All the ups and downs were making us nuts!
We’re told that the orphan court rulings will most likely be in our favor but you just never know when there are foreign governments involved. In Latvia, the law states that preference is given to Latvian families in adoption cases. Luckily, the child’s wishes carry a lot of weight so that’s in our favor. Kristine has made it clear to everyone that she thinks of us as her family and wants to be with us. The relatives are strangers to her. This all just reminds us that the whole matter is in God’s hands.
One bit of good news we got was that Kristine didn’t have to be moved to another children’s home (at least not right now). We had first been told that they already moved her but then the next day we found out that they didn’t move her after all. We were able to talk to her on Tuesday morning and she sounded so good. This time she said she was happy, much different from the last time we talked when she said she wasn’t okay.
As you can imagine, we were also concerned about the money we could potentially be losing now that we have to change our flights and hotel. Thankfully, I was able to call the hotel in London (we had an overnight layover on the return trip) and they agreed to cancel our reservation and not charge us. This was big because we had booked a non-cancelable, non-refundable room to get the cheapest rate. We needed a hotel at the airport and those are very expensive so this saved us about $250. WHEW!! We had booked our airfare through an online travel agency so they canceled our reservation for us and will apply a partial credit when we book our next trip. We won’t know until we make our new flight arrangements how much we’ll lose on the flights. Delta charges $200 per ticket change fee for international flights and then we’ll have to pay the difference in fare, plus a small travel agency fee for ticket processing.
When the time comes to book our new flights, I’ll just explain our situation again and hopefully I’ll get a compassionate person on the line who can adjust the fees. Another good thing is that we didn't lose money on the apartment we reserved in Riga. We hadn't paid any money for that yet so they simply canceled our reservation.
So now we wait and pray.
We’re told that the orphan court rulings will most likely be in our favor but you just never know when there are foreign governments involved. In Latvia, the law states that preference is given to Latvian families in adoption cases. Luckily, the child’s wishes carry a lot of weight so that’s in our favor. Kristine has made it clear to everyone that she thinks of us as her family and wants to be with us. The relatives are strangers to her. This all just reminds us that the whole matter is in God’s hands.
One bit of good news we got was that Kristine didn’t have to be moved to another children’s home (at least not right now). We had first been told that they already moved her but then the next day we found out that they didn’t move her after all. We were able to talk to her on Tuesday morning and she sounded so good. This time she said she was happy, much different from the last time we talked when she said she wasn’t okay.
As you can imagine, we were also concerned about the money we could potentially be losing now that we have to change our flights and hotel. Thankfully, I was able to call the hotel in London (we had an overnight layover on the return trip) and they agreed to cancel our reservation and not charge us. This was big because we had booked a non-cancelable, non-refundable room to get the cheapest rate. We needed a hotel at the airport and those are very expensive so this saved us about $250. WHEW!! We had booked our airfare through an online travel agency so they canceled our reservation for us and will apply a partial credit when we book our next trip. We won’t know until we make our new flight arrangements how much we’ll lose on the flights. Delta charges $200 per ticket change fee for international flights and then we’ll have to pay the difference in fare, plus a small travel agency fee for ticket processing.
When the time comes to book our new flights, I’ll just explain our situation again and hopefully I’ll get a compassionate person on the line who can adjust the fees. Another good thing is that we didn't lose money on the apartment we reserved in Riga. We hadn't paid any money for that yet so they simply canceled our reservation.
So now we wait and pray.
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