First Arrival

We have been waiting, what seems like forever. The process began during the month of March 2006 with the documents, home inspections, more documents, notarizations, certifications, and apostilling. Whew! Finally, the documents were finished, sent off to AWAA (our adoption agency), then to Moscow, Russia for translation. The documents are translated. Then, the waiting began.
During May of 2006, accreditation of AWAA permitting them to perform adoptions in Russia, expired. Not to be alarmed, this happens around the same time every year. To make things run smoother, the Russian government reorganized whom within the organization would handled adoptions. This lead to streamlining the process further. Make the accreditation period last longer, and not expire every year. The waiting continued.
Now, being almost one year later, there is talk of the process coming to a close. The accreditation will happen soon. As time goes by, every adoption agency from the United States that operates in Russia, have lost their accreditation also. This brings about concerns from family and friends, after hearing in the news that "Russia has stopped all foreign adoptions." Are you sure this is the right agency? We were and still are sure that God has led us and continues to lead us to choose AWAA and Russia. Every indication points to AWAA and that our child is in Russia...waiting to be united with his/her forever family. We will continue to pray, to wait, however long it takes!
We decided we need to learn to be good parents.....sooooo! We (Debbie would say I) got a puppy! Now, that is challenging! We named her "Cobaka" (Russian word for dog) or just "Baka" for a shortcut. I think she is pretty cute! Her mother is Pomeranian/Chiwawa and her father is Shih Tzu. We have our older dog, Penny. She is a dalmatian that is close to 15 years of age and is very easy to care for. Neither of us have every had a puppy. The house/crate training is a challenge.