Just wanted to give you an update on how things are going in Irkutsk. We spent a lot of time praying last week, trying to see what our next step was supposed to be with the adoption. We were faithful and really listened to what He was saying...and we are very glad we did!
We've booked a flight to go to Irkutsk from May 11 - 24th. We were able to get flights using our frequent flyer miles all the way into Irkutsk (an AMAZING thing in and of itself!). When I first called Delta, the cost was going to be $2000 a ticket- and that was only to Moscow - to get to Irkutsk was going to be another $300-$400! Well, because of the generosity of time of my best friend's step mother (who is a travel agent) we were able to get tickets round trip for only $80! Yes, that is a total of $160! YAHOOEY!
We also found out that we are not going to be owing any taxes, in fact we will be getting a sizeable refund this year! This will help us a big way on our trip. I also had a killer month with CAbi (yes, I took on a second job as a clothing sales rep), so those commissions will be coming at exactly the right time. This is all such a blessing since we had a client file bankruptcy on us at the beginning of this year - that put a financial strain on us that we were not anticipating.
On Thursday night, I got information that the Judge has accepted the documents (thereby granting a court date) to American families. This is a GIANT step forward for us. I also was able to get confirmation that Anya has moved to the new orphanage (actually, it is called a Children's Home or Detsky Dohm) in Shelekov. [UPDATE: the documents were submitted and have since been rejected. So no court date was granted. Also on the one famil who was to get a court date ... the Judge found a statement in that families state adoption law that said 'family must be in custody of child to adopt them' - so thier case was thrown out...the Judge said that the adoption would not be legal in the US]
God is good!
In my experience with adoption, now in the 19th month, I have learned nothing happens to move you forward, without something happening to set you back. So, we are having trouble getting our documents moved to an accredited agency. [UPDATE: there will probably not be any accredited agencies in Irkutsk after this month, so, we've decided to take another route...that being without an agency i.e. with a lawyer in Russia, we'll see how this goes]
Thanks (again) for your prayers for us!
-Kathy & Marty
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