more questions answered part 4

Since the answer to this question is long...I thought I'd only bore you with one Q&A this round.


START TO FINSH, CAN YOU OFFER A TIMELINE?
Hummmm – I’ll try, this is all from memory (deep breath)

July 2004 Homestudy, contracted with agency
July 2004 referral
September 2004 received travel dates
October 2004 Trip 1 to Russia to meet Anya

March 2005 visit Anya
July 2005 the world stopped when Nina Hilt was killed

May 2006 trip to visit Anya, and figure out another way to bring her home
June 2006 – December 2006 our documents were submitted to the Judge in Irkutsk 2 times, and we received 2 legal statements (if I remember, they were like 30-40 pages long). During this time, we also obtained updates on our homestudy.

August 2007 trip to visit Anya
August 2007 – December 2007 resubmitted documents to the court in Irkutsk. Judge refused to accept (or even look at) our documents…more updates on our homestudy.

January 2008 we begin to consider taking our case to the Supreme Court. After much talk and prayer, we determined we didn’t have a strong enough case against the regional Judge ye t. We needed more in writing (most of her comments / refusals up to this point were verbal). Spoke with our social worker, she created an update for our homestudy in order to keep it active. Also applied for an extension to our I600a INS approval.
December 2008 another visit with Anya, and a firm game plan is established to submit our documents to the court

January 2009 round 1 of our completed documents are submitted to the court – a new Homestudy was completed (from scratch…yep, scratch is EXPENSIVE!)
February 2009 legal statement given, with changes / revisions requested – a new I600a approval is given from the INS
March 2009 updated documents sent and resubmitted to court
May 2009 another legal statement
June 2009 more updates sent to Russia
August 2009 another legal statement
September 2009 more updates
October 2009 another legal statement (this one MUCH more promising)
November 2009 more updates, and a meeting was called from the Judge. Judge said that she wants to give us a court date, there were a few minor technical things that needed to be dealt with in our documents…with that, she would give a court date
December 2009 – updated documents sent

January 15, 2010 a court date was given
February 7, 2010 we leave South Bend…
February 9, 2010 we arrive in Irkutsk
February 16, 2010 day 1 in court
February 17, 2010 day 2 in court – adoption is granted
February 19, 2010 the final decree is filed with the court in Irkutsk
March 2, 2010 we are able to take custody of Anya
March 9, 2010 Adoption certificate available – we go and get it
March 10, 2010 Apply for new birth certificate, and have Anya’s passport photo taken
March 11, 2010 Apply for passport