Another week goes by....

Today, I spent some time discussing the R Country program with the international agency we're working with. We have to go through some kind of physical examination in R Country that can cost upwards of $750 per person. I wanted to understand what that was all about. Also we received a package from them yesterday that talked about some contract/fee changes that will affect us. Right now, the fee we expect to pay in Russia is $21,500 - believe me there are alot of other costs, travel, state-side costs, homestudies, CIS/Visa stuff with US Govt, etc. The case was that you pay a $5000 deposit towards that amount when you receive and accept a referral. Well, now you pay the $5000 and it's non-refundable at the time you submit your dossier - that is before any R Country approval, referral, etc. They've also made one fully refundable program fee only 50% refundable - that's another $2000 of non-refundable costs. I'm feeling a bit iffy about this stuff and didn't get all that much of a warm feeling after talking to our facilitator.

Also, I didn't know it, but this agency had been embroiled in an investigation because one of their recent adoptees (3/2008) died in July after the adoptive father forgot that he had the child in the car and left the baby in there for 8 hours (presumably while he was at work). He discovered the baby was dead upon returning to the vehicle. First of all, let me say, it just makes me ill to think about this family and the pain they're going through. And, no, I cannot understand how this happens, but they need prayer for sure. Of course, this sparked all kinds of negative publicity for the agency and investigations by R Country and has delayed the processing of adoptions for a while. Apparently, the agency was cleared favorably and R Country appears to be moving forward with the applications again.

I don't want fear to guide our decisions about proceeding with an adoption, but I need to be realistic, too, about finances, and uncertainty.

Click, click, click..... the roller coaster starts upward.

We've also heard nothing about the baby in Chesapeake - I will contact CSS on Monday to determine the status since my agency hasn't heard a word either.