Court Date and Tenative Travel Dates

Many of you walked with us as we adopted Igor. You may remember that we had to face a judge and prosecutor in a Russian courtroom in order to adopt Igor. Once the judge granted our adoption Igor was ours. We went to the orphanage that day to start our lives together as a family!

The Ethiopian process is different. Our agency will go to court on our behalf. If/when the court approves our adoption, we will travel 10-14 days after the court date to pick up Henry.

Our court date is rumored to be Dec 2. I say rumored because our agency does not tell us our specific court date but we are somewhat certain court will be Dec. 2. If we pass, we will travel on Dec 12 or 13 to pick up Henry and return home Dec 20!

Not every family passes court the first time. There are numerous legal documents and official papers the judge must have on the court date to approve the case. Sometimes there is a mistake in the paperwork or some of the paperwork does not arrive in time for the judge to rule favorably. If we do not pass on Dec 2, our court date will be rescheduled and the earliest we could travel would be the third week in January.

We are so excited to have tentative travel dates, but we are still guarding our hearts because we know that we may not pass court the first, second or third time.

At this point we have two options regarding our airline travel. We can book our travel now believing we will pass court OR wait until Dec 2. Both options have a list of pros and cons.
Please pray we make the correct decision for our family regarding airline travel.

Igor will not be going with us to Ethiopia. He will stay at our house with Papa and Babushka. He will go to school and stay on his regular routine. Igor is excited about staying home. He likes to tell people- I'm staying with Babushka while mommy and daddy go to Africa to pick up my little brother!

That's our big news! If we pass court on Dec 2 we will be able to post Henry's picture on our blog. We are looking forward to that day.

Fall Fun

Life goes on as we wait for travels dates to Ethiopia.

Last week we went to the fair and had a great time. Last year we wore shorts and sunscreen, this year we wore fleece pullovers and hats! Here's a picture from the National Guard stand.

Igor rode one roller coaster and he decided that he still doesn't like them. He REALLY wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel. We said sure. As soon as Rob and Igor got inside the Ferris wheel compartment Igor realized it swung like a swing. He asked to be let off the ride. Maybe he'll ride it next year.

The fair offers not so healthy food- Rob tried his first fried twinkie and fried snickers bar (a recipe for a belly ache!). We enjoyed roasted corn on the cob, ham biscuits, a funnel cake and a polish sausages.

Last weekend I finally purchased a new digital camera as the previous camera is dead. Taking Rob's old film camera to the Fair was painful. We have been very spoiled by owning a digital camera. We still have 5 more pictures to take before we can have the roll developed.

This weekend was the Fall Festival at our church. It was a great time. We decorated cupcakes, had a pumpkin roll, a moon bounce and more. Igor's favorite event was the tricycle races. This year we had a Christian Illusionist share the message of Christ while performing his magic show. He did a great job.

Igor's latest painting:

This week I am going to the blueberry nursery to pick out 2 or 3 blueberry plants! I cannot wait.

And they are off!

Four AWAA families are headed to Ethiopia to pick up their children! Check out their blogs:
Jam & Cheese
The Redfern's
The Lusse adoption journey
Yellow, Black and White
Now that courts are open our agency has several groups traveling the next 5 weeks!

How do you say I-G-O-R? and art work

Igor is pronounced EEE-gore not EYE-gore. Most people pronounce it correctly but occasionally a doctor or nurse will call out EYE-gore and Igor won't even look up. He has no idea that they are calling him.

At school they are learning the sounds of each letter and how to read. The other day Igor came home very excited about the "E" sound. He said, "Evan, Ethan, Igor! We all start with an E". Now, Igor knows how to spell his name and he knows it starts with an "I". He is confused- why does the "I" in his name sounds like an "E". Oh honey, there are so many exceptions in the English language and your name is Russian!

Igor loves rules. His name being an exception doesn't sit well with him. On his latest painting he signed his name IGORE. Why the E? So people would know to say EEE-gore. Of course, why didn't I think of that?? As soon as we replace our digital camera I'll post his signature on the painting.

Here's Igor's fish in watercolors.


Here is Igor's acrylic painting completed in September. Thanks for the picture Cindy!

Orphans & adoption

Yes, two posts in one day! Who knows what tomorrow will bring??

There are a couple ways you can help an orphan in the month of November.
Our adoption agency, AWAA, is hosting a Gala called "Orphan's Ticket home in
San Antonio, Texas on Friday, November 21st
and in
Beaufort, South Carolina Saturday, November 8th, 2008.

Please consider attending one of these events. All proceeds raised will help:

1. provide the necessary legal services and documentation to help orphaned children become eligible for adoption.
2. open America World Adoption programs in Bolivia, Brazil, India, Rwanda, and Vietnam
3. rebuild a children's home in rural Ethiopia that receives abandoned children from the government.
4. develop an Older Children's Cultural Exchange Program in Ukraine and Russia

You can read more about the Gala and reserve your seat or table at: orphanstickethome.org.

Are you interested in adoption but don't know where to start?
If you live in the Metro DC area Come Celebrate National Adoption Day on Saturday, Nov. 15th from 6-8pm at Grace Covenant Church, Chantilly VA (http://www.gracecov.org/). Free Christian Concert, featuring Jericho, with a Hip Hop Team, a parade of Nations kids adopted from all over the world and a free fair- featuring adoption agencies, adoption attorney and department of family services to answer all your questions regarding adoption.

Re-adoption and BOC

Because Igor was issued an IR-3 visa, he became a US citizen when he walked of the plane in Dulles Airport in November 2005. We've thought about re-adoption in the US but haven't acted on it. Our state recognizes Igor's Russian adoption decree and we have not had any issues using his Russian birth certificate to enroll him in school.

We are not planning to move in the future but we were not planning to move south two years ago! If we ever move to a state that does not recognize Igor's foreign adoption decree we'll need to re-adopt him so he has all the legal rights as a biological child. At our last Russia post placement meeting we agreed to start the paperwork to re-adopt Igor in our state. Thursday we meet with our social worker for another post placement visit required by our state. Our state does not require an attorney to submit the adoption paperwork so we'll complete the paperwork ourselves.

BOC
We have decided on a name for BOC . His name will be Henry. When we asked Igor what he thought of the name he said, "It's a cool name." Excellent! We no longer have to call him BOC!

I have been tagged

My blogger buddy Melodie tagged me today. I am to share 7 random and/or weird facts about myself and then tag 7 other blogger pals. I broke the rules by coming up with 8 things because I couldn't decide which random fact to delete.

1. I would love to visit Uruguay some day.
2. I love Skittles, Smarties and Sour Patch Kids. They are not allowed in the house because I have no self control!
3. I wish I were more creative.
4. I still have all my report cards.
5. I love to garden but not weed.
6. I enjoy watching Monk and Lost with my husband
7. I cannot read without my glasses unless I'm standing under a VERY bright light!
8. I often wonder who reads our blog.

I have not decided who I will tag next... so stay tuned, you could be "it".

I171-H, travel dates the Forrest Family

One week after our fingerprint appointment we received our updated I171-H. This means we have all our paperwork in order to pick up our little guy once we pass court!

We have tentative travel dates. We could go to Ethiopia the week before Christmas or the second week of January.

On a sad note, please keep the Forrest Family in your prayers. In August they received a referral for an infant girl and toddler boy. Last week their baby was hospitalized. Their sweet baby died on Saturday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from complications due to pneumonia.

Court Date & Lance Armstrong in training

Good news! According to another AWAA mom, all families with referrals have been assigned a court date. Our agency doesn't share the court date with us but will tell us when we've passed!

Igor has finally fallen in love with bike riding. Every day after school he rides his bike through the neighborhood. He likes me to run along side of him so I can give him a push at the steep hill. I am getting a great workout while he rides.

Wednesday, Igor informed me that he was going to ride his bike to church. It's just under a mile one way so I knew he could make it. Of course, I was jogging along side. After dinner I thought Igor might complain about the bike ride home. To my surprise, he rode all the way home without complaint.

This morning Rob had to go to the church for a couple hours so Igor went with him. Igor rode his bike while dad jogged. I will be checking Craigslist for adult bikes. Pretty soon a bike ride to the church won't be a very long ride.