Remember my Roller Coaster analogy?

Roller coasters are so much fun! All the twists and turns and those loops are killer! Throughout the ride people experience a wide range of emotions. Fear one moment can turn into moments of shear enjoyment the next. Everyone comes off of roller coasters with a wide smile on their face.

Well, our roller coaster ride continues...

So, we are indeed registered with Moscow. That's a huge step forward.

But...now they've once again closed their doors until January 2009.

This isn't so bad. We weren't really looking forward to trying to fit so much into December. Between the holidays, FRIENDS Christmas party, my niece graduating from college and other things going on in the family, it was almost going to be more than we could fit into the month.

At least now we can enjoy the holidays, rest up and be prepared for travel sometime in January.

That is, unless this roller coaster has more loops it wants to throw at us.

G, M and K.

We are registered!

So for everyone keeping up with what all is going on, you'll appreciate the irony of all this...

Just when we thought that nothing else would happen this year, and that it would be 2009 before anything would break loose...everything changes!

! We are now registered with the Ministry of Education
in the Moscow region of Russia !

We're being told that the Moscow region realized that they had room for two more families to be registered in their region by end of 2008. So as of Friday, 11/14/2008, we're registered there!

So, what does this mean? Our dossier is now in the hands of the Russian officials there in Moscow. Typically, once you are registered, you're looking at 3-6 weeks before you receive word that you are to travel to the region to meet the child they have matched you to.

We've been told, based upon recent turn around times, that could translate to us traveling to Moscow, for our first trip, either the week of December 7th or December 14th.

Of course the bummer would then be that because of the holidays we probably wouldn't get a court date until middle January at the earliest. Russian Christmas holidays are spread from late December to early January. Most of the country pretty much shuts down until 2nd week of January.

So, the roller coaster ride continues... At least now it's moving in the right direction...

G, M and K

Russia has called a timeout!

For those of you keeping up at home, you'll remember that several weeks ago we heard that Russia was in the midst of an 'internal audit' regarding adoptions. Turns out part of the outcome from that audit is the realization that they have adopted out too many children through international adoptions for 2008. So, they have 'closed their doors' to any additional adoptions for this year.

This includes any families:

• Making their first trip to meet with potential children
• Making their second trip to court

So, we'll cool our heels for a while.

bummer...

G, M and K