Russia Updates...

Well, Monday the 26th the boys will be 16 months old.  Five months older than when I first received their referral and five months that Joe and I will not get back in raising them.  But, such is life with Russian Adoption.  You cherish the years you ahve ahead of you and not the ones you lost behind you.
We are 95% complete our list of 38 documents for phase two of the adoption. The stuff we are still waiting for is beyond our control; documents of certifications from State agencies (yes, more bureaucracy).  Once we have these, we will send this large package to Trenton to be Apostilled and then off to Russia to Olga, our coordinator.  Then we wait....the judge will eventually review our documents and inevitably make us redo several of them (b/c she loves to torture Americans!) and then we wait for a court date.
We are pretty optimistic that by the time we go to court, most of the Russian backlash of Americans will have subsided and we don't anticipate any moratorium at this point; nor does our agency. 
The Yahoo and FRUA boards are loaded with naysayers, gentle warnings, angry parents and desperate PAPs; and frankly I have tried to stay off of them not to stir any more emotions than I am already going through.   Just know that the media loves turmoil, and they will make this much worse than it is.  many news outlets have already published stories of FROZEN ADOPTIONS, when in fact, no such freeze exists.   This is part of our media that does not accurately check its facts before publishing gospel.  So, please check with a few news sources or people in the "know" before thinking the LA or NY Times are printing gospel.
We all know the Russia and America have had tenuous ties for years and in fact the "cold war" may appear over, but its still cold with regards to Russia's love of America.   We are two great countries that do things very differently and here we will call our lying politicians to the carpet rather quickly, but it takes a little longer to do so in Russia, sometimes.  The older population is very traditional and they view these orphans as "their children".  I know what you are all thinking, because I have said and thought the same thing....well then why aren't you taking care of them??  Well, since 1992 Russia is struggling with its new found freedoms and some social justices might take a little longer to perfect. 
When we Americans adopt these children, they become US Citizens; so what the Hansen family did was wrong in so many ways. [please keep in mind that something is also just not right with this family] They not only returned their child, a Russian Adoptee, but they returned an American Citizen to his country of origin.  Now America isn't going to insist they send Artyom back for the sake of political morals, but he can't just be "adopted" by a Russian family without some legal paperwork happening first.
 There are organizations our there; PEAR, FRUA, JCICS and more that assist, educate, lobby and attempt reform; to much of the international adoption world.  International Adoption has become a profitable venture for many companies and for many others it is still about the children being placed in good and stable homes.
Like any venture, there are good people and bad people; and the media loves the bad people. There is a lot more evidence coming out about this family and we know they are the exception and certainly not the rule on adoptive parents.  APs have spoken out and 60,000 successful adoptions have taken place in 17 years from Russia to America.  Many adoptions by Americans have declined since 2003 [over 4000 in 2003 and 1600 in 2009] because of increased illnesses, more domestic foster care, fetal alcohol syndrome, dishonest agencies, and economic reasons as well; The cost to adopt from Russia has become very prohibitive.
There does need to be consistency in Russia though.  Why some regions take 2 months for court and others take 10 months is simply unacceptable. The parents suffer, the children suffer and the country's economic situation suffers as well. 
 Joe and I assure you that everything is moving along fine and we ask that you not listen to the hype in the media.  We are well aware of what is going on in our adoptive country and we are in contact with the people that actually "know" what is going on there, not the journalists. As of today, several famliles have gone to court in our region and adoptions and paperwork are moving through at their usual snail's pace.  Families are visiting referrals and there is no need to "pretend" you aren't American to avoid street gangs of angry Russians attacking you.  [that statement by someone on Yahoo Chat was by far the funniest I heard yet]. 
Thank you to all of our friends that called to make sure we are ok; your thoughtfulness is very much appreciated.  Everything is ok, and everything is moving along well.  Negative thoughts and information sometimes over shadow the positive of many situations, but Joe and I remain focused on our goal of bringing our boys home; and it will happen.