The Call we have all been waiting for.............

After a very desperate Thanksgiving weekend, I again sent an email to Olga and Michalina on Monday morning, wondering if there was any news. I already new that Michalina was on "vacation" and would not respond until maybe Tuesday afternoon, but I hoped that Olga would hear the desperation in my words and give me something to grasp.  She did.  Monday afternoon I get an email from AMY PERRY, another SW at Frank Adoption that said the following:
Good Morning Joe and Sandra,


I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I just received information from Olga that you have tentative trip one dates! She is expecting your court date to be on December 24th, although court is not officially scheduled until you complete your mandatory days of visitation with your child before court. In order for you to complete the required visitation, you will need to arrive in Ekaterinburg at any time on December 13th. The most important thing for you to work on today is getting a business visa. I believe it takes at least 10 days to get a business visa so please work on this today! The two agencies I recommend contacting to get this visa are:
1. VIP Passports and Visa Services in Houston, TX http://www.vippassports.com/ This agency seems to be the easiest and fastest
2. Russian American Consulting in NY http://www.russianconsulting.com/ Ludmilla is the contact person at this agency.

We are also in the process of getting a confirmed list of documents that you will need to bring with you on this trip and Michalina will be in touch with you about this tomorrow. Michalina will also check on the date that you will be free to leave Ekaterinburg you can possibly fly home on Christmas Eve but she will find out and let you know.

Take Care,
Amy

I read the email as we are having lunch in Rio Grande at the diner and I am trying not to cry in the restaurant.
When I got home, which was at Mach 10 speed, I called Frank Adoption and was dismayed and disappointed to hear a recording that said they were closed from Wednesday Nov 24 until Tuesday Nov 30.
REALLY !! Closed for 6 days for Thanksgiving.  I get an email with imporatnt news like that and then I cannot speak to anyone.  It is both aggravating and does not instill confidence.

So I did what Amy said and called to get info about the VISA for travel.  Of course it's $1200 because we have to get it in under 10 days.  More Hurry up and Wait from Russia.  I cannot complete the application without more info from Frank Adoption. So Monday night I pace and pace and get very little sleep.  We field phone calls from everyone looking for answers that we cannot provide; and by 900pm we are mentally and physically exhausted.

Tuesday morning we wait until 10am and then call Frank Adoption.  Michalina won't be in until 10:30am.
More of the same, can't get anyone when you need them.  Now I am a pretty patient person and understanding when it comes to this, but you woud think that someone would be available with news this big.
I know if I ever left a client hanging in my job, it would be the end of that client.  Oh, but that's right, famliles have NO RECOURSE with Adoption Agencies in the US.  This is something I will mount a crusade about with my congressman's office when all this is over.

At 100pm we finally get a hold of Michalina at Frank Adoption and she recaps what she knows.  Of course everything is prefaced with the usual  "Well Hopefully" or "Maybe".  The usual excuse of "We can't control what Russia tells us to do". 

We are told we need to be in Ekat on the 13th of Dec but our Court is not until 24 Dec.  2 Weeks in a hotel in sub zero temps. Oh Joy.  The ONLY good part is that we will be with the boys for Christmas and their birthday.  The ONLY good part......

So we have a list of a few more docs we need, two from Golden Cradle, the homestudy agency, and I cannot believe that these docs were not anticipated by the "experts".  This is my first time doing this and I would suspect that these are documents EVERYONE needs and you could have told me 3 weeks ago when we redid the other ones.  Nothing changed !  But do we expect any less?  OF course not.

So we leave 11 Dec and arrive in Ekat on 12 Dec. We are flying AEROFLOT this time and going through Moscow.  Not what we want, but its a $2000 savings on airfare. Duh, no brainer there.
We return 27 Dec into JFK.

Well off for right now-- I will write more later with more updates !!