We submitted our dossier to Russia in January , 2004. Just as we sent it, adoptions halted so the Russian government could rearrange the adoption process. We waited for adoptions to resume until October 2005 when we gave up hope that we would be able to adopt from Russia again. We were devastated.
We started the process all over. We decided to adopt from China. We submitted our dossier to China and received a "log in date" of January 5, 2006. The wait for a baby at that time was 7 months. Shortly after we cancelled our Russian dossier, Russia resumed adoptions.
The wait for a baby in China suddenly increased. By the time our dossier was finally reviewed, our INS approval had expired. We were put farther back in the line, receiving a new log in date of May, 2005. We were told this was not the usual practice. Parents rarely lose their place in line due to expiring INS approvals, they just need to have them current by the time they travel to China. Our bad luck continued. Our additional wait extended at least another 2 years.
We decided to try another route. Nikolai was now 5 years old, so the potential age difference grew and grew. We submitted yet another dossier..........to Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan? We had never even considered that country because the in country stay was sooooo long. However, the processs progressed quite smoothly and our dossier was sent August 2007. Suddenly, for the forst time since Jan 2004, we truly felt at peace. This must have been the plan all along. We are now waiting for our invitation to travel to meet our daughter.
