Short update

Well, a brief adoption update that will have an effect on things going forward.

We have been thinking about whether we should change to a referral for a single child or stay with siblings. When we started the process there were more siblings groups available and if we were able to adopt siblings then that would be a good thing. Not everyone is able to or willing to adopt siblings. We didn't have a compelling reason to switch to a single child.

Earlier in the week we got a monthly country newsletter from the agency. This is different than the weekly updates we get. It is more about the country as a whole and what is going on outside of mainly referral activity. The newsletter talked about the trend of fewer sibling groups being available and more families requesting only siblings. It also said that the ages for siblings were increasing (we are on the younger age range for siblings).

All of this would mean increased wait times for families waiting for only siblings, while there are still single children available for adoption. Since we were thinking about switching, we felt that this was something that would have us switch to a single child. So, we have sent in the paperwork to officially make the change to a single child.

Overall it is good if there are more families looking for siblings than there are siblings available, but it might mean fewer single children are finding their families. We also asked the agency about changing the age range, which we had as 0-36 months for siblings. They told us that changing it to 0-24 months for a single child wouldn't affect the timeframe of things.

Although we don't know anything specific about timing of referrals, this change should mean that we get a referral sooner. A little crazy to think as we were expecting a longer wait since we were waiting for siblings, but this doesn't mean we are going to get a call in 2 weeks about a referral. There is still a long way to go.

Welcome to 2009 (and then some)!

Well, I want to first apologize for the long delay in posting. I'm not very good at this blog thing as you have seen. When things slowed down I had meant to write about other things but kind of failed at that. I'll try to get back to that, but here is some new somewhat random info.

On the adoption front ...
The end of the year was slow in Russia for a few main reasons. The first is due to the holidays at the end of the year. They take off extra time for it and actually didn't end their holiday time until just last week. This was for pretty much every region over there. The second reason was that they wanted to somewhat promote domestic adoption and fewer international adoptions makes the numbers 'look better'. The problem is that many parts of Russia are pretty poor compared to over here, so it's not easy to spend extra money on adopting a child.

We are getting back into things, working on finishing up the paperwork that we can do ahead of time. We have to go over an online training thing to familiarize us with the various steps in the process and how the travel goes. It gets you familiar with the culture differences and what to expect during the trip. We have even been looking at a minivan of all things. I'll post the picture if we buy it and I get some rims on it and fuzzy dice.


On the non-adoption front ...

George went to the vet last week for a follow-up blood test. His 'numbers' had increased, but the vet was more worried about his weight loss. He was down to 6.8 pounds which is a few less than his last trip in November. It seems like it is a cycle with not doing well then not eating then it making him worse, etc. The vet wants us to change to other foods to get him to eat more, including things like canned tuna. He certainly likes that and has been eating it more so we'll see how his weight goes.

I just got back from a hockey weekend in Georgia. I'm playing on a sort of travel elite inline hockey team. There are two teams, the 'major' team of older more experienced players, and a 'minor' team of younger players who can then move up to the other team. I had played on the major team last year and we did pretty good, but the way the did the schedule has us playing a single team during each weekend. This year they have a 'festival' where 4 or 5 teams show up to play each other. We were in Georgia so took a bus down there Saturday morning and got back Sunday night. We won our 4 games and now lead our division with 12 wins and 4 losses. I feel tired and sore but it was fun. I'm the oldest which is funny. I think that the next youngest player is 24, with most on the major team being about 19. The minor team is 16-17, so I'm the old man on the team.

That's about all for now, although probably not much that is very interesting. Post comments if you don't like to hear this random stuff I might post and I'll try to adjust the content.

Picture of George

Here is a current picture of George, well, current as of July. He doesn't look unhealthy or underweight in this picture. The main area that he looks or feels thin is the rear part of his back or whatever you want to call that on a cat.





I didn't get to go through older pictures this weekend. I had a longer hockey practice on Sunday than I was expecting (2 hours with lots of scrimmaging). After hockey Heather and I went with her sister, husband and kids to the new Bass Pro Shops here to see Santa arrive. We then had dinner, so by the time I got home it was a little late and I had to finish up my literature homework. Some of the real old pictures that we have of the cats are physical prints with no digital version, so I'll need to see if I can scan them in to post.

Another brief update

Yet again nothing very exciting. The agency put out a region update lately (they do this weekly). For our region, it seems that the person in the region that is in charge of referrals was on vacation and, after just coming back, has decided to stay on vacation a little longer. No referrals while they are away, so more waiting for us. still not a big deal as we were expecting to wait anyway. In a way, maybe it is good, as we know we weren't getting a referral as nobody was.

On a different subject, I wanted to get out an update on George. At his original appointments, the vet confirmed that blood test results showed an increase in waste products in the blood. These waste products are normally filtered out by the kidneys and removed from the system. If the kidneys don't function well, the waste products are not removed from the blood, hence the numbers from the blood test being higher. This is why we were giving him fluids, as his kidneys won't heal back to normal, so we need to do things to help limit these waste products.

Giving him fluids was the first step. It basically means using an IV to inject a water solution into the area beneath his skin. It sounds worse than it is, as you get some extra skin on his back and it doesn't necessarily bother them much. This helps to dilute the fluids in his system, meaning a lower level of toxins and helping his kidneys flush them out.

Wednesday I took George in for a follow-up blood test. The results show that the numbers have gotten lower, but still not to a normal level. He also lost a little weight, but this is probably due at least in part to us changing his food. Normal cat food has some things in it that we need to limit, so he gets special food. We tried dry food first (as he already ate dry food), but maybe he doesn't like it so much. I brought home a can of a different brand of similar 'diet' food and he seemed to like it better. Hopefully he will eat it and gain some weight.

We are also starting him with some pills that contain bacteria to help break down these toxins, allowing them to go out through his GI tract. This can help lower the numbers and won't hurt him. We are also trying to give him some Pepcid AC as cats with renal failure can have stomach issues.

George is doing ok with it, I just wish he could understand everything and that we need to be able to do these things for him. Please think good thoughts as we try and help George's medical situation get better. I promise to get pictures this weekend of him and our mystery cat, Lily. She is a mystery as people rarely (if ever) see her. I will try to do it tonight after soccer, but I can't promise anything.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to get that out. Let me know about any questions or anything.

We are registered in Krasnoyarsk!

Sorry for the lack of posts but nothing much has been going on, but that is part of the process. I emailed the agency to see if we are on 'The List' yet in Krasnoyarsk, and she let me know that we are and are waiting for a referral! Yay! Keep in mind that with us requesting siblings, and not knowing who might be 'in front' of us, the wait time is not something that we can guess at. We are hoping for something quicker, but we realize that we might be waiting for some time.

On a not so happy note, we found out last week that one of our cats (George) looks to have kidney failure. Way back in April we took George and Lily to the vet to get updated shots as part of the adoption process. George was overweight so we needed to try and cut back his food to help him lose weight. He had been losing weight gradually, but we took him in for a check-up for an non-weight thing and we also realized that he seemed thinner than he should be. The gradual weight loss hid the fact that he lost lots. The vets ran some tests including blood work as George seemed ok except for the 30% or so weight loss.

Friday we get the word that it looks like kidney failure. I was worried already and then I'm told that. Fortunately, treatment and a change in diet will allow George to be fine and live a long life which is so great. I was surprised when the vet told me that we could opt for a kidney transplant or do dialysis, I didn't realize those were things done for cats. What we are doing is giving George some fluids through an IV/needle setup to get him the fluids that he needs. He has a net loss of fluids due to the kidney issue, among other things.

So, please think some good thoughts for George. I'll get some pics of both George and Lily so you can see how pretty they both are (but don't tell George I called him pretty).

We got the CIS approval today!

We got the approval, really a pre-approval, for the CIS paperwork that we sent in. It is more of a pre-approval to say that we can bring in the children, as long as other conditions are met. These conditions will surely be met, so we shouldn't have any issues with that. The next step in the immigration part is that this info is sent to Moscow for when we travel there after leaving Krasnoyarsk with the children. At that time we fill a form out to request that the children are to be made our immediate family, something along those lines.

The fingerprinting that we had actually went very smooth. The building was just off of I-64 and there weren't many people in there. We each got fingerprinted quickly and we out in about 15 minutes. The fingerprinting went much better than when we had it done at the local police station for the early paperwork. Locally, they had the familiar steps of putting the ink on your fingers and rolling them on a piece of paper. The USCIS process was computerized and your fingers were placed onto a glass scanner type of equipment. You could see the lines of the fingerprints on the monitor as the finger w as rolled around to get a good 'print'. The best part was no ink on the hands to clean off.

So, hopefully we will be registered in Krasnoyarsk soon and the countdown will really begin. Keep your fingers crossed!

Say Hello To My Lil' Friend

Ok, so Tony isn't here but I wanted to give a quick update. I had emailed the agency asking if we would be told when we were at each stage of the process. Well, one of the responses I got informed us that our dossier was on it's way to Russia!!! It will be processed/translated by the agency staff there, then sent to the agency staff in Krasnoyarsk. They will then register it with the Ministry of Education and we will get on the list, supposedly happening in 2-3 weeks. Yay!

So, now that we have a few moments of free time while waiting, I will post a few wildlife pics that I have to hold you over until we get more information.
The first pic is of my friend Tony, hence the reference to Scarface. He was sitting outside in the yard, of course far from the house. He is a black racer a little over 3' in length. Heather made fun of me because I took after my father when I got on the ground close to the snake to get this shot (not that close, though). I need to see if I can post some of his pics here, better than mine are.


Ok, now a nice friend. I have a bird feeder pole behind the house. There are several types of feeders that hang on it, along with hummingbird feeders outside the screen porch. They attract lots of birds, too many to name (but I will if you ask). Here is a shot of a pine warbler, sitting on a basic plastic feeder (not a good shot of it) that can hold various types of food. A good generic feeder (the same one stolen by the bear!).