Working on: I dunno... scrap or Civ tonight?
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People have been asking if we're going to adopt again, and when. I'll make a broad answer to that, which I told my aunt over Christmas - if you'd like to foot the bill, we'll start the paperwork immediately. :) Otherwise, we're going to take 2-3 years to enjoy Roman and replenish the mason jars buried in the backyard, and then talk again.

We discuss it a lot, though. Would we request a girl? Would we want to go back to Ekat again? Would we consider another country? Both of us want to experience adoption again. We miss the sights, the travel, the people we met. The places we saw which most people will never experience. The infectious disease ward of a Russian hospital. A monastery dedicated to Czar Nicholas II and his family. I saw Lenin's body, for goodness' sake.

So I keep surfing the adoption online boards, checking out rumors, frequenting some governmental and agency websites. And unfortunately, this is what I've discovered:

Our region is being avoided due to the difficulty of paperwork recently required. I learned today through a source that the female judge we had (who is the only one granting international adoptions in the region now) demands 80 documents before she will schedule a court appearance, including psychoanalysis of the couple.

Storm clouds have also been mounting in the Duma regarding the "easy" availability of children to international couples, and some legislators wanting to lengthen the time children are on the national registry (which allows only Russians to adopt them). Rumor has it that yesterday, Putin signed the bill presented in the Duma that children must be on the national registry for 6 months, instead of the 3 months currently. So running a regional registry for 3 months, followed by the national registry, will now make the children at least 9 months old by the time they can be referred (Roman was 6 months when he came off the registry).

The scary thing about this, besides the general frustration? Regions tend to mirror what the national does. So if the national registry is extended, will regions extend their own registries, making children 12 months or older before they can be adopted? The other thing that bothers me about this is that Russians traditionally have their own cultural biases about children in orphanages; many men do not want to raise "other mens' babies" and there is also a racial bias against those who "look" Asian. So many children will wallow in an orphanage for extra time. How sad.

Lastly, Russia has decided to "reorganize" their departments once again and has therefore halted the release of children off the registries. Until maybe January.

So Doug and I cross our fingers and hope that, when we're ready to adopt again, things are a little more clear. Or maybe, like mentioned above, if my readers are willing to foot the bill, we can get our paperwork moving and get a child now?.... :)