3rd May 2007

Hey all - well the wheels of adoption bureaucracy are moving slightly quicker these days iit seems! Last time I emailed our paperwork had just emerged from the Government offices and we were bracing ourselves for weeks of chasing them through notaries, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and back to the Government before they even got to Russia. Well after judicious bribery involving Thorntons mail order chocolates, lots and lots of telephoning and generally making myself a right royal pain in the backside we managed to get everything done in record time, even with the Easter holidays, and our paperwork was received in Russia on April 30th.

Today, we received an email from our Russian agency requesting that we arrange our first trip to Russia in order to hand in our paperwork and officially be put on the adoption database. We had requested that they try and get us there during Whitsun half term (28th May), we are however going in 10 days time. Blimey. We are now running around getting photos for Visa's, trying to book flights and sorting out Nannies to do the child care thing. It should only be a flying visit out on Monday 14th back early morning Thursday 17th.

After this trip we come home and wait for our referral - however long that will take I have no idea

Vodka anyone?