Saturday, June 23, 2007

Movement on the reaccreditation front!

We have finally heard some good news regarding reaccreditation--praise the Lord! Our agency e-mailed us earlier this week with the news that five American adoption agencies have completed their review by the various ministries in Russia, and their documents are currently with the Ministry of Education awaiting reaccreditation. It is expected to be granted very shortly!

Our agency is not one of these five, and we don't know how long the next group of paperwork will take to reach the Ministry of Education. We are estimated to be #15-20 in line, but that's unclear. But we are encouraged to know that things are moving and happening on this front! It has been at a standstill for such a long time, and this is such great news.

Please continue to pray with us for fast document review and paperwork approval. When we get more news about America World, we'll let you know!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

No news isn't always good news

It's hard to believe I haven't posted here in almost a month! We've been traveling for the last four weeks, and it's just hard to find the time. Also, there really isn't much new news to report.

Our adoption agency is doing a great job of keeping us in the loop regarding reaccreditation, but there isn't much happening. It's not always a good thing when you don't hear updates, though it's still not a bad thing yet either. Just stalled.

Here is the latest we've heard from America World, in reference to a statement from the National Council for Adoption (NCFA):

"Ms. Levitskaya (Director of the Department of Youth Policy, Upbringing, and Social Protection of Children of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science) offered explanation of reasons why the Russian government’s efforts to initiate adoption reform measures have taken much longer than anticipated. The NGO registration requirement and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science’s requirement to involve other Russian ministries in clarifying adoption procedures have presented huge challenges that, in Ms. Levitskaya’s opinion, appear to be near resolution. She confirmed receipt of the U.S. Department of State’s recent statement regarding the rights granted to Russian children adopted by American families – and thanked NCFA for acting as a liaison with the U.S. Department of State on this issue.

Ms. Levitskaya expects several agencies to receive renewal of their accreditation in the imminent future, as well as a steady processing of applications from other countries. Further, Ms. Levitskaya informed NCFA that, after clearing the backlog of pending accreditations, the Ministry of Education and Science will then explore the notion of accepting applications for accreditation by additional agencies."

This statement was made at the end of April, and there is still no word. It's hard to know what "imminent future" means, but it looks like it's still slower than we had hoped. Thank you all for your continued prayers for our agency's reaccreditation. We are trusting that it will happen in God's perfect timing. We'll keep you posted!