First, a praise: our documents arrived in Nizhny on Tuesday! Now they are in the process of being translated and eventually submitted to the court. Please pray that this process is efficient and smooth. We are specifically praying that everything will be submitted by the end of April, so that we can schedule a court date for sometime in June.
Second, a minor update: While in Russia, we decided to change the spelling of Sam's Russian middle name to better represent how it's pronounced. So now it's Yevgeniy with a "y" on the front of it. Just thought those of you interested in details would appreciate knowing that!
The third update is more serious and a big call for prayer. Beginning on May 1, Nizhny Novgord will no longer be allowing adoptive families to travel on business visas (I posted earlier today that it was all of Russia--I was mistaken!). You may remember that earlier this winter, the office processing adoption visas closed, which halted travel plans for families until an alternative was found. That alternative was business visas, which will also no longer work in a few weeks. Some regions are accepting tourist visas, so we are praying that the decision-makers in Nizhny would see this as an acceptable way for adoptive families to travel.
While this seems like a huge hurdle to me, it is a comfort to know that God is not at all surprised or worried. I am sure that an alternative will be found at some point in the future; it's just unclear how long it could take for a decision to be made. This will affect many families waiting to get their children in Nizhny. Of course, it's clearly within their rights to do this, and I'm sure there are reasons behind their actions that we are unaware of. I know they have these kids' best interests in mind. Please join us in praying that our contact in Russia will be successful in speaking to the right people to help solve this problem in a quick and easy way. And please pray that it will not delay our travel plans to bring Sam home!
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3 comments:
Great news about the paperwork :) ! That really stinks about the visas!!! We have our court date on April 30th, so we'll be there when this goes into effect. Do you know if this will affect us leaving the country on May 8th, or where I might get more information on this?
Thank you for responding. I spoke with my agency and they're unaware of any problems yet. Do you know if it's just the judge in NN that isn't accepting the business visas for adoption purposes , or is it all of Russia? We've been waiting 4 months to bring our daughter home and i'm sick over this, as i'm sure you are. If we end up traveling, as originally planned, we'll be leaving in 2 weeks. Please keep that in mind if you need us to bring anything over for you.
Hey, it's me again :). I just wanted to remind you that we're leaving for Russia on Saturday. We're staying at the central hotel, so if there's ANYTHING that we can bring over for you, then please let me know. My email address is tracy.seaman@gmail.com!
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