Crazy Week!

Hello blog followers! I hope everyone is looking forward to a short holiday week, I know we are! Between Thanksgiving and the Clemson/Carolina game, we will have a jammed pack schedule! This has been a crazy week! My 8th grade team threw me a school baby shower that was so much fun! We got lots of good stuff! Then, on Saturday, my Mom and sister threw me a shower that was fit for a Queen! They had the cutest favors...Hagen Hershey Bars! They were adorable! I have to admit that next to meeting my son, it was one of the best days I have had! I felt so special and it was so nice seeing all of my family and friends. Thank you to all of you who were able to join us at the Rose Cottage!

We are still waiting to hear about the date we will go to court. Our agency says the date is coming soon, but they believe it will be the end of December. We were expecting this and are looking forward to knowing something concrete. Please pray and cross your fingers that we will hear something this week. We are very anxious to head back to Russia to see our baby boy! What a wonderful Christmas present that would be. We will more than likely be heading over there for court, then heading back home to wait out the 10 day waiting period. It all depends on the dates.

Pray, pray, pray....

Love y'all,
Hagen's Mommy

More Waiting

Happy Tuesday everyone! I would like to wish Andy's lovely grandmother and my wonderful mother a happy birthday today and tomorrow! We are back in the waiting game again. We are now waiting on a court date. We have only been home a week and a half and we want to go back now. It is so hard to be patient when everyone wants to know! We have a few things of paperwork to get together but that should take a couple of days at most. It is getting harder to be patient when I am constantly seeing holiday commercials. Everytime I see Christmas decorations I think about his birthday and wonder if he will be home for the holidays. I know it is a long shot and we won't know a single thing until the call comes that gives us the court date. Even after the court date there is more waiting. Moscow never drops the 10-waiting period we are told, so after court we will still have 10 days before he is in our care. This entire experience has been great, but they really do mean paper pregnancy. I feel so out of control sometimes, but we feel grateful that we have so many people who are praying for us and who love us. We feel very thankful this holiday season. We would be even more thankful if our little boy was with us to celebrate! Cross fingers and start praying!

Back to reality...

Happy Friday everyone! We have been back from Russia for almost a week now and boy does it stink! We are so glad that we finally got to meet our little boy. He is the most precious baby boy we have ever seen. He has such a wonderful temperment and really enjoyed getting out of his crib to crawl around! He is definitely a mover and we will have our hands full!

It was very hard leaving him but we knew that this was part of the process. That definitely did not make it any easier. Andy and I still look at pictures daily and watch video. We have had a week to settle back into our normal routine. Andy is working a lot and I am trying to control 130 14 year olds. Everyday we miss him a little more. It is so hard to become so attached to something and then have it disappear. I am constantly wondering what he is doing or if he is doing something major that I will always miss. I am worried he will begin to walk or say his first word. He is already such a big boy but the next time I see him he will look different. I have found it very hard to concentrate at work. I am just waiting for the call that will tell us when we get our court date. I am hoping we have him before his 1st birthday (Christmas Eve), but I am trying not to get my hopes up. I can honestly say that I loved him from the moment I saw him. I can't wait to get him home!

We love all of you,

Cassidy

On our way to Moscow

Happy Monday everyone! Only four more days and we will be on an airplane headed to Russia...hopefully. With such short notice, we didn't get much time to order our visas. We are supposed to receive our visas on Friday and we leave on Saturday morning at 7:00 am. Please pray that we receive these travel documents! Without this visa (which is enclosed in our passports) we will not be going anywhere. We are anxiously awaiting our trip and get more and more nervous every day. On Wednesday we are headed to Charlotte to get our fingerprints done. We had this scheduled through homeland security weeks ago before we found out about our little man. It is one of the only documents we are missing for our adoption to be finalized!

We are packing our stuff (well, I am packing my stuff) and trying to get little details together. We had to order crisp $100 bills from the bank and will pick that up this week. Last night we watched videos on Russian history and travel guides. We are looking forward to visiting the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and GUM (the oldest and biggest department store in the World). Well, I am probably the only person looking forward to visiting GUM.

When we get back we will be running around crazy trying to get everything ready. We have a lot to do and I want to be ready in case it is short notice again!

I know I should get some sleep, but that is easier said than done. I spent most of the weekend getting ready to be out of work for a week. All those teachers out there know how hard it is to do sub plans for a week! Tonight I had to finish grading a few papers when what I really wanted to do is look at the weather channel and pack toys to bring to the orphanage.

Ok, ok, ok I am going to sleep. I am sure the typing is driving my husband crazy.

Love you all,

Cassidy (Hagen's mom)

THE CALL

Hello everyone! Today (October 12, 2010) we got "the call" from our adoption agency. We have been matched with a 10 month old boy in Russia (after only two weeks!). We do not know his exact date of birth, however, we have been told that he will be around 12 months old when we pick him up! We are leaving in 12 days to go to Moscow Russia! We are very excited and emotional. We definitely were not expecting to get the phone call this soon, since they told us it could be 4 to 6 months. We are now trying to rush to make travel plans and get our finances in order. We are so happy and blessed to have been matched with a healthy baby boy this soon! We have so much to do but can't wait for the trip! We will blog again before we leave! Thanks for following us!

Love y'all from two very happy parents,

Andy and Cassidy

Passed DSS!!!

Hello again everyone! I hope that you are all enjoying your first few days of fall! I know we are!! This week has been a long one, however, we received both our FBI Background Checks and our Citizenship information. So, now all we do is wait! It could be 2-4 months before the Russian Ministry matches us with our son! As soon as they do, they will invite us to Russia for our preview visit which will last about 5 days. We are hoping to head over on our first trip around Thanksgiving. Our documents are currently being translated to Russian and will soon be sent over to the Ministry. I have been learning some Russian and Andy has been studying the history of Russia. We are also debating on whether to stay with a host family or in a hotel on our first trip! It would definitely be an experiment to live with a Russian family! Bottoms up.....(get it, because all they do is drink!)

Love y'all,
Cassidy

Update from the Dad

Hello to all,

Cassidy said that I should update the blog. I am very proud and happy of the work that my wife has put into this thing so far. We have finally gotten the big stack of papers off to the adoption agency and now the waiting starts. I know my boy is over there in Russia secretly giving a tomahawk chop, hunker down dawgs, and dreaming bout the day he can run down the hill. To say that I am excited would be an understatement. I bought my first onesy last week all on my own (its a cool ACDC Angus Young looking thing with a drawn on tie). I want to say a big thank you to the the Grandmothers, both of you have already helped out tremendously!! I know that the next few months are going to be crazy but this whole thing is happening at a level far beyond our control. We will just turn it over and pray it all works out then sit back and let it happen. If anybody sees one of those cool looking furry hats people wear in Russia pick it up for me. Love you all lots!!

Andy

Moscow Dossier Complete

Hello folks! I apologize for not blogging as often as I should, but we have been so busy pulling together all of our Moscow Dossier documents! This week, we traveled to Columbia where we visited the Secretary of State's Office. Due to the Hague Convention, all documents sent to Russia must apostilled (ap-o-steeled) by the Secretary of State. This is really just a fancy word for notarizing the notary! We ran into one hiccup but were able to work it out! We sent our final documents to the agency where they will check them out and send them to Russia! In Russia, the documents will be translated and we will be registered. They will begin to look for a boy for us! This process is called the "referral." The referral process can take 2-5 months. After we are matched, we will take our first trip to Russia to meet our little boy! While we do have a couple of documents that we are waiting on, for the most part we are just waiting on our referral. We are hoping to visit Russia by the end of the year! I know we will have many things come up while we wait, but we are happy to have our documents in someone else's hands! I was so nervous to let them out of my sight that I eyed the UPS woman the entire time she was getting them ready to mail. She probably thought I was a stalker!

As I mentioned in our last blog, we have decided on a name! We are happy to announce that our son's name will be Hagen Garrett Ethridge. Both names honor friends who have died too soon. Hagen: Joshua Ferguson Hagen
Garrett: Jeremy Garrett Deyton

Love y'all!

What's taking so long????

I am sitting at my desk today and getting frustrated. Surprisingly, it is not because of the 35, 14 year olds running around crazy in my classroom! I know I have heard this same question a million times in articles, other adoption blogs, and witnessed it in numerous youtube videos, however, I keep asking myself: "What is taking so long?" This thing isn't moving at my speed, which is the speed of light times a million. I know I should be patient, but do you know how hard that is to actually do???? To be honest, Andy is much better at this than I am. He reminds me that we will have to be patient and that our agency and "handlers" are trying to prepare me for the BIG WAIT (a referral from moscow)! To me, this is cruel and unusual punishment. I know there is so much I have to do, but everything has a specific order it has to be completed in! But honestly, how long does it take for the FBI to figure out that Andy and I aren't child molestors or felons? I am a school teacher for goodness sakes. Maybe being a teacher makes me crazy, but it doesn't make me a criminal. Ugh....thanks for listening to my rant. I feel so much better.

A bit of good news: we have decided on a name! To be revealed at a later time. The bell just rang!

Homestudy Complete!

Thank you all for checking in on our "paper pregnancy"! On July 20, 2010, our social worker came over to complete our homestudy. A homestudy is essentially a written biography of a couple, their marriage, their childhood, and parenting styles. We were so worried, we worked extra hard in the yard (with help from our wonderful families) and slaved over cleaning our house. Ok...I am lying about that part. We were so worried we had Merry Maids come over! We didn't know if she would look through drawers and check baseboards! We had nothing to worry about. Truthfully, it was relatively painless! She reassured us that this portion of the process would be very easy, though time consuming. About three weeks later, on August 6th, we got the call that the homestudy was complete and ready to send to our agency! The agency will make some final additions and send the document to the Federal Government. We will wait for the homestudy to be approved! Waiting....Waiting....Waiting.....We are waiting for forms and currently working on our Moscow Dossier. They call it a "paper pregnancy" because it is essentially 9 months of gathering, filling out, and sending in papers.

I started back to school today and the principal announced our adoption and I felt very loved. Everyone came up to me and said how happy they were. I am glad to work in such a wonderful school. I wish we could go and pick him up now. I hate knowing he is in an orphanage somewhere fighting for attention. However, I know it is important to be prepared! My mom, my sister, and my niece went with me this weekend to look at the baby furniture and motif for the baby's nursery that Andy and I had picked out. I want everything to be perfect for our baby!

Andy has been working very hard and I have never seen him so excited. He watches youtube videos every chance he can get. In fact, I think he has seen them all! He is working hard to get all of his paperwork together, as well, and we are lucky to both have supportive employers. They have assured us that we have nothing to worry about on our trips to Russia!

Speaking of trips to Russia.....We will be taking two trips. Our first trip (before Christmas, hopefully) will be for one week. This is when we will see our baby for the first time. A couple of months later, we will go for two weeks to pick him up. The cost of each trip is approximately $2000.00 per person. Some of you have already offered to help us with this adventure and we are so grateful to be surrounded by such great family and friends. Many people have asked what they can do to help. We are asking friends and family to donate their airline/hotel miles to lessen our travel costs to Russia. The majority of our points will be using Delta Airlines and Marriot Hotel points, as they both offer adoption specials. Even a small amount of points can add up! If you are gracious enough to help, please feel free to email/call.

Please pass this blog onto others you may know. We know there are many people out their who have been touched by adoption and would like to follow us on our journey.

Love,
Cassidy & Andy

Email: cassidyethridge@hotmail.com
nativelli@yahoo.com
864-552-1684

Our First Post

As most of you know, Andy and I have begun the long journey of adopting a boy from Moscow, Russia. In an effort to keep everyone aware of what's going on (or not going on) we decided to start this blog! As soon as we have any new information, we will post it on the blog! As I said a second ago, we are in the early stages. We were just accepted to the Adoption Hope International Company based out of Myrtle Beach, SC. They are a small company, however, they work out of a larger company in Wisconsin. Our next step will be to complete a Home Study as part of our Russian Dossier. A Home Study is basically a series of four visits by a clinical psychologist who works only with adoption cases. The home study representative will interview us about every aspect of our lives and complete a synopsis which she will give to the Russian government. This process takes anywhere from 1-3 months. After the dossier is accepted we will be given a referral, which means we will be matched with a child. We will take our first visit to Russia shortly after to approve the referral and have our first court date. Then, we will come back home and wait, and wait, and wait. We will then get the call to finally go and pick up our son! This whole process should take around 8-9 months!