Movement.

Holy Moly!  The first month after our visit flew by!  The last two weeks?  CRAWLED like a dehydrated snail!

I had emailed CHOC a few times and asked if there was a standard notice time, ie. if our appointment was July 20, would we hear 2 weeks before?  3 weeks? 

There is no standard.  Blah.

I had a little cry on a cousin's virtual shoulder yesterday.  I miss her more than I let on.  I'm sad because I'm forget the way she feels and sounds and smells.  I want to bink my nose on hers to make her giggle.  I want to be her mother, dangit!

That aside, today we received an email from CHOC saying that the embassy has received a letter confirming Dania is eligible for immigration!  Yeah!  This letter, unbeknownst to us, had to be processed in London, England and then sent back.  So, four different recipients along the way, in 4 different time zones, makes for a long transaction.  This letter states that there is nothing medically that should exclude Dania from immigrating.  With that, and the Letter of No Objection from Canada, we should be good to get our date soon!  I didn't even know we had to have this other document.  It makes sense (now) that they wouldn't schedule a custody hearing for a child if they are unaware if she is allowed to immigrate!  She is!  Yeah!  So, we signed the document and just posted it so CHOC will receive it on Tuesday and then they can send it off right away.

The downside to today's email... I have been SO organized and on top of the dates of our documents and what needs to be done and payments and everything!  I blew it!  HUGE!  $6000 huge!  To go into financial detail of this process (just for the fees, mind you) the agency fee is $6500.  That pays for the people at CHOC, their time, their building, their knowledge and their trust.  There were a few fees on top of that for individual documents, etc.  The Russian fee is $18,000 USD.  First, we sent the agency their fee when we started the process and sent them our full application.  Our second lump of $6000 was made when we sent our completed home study, and therefore our approval from Canada, to CHOC for them to translate and send to Russia (hence the Russian fees).  The next chunk of $6000 was upon acceptance of a proposal, so, this was done up in November with the first proposal, and then sat in the bank until we were ready to actually go over.  We handed that to the Rep in Ufa, for her to pay Russia.  Now, in my own pitiful defence, Mike was in the same frame of mind as me.  We've paid 18000... not remembering that the first lump was for just the agency... GAH!  I feel awful that I let that get overlooked.  Our guardian angel helped again, big time.  The cheque has been written, and by Tuesday the funds will be there.  I feel like the asking for the final chunk of fees means that Russian wheels are turning... this will be lawyer fees, court fees, translator fees, the social worker who observes us for a day, etc, etc, etc... always more etc...

Big breath.

It's in the mail, it's being handled, it's never going to feel like we can thank the people who have helped us out enough!  The extra support is unbelievable and so, so appreciated.  As I said in a previous post, I imagine sending thank you cards from her when this is all said and done... and that scares me to think that because she's still not ours until 30 days AFTER court. HOPEFULLY!