Olive? Did you think I was going to say Carmen Santiago?
(if you don’t get the joke, don’t ask - it wasn’t a good one anyway…)
What region did you go with? Why?
This post is as simple as that. I know that some agencies limit your regions, some select them for you….
but, still I’d like to learn as much as I can. The agency we’re going to be working with works in the following regions:
Astrakhan
Kazan
Moscow City
Moscow District
Nishniy Novgorod
Omsk
Perm
St. Petersburg
I hear so many different positives and negatives about all of them. It’s very overwhelming. I know it’s really early for me to even be concerned, but I’d like to start getting some research done now. We’d like to go with a region that often waives the 10 day waiting period. We’d prefer a city to the country, although it’s not crucial. We’d like our child to be caucasian, fair skinned - like us. So a region that’s children are typically of that appearance. We don’t mind the 8 doctor medical, although of course we’d prefer not to have to deal with it. We’d like a region with a short time period between the time you meet your child and go back to court. We’d also like the region to give referrals at 8 months. We don’t mind waiting longer, we just know that we want a young, infant.
I don’t mean to offend anyone who disagrees with our preferences. This is the type of child we feel we can be parents to - This is what we feel is best for us. Not necessarily what is best for everyone. So, any experiences or knowledge about regions that would work with our preferences?
We’re not going to any of those. Our agency chose for us. We’re going to Tambov.
I have a list of who’s been or going. http://russianbrown.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-region-are-you-from_07.html There are a few home from St Pete & Moscow and some going to a couple of the others you have listed.
Comment by Debbie — July 22, 2007 @ 9:00 pm
Hey Christen
I know I’ve talked with you about this before. But as much as I love Astrakhan, I’m not sure I could recommend choosing that region. As you know, of course, the kids have a multitude of ethnicities (although the MOE does a great job of “matching” the children to their parents’ appearance - she prides herself on that). But there have been many changes recently and it’s become a much more difficult region. I won’t go into details but I will say that if we go for a fourth adoption, I’m not sure I would even go back to Astrakhan. Also, they are not waiving the 10-days anymore:(
I don’t have any advice on any other regions. But I think it’s great that you’re starting to plan now. Makes the big decisions that much easier to make when the time comes.
Comment by Allison — July 22, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
Hi Christen - we were given a couple of choices for our region and ended up selecting Moscow. We preferred city over rural and also want a child with similar appearance to us.
The downside of selecting Moscow has been the wait. Since it is Moscow, they follow all the rules strictly and won’t be waiving the 10-day or allowing anything to happen until our agency has its accreditation.
If we would have had any idea that the accreditations were going to take this long, we probably would have selected a different region that our agency could process us through without the accreditation. We have struggled several times over deciding whether to switch to a different region or not. Every time we decided we should then something would happen making us think it was all about to end so we have stayed put.
My advice is to research the current state of how the adoptions are processing when you get to the point that you are ready to turn in your dossier and then decide if any of the regions are going to process faster for you at that time.
Good luck and I look forward to following your journey in the near future!
Comment by Dede — July 23, 2007 @ 12:37 am
we went to St. Petes and loved it. The agency rep in St. Petes was awesome. Really. We did get the 10 days waived. There seemed to be a balance of fair-skinned and olive-skinned children so you never know what you’ll get referred. Staying in the city was fantastic and it was easy to get around…plus the sites are beautiful. The 8-doc medical was able to be done in the States. Email me for more information if you’d like.
Comment by annmarie — July 23, 2007 @ 2:13 am
I think your Olive is in Omsk… don’t ask me why… just a gut feeling… I cant wait to find out if I am right
Comment by Lauri — July 23, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
we loved our region — st. pete’s. we didn’t get our 10-days waived though. our agency said it was more likely than not that it wouldn’t be waived in st. pete’s so that is the only down side. plus the not knowing whether it would be waived or not was a challenge for planning. other than that it was great. your agency really should be able to help you pick the best region based on the preferences you stated. ours did that for us.
Comment by rachael — July 23, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
I believe we’re using the same agency and since they are not re-accredited yet, they are only processing in 2 regions, I believe. Of those 2, the coordinator that we spoke with suggested that Moscow region would be best for what we are looking for. I’m not sure about your other specifications, as we’re not there yet (like the medical and waiting period). But thought I’d let you know for what it’s worth.
Comment by JennStar — July 24, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
We only had a choice between Yaroslavl and Moscow City. Yaroslavl was really, really slow at the time so we went with Moscow City. We couldn’t have been happier! If it hadn’t been for the personnel changes in the Moscow Office we would have had the adoption completed in 5 months! Our son was refered to us at 9 months old. I thought that was the youngest possible, but guess not. He fits with our family (as far as looks go) very well. Everyone is always commenting on how much he looks like his Daddy!
Also, I’ve heard Moscow City is more reliable than Moscow Region. Just what I’ve heard, not sure how true it is… good luck with your decision!
Comment by Denise :o) — July 25, 2007 @ 3:37 am