We have a Region! ALTAY!

Much to my dismay, we are getting a new consultant from our agency. After all, this will be our 4th one! I loved our last one! As we near the end, we want someone good. After speaking to our new consultant, my mind was set at ease. She seemed to be on top of things and was very nice. Plus, she gave us some great news! They have selected a region for us. . . .Altay! Yeah!

Here is a little bit about the region:

The name "Altay" (or "Altai") comes from Mongolian "Altan", which means "golden". Altay mountains are truly one of the nature's most marvelous gems, amazing by its diversity and beauty. Stretching for nearly 2000 km from north-west to south-east, Altai mountains form a natural border between the arid steppes of Mongolia and the rich taiga of Southern Siberia.

Three major factors make Altay mountains a recreational domain of great value: amazing natural diversity (various landscapes, climates, abundance of wildlife); thin population, historically nomadic (Mongolian and Kazakh ethnos), who have a very natural way of life; and remoteness from any industries (the region lives only for tourism and agriculture).

The modern population is a mixture of indigenous Altais and Russian settlers, some of the latter still leading in their villages the life of Old Believers, with strict rules and very much isolated from civilization.

Altai montains is a quite remote region. The closest big (more than 50,000 inhabitants) city is Gorno-Altaisk, located just at the beginning of Altai mountains, on Katun river. Slightly further is Biysk.

Project Number One!

This kind of shabby looking dollhouse has been through a lot. It was made especially for me one Christmas when I was about 7 yrs. old. I absolutely loved it.! After, I grew out of it, it stayed at my mom's until I was married for about 4 years. We acquired the doll house about 8 years ago and so it has been in storage for a little over 20 years! After the nursery was decorated, we took the dollhouse out of storage and put it in the nursery and found that it matches exactly! With quite a few scratches and missing pieces, I decided to fix it up. I found on ebay the furniture sets that have long been forgotten. It is an old Tomy set. I replaced some of the doll family and some place mats. I only need a few more items. Then I scraped off all of the old glue and washed off the old scrapes and grime. Next is painting. The after pictures will be soon coming I hope!

We're sticking with "J"

Since all of the boys have "J" names, we are continuing the trend with "baby sister". We have a list of names that we will take to the orphange that start with "J". After we see her and interact with her, we will decide on a name. So, for now, we are going to refer to her as "J".

Busy, Busy, Busy . . .

Now that the Holidays are over and the craziness of Jan., I need to stop waiting and start getting busy! I have a huge list of things I want to accomplish before summer. Our summer is already filling up, so I want to have these things done by summer and before we get our refferral.
1. Start a Scrapbook
2. Work on one of my own, or find a child carrier that will fit up to 50lbs.
If anyone knows of a good one, I would love to hear about it!
I need to be able to carry her around for attachment and bonding.
3. Make two quilts (one for the first trip, and a second in case the orphange keeps the first one.)
I want to make 2 identical crib quilts with our family pictures on it and some of our home.
That way, she can cuddle with "us" and look at us in her crib.
4. Make a picture book of us for her to look at.
5. Fix up my old dollhouse. (paint, repair, etc.)
6. Read about adoption
7. And of course, keep up paperwork!
So much to do and so little time!

Exciting Stats from 2008

The following are statistics regarding children, including a break down by age, gender and number per family, adopted through AAI's Russia program in 2008. Due to many factors, these numbers are somewhat lower than 2007. However, they are still extremely strong, comparatively speaking, and represent very successful outcomes for many families, 53 to be exact. We hope you will be encouraged to see that the Russian program has been very active in placing many children with their "forever families."
Looking forward to 2009!
Rebecca
Girls under 2 - 9
Boys under 2 - 13
Girls over 2 - 11
Boys over 2 - 12
Boy+boy, girl+girl - 2
Boy+girl - 6
Cases completed - 53
Children adopted - 63