We received official news from AIA that they had received our contract and deposit. I feel like this is a huge step forward. We also talked to our social worker and he said that we should get a draft copy of homestudy this week. Olga at AIA will also receive a copy so she can make sure it meets all the requirements of the Russian government. So far Olga has been wonderful to work with. We chatted with her on the phone last week and she answered many of our questions regarding the whole process. So if all goes well, we could be on our way to Russia by June (wow, that's close).

In other news, I got this off the Joint Council on Int'l Children's Services website regarding the recent changes in the Russian adoption process:

March 18, 2005- We are hearing initial reports that the Ministry of Education does have the "substantial" authority to begin the accreditation process, possibly even before the accreditation commission is established. We will continue to monitor the situation and gather information. We will post any information on this website as soon as it becomes available.

I will post the link on the blog sidebar if you want check out the website. It's updated with new information quite regularly about what is going on in Russia.