Dossier Day!

Today our agent in Kiev submitted our dossier.  We have now passed one more hurdle in our adoption adventure.  In 2-3 weeks we should be notified of our SDA appointment date which tells us when we will travel to Ukraine.

I expected this day to be one of great joy.  And it is, for we are now just that much closer to our little girl.  But our joy is tempered by news out of Ukraine that their parliament is considering a bill that would suspend all inter-country adoptions from countries without bilateral agreements with Ukraine - including the United States.  And the language appears to include suspension of all adoptions in progress.  The bill must still pass a second vote and be signed by the President, so it is by no means a done deal at this point.  But if it should pass the second vote in the next few weeks, it could be signed and go into effect by the end of the year (2010).  This information comes from the US Department of State at http://adoption.state.gov/news/ukraine.html  The article is very short and does not say much more than what I wrote above.

Our agency believes that even if the legislation passes, we have a very good chance of completing the adoption (at our court date) before the stoppage would take effect.  So rather than the ecstasy we expected on this date, we are guardedly hopeful that our adoption will proceed without further delay.

Should the bill pass, our "worst case scenario" would likely be to travel to Kiev, select our child, meet her, love her, and then be interrupted before we can officially make her "ours."  Any other undesirable scenario would likely just be a delay of undetermined length (and probably more paperwork, etc).

I also want to say that I don't know whether the suspension of adoptions is the "right" thing for Ukraine. It very well may be.  I choose to believe that those who support the suspension do indeed have the best interest of the children at heart and that they truly believe the system will work better once the agreements are obtained.  So please do not vilify the supporters of this bill.  Of course it works to my family's advantage for the bill to fail, but ultimately it is finding a good procedure for placing orphaned children that truly matters.

So, as in all things, pray God's Will be done regardless of the outcome for us personally.  And pray specifically for the children who are most affected as they wait for their forever homes.