The Meeting

This morning we met Zhenia in the lobby and went by taxi (2 taxis) to meet with the inspector. She is the same inspector that Zhenia worked with the last time he was in this region. They seem to have a very good rapport.

The office opened at 8:30am. She called us into her office and asked us our names, ages, and work. Even the girls answered. They said their work is "being a kid." She thought that was funny.

The inspectors are a little bit like social workers in the U.S. They keep track of all the kids in orphanages in their region. They are supposed to visit each child twice a year. So they do "know" the kids. This is our first contact with someone who has actually seen her. The inspector's assessment is mixed, but she thinks we should go to the orphanage.

So we all load up in the taxis and go to the orphanage. I must admit that the orphanage is not what I expected. It is institutional - rather like a school - but also homey. It smelled wonderful. Made me wonder what was for lunch.

We met with the assistant director, the inspector, and a teacher. They told us background and their assessment of the child. Then they brought her in to meet us. They did not tell her that we were considering adopting her. She thought we just wanted to meet a child and tour the facility.

She is a beautiful child. Honey blonde hair, clear blue eyes, lovely smile, petite build. They had her hair up in pigtails. She wore a red jumper with little black scotties embroidered on it, a white turtle neck, and lacy off-white tights.

Before we arrived, we knew that she had some delays (expected due to orphanage conditions), and we knew she had "speech issues." When we got there, we found that while she understands a lot and can follow directions, she is basically non-verbal. She can say her name and "da" (yes), and when Zhenia asked what was on her dress, she said, "Arf, arf." This was actually more than we thought we would hear after talking to her teacher who said she only babbled.

Unfortunately we made the painful decision to not adopt this beautiful child. The caregivers said they had not seen much progress and did not have much hope for progress for her.

So we caught the overnight train back to Kiev. We are back in our original flat. Cliff and the girls are resting. Even though this train trip was better for all of us (we slept more) we are still tired.

Zhenia says we need to officially request a second appointment with SDA. That requires a notarized form. We will do that this afternoon. Hopefully we will get a quick appointment (ideally Thursday, so we can pick up referral paper on Friday, travel again over the weekend, and get to orphanage on Monday), but it will likely take longer to get an appointment.

So we wait. And pray.

The Train

So we left the flat on time and went to the train station. Other than Emma falling on the escalator (talk about traumatic!) we had no problems getting to the train.

Zhenia was able to get us our own sleeping compartment. He stayed next door. The compartment is very small. Four beds - 2 bottom, 2 top - and very little room to move around. Also extremely hot. We have learned that Ukrainians do not like to be cold!

The top bunks hold two sets of a mattress, sheets, wool blanket and pillow rolled up together. So in this very small space with four people in it, you must make 4 beds. It is remarkably well arranged. We were able to get all of our luggage (which is considerable with 4 of us) stowed out of the way (the bottom 2 bunks lift up for storage). So once the beds were made, we locked the door and tried to sleep.

The girls have never been on a train before. Cliff and I took trains from DC to Philadelphia and NYC before but not overnight. I did do an overnight train from Rome to Brussels when I was in college. So no one slept very well. Just so different! And hot! And exciting!

We arrived in our city about 6:30am, got breakfast at McDonalds (because it was open) and arrived at the hotel. Fortunately for us, the hotel is near the orphanage. Our room is quite small - about 1/3 the size of the flat - and being a hotel, we have no kitchen facility. Zhenia also says he is having trouble finding a flat for rent, so we may be "stuck" in the hotel for a while. Not great, but there is a cafe down the street with "not so bad" borscht (Zhenia says he makes better), and the grocery is an easy walk. What we don't have is internet, so our updates will be less frequent.

We rest from our trip and prepare for tomorrow. We must be ready to leave at 8am to meet the Inspector.

Oh, and there is more snow here than in Kiev. Snowing lightly all day. The girls are in heaven!

Waiting to travel

So today we spent the day at the flat. All day long we could hear music and speeches coming from the Square. Zhenia said it is a holiday. Every January 22nd is "Ukrainian Unity Day" or something like that. Hundreds of people were in the square. We decided not to join them. We could hear everything quite well from the flat, and there seemed no need to be in the crowd.

Of course we could not understand the speeches or the song lyrics. Most of the music was folk or pop style. We did recognize the Carol of the Bells, though. All in all, quite an enjoyable day.

Travel Tonight to Region

We leave the flat at 9pm tonight (1pm CST) to travel by overnight train to Dnipropetrovsk region (arriving 6am). The orphanage is in Kryvyy Rih. Zhenia has done one other adoption from this orphanage, so he may already know the orphanage director, if it is the same person he dealt with before.

On Monday morning we meet first with the Inspector from the regional SDA office. Then we meet with the orphanage director. It is very important that these people like us, as they have input into whether the adoption happens or not and how long it may take. After meeting with the orphanage's doctor, we will meet our girl.

In this region, the people primarily speak Russian.

Walking Tour

Today we got a walking tour of Kiev - in the snow. Yes, we awakened to about an inch or two of snow on the ground. Temperature-wise it was around freezing.

Our guide, Lenya (sp?), came by around 11am. We walked down the street, through Independence Square and past the Ukrainian cafeteria. After that, I have no idea where we were.

She showed us some of the different architecture of the city, National Bank, the "Central Park," and several government buildings. At the end of our tour, we went through a museum exhibit of micro-miniatures (fascinating!). I think the museum was in the area of the Monastery of the Caves, but I'm really not sure. Lenya did not seem to be a religious person, so our questions did not produce understandable answers. If it WAS there, then some of the buildings in the area date from the 12th century.

After the park, we passed their WWII Victory monument on the way to the memorial of the "Time of Hunger." Apparently when the Soviets took over Ukraine, the Ukrainians were not cooperative. So the Soviets destroyed Ukrainian fields, food stores, farming implements, etc. and starved them into submission. The Soviets deny that this happened. Ukrainians estimate that between 15 and 50 million people died. The underground part of the memorial contains books of names of people from several different regions who are known to have died during that time. Many more remain unidentified.

The micro-miniature exhibit was really cool. It was a small exhibit (no pun intended) of maybe 20 or so miniatures. Each had to be viewed through a microscope. Some of the works were mounted on 1/2 a poppy seed or etched on a human hair. I thought the gold sculpture of the camels and pyramids in the eye of a needle was quite impressive. Viv's favorites were the chess set on a pin head, Columbus's ship the Santa Maria, and a rose placed inside a hair shaft. Emma's favorite was the chess board, too. Cliff's favorites were the chess board and the rose. At the end of the exhibit was a regular size portrait of Lenin made entirely of the words of his writings. It reminded me of the portraits made from hundreds of photographs.

As we left the exhibit, we saw a wedding party having a snowball fight. Cute!

After the museum we caught a bus to the underground and took the underground back to our area. Neither was a long trip. The bus was interesting, because people got on front and back and passed their money forward and change back. Very different from U.S. buses where everyone gets on the front and does business with the driver. The underground station where we boarded is one of the deepest in Kiev. Two very long escalators down. We only went one stop.

On our way back to the flat we stopped at the cafeteria for a late lunch. Yummy again! Lenya commented that Vivian's Russian is good. She doesn't know much, but what she does know is good.

Lenya finished university a couple of years ago. That is where she learned English. She wants to get it "perfect" and then learn French or Italian. She is well on her way with English. She needs more practice. She said that English is necessary to getting a good job here. She also told us that under Soviet rule, Russian was the official language, so when Ukraine gained its independence in 1991(?) speaking Ukrainian was seen as a point of national pride. Ukrainian is the official language, but many people also speak Russian. They are similar languages and share some words, but they are not the same. People in the east (closer to Russia) are more likely to speak Russian. People in the west are less likely to speak Russian. People in cities generally speak both. Movies and TV are made or dubbed in Ukrainian.

Lenya also mentioned that culturally Ukraine has some very rich people, a lot of poor people and no "regular people"(her words, not mine). That makes it very difficult for them economically.

First Flat

Below are pictures of our flat in Kiev. We arrived Tuesday night straight from the airport. Zhenia made sure we knew that it was "nice place." He is right. It is VERY well located and reasonably priced for its location ($95/night). This is much better than hotels that are about $150/night and up. Plus we have a kitchen and living room and internet access.

At the top of our street is St. Sophia. At the bottom of our street is Independence Square where the Orange Revolution took place in 2004 (Zhenia was there). We also have a McDonald's at the bottom of the hill. St. Sophia and McDonald's are our landmarks for getting home. The SDA office is about 10-15 min walk. We are also close to embassies and government agencies we will need when we return to Kiev at the end of the trip. Hopefully we can stay HERE again!

We are on the top floor of a 4-story building. Getting our luggage up the stairs was quite a feat. Down should be somewhat easier. The first thing we noticed when we walked in was how HOT it was. Stuffy. We immediately opened windows and have kept them open - even at night. This is apparently cultural. Ukrainians avoid "fresh air". It isn't healthy. At least we now know what the orphanage could be like - hot and stuffy.

The kitchen is small but quite functional. The gas stove and oven are old, but everything else is fairly new. Love the little fridge. And we have a microwave. No dishwasher.

The bath/shower, sink, and washing machine are in their own little space in the kitchen. No dryer. The toilet is in a closet in the hall across from the bedroom. The bed is surprisingly comfortable. The girls sleep on a sofa bed in the living room. It, too, is surprisingly comfortable.

We have a TV, but we haven't used it at all.

Today is The Day!!

I'm sitting here in the early morning trying to imagine what this appointment will be like. How will we choose? How will we say "no" to those we do not choose? I realize we are not personally rejecting them. But what is it REALLY that differentiates "the one" from all the rest? This is like nothing I've ever done before. The importance is overwhelming. And yet, I do not feel overwhelmed. I know that God led us here, and I know He will see it through. I have prayed almost all night long. We have friends and family in the States who offered to get up in the middle of the night (4am CST) to pray us through our appointment. We are ready.

. . . . . . .

Zhenia will be here shortly. He has prepared us as best he can for the appointment. The girls are excited. They will be with us, but they have things to keep them busy. We are to smile and be patient and let Zhenia do his job. We have our photo album just in case they want to see it. They may ask questions. They may not. We will see files of children who meet our age criteria. He says we will see boys, girls, and sibling groups of 2 (because we are approved for up to 2 children). We have 1 hour. He seems quite certain we will see "good kids."

. . . . . . .

Oh, where to begin! We walked up our street to St. Sophia cathedral, down a major street to St. Mikhail's cathedral, down a side street to the ministry which stands in the shadow of yet another church. We had a short wait - maybe 15 min. The walk did us good. Settled us with some exercise. They called us in about 10 after 12.

We met with the supervisor of the adoption ministry. Zhenia said this is a good thing. They are all good, but having the supervisor was especially good. She took out our dossier and asked one question: Why 3-7 years old? Why not 2? I was prepared for many questions but not that one. Thankfully, Cliff had a response - that we wanted to keep the child closer in age to our other children. We smiled, stayed engaged through all the translation, and she got up and went to get files.

She came back with about 5 files all recently made available for international adoption. Three looked interesting, so we took a closer look. We can't give details in a public format, so please understand. Then we narrowed to 2. The supervisor called the region for more information. We asked if there were any other files available. She brought back a binder of girls. We flipped through, asked about a few, and then we found her. The picture "spoke" to both of us immediately, and we asked for more information. It didn't take long to realize that this was the best match of the day.

We cannot tell you much about her. She is 6 years old. Her birthday is in November. She has a great smile and a terrific name. She lives in an city east of Kiev. I'll find it on a map and post it later. Zhenia says this is a good region to work with. We will get to meet her in person on Monday.

Next steps:

Receive referral papers tomorrow afternoon.

Travel by train to region overnight Saturday to Sunday.

Get settled in region.

Meet our girl Monday morning.

Make final decision about the match (Yes/No)

After our appointment we took a picture outside the agency, walked back past our flat, and to a Ukrainian cafeteria where Zhenia helped us pick out some "traditional" food. I'll post separately about that. Then he left to do more paperwork for us. Now we're back at the flat enjoying some down time.

Arriving in Kiev

Tuesday

We touched down in Kiev almost exactly 24 hours after leaving our home. We exited the plane down stairs and boarded a tram to the terminal. Once inside, everything went really fast. Cliff was in front with Emma. I was behind with Vivian. I don’t know how (because I couldn’t see what Cliff could see) someone collected us, took our passports to customs, rushed us past everyone else in line, got our baggage and had us out the door in less than 15 min. Next thing I know, I’m meeting our facilitator, Zhenia.

Zhenia was a little surprised by the size of our group. He was expecting just Cliff and me. But he handled everything with a smile and great optimism. Our transportation was a bit snug, but we all fit with all of our luggage in a little Japanese van (steering on the right). Zhenia asked a lot of questions and gave a lot of information on the ride in from the airport. He took us to our flat which is very well located for all that we have to do in Kiev. I will post separately about our flat and neighborhood. Then he took us to the market to get some food (also another post). And then he left us for the evening.

We have internet access in our flat, so I was able to post on facebook that we arrived. I also got a brief online chat with one of my brothers (who just happened to be online at the time).

We decided we were too tired to cook, so we got McDonald’s, made sure we stayed awake until 8pm, and then crashed!

Travel Day!!

Monday/Tuesday

Our day started at 5:30am (after being up until 3:30). We got the girls up at 6:30, got breakfast, cleaned up, packed the car, and left a little after 8am. Cliff’s mom lives on the way to the airport, so she offered to take us. We left Leo (our dog) at her apartment, picked up Grandma, and continued to the airport.

Viv-ism for the morning: “It’s finally here. And yet. . .it is still so far away!”

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, made it through security without body scanner or pat down or luggage search. We did, however, gamble that we would be in Terminal C when we were actually at the very far end of Terminal E. About a mile and a half later, we were at our gate.

Our first flight was to Newark – about 3 hours. We were on a 767 which is a big plane with 2 aisles. The girls and I were in the three seats between the 2 aisles and right behind a bulkhead (extra leg room!). Cliff was across the aisle from me. I think we all partook of the in-flight entertainment. Bulkhead was great except we had to put all our bags up above (less convenient). Worth it, though!

Once in Newark, Cliff took us to the Continental President’s Club to await our flight to Munich. Weather in Newark was about 28 degrees with snow on the ground. Viv was excited to see the snow. NYC skyline was dark gray against a lighter gray sky. Still cool!

The flight to Munich was also on a 767 but it was an older model and not quite as comfortable as the other. We had bulkhead seats again, but Cliff was a row ahead due to a slightly different alignment of the rows. Our plan was to stay awake through the dinner service and then sleep as much as possible until breakfast service. We had problems immediately when Vivian’s in-flight entertainment system didn’t work properly. Rather than switch seats, I just let her use mine.

Next problem arose when the girls “weren’t sleepy” after dinner. I let Cliff handle it, because I was really tired. I draped my coat over me, flipped the hood over my face, and went to sleep (sort of). I think I actually slept a couple of hours and dozed another 2 or so.

About 2 hours from landing, Vivian was miserably tired but could not get comfortable. The tray tables on bulkhead seats are in the armrests, and we couldn’t put the armrests up like on other rows. So I used part of my coat to give her some padding, and we flipped an arm of the coat over her eyes to block the light. She was asleep fairly quickly. I sat and watched the map as we closed in on the British Isles.

Emma, on the other hand, did not sleep at all. She determined before we even got on a plane that she would not be able to sleep. And she didn’t. After late nights at D-Now over the weekend, she was running really ragged.

Viv-ism upon landing: “I’m finally on another continent!”

Weather in Munich was about 34 degrees, gray, and wet. We tried to get into the President’s Club equivalent, but because it was not Continental it would cost us 80 bucks to get the girls in. We decided to “rough it” at the gate. Cliff and I stretched out and slept some more. The girls chose to play Nintendo DS. I’m not sure how Emma managed, but she stayed awake (by choice).

The flight to Kiev was on Lufthansa. It was a big change for us. We carried our bags down 3 flights of stairs, got on a tram, and rode out to the plane. We boarded the back of the plane up a flight of stairs. All instructions were given in German first and then English (thank you European Union!) and then Russian. Not sure what the make of the plane was, but it was a typical older short-haul model with 6 seats on a row and one aisle down the middle. As soon as we sat down, Vivian pronounced the seats much more comfortable than the other planes. Within minutes of take-off she was asleep. Cliff and Emma were sitting behind Vivian and me. Emma was asleep before the plane left the ground. Everyone slept but me. I dozed and may have slept some. As we left the ground, my eyes got teary with anticipation of reaching Kiev.

Preparing to Travel

First let me highly suggest NOT getting sick. Shortly after I posted my last update, I started running a fever. That left me pretty much out of commission for about 2-1/2 days.

So I got sick Thursday afternoon. Cliff came in from Virginia late Thursday evening. Then he left about 8am to do the Austin run. I took the girls to the farm for the last time before the trip. Cliff got back from Austin around 2. He took the girls to taekwon do and dropped the girls at their evening activities. Vivian went to Open Gym for some gymnastics fun. Emma spent Friday night, all day Saturday, and Saturday night at the church for Disciple Now weekend. I think I fell asleep around 8pm. Friday night was supposed to be our opportunity for one last “date night” before the trip. Oh, well.

Saturday was not much better for me, but we had things we needed to do. About all I could handle was going to the bank to assure that we could access funds overseas. It was more involved than we thought it would be, but it was not bad. I still had a fever, so it seemed to take a lot longer than it probably did. Cliff and Vivian did some shopping for last minute items (long underwear and such). Emma was at D-Now. I slept.

Sunday, I awoke feeling a bit better. We met Emma at church. Our pastor prepared a sermon on prayer. Shortly into the sermon he stopped and called Cliff and me up to the front for prayer. He also invited anyone else in the congregation with a prayer need to come up as well. He had the staff and other church leaders there to pray with people. One of our youth pastors prayed with us. It was a very moving experience for me. I am aware of only one way Josh could have prayed as specifically as he did, and that is through divine inspiration. By the time we left church, my fever was gone.

To be completely ready to go, we needed copies of certain documents and a photo album. Being sick, I was not able to get that done when I wanted to have it done. So it came down to Sunday night before leaving Monday morning. And it literally took all night. It seemed to be a comedy of errors all piling up. I sent the digital pictures to Walgreens online. Their machine broke. They called me to tell me the machine was broken. I sent the pictures to another Walgreens. Then I got an email from the first Walgreens that my pictures were ready. I went to pick them up and got this really rude woman who insisted that she had called me to tell me that the machine was broken. True, but the email led me to believe that the machine was fixed and my pictures were ready. By then it was too late to go to the other Walgreens (not a 24-hr store), so I had to find another way to do pictures. Same thing happened with finding a place to make copies. Just one thing after another! Finally I ended up at a 24 hour FedEx Office for the copies and another 24 hour Walgreens for the pictures. Finished around 1:30am and still had to pack. Yea! Went to bed at 3:30am.

So the moral of this story is DON’T GET SICK!! But I must admit it wasn’t all bad. I probably had too much to do and would have been miserable to live with while I tried to get it all done. By getting sick, I had to focus on only the most important things.

Okay, okay. I'm updating!

I have been informed that it has been entirely too long since my last post.

In the time since my last post, we have been busy with the holidays and getting ready to go to Kiev. We leave in 4 days.

As of Monday of this week (1 week before travel), I only had half my Rx order from my mail order pharmacy (big source of stress for me), and our agency informed me that we needed to process some more documents before we go (which requires a road trip to Austin).

We have money, parkas and warm clothes. And the house is clean. Today I got my documents notarized, and we three girls got our hair done. Cliff comes in tonight.

Tomorrow Cliff will make the run to Austin and then notarize a couple more documents. I will "pre-pack" with the girls to see what we still need (if anything). I will also get all of our documents copied and stowed and start a list of last minute things to do. Also need to get some pictures printed for our photo books that we must take to court.

Yes, we are excited. Yes, we are nervous. I think everything will feel better once we get on the plane.

SDA Appointment Scheduled!

January 20, 2011 at noon!

On Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, we heard from our agency that Ukraine issued our invitation to travel.  So exciting!

We now have a lot of preparing to do!

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.

Dossier Drama

The last 2 months have just flown by.  We have 5 days left before we send the package to the agency.  And a lot has to happen to make that a reality.

Turns our the homestudy update was no big deal.  We gave our social worker the changes, and she wrote it up.  However, we don't have it in hand yet due to a problem with the notary (who took a few days of vacation unbeknownst to the social worker).   We are supposed to have it by the end of the week.

Our medicals proved to be a bit difficult just because our doctor's office is in transition and had difficulty facilitating the write-up of our documents.  I had to provide a notary, as they didn't have one in the office.  Fortunately, Cliff has a former coworker who volunteered to meet me at the doctor's office (twice!) to get the paperwork done.  The first time we couldn't complete my paper, because the doctor's office forgot to order a required test.  The second time, they lost my paperwork, found it, and ended up having to re-do Cliff's paperwork due to an error, because we can have no mistakes, white-out, scratch-out on any document.  I have one final touch to add to my paper, and we're done.  Hopefully THAT will be simple.

We had 2 documents that we had to send out of state for authentication - one to Virginia and one to Missouri.   Those documents were generated by offices in those states and so had to be authenticated in those states.  I was nervous about getting them back in time, but both are completed and safely in my file folder.

Everything else seemed to be no big deal.  Just request and receive or copy and notarize.

The BIG drama happened last week when we realized that we would not have our federal background check completed by our submission date.  Who knew it would take 12 weeks to get an FBI background check????  It takes 10 weeks just to clear security and get logged into the system.  What??

For a while it looked as if we would lose the whole adoption over 2 pieces of paper.  Needless to say that was a really rough day.  By the end of the day we had devised a work around that would substitute a STATE background check for the federal pending the completion of the federal.  But then I had to figure out how to get a state check in a very short amount of time.  I called everyone I could think of - state senator, state rep, private investigator, to name a few - trying figure it out.

Then, after a desperate prayer for a miracle and a desperate comment on Facebook (of all places), my brother gently reminded me that he works for the Office of the Attorney General and might be able to find some way to get the background checks within our timeframe.  By Friday I had a name and a plan.  On Monday we hashed out what needed to be in the letters.  And this afternoon I had scanned copies of the letters and the promise that they were sent out in the afternoon mail.  I should have them Thursday.

As a backup, Cliff and I made a quick appointment last Saturday to have our fingerprints made again and submitted electronically to the state for print-based background check.  We were told it would be 5-7 working days (which would make us late with our document submission to our agency).  This morning I found out that the checks were run yesterday and the letter sent out today.  So we should have THAT letter on Thursday as well.

AND as a bonus, the fingerprints we did on Saturday will also be submitted to the FBI for federal background check, so we could have that letter sooner than the prints we originally sent to the FBI.

Drama, drama, drama!

So the long and the short is that assuming we get the State background letters and the homestudy update, AND everything is in the proper format, we should be able to submit our paperwork on time and stay on schedule for travel at the end of the calendar year.

Whew!  God is GOOD!

90-Days and counting

So it is now August.  I really did plan to write more over the summer.  I just didn't get it done.  Part of the reason is that we've had some pretty big things going on here.  I can't talk about it in this forum.  So if you're a close friend or family, contact me privately and I'll fill you in.

Today we are officially 3 months out from our dossier submission date.  So now we can start gathering the documents for our final submission before we travel.  Ukraine requires that all documents be dated within 3 months of the dossier submission date.  Our agency wants our documents one month ahead, so that gives me 2 months (60 days) to get it all pulled together.

I have already sent my request for certified copies of our marriage certificate.  We have our medical appointments set for Tuesday.  I need to check with the local branch of our mortgage company to see if they can provide the paper we need about our loan.  If not, then I have to deal with headquarters in Missouri (which requires a Missouri apostille and will take more time than a local document).  Cliff will get the employment letter from his office.  Its a start.

We also must still get our homestudy updated.  I have contacted the social worker, but haven't heard back.  We were on vacation for a couple of weeks, and it is possible that she is on vacation now.  School starts here on the 23rd, so I should be able to connect with her soon.

Feeling some pressure, because Cliff will be traveling again soon, and anything that needs his signature will be delayed if it comes in while he is gone.

Please keep praying for us and for our little girl.  Will update soon.

Come on. . . .Really?

Just heard from our agency (via email on the Friday before a 3 day weekend) that Ukraine now requires a home study to be less than 6 months old at the time we submit our dossier (11/11).  Ours will not be less than six months old, so we must update between now and submission.

What does this include?  Paying for our social worker to do an update.  Re-doing child abuse clearances, criminal checks, medical evaluations, finances, and references.  Sounds like a whole new home study to me!

I'm hoping that we can "piggy-back" on some of the info required for the dossier - like medicals and criminal checks.  Also hoping that our references can just change the dates on their letters and still count as references.

Cliff seems to think this new requirement could be fallout from the Russian adoption issue earlier this year. Maybe, but we both agree it doesn't really matter.  We have to do it, so we do it.


6/1/2010 UPDATE:

Talked to our agency today.  Turns out the update is specific to the state in which the adoptive parents reside.  Their email gave the requirements for the state where the agency is - which is not our state.  So now I have to find out what our state requires for a "complete" update.  Sounds like I need to contact our social worker. . . .Stay tuned. . . .

I-171H. . . .check (almost)

So we received our approval of our I-600A form yesterday.  YEA!  This was much faster than I expected.

BUT some of the information is incorrect.  The form allows us to bring home 2 children of either gender who are 0-3 years old with no special needs.  I know.  You're looking at 2 children of either gender and thinking that is the problem.  Actually, our agency told us to do it that way.  We don't HAVE to adopt 2 children.  But if we changed our minds in-country and DID want to adopt 2 children, this gives us pre-approval and less paperwork/travel time.  Same with gender.  So we did that part on purpose.  These approvals provide options once we are there.

No, the problem is with the age and special needs designations.  The I-171H approval form must match our home study, and our home study specifically states the age as 3-7 and the special needs category as "correctable."  Without these designations on our approval form, we will not be able to bring our child home without significant in-country difficulty.

So, I am in the process of fixing this.  After communicating with our agency,  I called USCIS and (amazingly) got through to the officer handling our case.  She is very nice and indicated that it should not be a problem.  She needs to pull our file and compare our home study to the approval letter to confirm the discrepancy.  And it should be fixed with little issue.

We'll see. . . .I won't breathe a sigh of relief on this until I see the corrected letter.  Fortunately we have plenty of time to get it fixed, so it won't slow us down at all.

Fingerprints . . . .check!

This morning Cliff and I drove in to the USCIS office and had our fingerprints (a.k.a. "biometrics") done for our I600-A.  This will kick off our background checks and result in approval of our application.  Amazingly, we were finished in less than 45 min.

One more thing to check off the list!

Passing Time

To pass the time, I started a craft project.  My girls both have hand made Christmas stockings.  Emma's was a gift, and I made one for Vivian.  When we started our adoption journey, I decided to go ahead and start one for our new child.  I have been working off and on since the first of January.  I knew with everything else going on in our household, it would take me a while to get it finished.  This is where I am so far.

USCIS Confirmation and Appointment

So, today we got our confirmation of receipt of our I600-A application AND our letters containing our appointment times for our biometrics (fingerprints).  YEA!

Our biometrics appointments are set for May 12th at 8:00 AM.  I'm still confirming with Cliff that he can do that date and time.  He is supposed to be out of town but mentioned that he may be in the office instead.

So until I hear differently, that's the plan.