Waiting until middle of June

We have everything turned in to Ukraine in our red folder.  We had an issue before in Ukraine with our paperwork not being turned in with the correct folder color.  This means we now have to wait up to 20 business days to find out when we can travel!!!  I am writing this a bit late so on June 16^th!

You would think Jeff and I would be jumping up and down and going crazy with excitement.  However, with the new US adoption law going into place 7-14-2014, I am cautious.  Obama signed the law in 2012 and here we are less than 2 months from the start date and USCIS doesn’t even know how they are going to implement the new laws. We sat in on a nationwide conference call this past Thursday to understand the details and the gist of the entire phone call is; there is a new law and we don’t know how it will affect you, please be patient and check our web site in two weeks to see where you stand….  Of course if you don’t comply not only will you not be able to complete your adoption but you are also threatened with the possibility jail time and large fine.  

The gist of the new law requires all non-Hague countries to perform all the requirements of Hague nations.  However of the 7 requirements Ukraine finds 6 of these illegal.  So do we get to break US law or Ukraine law….  When this question was brought to the attention of USCIS officials their answer was you’ll have to wait until we can generate specific guidelines for each country.  Where the real stink of it all comes into place is that you now have to use a “Hague certified” adoption company to perform any and all international adoptions.  Of course to that would cost up to $30,000 extra and double the work.  All of our US approved paperwork is in the hands of the Ukrainian Gov’t. so now we get to pay a third party who has done nothing for us thousands of dollars to watch us board an airplane to Ukraine.  

So as a backup we’ve tried to find “accredited” adoption agencies, of all the agencies in Ohio there are only 4, and they will not accept us because we’ve done all the paperwork already.   We also been denied by three out of state agencies….no one will take the liability because they don’t want to break the new US law which no one know how it is even going to be implemented. 

So our next biggest fear is that when we get our date and fly to Ukraine and go through the process and the kids are ours in the eyes of the Ukrainian Gov’t., but will the US allow us to obtain visas or passports for our children?  We’ve written USCIS, called them and again not one there knows…. So what should we do?

One thing we are going to do is have faith that this will all work out.  We are going to trust our facilitators and their judgment even though we have never met in person.  We are going to pray that it will all come together. To tell the truth I feel deep down inside that this will all work out and that Jeff and I will be blessed with some amazing kids.  That really I am just growing and molding and I need this time to do just that.