Looking forwards

Sometimes I thinking about how much energy, money, and time we put into paperwork for an adoption and I get discouraged.  I am always asking myself, why does it have to be so hard? The emotional rollercoaster you are put on is challenging. I have been able to keep my spirits up by reading peoples blogs who have completed an adoption in Ukraine.  Their stories are very similar to ours.  So that gives me hope that with every down turn, every paperwork correction, political unrest, ink color, folder color, and so on; that it will all come to a beautiful ending.

Some people may already know that we know of a few sibling sets currently available for adoption in Ukraine.  Some of these sets along the way have follow off the eligibility list, either by adoption or other reasons.  I keep looking at their little faces every night to build up my strength.  I pray that they are safe and with everything going on be able to get food and basic needs.  Also, that one day they will get to know a parents love, by us or another family.

Tomorrow our paperwork will be turned into Ukraine!!  I hope to have a good update soon.  With this submission we should be receiving word of our travel date in the next 20 days or so.  I really hope it is soon. 

Paperwork Complete??

We have submitted all of the paperwork to Ukraine, we believe. Currently they are telling us that they have everything however, we feel they are missing our FBI background check.  We have contacted Ukraine but due to the unrest it may take them a few days to reply.  Jeff and I decided we are going to mail off our FBI background checks first thing tomorrow just in case they don’t have it.  Spend $150 in shipping it over to Ukraine or possibly delaying the adoption further…easy decision.  We are not willing to risk any further delays at this point. We still have the US deadline of July that we are trying to beat.  We have a chance but it is getting tight.

We have been hearing information about some of the current adoptions going on in Ukraine. American’s are not allowed to travel to certain regions of Ukraine. There was a US couple adopting a 15 year old boy from Crimea region.  They had to leave the orphanage and their son before their adoption was complete.  Since Russia took over all government agencies including adoptions this boy’s adoption was halted due to Russia’s refusal to allow Americans to adopt Russian kids.  The 15 year old boy tried to commit suicide because he felt this was his last chance to be adopted into a family willing to accept him.  I know there are people within Ukraine and at the Crimean orphanage desperately trying to work a deal but currently the adoption is still on hold.  Why is it that in times of war or unrest it is the children who suffer the most?   

Round Two Home Study

We have completed our new home study!  The first draft should be in our hands in a few days.  Once we approve the draft it will be off to the county and state to apostle. We are working on the items that needed update dates for the dossier. The dossier is a group of paperwork that includes our home study, which is sent to Ukraine. This is the package of paperwork which is reviewed by the Ukrainian Government and is what they base their determination on.  Once a favorable determination is received, then hopefully we’ll be receiving a request for a meeting in Ukraine.  If you receive a non-favorable determination then Ukraine will not let you adopt.  We are not worried about that part. We feel we will have everything submitted to Ukraine in the next two weeks.  Hopefully we will get our invitation for end of April.   Ukraine already has several of our documents so we hope it will be faster than the standard 20 day wait. 

The excitement is building here at the house.  We have rooms rearranged.  Jeff and I put up a huge family wall with some blank spots.  We hope to have our first family picture in the frame by the time we come home with the kids.  Since we are not sure how many kids and of what age, it is a challenge trying to be prepared.  We have been very fortunate and people have been donating lots of items to us.  That will prove to be helpful.  So thank you all for your support!

Pushing Forwards

When we started our adoption plans for Ukraine several people asked us where Ukraine was. Most people have never heard of this country or know anything about this country.  Now, everyone has heard of Ukraine and the turmoil that this country is going through.   Now people keep asking us are you still going to adopt from Ukraine?  The answer is most definitely yes.  As long as they don’t close travel to Ukraine, Jeff and I are going.  These kids need homes more now than ever.   Our current worry is that with the country in turmoil and on the brink of a conflict these kids will be placed on the back burner and their care and well being may be greatly affected.    That has happened to other orphanages in other countries especially when that country’s money is demanded elsewhere and not to the homeless children.  We can’t save all the kids but we can save 2 or 3 of them. That is what drives us forwards on adopting from Ukraine.

This Thursday the new agency is making their first home visit with us.  This will be for a home inspection and face to face introductions.  We have all items but one completed for the agency.  I need our doctor to sign another piece of paperwork saying we are healthy.  This will be his forth to date saying we are healthy since starting this journey.   We just had our entire test done less than a month ago but the rule in Ohio states no paperwork can be submitted to a new agency with a date older then your contract date.  I just hope our doctor will sign and not make us do the test all over again.  The blood work took about a week to complete.  If he agrees then we are on track to finish our home study in our  in record time (possibly as soon as two weeks). USCIS will then needs to update our old home study and I-600a.  Once that is completed we will once again submit to Ukraine. I believe we (hoping and praying) will be there in April, as long as nothing else changes!!!  

Uphill Battle

Well Scenario one did not happen.  I am crushed.  The agency wants us to sign up with them or they will not do it.  So looking at the options pay 20K to update home study or pay $1,400 to another place to do a new home study.   We have found a really nice place to do a new home study.  She even said if we are really motivated and all of our references turn the letters in on time, it should be 4-6 weeks.  That is not the best of news but also not the worst news.  That means we will be done by Middle to end of March.  We can still pull of the adoption before June.  It will be tight and I hope Ukraine grandfathers us in if we are just over. 

Also, most people have been talking to us about the situation in Ukraine.  I find it very sad that people are being killed over the situation.  I have been following it very closely.  It currently is not affecting people applying for adoption; however, if you are in country then it may cause delays.

Paperwork Chase Continues….

We talked with Ukraine on Saturday.  It was not quiet the news we were looking for.  They need us to change some paperwork and add some new paperwork.   We did get back our updated FBI background checks but we need to get it apostilled.  All of that will put us about 2-3 weeks out before we can send everything to Ukraine.  The one enormous issue is that we have to have our old adoption agency update our dates on our home study.  Paperwork is only valid for 6 months in Ukraine.  So while our home study itself is still valid because the completion date/signature page on it is older than six months the Ukraine will not accept it, even though it’s apostilled etc…  So a note to all those folks out there looking to adopt in the Ukraine it’s best to coordinate everything to be completed at the same time!

Jeff and I switched adoption methods in an attempt to save about 20K.   The agency is not exactly wanting to update the dates because of a new change starting in June 2014.  This new rule will require all persons adopting to use an approved agency.  Signing a new date of February 2014 makes our paperwork still valid through June 2014. Apparently this presents some kind of liability issue for the agency even though we are not using them, plus I’m sure us not paying them 20K doesn't help our position.  Two scenarios will play out. Scenario one our old agency updates the dates and we are going to Ukraine in April. Scenario two, they refuse and we are set back 3 months while spending more money on a new home study.   We are really hoping for scenario one.  Please keep us in your prayers for option one to happen. We need to be done with our adoption by June if we want to avoid any more extravagant fees.

I will update everyone again once I have the answer from our old adoption agency. Wish me luck!! 

Information Catch Up

Where to begin… We started our adoption journey completing hours of research.  We started talking to an agency that told us of a sibling set of 3 in Russia. Russia Great!!! Wow this is going way to easy…..  Then the real journey began…  Less than a month later, as we started our very in depth paper chase, a political backlash by the Russian Gov’t. abruptly stopped all adoptions to US citizens.   We were heartbroken to say the least. 

Back to square one…what country should we look at…should we change agencies…and about a hundred more questions and doubts arose

Hours of internet surfing and many phone calls later the country of Columbia decided to choose us next.  We say this because every country has different qualifications, rules and regulations and for families looking for a more specific adoption profile such as a sibling set, country choices become limited. 

We were excited about Columbia as my family has ties to South America.  My sister was adopted from El Salvador.  My father’s side of the family lived in Venezuela.  Of course we did not qualify for either of these countries.  In making the move to Columbia we changed agencies as our first agency did not service adoption in Columbia.   We were now set to start the tedious task of collecting piles and piles of paperwork.  Throughout the 7 months of collecting the required paperwork, the home study process, then more paperwork for Columbia we had to make several concessions each building upon the previous.   First we were asked us to take 3 kids instead of 2, we agreed… then we were asked us to raise our age limit from 4yrs to 5 yrs, we agreed… then a couple months later we had to add one more year in case a child aged out, we agreed.  Columbia the asked for another two years so now we are at 8, we did not agree.  Having not agreed to this we were told that we’d probably not have a chance of being matched with a sibling set for 3 years!!!!  We had invested 8 months to Columbia and it just was not right. Ugh! Another closed door.  

I started the search again for the perfect country and discovered that Ukraine was back open for adoptions and we qualified!!! It had been closed for a short time to the US.  Jeff’s family name is Ukrainian. I found a network of amazing people who have adopted from Ukraine. We also found out that we did not need an agency (an enormous financial relief).  On top of all this while Jeff was at work talking about the adoption his co-worker said “my sister lives in Ukraine and does work with orphanages and was looking to facilitate adoptions.”  It was all starting to fall into place finally….nothing felt more right.   

We currently have submitted all the paperwork to our Ukraine facilitators besides the FBI background check. Ukraine only accepts documents that are under 6months old. We did not know that rule so everything but our FBI checks was good. We are also currently updating a few other documents that will expire in the next two months.  We also learned everything must be signed in blue ink!

Our house has been completely destroyed. We have been kid proofing this house.  Sorry Mia and Asics but all the dog toys lying around will be reduced.  We have the kid’s room ready for any age and any gender. We are not sure if we will end up with 2 or 3 kids.  Or a football team if I had it my way. Wink.