Update on when we'll travel to the Ukraine

We just received an update telling us that we'll likely travel over to the Ukraine between mid Jan and mid March 2008. We may have mentioned that it was likely that we'd have our son home for Christmas, but that's no longer feasable. So, we have something really exciting to look forward to early next year.

And.... since we were just told that 18 month olds are no longer eligible for international adoption, our child will be between the age of 2.5 and 3 years old.

At least our dossier (all of our paperwork) is not only over there but is also translated. That's huge. Now it has to be presented to the governmental authorities, they have a month to review it / pick it apart and then they'll determine as to when our "appointment date" will be to meet them and talk about the kids that are available.

So, please look forward to next year with us.

Love,

Bob and Michelle

Our Dossier made it to Ukraine

... and now Olga, our agency contact, has to translate it into Ukrainian (this takes about 3 weeks to do) and then wait in line to submit it with others who are doing the same thing. We have no idea how long the line is. Then the officials will hopefully approve us, get us a travel date and then an appointment date at the National Adoption Center where we'll look at profiles of orphans eligible for international adoption. These dates are totally up in the air and we're not sure when it will happen, but we're very encouraged and excited as little by little we're getting closer to meeting our son and more importantly, bringing him home! Again, the range we gave them is 18 months - 3 years (we had to give them a range, and newborns are not eligible). Love, Bob and Michelle

Our dossier is on it's way to Ukraine!

Hi everyone!

We're excited that our dossier (the story of our life, finances, medical conditions, etc.) is finished (whew!!!) and is now on it's way to our adoption agency folks in the Ukraine! They'll translate it into the Ukrainian language and then wait in line to submit it to the Ukrainian authorities. We're not sure how long, assuming they approve us, it will take to obtain our "invitation" to travel over to the Ukraine to meet our young son, but we hope to travel by the spring of 2008.

Just the fact that we finished the dossier in 4 months is something we're proud of. It's pretty amazing what documents we had to present and all of the notaries we had to obtain etc etc. I tell people that it's like we're both applying to be CIA agents; that the info is that deep into the threads of our lives. It's a wonder that we weren't stripped searched by the president himself! :)

Anyway- Now we wait. We get our son's bedroom ready. We read up on how to handle adoption related issues. We read about how to be parents. We relax for the last time (yes, we know this....).

Thanks for your continued love and support. We're extremely excited to enter into this new chapter of our lives together.

Love,

Michelle and Bob

Update

Hi everyone!

We're waiting for our agency to e-mail our homestudy to the US Immigration office so we can obtain clearance to bring a child into the USA. At the same time, our homestudy will become part of the packet of information, called a "dossier," which will be submitted to the folks in Ukraine to approve, which essentially will approve us to adopt a kid from them. Then we go over there to meet him. We estimate that we'll travel in about 6-9 months or so.

Update

Hi! We're almost finished with our dossier paperwork and are very very happy about this!

Hello and welcome! We're happy to establish this blog so that our friends and family can check and see where we're at in the process of adopting a little boy from Ukraine. We're so, so excited and can't wait to finally meet our son! What a journey. Thanks to everyone for all of your support!
Love, Bob and Michelle