Announcement

Well, I guess it's about time to announce that we are going to Ukraine for a second adoption. If anyone is still following, you were given a hint a couple of posts ago. We have been busy starting the process again the past couple of months. Today, I mailed a big packet of documents off to be apostilled. Not everything, because we are waiting on our fingerprint letter from USCIS and our updated home ownership letter, but a nice thick envelope of papers. There was almost not enough room to fit a prepaid soft priority envelope and the money order in there! There are only two documents left. The home ownership letter was done today, but the notary didn't think about her stamp shortening the life of our document. It will make the paper expire in less than 6 months instead of a year. You have to watch those things. Anyway, we should receive our fingerprint letter this week or next week at the latest. Our area is pretty quick about those things. We received our I-171h within 2 weeks of taking prints for our first adoption.

There have been some major changes to the dossier. Most things are the same with minor details, but the things that have changed are more difficult to obtain. These new documents have to meet very specific requirements. I fretted about a couple of them, but our facilitator we chose helped narrow things down to make them easier. Plus we have some great friends to help us:)

Things are going so quickly this time it's amazing! We had our home study in hand around a month after our home visit. That was lightning speed! Our Social Worker is the sweetest lady. She was so helpful. We are also going independent this time which is so much less expensive. Of course, we've been through this once, so many things are familiar which has helped things go faster as well. It took us 4 months to get our home study in hand after starting, 8 months to get our dossier submitted (bundle of required paperwork for Ukriaine) and 10 months to get to Ukraine for our SDA appointment. This time, it took a little over a month to get our completed home study, two months to get our dossier together (about the same as last time) and our papers should be in Ukraine before the end of April, three months after starting! We don't know how long it will take to get a submission date, but many families are traveling within 3-4 weeks of being submitted. That is super fast considering we didn't learn our travel date last time until 2 months after being submitted!

We are going to try to adopt the little girl who told us 'no' when we adopted Karina. She came and visited us during Christmas for a little over 2 weeks. She is older and a little more mature. I think she regrets her decision to stay. We'll see. It was very devastating when she refused to come with us. But she still called us Mama and Papa the whole time we were in Ukraine. She acted like she changed her mind just before we left, so we decided to give her another chance and brought her here for Christmas. She will be 14 on her next birthday. Children 'age out' of the orphanage at the end of the school year after they turn 16. So, she doesn't have too many years and there are not many choices for girls as far as careers go.

We are praying she says yes, but prepared for if she says no. We won't come home empty handed.