Holding Pattern

We arrived back home three weeks ago. We all took turns being sick, but I think we are all well now.

Our facilitator told us that he was going to Moscow last Monday to get our daughter's birth certificate. He is supposed to contact us when he gets back to Ukraine. We haven't heard anything yet, so we are assuming he is still waiting on the birth certificate. Apparently, this is a very unusual thing for an adopted child in Ukraine to have a birth certificate from another country. It seems to be complicated even though Ukraine used to be part of Russia. Ukraine was it's own country when our daughter was born, though. We have been told that Moscow is a difficult region, so they were not sure how long this would take or how many 'officials' the birth certificate would have to go through. We are hoping that the original birth certificate with her new adopted name can be issued quickly, like in a day or two or three and taken to the town where she is. But then again, are things really that simple in Ukraine? The judge has already agreed to change her birthplace, but he wanted an original Moscow birth certificate since that is the way they do things in Moscow. In Ukraine, they just change the birth certificate and it usually takes only a day.

We're not sure about all of the specifics, but our facilitators told us that since our daughter has been in the custody of Ukraine, that she is a citizen of Ukraine, even though she was born in Moscow. There is supposed to be an understanding between Russia and Ukraine, that Russia will honor the legal documents of Ukraine that have declared us to be her parents.

We don't quite understand how she is a citizen of Ukraine when she was born in Moscow. It could be that she is a citizen of Ukraine because her mother is/was actually a citizen of Ukraine. I guess it's not like the US. From what I understand, all you have to do is to be born in the US to be a citizen. I thought it was that way everywhere. Then again, I remember reading about Ukraine citizens going to another country to work, having a child and abandoning it. The child ends up in the orphanage of that country, but is still a Ukrainian citizen. This child was stuck in this system unable to be adopted in this country or returned to Ukraine.

Anyhow, we are praying to hear that all this is cleared up soon and would appreciate others praying with us. This is really a very difficult situation to be in. We have a daughter that is stuck in another country and have no idea when we can go get her. She is very anxious to come home to us and we are just as anxious to have her here.