Background

For those of you who haven't been with us throughout the entire process, I'll back up and fill you in on some details from the beginning...

My cousin, Shelby, her husband, Matt, and their three kids lived in Ukraine for about a year and a half and I was able to visit them in July of 2006 and again in April of 2007. The picture to the left is their family.

During both trips, Shelby took me to the orphanage where she had been spending time with a class of 12 kids at least once a week. On my trip in April, we went to the orphanage several times and the class was also able to come to church on Easter Sunday, so I had several opportunities to spend time with the kids. The picture below has all of the kids in the class, Shelby's family, Shelby's friend, Tammy, and the orphan's two caregivers.

During my visits, I fell in love with one of the little boys in the class named Vacya. He is a very friendly, outgoing little boy and he kind of reminded me of Joe.

When I returned home, Joe and I discussed the possibility of adopting Vacya and decided to go ahead and pursue it. So the whole process began...

First, we had to have a home study done by a social worker to see if we could provide a suitable home for an adoptive child. This was started in June and we got a completed copy of the home study at the end of July. Once we had the home study, we had to apply for permission from US immigration to bring a foreign adopted child into the United States. We received our approval from them at the beginning of October (a whole month earlier than we had expected it!) Then we had to prepare a set of documents (called a dossier) to send to Ukraine. All Ukrainian adoptions are handled by their government's State Department of Adoption (SDA). Once our facilitator in Ukraine had submitted the dossier, we just had to wait to receive approval and get our appointment date with the SDA. So that brings us to where we are now. We have our approval and know that our appointment is set for April 1st.

At our appointment with the SDA, we will be shown a child that we will be able to adopt. Because we specifically requested Vacya, hopefully when we get there, he will be the one that we are approved to adopt. However, we won't know anything for sure until we actually go. After that initial appointment, we will be given a court date (usually 3 to 4 weeks out from the initial appointment) when we will have to go before a judge to have the adoption finalized. The judge has the final say on the adoption. During the wait between the appointment at the SDA and the court date, we will be able to visit the orphanage and spend time with the child. After the court hearing and finalization, there is a ten day waiting period before we can have custody of the child. There is also about a 20 day waiting period after finalization to get the child's passport. When we get a passport, we have to go to the US Embassy for the child to have a medical exam and apply for a visa to bring the child home to the US. Then, finally, we will be able to return home. The whole in-country process for Ukraine will probably take 6-8 weeks or longer. It all depends on when the court date is scheduled and how long it takes to get all the paperwork done for the child to be able to enter the United States.

Shelby and Matt have also been going through the adoption process at the same time as Joe and I. They are trying to adopt two brothers from the same class as Vacya is in. Aleg and Zhenya, the boys they are hoping to adopt, are the boys on the left. Vacya is in the front on the right, and the other little boy is Tolya. It has been great to be able to share the anticipation and challenges with Shelby throughout the process. We are hoping that we will be in Ukraine at about the same time for our adoptions, but Shelby and Matt do not have their appointment date yet.

I hope this is helpful for those of you haven't heard about the whole process of Ukrainian adoption yet.