HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA!!!

Well our dossier has cleared customs and has been delivered & reviewed and appears to be ok. Just patiently waiting for the day it gets submitted. Nina will be celebrating her 12th birthday very soon!

Well its 5:00pm Friday and our dossier is on its way to the Ukraine. Its been a wild ride so far and only God knows what he has in store for us. Things seem to change almost daily and we might even be taking our youngest two boys with us for half of the trip or maybe all, who knows.
Now we sit back and wait for a invite from the Ukraine Goverment.

Jeff & Donna

Approved

I know you all aren't going to believe this but we got an email today stating our application was approved today and the letter should be in the mail Friday or Saturday. I really hope it is tomorrow because I will be able to drive to Frankfort to get the Sect of State to certify the Dossier paperwork so we can Fed Ex it to Kiev. I am hearing from other blogs and some contacts I have made during this process that for older children they expedite there adoptions and travel is usually with in 2-3 weeks after the Dossier is submitted in Kiev. We have to admit this has been a very emotional time for us. The uncertainty of when will the next step be complete, do we have everything done, we have to leave the boys for a long time and we have never done that. It's real hard to leave one family to go save another part of our family. I heard a story about what summer camp is like for the orphans. A story was told about the kids getting 1 watermelon and 20 kids eating on it and that was the only meal that day. I guess when I think of "summer camp" I thought it was a getaway from the orphanage but instead it might be worse. We just want her home in her bed and with us so we know she is safe.
Jeff and Donna

Home Study at CIS

Finally the Home Study has arrived at CIS for their approval. I never thought this day would arrive. We are getting closer to submitting our dossier.

Home Study Complete

Well the news is this....HOME STUDY COMPLETED....it should be submitted today or tomorrow...which means we will be waiting for INS approval which I hear can range from 2-8 weeks....then we proceed to the mad dash to complete the Dossier....once that is complete it is sent over to Galya....Thats all I know right now but will update soon I hope....

Next Step

A letter

Hello Donna, for the last two weeks she has been preparing for the concert dedicated to the Victory Day. She danced in one dance of the concert. Because of rehearsals she had very few free time and she almost did not do her self-study of English. The only what she studied was when we studied together while our meetings. For the next two weeks she will practice dancing waltz for the "The last school bell". This is a traditional celebrations of the end of the academic year. She showed me the presents that you sent to her through Kathy. We read your letters. Out of these letters she already knows that you want to adopt her. I asked her what she thinks about adoption. She said she wants to have a family and to leave to America. When she was showing me her photos she did comments like "these are my mom and dad", "This is my home", "This is my grandmother". She liked a lot the book about Kentucky. She is a very carefull girl. She does not give her cloths to laundry, but washes everything herself caring about the form,condition and safety of them. She likes needlwork. Some of her clothes she decorates with beads... As you asked on behalf of you I gave her a hug.
Yours,
Natasha.

Gosh it seems like we go days and weeks with nothing to tell then in one day everything happens. We met with Kathy, Nancy and two other couples who are going through the adoption process on Saturday May 9th. She went over everything we had to do for the Dossier. We are prepared to begin but have to wait for INS to send us the I-71H form. Once this is in hand we can start the Dossier. Kathy assures us it won't take long to complete.

We were lucky enough to get more pictures of her that was taken while they were in the Ukraine in April.


So we will update again once we get INS approval so you can count down the days till we get a court date to pick her up....We cant wait

Love,
Jeff and Donna