Process

I'd like to start this post by thanking all of you who are posting comments. You are our cheering section and we always love to hear your encouraging words - both from you who are posting regularly and those who come out of "lurking" to share your hearts (thanks, Carmen!). We are so grateful for this community that is walking with us through all the ups and downs.

Something that has come up in the comments has been questions regarding how the process unfolds from here on out. At times this has been a bit of a mystery to us, too. Each region handles things just a little bit differently so we've been learning as we go. At the risk of being a little dry, I'll try to outline what the rest of the process is for this adoption.

Today our paperwork arrived in Kiev and was submitted to the central office for approval. The approval should be processed and returned to us here in the region by next Wednesday. At the same time, our facilitator turned in paperwork to the local court today. We also got word that our Interpol police clearances were completed as well. Knowing that the paperwork from Kiev will arrive on Wednesday, the first day we could possibly go to court would be Thursday of next week. We should find out on Monday morning when the court will be able to hear our case and which judge will be presiding.

Once the judge hears our case and grants our petition for adoption, there will be a ten day waiting period before the court decree goes into effect. During that time we'll continue to stay in the region and visit the girls daily. On the eleventh day, we'll be able to pick up the court decree and take it to the vital records office here in town where they will issue new birth certificates with the girls' new names. With that in hand, we will be able to apply for their Ukrainian passports.

Waiting for passports will take 8-10 days although there is a possibility to expedite the process for an additional fee (more about that decision later).

Once passports are issued, we will travel back to Kiev where we will interface with the U.S. Embassy for physicals and visas. That will take several more days.

After completing the paperwork in Ukraine, we'll fly back to the States. When we arrive in Chicago we'll go through immigration where, after about an hour-long process, the girls will officially become U.S. citizens. Whew!

There are (at least) two important issues that come to mind as I read through what I've just written. First, when do we get to take the kids out of the orphanage and second, why would we choose to expedite or not expedite the passports?

To answer the first question, we can take the kids out of the orphanage on the eleventh day after our court date. We might wait a day or two just to make sure that all the paperwork is in place for the passports because hauling around kids to all the public offices will surely slow down our ability to move through the bureaucracy.

To answer the second question, the expedite fee x 3 may be cost prohibitive. If we could get a discount for three passports, the cost of staying for another 8-10 days plus the fee of changing our plane tickets might start to equal the expedite fee. In that case, we would choose to expedite the process. It's possible that we might be able to take the kids directly from the orphanage to the train to Kiev if we can get the passports within a day or two after the court decree goes into effect. If not, they'll be spending some time with us at the hotel here in the region.

Estimates at this time are rough at best, but optimistically we could see it unfolding like this:

Court date: Friday, Feb 12

Day 11: Tuesday, Feb 22

Expedited passports in hand, leave for Kiev: Wednesday, Feb 23

Return to U.S.: Tuesday, March 1

For those of you who endured to the end, here are a few photos from our rustic hotel. The first picture is the building our room is in. The second is a hill we can see from the the hotel grounds that has a pilgrimage trail on it. The last two are of the little lounge where Stan spends his working hours.