Getting Closer

Well... haven't posted in a while. Been working on getting the paperwork done for submission. Our facilitator needs the paperwork by 10/31/09. This time around, I thought it would be easier and in some ways it is, but it seems like everything is taking longer. We mailed the physician's paperwork almost two weeks ago and haven't heard back yet. We will call tomorrow and check on this. I have an appointment on Wed. and hopefully I can pick it up then.

We have been out of town this past week for a vacation at Myrtle Beach. We really needed a break from work and running around, so we decided to take our normal week. It was nice to see the children there at Broadway at the Beach - riding rides, the two little boys who ran down all out down the beach to their grandmother and the cute kids in Red Robin. It was nice to know that we should have our little one by the next time we visit.

We got our laptop, so we should have at least some access while we are in Ukraine. We will be using Skype, so we need to get the family all set up on it as well.

We have been picking up some clothing along the way such as boots and leggings for layering. We will really have to limit ourselves because last week, for the beach, the car was packed! We wouldn't have room to take a child if we had one. There is no way we can lug that many clothes around Ukraine. At least we know if will be cold there. This week at Myrtle is always a challenge. We take shorts and jeans, short sleeves and long sleeves, and more shoes than we do in June.

Thanks for hanging in there. I am sure we will have more to report as the time get near.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Love, R & T

After Some Thought

After some thought, we will have to re-do 99% of our paperwork, but at least this time we know what we are supposed to do.

The change of requirements for obtaining a submission date is where we got caught. When we began this adventure, an entire dossier was needed to obtain a submission date. Just as we have our dossier about 95% completed, the "rules" changed and all you need to obtain a submission date is a home study.

Our advice to those just now beginning the process - obtain your homestudy first. In our state, we had to have the medical form completed for the homestudy, but that was all. You can complete your homestudy, submit for translation/submission date and then, when you obtain your submission date, you can complete other paperwork while waiting to travel.

Since our submission date is Nov. 23, we will begin to get our paperwork updated in Sept. or Oct. as we know that it can easily be done here in about one month. That way, we will be assured that our paperwork will still be valid when we travel - hopefully in Jan or Feb 2010.

This new process should help to expedite the process for others. We got caught in the change and it slowed us down. BUT - we know that God has a reason for all things and we know that He has a plan for us. He has a child for us and it will happen in His timing, not ours.

Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers.

Love,
R & T

Dossier Submission Date

Just read an email from our facilitator, Valentina and our submission date is Nov. 23, 2009. After the submission, the SDA (Ukraine Gov't. Adoption Office) has 20 days to approve or deny. I am not sure if this is 20 days or 20 working days. I will check with Cathy and update when I do find out.

I know that the SDA closes during the holidays, so we are probably facing travelling in January 2010. This is a little disappointing because we will have to go through Christmas again without our child and we will have to re-do a good amount of paperwork. I will check all of the paperwork next week to see what will have to be re-done and re-aposstilled.

Advice to those adopting from Ukraine: be prepared to have some paperwork done 2-4 times, and be careful when you remove money from any retirement accounts if you are counting on your adoption tax credit to cover the taxes owed on the money removed from those accounts.

At least we have a submission date and more time to save extra money for the trip!

Paper Work!

We are still re-doing paper work.

We had to send our SLED background check back to SLED to have it notarized. Note to anyone pursuing international adoption & living in SC - the SLED background check must be on SLED letterhead and notarized by SLED. You will need to include a note asking for it to be notarized because they do not automatically do that.

We are again working with the doctor's office to assure that the medical certificate is correct.

Hopefully, we will have both the SLED clearance and the medical certificates back this week so that Tim can take everything to Columbia next week to have it apostilled.

Ukraine is at the moment letting people request submission appointments with only a home study. We are too close to do that, but it may mean that we need to expedite our translation as others will be trying to push their paperwork through.

Please keep us in your prayers. We know that the Lord has this all mapped out for us and that everything will happen in His time.

Updates will come as we complete each step.

Submission to UA

Yesterday, Tim faxed most of our paperwork to Cathy Harris of Ukrainian Angels (UA.) I thought we had done so well, but we have to correct some of the paperwork. Cathy reviewed on the same day and sent us feedback.

Most paperwork is only good for 12 months, but must not expire until 6 months after your anticipated travel date. So, we have to have a lot of things updated:
Here's a list:

1. Home Study will need an addendum stating that everything remains the same since the original home study. Thanks to our wonderful Mrs. Smith - this will be in the mail to us tomorrow!
2. Need a more recently dated copy of Social Worker's license card - again - Thanks Teresa!
3. We had several papers that our notary signed, but did not date. No need to list all of those here.
4. Our SLED background check was done with our home study and SLED just stamped NO CRIMINAL RECORD on the release/request that we sent them. It must be on their letterhead. So, we get to pay for this again.....
5. We have to have our employment letters updated and they must be worded differently from the original ones. (SDA decided that they need to read differently.)
6. Physician's forms must be updated and they need to have the international diagnosis codes for all diagnosis. I held on for 10 minutes yesterday trying to get an appointment to do this.
7. Our statement from the Tax Assessor was not correct. I wrote down exactly how it needed to read, but they typed it the way they wanted to and Tim went back and got that corrected today.

Doesn't look too bad as much of this is an easy fix. AND - I surely would rather know and get it corrected NOW than have it submitted to the SDA and then be returned!

Looks like we may travel Oct. - Nov. now. I guess I'd better start looking for some good boots!

In other news - We celebrated our 24th Wedding Anniversary yesterday! Hopefully we will celebrate our 25th anniversary with our child(ren.)

Please keep us and our future child(ren) and their caregivers in your prayers.

I-171H

We received our I-171H today!

We only need the statement from our tax assessor and we will have to update our medical forms and our employment verification and we will be ready to submit to UA for review before having everything apostilled.

Thanks to Colleen for the info about FRUA and the yahoo boards.

I have not read anything official about a moratorium. Hopefully, if there is one, we will get there before it hits.

We are at peace and know that we are doing what God wants us to do and through Him, all things are possible.

Thanks for all of the prayers!
Rita

Waiting on Final INS Review

Well, we are waiting on the final INS review. I received a voice mail at work last week from an INS agent that said she needed our A #s. Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about and she either gave me the incorrect number - or most likely, I transposed the number. I could not contact her and could not retrieve the number from my voicemail, so we went on a wild goose chase to get the phone number - which we never got by the way.

Tim and I both became frustrated because the 1-800 numbers that we called claimed that they did not have the phone number for the Greer office and did not even have an email for them. The info the representatives gave us was the info that we could find on line. Finally, I was given an email address to the Charleston office and emailed them while Tim mailed a letter to the Greer Office - where we had mailed our I-600A, etc. And...guess what they wanted...our alien number! OK - ummmm.... we don't have one because we are Naturalized USA Citizens! Then, on the 800 #, they asked Tim for the A# for our children....after he had explained that we are applying for adoption.

After all of this.....we find that all of our files have been transferred to the Charleston Office. I knew that DSS had sent their study/approval to Charleston, but everything on the USCIS site said to send everything for the I-600A to Greer!

The good news is that the INS has everything that they need and our request is awaiting final review. Whew........

Now we just have to do a couple more things and will be ready to submit to Cathy Harris, our advisor. The SDA in Ukraine has recently made some changes and Cathy has found out what they want. We have to get a certified Tax Assessment of our house and a certified Deed. Plus, the employment statements that we got are not good enough. They now want a copy of the 2008 W-2 forms that are signed by our employer and notarized. We should have all of this done and ready to submit to Cathy by the time we get our INS approval.

Keep the prayers coming that nothing else drastically changes. I heard a rumor that Ukraine may put a moratorium on adoptions, but it is unfounded. I think someone misread the info from an interview with a Ukrainian official concerning Ukraine joining the Hague Convention.