Silver Lining...

For those of you who read my earlier post in full, you noticed that they were accepting unlimited referrals for "handicapped children". We have just heard from our agency that their definition of a handicapped child is very broad. They have said it can apply to severe cases (HIV) to asthma. If America defined an asthmatic child as "handicapped" many more people would be classified as such. We also have learned that Eastern European countries are quick to diagnose a "handicap" that we would not necessarily consider a problem at all. Many children are actually misdiagnosed. Sad for them, but good (I guess) for the people who want to adopt. Our agency remains optimistic about our upcoming travels and that is great news to have this time of year. I guess you could say we are going up, up, up on this roller coaster ride. Thanks for following along!!
Love,
Su & Tru

Agency Response

Our agency finally got back to us regarding these new quotas. Here is an excerpt from their response:
"Another point is that the SDAPRC has been known to change its procedures and policies since its incorporation in 2006. It is important to remember that the quota system is not a law but just the arbitrary numbers adopted by the organization. There are possible exceptions to the rule, not yet publicly announced."

The agency is remaining optimistic, as are we, that this program will continue to operate and that we can still envision our trip there next fall. We did receive our very first apostilled document back from the State of IL. Whooohoo! That was the only document that needed to be mailed out of state, all the others are done in Frankfort (one bonus of living near the capital city!). We also started our Parent Education last night. It's an online course with some questions attached, but I think it will be a good avenue for discussion for us.
In the meantime, we continue to keep up with other families who are either in country now or are preparing just like us. Some are very inspiring stories of children & parents finding each other and others not so much. All we can do is stay patient and flexible and know at the end of this journey we WILL have a child to call our own. Merry Christmas!!
Love, Susan & Truman

Setback

Well, this just sucks!

December 12, 2007
Dear Members of the American Adoption Community Interested in Ukraine:
On November 22, 2007 the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports issued Decree #4137. This Decree approves the numbers of the new adoption dossiers from foreign countries that can be accepted by the Ukrainian State Department for Adoption and Protection of the Rights of the Child (SDAPRC) during calendar year 2008.
The result of the decree is that 460 dossier submissions have been allocated to parents from the U.S. for calendar year 2008. This number was arrived at using a special mathematical formula devised by the SDAPRC, based on the number of delinquent post adoption reports and the number of Ukrainian children who will be eligible for intercountry adoption in 2008. The total number of the dossier submissions is divided among five categories of children, so a specific number of dossiers can be submitted for each category:
• children under six years old (with no siblings) - 32 dossiers
• children from six to nine years old (with no siblings) - 83 dossiers
• children ten years or older (with no siblings) - 115 dossiers
• sibling groups (in which one of the children is younger than 6 years) - 92 dossiers
• sibling groups (in which all siblings are 6 or more years old) - 138 dossiers
The U.S. again has the highest number of allocations for foreign countries adopting from Ukraine, followed by Italy (381 dossiers) and Spain (285 dossiers).
The dossiers for the following categories of children will be accepted without any limitations and out of the regular line:
• Children who have been abandoned or are currently residing under the legal custody of their relatives
• step-children
• handicapped children, who suffer from a disease listed with the Ministry of Public Health Protection (the list of these diseases is posted at: http://kyiv.usembassy.gov/amcit_adoptions_eng.html.
The SDAPRC will accept the new dossiers from foreign citizens beginning February 4, 2008.

Hopefully we will hear back from our Case Manager to see what our options are.

Changes

That is the nature of international adoption - "...parents must be flexible and willing to accept change..." We have been told this is pretty much inevitable right from the beginning, but it's still a shock to the system when it happens. So, what has changed? Well, nothing yet, but it could in a big way. Ukraine issues quotas on how many American dossiers they will accept in a years time. Currently they are not accepting any new American dossiers, but have to reopen that process come January 15th. We knew that and it's no big deal since we are shooting for somewhere around March. However, we have heard via our Ukrainian rumor-mill that quotas for 2008 are very low - 32 to be exact, for a child under 5 yrs. Under 500 in total for children of all ages/needs. These numbers have not officially been determined, so we are still holding out hope that this is not the case and they will allow many more American dossiers to be registered. If these numbers are the case, we may need to re-evaluate where we stand - do we wait longer? do we open up our age range? do we think about another country? (the last one is a last resort I think). Regardless, we are still pursuing all of our paperwork as planned. I am Fed-Ex'ing out our fingerprints today to the FBI and am hoping they are quick at processing everything. Other than that, we are on the ball with everything else and will be hovering over the mailbox for the next couple months waiting on those very important documents that should be arriving. Have a great week!!
Love, Susan & Truman

Home Study Ending

This morning I submitted the final paper needed for our home study. It's a relief to have that under our belt, but now begins the waiting on other paperwork to be returned to us. I have to send a huge "Thank You" to my friend & co-worker, Dana, for accompanying me to my dr.'s office to notarize some papers. Also to my awesome friends, Rachel & Melissa, for offering to use their teacher book club bonus points to help start a book collection for our child. Thanks for making this process just a little easier! Now we just continue to work on some dossier paperwork and hopefully in a month's time we will be complete with stuff on our end and just be waiting on others. We're thankful we can take this holiday season to spend with our friends & family, but we're hoping next year our new addition will be able to spend it with us too. Thanks again for following along and keeping up with this crazy process of ours!
Love, Susan & Truman

Fingerprints

Another step is out of the way! We got our fingerprints done - the old fashion way with ink - at our county police station. Next step with that is to send them off to WV to the FBI and *hope* they come back clean. :) Shouldn't be a problem though. Please pray they move fast there, it could take from 1-10 weeks to get the clearances back. Today is the day we both go back to pick up our medical forms, please also pray that these are filled out correctly as that is all we are waiting on to have a completed home study. I dreamt last night about our trip to the orphanage; it started with selecting a girl, but ended back at home with a boy. Wonder what that means?!? Other dossier documents are coming along, several are ready to be notarized. I hope this post finds you well, thanks for checking in. And if you have time, please follow along with some other families who are currently in country - either awaiting their first SDA appointment or who are finalizing their adoptions and making travel plans home. Please pray for their smooth process & their trips home.

Quick Update

Yay! I heard back from the IL Secretary of State's office. We have officially sent in our first document to be apostilled. What a milestone!! Should have it back in about 2 weeks.

Progress

We had a fun weekend, complete with a Christmas party at the distillery and a visit to the Ukrainian church. This coming weekend we are hoping to get a Christmas tree up and decorated. Only TWO more documents are needed for our home study - the medical forms. I should have mine on Wednesday and hopefully Truman will have his by Friday. So - the goal is to be complete with that this week! That will be a huge step completed! We are now digging more into the dossier - if anyone knows how to get someone at the State of IL to call you back - please let me know!!! Our marriage certificate is the only thing we need to send out of state to be apostilled, yet no one will call me back and tell me where to send it and what the fee is. I guess I will have to be persistant. We have also started talking about what to pack for our 2-month long "camping trip" (as Truman put it). So, my question is to the families who have gone through this - what are the things on the "must pack" list and what kinds of stuff should we just buy when we get there? Yes, I know it's a long way off, but it's something to keep our minds occupied in the meantime! Thanks for keeping up - check back soon!!