It Makes Sense

We received information yesterday that we are assured a spot in the SDA's 2008 quota's for our adoption. It's very good news and helps us to rest easy for now. We are hoping our dossier can be submitted this summer (or earlier!), which would mean we should travel in the fall sometime. That's our best case scenario, but things can always change at the drop of a hat. It would make sense then that I had another adoption-related dream last night. I like to blog about these dreams so later on I can look back and see if there was any meaning in them. So this particular dream involved our SDA appointment, except Truman was not there. It was just me and my good friend Melissa. The director pulled out 2 files, but not really "files" just very very small pictures of each child, smaller than wallet size photos. The first one we looked at was a picture of a boy, maybe 4-5 yrs old, with dark shaggy hair in some sort of running pose. But he had turned his head so we could not see his face. Without even looking at the 2nd "file" I accepted this referral (and Melissa was just as excited about it as me!). I even remember the region he was in - Kharkiv. We were not able to call that particular orphanage director to ask any further questions, we just had to take a leap of faith and hope this child was the one. I remember the feeling of such excitement, hope, nervousness, fear, etc..that I'm sure I'll feel when it's done for real. Of course, as dreams do, it ended before finding anything else out about the little boy.
Remind me to revisit these dreams after all is completed and see if we really did travel to the Kharkiv region to adopt a little boy with dark hair. (although, I doubt it will be shaggy as most boys I've seen pictures of have the shaven head look)
Like always, we'll post when there is another "exciting" step crossed!

First Round of Updates

Yes, already we are having to provide updates to our dossier. Nothing major really, just updated copies of our doctors' licenses (can you believe they make us submit those??!!) since they are only good for one year and renewed in March. SO...Truman was able to get them certified & apostilled yesterday and they will be shipped off today.
We continue with our class in Cinci - only one more Saturday to go. On one hand that's good because it's taken up our last 4 Saturday's (which also means getting up extra early on a weekend). On the other hand, it's too bad they are going to be over because we are really learning a lot and we enjoy spending the time talking with other adoptive families. Hopefully we can all continue to keep in touch after the classes are done.

Will post again when something more "exciting" happens! :)

Love,
Su & Tru

Patience

First of all, I have to say that NO ONE reading this blog has offended me or has said anything along the lines of my previous post. :) Thank you all for your concern though. It was all the doing of one stupid person and maybe we should have taken the time to educate her on adoption stuff...but frankly, we didn't want to waste our time on her. I just need to learn to have a thicker skin and brush those kind of comments off. I'm learning....just as I'm learning, the hard way, to have patience. I have always been impatient (thanks Mom!) and this waiting on others to process our paperwork is torture sometimes. It feels like we are contantly waiting on something....a response via email, a phone call, the doctor to send us updated paperwork for our dossier, another email response.....it's never ending. You start to wonder if the day you are home with your child will ever come.

On a more positive note, we have been attending the International Adoption (IA) Seminar in Cincinnati for the past 2 Saturday's. We are really enjoying it and learning alot. Personally, I think it applies to issues in domestic & IA. We are meeting some great families adopting from all over the world. It's great to have that bond with them as they know exactly how we feel and vice versa.

I hope my previous post did not scare anyone away from asking questions. We are happy to answer questions about our adoption, and if you offend us we will just tell you instead of ranting on this blog! :) LOL

It's Worth Repeating

I posted this early on, but am thinking I should post it again. We've had some of these "insensitive" comments thrown our way lately and I felt the need to express that these are things NOT to be said. Not things you should be saying! :)
I'd love to see a list of snappy comebacks for these comments too. Any suggestions out there?! The ones I can come up with are too inappropriate. :)

Things that are NOT to be Said to People Who Adopt:
1. How much did she/he cost?
2. Why did you go and adopt--couldn't you have your "own" child?
3. Did you buy that baby?
4. Maybe now that you adopted, you'll have "your own" child. (will the one we adopt belong to someone else??)
5. She/He looks nothing like either of you.
6. What are you going to do when she/he looks for their birthparent?
7. Do you know her/his "real" parents? (What will we be? The fake parents?)
8. I sure hope he/she fits into your family!
9. Why didn't his/her real mom want him/her?
10. Don't even tell him/her they are adopted, they'll never know.
11. Too bad you had to adopt!
12. Whose fault is it you can't get pregnant?
13. You're doing these kids such a favor.
14. S/he is so lucky to have your family instead of his/her own.
15. An older child is damaged goods .
16. She's your daughter?
17. What about your own kids? What do they think about this?
18. She might come from a cursed background.
19. What are you going to do when you have kids of your own?
20. Do you think you love them as much as you could love your real kids?
21. You got kids the easy way you never even had to be pregnant.
22. What if the real parents come back and kidnap them?

Ukrainian Holiday

Tomorrow is Motherland Defender's Day in Ukraine. Yeah, I don't know what it means either but I downloaded all Ukrainian holidays onto my Outlook and that's what popped up. Just by the title I could guess it has something to do with the Ukrainian Army, but I could be way off.
There was also a mention of Ukraine on my guilty pleasure website, tmz.com. Something about Jessican Simpson and how her new movie is more popular there than in the US ??? Anytime I see "Ukraine" in print I have to read it.
So...I think we will be happy with the restructuring of our agency. We did find out that our dossier has made it to Ukraine and is in the process of being translated. YAY!!
A friend asked me the other day, "Isn't it weird to know your child is alive and living in an orphanage and just waiting for you?". YES! And the sooner we can go pick him/her up the better their life will be (and ours too)! OUR child, and YOUR grandchild, neice/nephew, cousin, 2nd cousin, even great-grandchild is living in Ukraine and waiting to have a home with a Mom & Dad, two dogs and fantastic extended family! We can't wait to meet him/her!!!!

Just Waiting

This is the long drawn out part of adoption -- the waiting. We had one final paper to get to our agency regarding Truman's name. Since he is "the III", he had to write something up saying all these names (without the suffix - which really was only on like 2 or 3 papers) are all the same person. He got that done right away, got it certified & apostilled and off it went overnight to the agency. That was the only thing keeping them from sending the dossier to Ukraine. That should happen this week. However, we just got word that they are doing some "restructuring of departments" and our Case Manager is now in AZ, not FL. We're hoping our dossier doesn't get lost in the shuffle of things and pushed aside for a while. I don't really think that will happen, but you never know.
During this waiting time I'm sure there will be fewer blogs to be written, but don't lose interest in us!! Check back from time to time to see what's new! If you can, follow along with the Johnson Family who is currently in Ukraine and Jason & April who are just beginning their trip to Ukraine. I'm sure they will both have interesting stories to tell.
We'll post when we have more news!
Love,
Su & Tru

Not much new

I haven't posted in a while, but there's not a whole lot to say. We did get some additional timeline information from our agency and according to them we are staying pretty close to our own timeline of a September travel date. Of course, NONE of that is set in stone anywhere and can change at the drop of a hat. We did register for an International Adoption seminar in Cincinnati that some other blogging friends posted about. It's from 2/23 - 3/15...just 4 Saturday's. At least we will get to do a little bit of travel to Cinci. We haven't really spent much time there since we moved to KY, except for a baseball game and me traveling there for some work events (as our Main Office is in Cinci).
I had a dream last night about our SDA appointment. I dreamt that we showed up and there were lots of other families waiting in this cafe looking place with wrought iron tables & chairs. They called Truman in first to look at the profiles (which were all digital and projected onto a screen). He came out and said there was one boy he was drawn to. Next was my turn. They wanted us to pick out the same child. If we did, then we got to adopt, if not then we were going home. As with most dreams you wake up before it's over. But I like to think we chose the same child and were able to proceed with the adoption. :)
I think the next step for us at home is getting the room more ready for a child. We need to find bedding and Truman wants to get started on the Seuss murals. We are doing really good at picking up things little at a time that we'll need for traveling.
Talk to you all later!