Dossier Submitted... Travel Date to Come

So in steps A-H that we were given at the very beginning of our process... We are in between G & H!! Our dossier (paperwork) has been submitted (G) but waiting on the travel date (H). It is so exciting yet so CRAZY to think we are finally here! Kostya (our translater) in Ukraine emailed us yesterday and informed us everything is submitted and he THINKS we will travel mid September... YES that is not very long! I have went into the frenzy of preparing bedrooms (which is SUPER hard to do when we know NOTHING about our child).. pet sitters (which we have 3 great ones).. preparing Mom to pay the bills and run the house while we are away (so THANKFUL to have a wonderful Mom who is willing to do anything).. maternity leave.. and the list continues!

We could not be more excited that the end of this part of our journey is nearing the end. We are so ready to have our child/ren home. We can't wait to be parents. I was thinking the other day how nice it will be to have a child call me "Mom"! I know so simple but I am so excited about that!

Thanks to all of you who have been keeping up with our journey and encouraging us through it all. We are so blessed to have you all.

Prayers are Answered!

Many of you were a huge part of these decisions that were made! We asked for prayers this past Sunday night specifically for the SDA in Ukraine not to close and stop processing all adoptions. We received news Monday morning from our translator that they had not closed as planned and they were going to continue processing adoptions until the other ministry openned! None other than God could have answered that prayer! Yes, we have to make a few changes to documents but that feels like a breeze when we have been worrying that this adoption was going to be halted until???

We are still going to be adopting an older child but if God is openning these doors we feel this is exactly where He wants us. We will face many struggles but none where God is not near. We are so blessed to have so many people involved in this adoption! We have been overwhelmed with the encouragement and excitement we have seen over this wonderful news.

Thank you all for being such a blessing to us.

These were the first words we read from our translator Monday morning:

Hello Tyler & Felecia,

Good news, the SDA will continue to work. No delay.

New Age Law: http://for-ua.org/politics/2011/05/19/183439.html

Be Still and Know I Am God

These title words are ones my Mom spoke when I asked her for some advice tonight at supper. We received news we didn't want to hear today about our adoption. We were told that on May 19th the Ukrainian government decided children 0-5 should only be available for Ukrainian people. We were also told the SDA (facility who does all adoptions) is closing on July 11th. This is huge news to us because our dossier is supposed to be submitted on August 4th which won't happen if the SDA closes in July. We are not sure exactly how either of these are going to impact our adoption. It all strikes when you are least expecting it. We have been on an adoption high due to our LONG wait to send our dossier to be submitted and now finding out that it might not be submitted is a real blow. We know there is a real plan and God knows what it is. All we have to do is put 110% faith in Him no matter how hard this might be.

Please pray that we will have strength and faith to push on through all of these bumps in the road. Please pray for our child wherever they are.

Dossier Sent

We sent our dossier today! What does this mean? Kostya, our translator, will receive it on July 5th and he will translate the entire thing. He will then submit it on August 4th. They then have 20 working days to give us a travel date or reject it. Let's pray for a travel date! It's crazy to think that all steps except travel to Ukraine are completed!

This was so us!

A friend who has adopted posted this on her wall today. When I watched it made me think back to when we were deciding when to adopt. We kept making every excuse in the book but we kept crossing them off because they just didn't seem to make sense after we thought about it. Now it all seems so selfish that we actually used excuses to wait for our adoption. All of those excuses we had LITERALLY written down have been slowly marked through by God. Once we decided to put all our faith and hope for this adoption in His hands things just took off. We are no where near finished with this adoption and we have many strong holds to get through before we bring our child/ren home from Ukraine. This isn't even considering the things we will have to figure out and work through once we have them home. Honestly, these are things we don't even worry about now because we know it's not just us on this road. We have a God who is right beside us whispering encouragement and assurance that this is right..this is His will for our lives right now. All of this being said I hope you take a few minutes and watch this video.

Dossier

I officially collected our entire dossier minus 1 document in 5 days! I was quite proud but of course the 1 document took over 2 weeks to finally come in. It did arrive on Friday after calling a thousand times! Nonetheless, I sent our dossier package to Montgomery Friday afternoon with all 32 notarized documents to be apostled and then off to Ukraine! Kostya, (our translator), will then translate it and submit it to Embassy. They have 20 working days to in return give us a travel date. We are yet another step closer to our Forever Family!

Dossier Time

It is now time to gather the life story documents (aka - dossier). This is the packet of information that will be submitted to the Embassy in Ukraine that will in turn get us a travel date. This should be the final step before actually going to Ukraine! Let's pray that we can gather all the needed documents and get them passed the first time. Our process with Ukrainian Angels is to gather documents then send them to Florida so that Cathy (Ukrainian Angels Lady) can check them for accuracy. Then we will send them to Montgomery to be apostles. Then we will send them to Kostya in Ukraine and he will translate them and submit them on August 4th. We are guessing the travel date will be about 4 or so months from submission (just a guess). We have come to learn that adoption is God's way of teaching us patience! We know that this is in His time and we are perfectly okay with that. Below are the documents we have to gather:

__ Updated Home Study

__ Agency License

__ Social Workers License

__ Letter from agency about social worker

__ I-171H Approval

__ Copies of Passports

__ State Police Clearance Letters

__ Employment Verifications

__ Medical Certificate & Doctors License

__ Marriage Certificate

__ Petition to Adopt

__ Letters of Obligation

__ Power of Attorney

__ House Deed

__ Tax Returns

__ Description of House

__ Ukraine Interpol Police Clearance

Nothing more nothing less!! Our goal for completion is this Friday!!