Registration night

I just have to share with all of you what my night was like when we found out that we were approved by Ukraine. As a trainer for a bank, I sometimes have to teach at night. Well on this night, not only did I teach in the evening...it was at one of our branches that is about 2.5 hours away and in another time zone. It was nearly eleven o'clock when I got home that night. When I travel at night, I really have a hard to going to bed (even though I am usually in bed by 10:00 every night). I decided that I would read my emails to wind down. After ten minutes of reading an email from Julia (my facilitator) popped up. Uh oh....it was too early for an approval or rejection...so what is the problem? No problem...we have been approved!!! I am so excited that I run into the bedroom to tell David, my husband, ...no response except some growling....I know, it's a school night but I will wake up my son Matthew and tell him (it is only 11:15)...he didn't wake up either. I know, you can always count on your mother and she stays up to watch the news. Not tonight and my step-dad Ren answered. Sleepily he said congratulations and that he would tell Mom. Ughhhhh I needed excitement. Oh, my dad is on central time and it is only 10:30 there. guess what...they are asleep too. What is a girl to do. Well, if Julia is emailing you...then that means she is awake. I emailed her and she responded and said she was happy for me too and that I needed to go to bed. (All in fun) So much for using email to help me sleep....I was ready to fill out more paperwork, but I went to bed. :(

Long time, Yawnnnnnnnn

Okay, so I haven't posted in a long time. Actually little has happened and you know the old saying...Well, I don't know it either, so here is a catch up. On June 6th we finally got our approval from BCIS (Immigration) saying that we are approved in the United States. Woo Hoo. We get the letter of approval about 30 past the date that we should have. It generally takes only two months, but it seems the Louisville office was having a few problems and we just so happened to get caught in that time frame. Surprise!!! Anyway, there is always a reason and we were rolling with it. Now, the approval letter comes in the day we are flying to New York to visit David's sister Diane and her husband Bob. Do you think I could concentrate. David was amazed when he caught me packing my adoption portfolio. (I am using the word amazing broadly!!) What else was I to do on the flight? I wanted to have our dossier ready to go as soon as we got home. We get home the following week only to find out that Ukraine had put a two month hold on adoptions. What? After all this work...the 30 day delay in Louisville (by the way some key words were directed to that city.....just kidding. :) ) So much for the work on the plane. We did get the dossier (miles of paperwork and seals that have to go to Ukraine for approval) sent off on June 22nd. It seemed like David and I gave birth at that moment sending off all that paperwork....it was like giving birth!!!

After talking to many other people it seems like it will take about 6 weeks to get the paperwork translated and submitted to the NAC (National Adoption Center) in Ukraine. Whoops...a snag in our paperwork gets caught by our translator...so we have to send one piece of paper to Ukraine to get that fixed. Wow, that was a costly mistake. 60 dollars for one piece of paper and that is the cost if it is sent economy!!! ha. Good news is that our dossier was submitted to the NAC on August 10th. Wait, wait , wait...it should take another 6 weeks to get registered. Guess what, we are registered on September 9th..less than a month. We are on a roll now. We were told that all of the 2005 dates are taken and to request a date in 2006. We really would like a date this year, so we requested a date between Nov 1st and February 12th. Cross your fingers that we get a 2005 appointment.