Adoption News~

I'm not sure why but I've been hesitant to post much on our upcoming adoption, but I'd better start or I'll be too behind to even start catching up.  I suppose I'll start this first adoption post with a time line of events..

July 2010

We decided to revisit adopting another child.  We learned that LDS family services changed their policy to no longer allow families to adopt more than 3 children.  Devastating news for our plan to try adopting again.

October 17, 2010

We were invited to attend a meeting with an organization called Save-A-Child by some friends in our ward.  They had heard that we were thinking about looking further into adopting from other channels.  They were hosting a 14 year old girl coming from the Ukraine and told us that there were a lot of kids that were coming here and we should come and try to become a 'host family.'  The ages of the children coming were much higher than we had ever considered for adoption, but it was my birthday and we decided to get out with them and just go for fun.. The children arrived on October 22nd late at night.

October 23, 2010

The first activity for the visiting children was at a swimming pool.  We had been invited to come to the activities to get to meet and know some of the children and just to be 'a back up hosting family.'  That day was extremely cold and rainy and we decided not to take Mason or Ezra out in the rain to go swimming.  We still were unsure about this whole thing and were not even considering pursuing anything more than attending the activities.  Ethan was so excited until we got there then he really clammed up.  I was about to leave when some of the host mom's came to talk to me and point out a few of the kids.  One girl was pointed out to me and I immediately fell in love with her.  I literally had my heart jump from my chest and beg me to go get her.  I texted Spencer that we had to apply for passports because it looked like we were going to the Ukraine.  His only response to me was, "come again?"  then, "you're serious, aren't you?" 

October 23 - November 1st, 2010

We continued going to the activities in hopes that she would be there and that we could catch a glimpse of her.  She actually seemed interested in us and definitely noticed us and recognized us there.  Spencer immediately knew that this was what we needed to do for our family almost as instantly as I did after seeing her.  In fact, after meeting with the adoption agent we would eventually use, we left and drove home just in a panic over how we could come up with the money to actually do this.  We both decided that either we had to walk away and just let it go, or plan on going and figure it out as things progressed.  Our decision was to continue with the adoption.  In these few weeks we made every effort to attend all of the activities where we could just be around her.  The only time we met her one on one was the night before the group was leaving to return to the Ukraine.  She asked if I would be coming to the airport to see them off and of course I said I was!  She hugged me goodbye and I told her we were coming to see her.

Nov - Now!

We immediately applied for our immigration for foreign adoption.. the I-600A form.  We started our home study process and applied for passports.  We got a lot done really fast and were able to have our paperwork waiting in line for the our papers to be considered in Ukraine.  It really feels inadequate stating all of that in 2 sentences!!  It was A LOT of work!  It took a TON of time and a TON of money!  After all of our immigration was back we started our dossier.  That was another month of long days running errands and collecting paperwork.  Thank you by the way to all of people who helped me with that enormous task! 

We got word that our submission date for our paperwork is February 7th.  They will review everything and give us our appointment date at that meeting.  We should find out sometime next week when they want us there.  We've been told that we should expect to travel the last week of February.  Now we have another huge list of things to get done.  The biggest hurdle right now is coming up with the cash that we need to take with us on our trip and our final payment to our adoption agency.. o yeah, and our plane tickets and travel expenses!  Whew, it sure sounds impossible today, but we are hopeful it all comes together in the next 2 weeks!