Time Line: We have decided to publish a timeline so that everyone can be up to date on everything we've done so far.
December 2004- We finally decided to take the leap and started gathering material from agencies and doing our research. We took our time and prayed a lot to see where God would lead us with our decision. We were split between India and Ukraine. In the end we felt we drawn to Ukraine a little more and felt like this is where our child was waiting for us. We also found a great agency that we felt we could really trust.
February 2005- We decided to start our homestudy since that can take a few months to complete. This is where the MOUNTAIN of paper work began. We wrote autobiographies, had criminal background checks, 2 home inspections and interviews each, and far too much more to mention.
We also filed our I-600A which is the application for Citizenship and Immigrations Services.
March 2, 2005 - We were notified to be fingerprinted for Citizenship and Immigration Service. Now we just wait for our approval letter to have our child immigrate. This usually takes 90 days.
April 2005- We had our last interview with our social worker. We were very lucky to get a GREAT social worker. We were very comfortable with her and it made the process go much smoother.
A draft of our homestudy report was given to us to read and approve. This is a report that details our life together and our plans for our children. A copy was translated and included in our dossier.
(Dossier= a package of legal documents submitted to Ukraine to gain approval for adoption.)
We also started gathering legal documents having them notarized, and then apostilled by the Sec of State. This is part of completing our dossier. We both had to have very thorough physicals including blood work. We started our hepatitis shots too because they take 6 months.
May 5, 2005- Our homestudy in completed. The final draft gets forwarded to SC Dept. of Social Services for approval and then it gets forwarded again to Citizenship and Immigration for their approval. We are still waiting for our I-171-H (immigration approval) which is the final form we need to complete our dossier.
Waiting....PAPERWORK ...Waiting...PAPERWORK....Waiting...
Trying to scrape pennies here and there to fund our adoption.
More waiting....MORE PAPERWORK.....Waiting.....
June 14, 2004- The I-171-H Citizenship and Immigration approval finally arrives. By this time I have all the other documents completed and apostilled for our dossier. This was the last thing. The next morning I'll drive to Columbia, SC to the Sec of State office to get the seal put on this form.
June 15, 2005- Our dossier is complete!! I rush to Fed Ex to get it in the mail. I'm on cloud nine nothing can bring us down! The end to months of paperwork.
Later that evening I get a call from my agency..... Ukraine has announced they will "temporarily" stop accepting dossiers hopefully only for a period of 2-6 months. They are making changes to their adoption system to help the system favor the children more. This could mean that by the time they re-open some of our paperwork will expire and/or they will change the requirements for paperwork and we'll have to re-do some of it anyway. All families whose dossier are already accepted will proceed as normal. We've just missed the deadline by a matter of days.
June 25, 2005- We learn that the National adoption center in Ukraine (NAC) is not ready to completely stop accepting dossier yet. They will continue to accept VERY LIMITED NUMBERS of dossiers one day a week. This will require a miracle to get our submitted.
Waiting.....Waiting.....Waiting...
Lots of praying...praying...praying..
July passes and we learn that its looking hopeful but no promises are made. We continue to pray that our facilitator in Ukraine will be able to get our dossier submitted.
August 2, 2005- Today is the day! Our dossier is submitted to the NAC in Ukraine. We are so thankful to God. We would like to thank everyone that has helped us get this far. We thank everyone for their prayers. This is a gift from God and we feel very blessed. Now we're on our way.
Our next steps:
In the next few weeks attorneys and staff at the NAC will review our paperwork. If they find that everything is correct they will deem us "canidates for adoption" and give us a registration number. This will be mailed to us and could take weeks or months.
Once we have our registration number we'll be given a range of dates to request an appointment in. We'll send a letter to Ukraine to request a date. If all goes well they will respond with our travel date and appointment time. This process could also take a couple of weeks or a couple of months. There is no way to predict.
Once we have our date we will prepare to travel to Ukraine. At our appointment we will be shown profiles of children available for adoption. We will select a child to meet and then travel to their city. We will then decide if we want to proceed or request a second appointment with the NAC.
After we find our child court can take up to three weeks. The judge can decided to waive or impose a 30 day in country waiting period for us to spend with our child. Hopefully, this will be waived and we can return home in 3-4 weeks time.
We will continue to update this time line as we make progress. We are still hoping to travel sometime in Jan or Feb. We know that God will put us there when our child is available. We're at his mercy.
December 2004- We finally decided to take the leap and started gathering material from agencies and doing our research. We took our time and prayed a lot to see where God would lead us with our decision. We were split between India and Ukraine. In the end we felt we drawn to Ukraine a little more and felt like this is where our child was waiting for us. We also found a great agency that we felt we could really trust.
February 2005- We decided to start our homestudy since that can take a few months to complete. This is where the MOUNTAIN of paper work began. We wrote autobiographies, had criminal background checks, 2 home inspections and interviews each, and far too much more to mention.
We also filed our I-600A which is the application for Citizenship and Immigrations Services.
March 2, 2005 - We were notified to be fingerprinted for Citizenship and Immigration Service. Now we just wait for our approval letter to have our child immigrate. This usually takes 90 days.
April 2005- We had our last interview with our social worker. We were very lucky to get a GREAT social worker. We were very comfortable with her and it made the process go much smoother.
A draft of our homestudy report was given to us to read and approve. This is a report that details our life together and our plans for our children. A copy was translated and included in our dossier.
(Dossier= a package of legal documents submitted to Ukraine to gain approval for adoption.)
We also started gathering legal documents having them notarized, and then apostilled by the Sec of State. This is part of completing our dossier. We both had to have very thorough physicals including blood work. We started our hepatitis shots too because they take 6 months.
May 5, 2005- Our homestudy in completed. The final draft gets forwarded to SC Dept. of Social Services for approval and then it gets forwarded again to Citizenship and Immigration for their approval. We are still waiting for our I-171-H (immigration approval) which is the final form we need to complete our dossier.
Waiting....PAPERWORK ...Waiting...PAPERWORK....Waiting...
Trying to scrape pennies here and there to fund our adoption.
More waiting....MORE PAPERWORK.....Waiting.....
June 14, 2004- The I-171-H Citizenship and Immigration approval finally arrives. By this time I have all the other documents completed and apostilled for our dossier. This was the last thing. The next morning I'll drive to Columbia, SC to the Sec of State office to get the seal put on this form.
June 15, 2005- Our dossier is complete!! I rush to Fed Ex to get it in the mail. I'm on cloud nine nothing can bring us down! The end to months of paperwork.
Later that evening I get a call from my agency..... Ukraine has announced they will "temporarily" stop accepting dossiers hopefully only for a period of 2-6 months. They are making changes to their adoption system to help the system favor the children more. This could mean that by the time they re-open some of our paperwork will expire and/or they will change the requirements for paperwork and we'll have to re-do some of it anyway. All families whose dossier are already accepted will proceed as normal. We've just missed the deadline by a matter of days.
June 25, 2005- We learn that the National adoption center in Ukraine (NAC) is not ready to completely stop accepting dossier yet. They will continue to accept VERY LIMITED NUMBERS of dossiers one day a week. This will require a miracle to get our submitted.
Waiting.....Waiting.....Waiting...
Lots of praying...praying...praying..
July passes and we learn that its looking hopeful but no promises are made. We continue to pray that our facilitator in Ukraine will be able to get our dossier submitted.
August 2, 2005- Today is the day! Our dossier is submitted to the NAC in Ukraine. We are so thankful to God. We would like to thank everyone that has helped us get this far. We thank everyone for their prayers. This is a gift from God and we feel very blessed. Now we're on our way.
Our next steps:
In the next few weeks attorneys and staff at the NAC will review our paperwork. If they find that everything is correct they will deem us "canidates for adoption" and give us a registration number. This will be mailed to us and could take weeks or months.
Once we have our registration number we'll be given a range of dates to request an appointment in. We'll send a letter to Ukraine to request a date. If all goes well they will respond with our travel date and appointment time. This process could also take a couple of weeks or a couple of months. There is no way to predict.
Once we have our date we will prepare to travel to Ukraine. At our appointment we will be shown profiles of children available for adoption. We will select a child to meet and then travel to their city. We will then decide if we want to proceed or request a second appointment with the NAC.
After we find our child court can take up to three weeks. The judge can decided to waive or impose a 30 day in country waiting period for us to spend with our child. Hopefully, this will be waived and we can return home in 3-4 weeks time.
We will continue to update this time line as we make progress. We are still hoping to travel sometime in Jan or Feb. We know that God will put us there when our child is available. We're at his mercy.
posted by Janine @ 7:44 PM
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