May 28th

We've successfully sent money for the work Sergiy has done for us so far. It was harder to send internationally than I thought it would be. With all the scams going on, some shops have quit sending internationally to protect their regular customers. Although I understand and appreciate this, it was challenging to find a place who would send to Ukraine. But we finally did and the fees were very affordable (which I appreciated very much!)

We should be receiving our Home Study today and will have the documents further notarized and put in the pile to go to Ukraine. We've accumulated enough documents that we'll be sending over a packet soon. There are some challenging aspects of the documents Ukraine requires that do not exactly coincide with the way the U.S. operates. Pray all will go well and we are able to get them done in a speedy manner.

As we start another day, moving forward with the adoption, raising our three daughters still at home, and try to keep up with our flooring business, I remember that God is in control and will not give me more than I can handle (so His Word says). I hold on to that today as the list of "to do's" is much longer than the day! :)



Here is a bit of Panda Express wisdom I've collected - very interesting, huh?

Have a great day! Jenn

It made it at last!

Our Home Study has been e-mailed to Sergiy to begin translation at last! Thanks to Lisa our social worker for her hard hours spent compiling all our information into the necessary format! She did so quickly and professionally - we highly recommend A New Beginnings Adoption Agency. They've been friendly, more than considerate to our busy schedule, very knowledgeable and speedy with our requests.

John and I received our new fees to include adopting both girls, instead of one like we believed in the beginning. Sergiy, our attorney in Ukraine, has graciously lowered costs on his side to help us take care of the special fees that will be associated with adopting Ola, a Russian born orphan who was abandoned in the Ukraine as a toddler. Since a Russian birth certificate is in existence, an international treaty of sorts will need to be established after our adoption is finalized. We will have to pay someone to go about Russian and get her birth certificate changed and recognized as our child. This has considerable costs related to it and several hard weeks of traveling and work on the agent's behalf.

In light of this, I'm going to post information about a savings account our church has set up for us, and anyone else in our congregation who is pursuing adoption. This account was established so that individuals or businesses can donate and receive a tax donation for their contribution. All funds are set in this specific account. When the time comes for our need, the church will "gift" us the funds necessary. It's a win for all sides!

Keeping you posted as we go.
God bless,
Jenn

Getting closer

Yesterday we answered the last of the questions needing to be taken care of for our Home Study to be finalized - like Where was your middle child born again? We looked it over and sent it back to our social worker Lisa. We expect her to be getting the final product completed and sent out today.

In Ukraine, we have an English speaking attorney, Sergiy, who is working on the girls and our behalf. Sergiy is a wonderful family man who has come highly recommended. Even though he is young, he has lots of experience right out of law school with adoptions in his country. He used to work for the governmental agency that facilitated adoptions. That agency no longer exists and Sergiy continues to work on the orphans behalf in the private sector. He is anxious to get us over there and bringing Ola and Vala home soon.

There have been some recent developments that are forcing us to work as quickly as we can. We were notified that Ukraine is closing its borders to International adoption this September! That means we need to have all our paperwork done, submitted, accepted, sent to Ukraine, approved and "invited" to go over, go through the 4-6 weeks of court cases and procedures required in Ukraine and get back out of the country. Whew! That will be a tall order for us to complete! But we have great faith that this path we started down is the one God has sent us. Therefore, He will go before us, smooth out the path and pave the way. Not that there won't be bumps along the way.....this is the government after all!

We pray all is going well for you and yours. Remember to hug and love your children dearly. Grow them up with earnestness. Allow them to grow to who they were made to be. Let them dream and watch them fly.

Much love,
John & Jenn