Aug. 25

Good Morning to you all!
Yesterday we joyfully (and nervously) sent out our two dossiers to Ukraine. They are on their way and should arrive by September 1st. Once received, our Attorney will do his final review. We have been e-mailing scanned documents as we complete them so he can translate along the way. If the original documents are acceptable, he will attach his translated copies to them and submit them to the governing authorities.

Now we wait. And pray for the girls. And anxiously wait some more as these remaining weeks are again completely out of our control. Our attorney will rush the documents through the best he can but we are up to the mercy of the authorities as to when we will be "invited".

Truthfully, our anxieties lie with Ola. She will be 16 at the end of December. According to U.S. & Ukrainian laws, she must be legally adopted in Ukraine, all the paperwork, testing, etc. completed and IN her new home country (U.S.) BEFORE she turns 16.

The Ukrainian process takes 4-6 weeks should everything go as planned. Should there be any hiccups in the process, it will delay things. And of course both girls are anxious to meet us, be adopted and start living with their new family - their "forever" family - one that won't abandon them, one that promises to love them and help them through the rest of their lives. We are excited to be that family.

Please pray for funds to be received by us or to our church (address on right side of blog) to help with the final costs. We do not want anything to delay the girls being able to come home as soon as possible. Should God move your heart to give - thank you in advance. I know from experience you will be blessed.

Until the next milestone along the way.... love your family, neighbors and friends.
Take time to tell them how much you care about them.
Be grateful for what we have here in this wealthy country, even in these hard times.
God is good.

Much love,
John & Jenn

August 19

Wow!

How time has FLOWN by! There is so much to write and it seems so little time!

1st - we have been busy with our basement flooding and having to do a complete remodel while still maintaining a space to live and work.

2nd - we anxiously went through all the red tape our own government could throw at us and received our I-600A which gives us clearance to go to Ukraine and adopt and bring home two girls! Yeah!

3rd - we are preparing to complete the latest re-do's of documents for Ukraine. It seems like we get them done and notarized, then they want them changed somehow and we have to do them again! One thing we've learned is that this entire process is not very efficient but very time and money consuming. But Praise the Lord! it looks like we are on the down side with all the documents in order. John and I will hopefully stand before a notary tomorrow to sign the last six documents and send both Dossiers over to Ukraine.

We have been forewarned that the process with go quickly once they receive the Dossier for each girl we are asking to meet with the intent to adopt. We are told we should expect to receive an invitation in 3-4 weeks after they receive the Dossiers. That would put us going to Ukraine in late September. (It looks like John won't be going hunting this fall after all - but what a trade off!

We have been in communication with the girls through e-mail. They are vacationing at a camp on the Black Sea and will be returning for school soon. School starts on September 1st for the entire country, no matter what level of education. We are thankful they have having fun instead of sitting in the orphanage just waiting for us. We are all so anxious to meet one another and start our lives together as a family!

I've "nested" and put up both girls beds with new bedding and pillows. For me, it's my gift for them. I image they have never had a bed of their very own. This one, just like with our other children, will be theirs to take with them when they move on from our home. They also have a matching dresser for their "stuff" that's all their own as well. It's a bonus our three daughters are all about the same size as Ola and Vala! I've got quite a collection of clothes for them. We've been told not to take them shopping for quite a while - it's just too much compared to what they are used to. An example is Ukraine has 1 type of mustard while America has 10 on the shelf! Can you imagine if I took them clothes shopping at the mall? Yikes! They would be on overload!

We understand both girls are learning English, especially Ola. She is intentionally learning our language which encourages us greatly. It tells us she has great faith that is will work out, even without meeting us first. We are proud of her. They are both very brave girls to come to a country not their own, with people they will have just spent a month with. We are excited that God has blessed us with the space and love to help them start their life off. We think they are going to be an exciting asset to our family. We are excited to learn some Russian and enjoy their favorite foods.

Well I've got much to do, but will promise to blog more often, especially as we hear more news. I was locked out of the blog for quite a while, but glad to be back in. ;)

Wishing you a great day!

Love those around you,

Jenn & John

June 6th

Here we are in the beginning of June and just about done with the paperwork. Since we have a large family and a business to run, we have been slower at getting everything accomplished with the adoption than others might have been. It's been 6 months now and everything is about coming to an end.

Our Home Study and I-600A form has been turned into HomeLand Security. It is one of the last things we are now waiting for, is their approval. With that document we will be able to send our dossier packet to Sergiy so he can work his magic on his end.

They feel the urgency for everything to be completed soon. The girls are getting anxious with the political changes happening in their country. Although I do not understand all of what's going on over there, we do grasp that time is of the essence and we must go very, very soon. As we prepare our family and business, we ask that you pray for us and everyone involved.

On an exciting note.....the girls were sent pictures via e-mail of our family and they liked what they saw. It is said they can't wait to meet us personally and are as anxious as we are. We are told Ola is learning English - preparing to come to her new country. We are very encouraged by this and their willingness to try. Pray this will continue in years to come.

Once we receive our clearance from the U.S. I expect things will move very quickly. Sergiy already has copies of all the other documents and has begun translations for his country. We are just waiting for the one document and he is ready to submit it to his country.

We'll keep you all informed as we can.
Wishing you the best. Love your children and those around you - they are precious. Jenn

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