We are officially submitted!!!

I know I haven't posted lately, but there wasn't really anything to post....until today. I received an email that stated that our dossier has been officially submitted to EE and we are just waiting on a travel date....YAY!!!

Will post more details as I find them out.

Stephanie

Ladies and Gentlemen......dossier has landed in (well, you know where)

I sent my dossier to Victoria (director of adoption agency) for her to inspect first hand and I thought she would then send it back to me for me to mail to that certain little country to start the process of getting an appointment with the SDA. Well, I shot off an email asking how the process was coming along and she sent me an email back with a tracking number from FedEx. OMGosh!!! My dossier has been mailed. I know that doesn't sound like a great big deal, but you have to understand that I have been working on documents, getting my house inspected, getting my body inspected (including testing for HIV, TB, you name it) and focusing on this dossier for 8 months.

So, hopefully the dossier will be submitted the last week in June and we will get a travel date for early August. I should be completely finished with school by then. It is funny how I think of school now. I have been literally waiting for years to complete my master's degree and become a Family Nurse Practitioner. I have been dreaming of the day that this happens. While it is still important, and I am proud of myself for completing this, it pales in comparison to actually getting the boys. It used to consume me of finishing as many classes as possible so that I could be closer to my goal; now my goal is to finish so I can get them home. It is such a funny journey.

Waiting on the Green Light!

The adoption agency has my dossier in their hands. The director is suppose to look over the entire dossier today and let me know if it is ok to send to the boys country. I am so excited!!!

I haven't been blogging much because I feel I have been at at stand still for so long now. I am super stressed this week. Danielle started a new job and I am trying to get all of her admission stuff done for college. My last semester of school started this week, so I am doing clinicals on top of working full time. I enjoy the clinical time, but it cuts down on my ability to work overtime and thus, decreases the amount of money I can make. But I have a sense of calmness on top of all that anxiety. If worse comes to worse, we can eat PB sandwiches everyday and travel as light as possible on the funds that we do have. I would love to know exactly when we are traveling so that I would know exactly how much the plane tickets are going to cost. I still haven't decided on to stay in country or not. I could come home and work a couple of extra weeks while we are waiting on the 10 day waiting period to be over. That would (1) give us some extra money and (2) allow me to stay home a little longer when they actually get here. I guess we will just wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I am trying to finish all of the school work up as quick as possible. I am getting as many clinical hours done as humanly possible so that I can pick up some OT for the last couple of weeks in July and I am TIRED!!!!!
I will post more when I hear from the agency about the status of our dossier!

I can see the finish line....

O.K., after months and months of paper chasing, painting, sleep deprivation, etc., I think I am officially done with the dossier. I am a very organized, task oriented person, so I never dreamed of how much work (both mentally and physically) compiling the dossier would be. I sent the last set of documents to Nashville on Wednesday and I am hoping to get them back by Monday or Tuesday to send to EE to submit for a travel date. Can you believe it?

Now, I just need to finish finding the rest of the money. I think we have enough money to do our first trip (I would love to stay over there, but need to work in between trips for the extra money). We have almost all that we need. I have read that a lot of families do it much cheaper than the projected amount from RR and I am so hoping and praying that is true. I don't have anything else left to sell. Danielle's car tearing up and costing us $3500 really put a dent on our travel money. I am hoping that the plane tickets are closer to $1200 instead of the $2000 that I have been hearing about. Anyway, I will find the money somehow. I am already working every hour that I can, but school starts back next week for me and that will cut down on the amount of hours that I am able to get in. I haven't seen poor Sean in several days because he has been working from daylight to dark to try to earn the money. Please pray for us that something will come up and we will have the money when the time comes.

Roadblocks and Stumbles

I don't know where to start with this blogging stuff....I am so sad right now. I have a daily routine of checking other people's blog that have adopted from RR. One of the cutest little Serbian princesses died this morning. Her name was Chrissy and she was five years old. She came home to her forever family last October. When I read that she had passed, I just kind of froze and didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to pray for. I didn't know how to respond at all. Her story has been very inspirational and very important to me on a very deep personal note and her mother has no idea how profoundly her posts about God has affected me and I, am sure, others. While her child was lying there fighting for her life, her mother turned it over completely to God and knew that he was is in total control and that she would follow him no matter what the outcome. That is the best act of faith I have ever seen. There was no crying out to ask "Why" or "what if". It was just pure faith and love in Christ and she is a great testimony to God's work. I hope and pray that this family will find peace and I am sure they will.

On the adoption front for my two boys, I am still waiting on the social worker's license before starting the rush to get everything sent over to EE. It is kind of a good thing that I have this delay. I know that sounds awful, but I start school back on June 7th and it ends the last week of July or first week of August and I would LOVE to be done with all of that before making my trip there. That way I can totally focus on them and their transition.

I am just kind of blah today. No energy and no motivation. I read a lot of blogs today and it seems like there are so many roadblocks for everyone trying to bring these kids home. I just don't understand why things have to be so difficult. I see people with broken hearts because they need to redo one more paper and it is just crazy. I know it will work out in the end, but for now, it is very disturbing to see the mountains that everyone must climb to get to these kids that noone else wants.

I will update as soon as I have all of my papers done and ready to ship. I hope everyone has a productive week!

Look who went to a party today....

there was a party today at David's and Anton's orphanage in David's groupa and Mary Malone was kind enough to send me some pictures...Isn't he so cute? Mary has seen Anton a couple of times and says that we looks good, but she is unable to get pictures because he is in a different groupa. Mary is adopting the cutest little girl I have ever seen (Eliana/Ruslana) and she has been fabulous in sharing information and pictures with me. I cannot express how much I appreciate it.

On the dossier homefront, I have everything except the new proof of property form and the social worker's new license. Her current license expires May 31, and we need the new one. Olga (our facilitator in Ukraine) is looking over everything and making sure it is ok before I mail it to her. I hope she looks at it very well because it is so expensive to remail things. I would hate to do that twice.

So, for now I will wait patiently and try to get everything in the house ready for two little maniacs!

The Golden Ticket Has Arrived!!!!!

Believe it or not, I received the golden ticket in the mail today. I also received the updatted version of the homestudy. I think I have everything I need to submit my dossier to that certain little country. I should be happy, excited, etc. Right???? Well, I am, but now I am really scared to death. Now, we have been approved to adopt and bring these boys home. Now, it is really REAL! But the fear and doubt will not win this internal battle that I am having with myself. I know that this is exactly what we are suppose to do and this is part of something that is bigger than me, bigger than my fear and bigger than anything I know.

So, I will scan everything to my adoption agency, have her scan/fax/somehow get it electronically to the Ukraine for final approval before sending it on its way.

Thanks to everyone who has sent prayers up for our approval process.

Wish us luck on our fundraising yard sale tomorrow and Saturday!