What a roller coaster ride, glad to be getting off

Wow, what a whirlwind our lives have been since last week. There is so much to update everyone on, but we have had to be tight lipped about it all till it was final. We are in the process of adopting two little girls that are sisters and will be taking custody of them tomorrow.

Last Monday the 7th, started out as every other day. I logged onto the computer first thing that morning and checked my email. I had received an email from an adoption attorney in Florida who sends out adoption situations on occasion. I have been on his mailing list since before we brought Bryson home. Most times I just delete the emails from him without reading them, but for some reason this day, I decided to read it. This attorney was actually sending it on behalf of another attorney. This situation was for two girls who were sisters. The youngest will be two next month and the oldest just turned four last month. We have always said we didn't want anymore than two children, but I forwarded it to Shane and asked if he was interested in two. I really expected him to call me and ask if I were crazy, but instead he called me that afternoon and said why not, let's try. We emailed the attorney before the 5p deadline and said we were interested so she forwarded us the application to fill out. We filled it out and sent back via Fed Ex the next morning. On Friday afternoon, we got a call from the attorney telling us that the birth mother choose us. Since court was set for Tuesday, so we spent all weekend preparing the guest room into a girls room. It all happened so fast that we had such a hard time wrapping our heads around the fact that we were (hopefully) going to be parents of three. We don't plan to share with everyone, the details about the girls' adoption and why they were available. Court for Tuesday got postponed for today and we are happy to announce that we are now a family of five. Will post pictures and more details later.

How this works

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about the process and how it works. For those that have adopted from Russia or know how are Russian adoption worked, for Ukraine it's much different. You first send your apostilled home study (and a couple other papers) to the SDA in Ukraine. They then give you a dossier submission date of when your dossier should be received by them. Our date is in July, so we will start working on our dossier next month. We should then receive our invitation to travel 2-3 months after submitting our dossier, so they anticipate we should travel around September or October.

We are requesting a child age 2-3. For Ukraine, that is a very young child as most are not under the age of 4. We have also requested either sex, but let them know that we prefer a girl. Since age is most important to us, we were willing to compromise on the sex. I am a slight control freak and like to plan every detail, so this part is hard for me. I can't start preparing a room or start shopping for clothes.

As far as the referral of a child prior to travel, Ukraine works different in this department as well. With Russia, we received the referral of Bryson prior to travel. In Ukraine, once you arrive you will go to the SDA office. There they will show you the profiles of a couple different children. You will then decide on which child you would like to meet.

Special thanks

I want to give a special thanks to my friend Becky for generously offering to host and donate her commission for Thirty-One gifts. They sell amazing cute things so please check out her site. Also, if you live in the area and our interested in hosting a party, please contact her.

Thank you to those you bought items from Thirty-One gifts as well as those you have sent us donations in the last couple of months. We are incredibly grateful!