Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Paperwork, paperwork, and a lot more paperwork...
After Khrystyna's visit, we moved full speed ahead into our "Adoption Adventure." We were told that the Ukraine wasn't accepting any new dossiers until the beginning of January, so we didn't feel the need to rush. We began gathering the documents necessary for our home study as well as those we would need to submit to Ukraine in our dossier. We had to gather birth certificates, marriage certificates, and passports along with copies of the deed to our house. We also needed to have 2 different medical forms done for each of us. I had to return to my doctor twice to have my forms fixed and I lost count of how many times it took to get Fred's papers right. We also needed employment verification letters and numerous other random documents. Our homestudy was done in November and upon it's completion we sent it off with some additional documentation to the Dept. of Homeland Security. They reviewed our documentation and gave us a date of December 21 to come to Indianapolis and have biometric fingerprinting done. By mid January, we recieved approval from the Department of Homeland Security to adopt from Ukraine. We had hoped to have all of our paperwork in Ukraine by the end of December, but it didn't happen. At the end of January, I took a gazillion papers to the Secretary of State's office in Indianapolis to have them apostilled. The "apostille" process authenticates that all of the notaries who notarized our documents have valid commissions and that they were notarized correctly. I also made a trip to California in January to have some documents from Fred's work apostilled at the Secretary of States office in California. The process was long and tedious, but at least we got it done. We sent our completed dossier to Ukraine on January 31, 2007.
Hosting Khrystyna
In June of 2006, while surfing the net for things to do, I came across a community calendar. As I scrolled through the calendar, I came across this activity...HOST AN ORPHAN. Being curious, I clicked on the link and began to read about the Orphan Hosting Program that would be taking place in Indiana. I was immediately interested in the idea of having a child in our home for a few weeks and helping that child find a family. I suggested to Fred that we consider this and he was agreeable. We filled out the application, sent it off, and within a few hours, we had received a response. We had no idea whether we would be hosting a boy or girl, although I preferred to host a girl. We only knew that we would have a child between the ages of 7 and 12 in our home for 3 weeks. About a week after submitting our application, I talked to the director of the Indiana program. She informed me that if we wanted to host a girl, we would have to host through the Indianapolis program rather than the Fort Wayne program. She said that for the first week of the program, we would need to drive "our child" to Indianapolis every day for day camp. If after a few days, we decided that we wanted to adopt the child, we could keep this child at home with us for the remainder of the time. That didn't really appeal to me, since we weren't planning on adopting, but I knew they were desperate for host families, so I agreed. The trip was scheduled for late August.
On Sunday, July 9th we received a picture of the little girl we were to host. Her name was Iryna and she was really cute. I was quite excited. Within 24 hours, we found out that there was a change of plans. Iryna was going to a different family. Families who got involved early on in the program were allowed to pick the children they wanted to host and due to some changes in schedule, another family decided to take Iryna and participate in the Indianapolis program rather than the Fort Wayne program. We were sent a picture of another little girl named Khrystyna. She was really cute and she was part of the Fort Wayne program. This was a definite answer to prayer! The only thing that looked like it might cause problems was the dates of the program. The kids were getting into Fort Wayne on August 5th and Fred and I were going to be at a wedding in California. My mom agreed to watch Khrystyna at our house for us during that time and we continued moving forward with the hosting program. Before we could host a child, we had to be fingerprinted for a criminal background check and we had to have a home assessment. With only 2 weeks before I headed out for pre-wedding festivities, we rushed around like crazy to make sure we had all the paperwork necessary to host. We also rushed out to find bedding and furniture that would be appropriate for a little girl.
As we prepared for Khrystyna's visit, we prayed daily that God would provide a family for her. The more we prayed, the more we began to wonder if we might be that family! By the time we met Khrystyna for the first time, I was ready to adopt her. Fred was moving a little slower.
Our time with Khrystyna was fun, challenging, exhausting, and amazing. She is an extremely bright little girl with "strong character." This is how the workers from the orphanage described her amazingly strong-willed personality...."Strong Character" Fred and I battled this "strong character" repeatedly. The language barrier added additional challenges. Khrystyna only speaks Russian and Fred and I only speak English...although Fred tried speaking in Spanish to Khrystyna. By the end of the first few days with her, we were smitten! The only thing that made us hesitant to commit to adopt her was the financial aspect. It was going to cost us around $35,000! As we prayed, we really believed that this was what God had for us, so we decided that God would provide!
Our 3 weeks with Khrystyna seemed way too short. There was a day camp program during the day for all of the kids to attend where they learned some English and went on lots of field trips. I helped with day camp and was able to take Khrystyna lots of interesting places. Her time with us was filled up with shopping, daycamp, a trip to the lake, the zoo, the Botanical gardens, the fire station, indoor go kart racing, a tour of a chocolate factory, trips to the park with friends, dinners at Cracker Barrel, Rob's soccer games, church, and just hanging out watching cartoons! She figured out how to work the remotes, the digital camera, and the computer on her first day here! Needless to say, it was a very exciting time. When she headed back to Ukraine, it was with the knowledge that we were planning on adopting her and would be doing everything we could to get her back home to us.
On Sunday, July 9th we received a picture of the little girl we were to host. Her name was Iryna and she was really cute. I was quite excited. Within 24 hours, we found out that there was a change of plans. Iryna was going to a different family. Families who got involved early on in the program were allowed to pick the children they wanted to host and due to some changes in schedule, another family decided to take Iryna and participate in the Indianapolis program rather than the Fort Wayne program. We were sent a picture of another little girl named Khrystyna. She was really cute and she was part of the Fort Wayne program. This was a definite answer to prayer! The only thing that looked like it might cause problems was the dates of the program. The kids were getting into Fort Wayne on August 5th and Fred and I were going to be at a wedding in California. My mom agreed to watch Khrystyna at our house for us during that time and we continued moving forward with the hosting program. Before we could host a child, we had to be fingerprinted for a criminal background check and we had to have a home assessment. With only 2 weeks before I headed out for pre-wedding festivities, we rushed around like crazy to make sure we had all the paperwork necessary to host. We also rushed out to find bedding and furniture that would be appropriate for a little girl.
As we prepared for Khrystyna's visit, we prayed daily that God would provide a family for her. The more we prayed, the more we began to wonder if we might be that family! By the time we met Khrystyna for the first time, I was ready to adopt her. Fred was moving a little slower.
Our time with Khrystyna was fun, challenging, exhausting, and amazing. She is an extremely bright little girl with "strong character." This is how the workers from the orphanage described her amazingly strong-willed personality...."Strong Character" Fred and I battled this "strong character" repeatedly. The language barrier added additional challenges. Khrystyna only speaks Russian and Fred and I only speak English...although Fred tried speaking in Spanish to Khrystyna. By the end of the first few days with her, we were smitten! The only thing that made us hesitant to commit to adopt her was the financial aspect. It was going to cost us around $35,000! As we prayed, we really believed that this was what God had for us, so we decided that God would provide!
Our 3 weeks with Khrystyna seemed way too short. There was a day camp program during the day for all of the kids to attend where they learned some English and went on lots of field trips. I helped with day camp and was able to take Khrystyna lots of interesting places. Her time with us was filled up with shopping, daycamp, a trip to the lake, the zoo, the Botanical gardens, the fire station, indoor go kart racing, a tour of a chocolate factory, trips to the park with friends, dinners at Cracker Barrel, Rob's soccer games, church, and just hanging out watching cartoons! She figured out how to work the remotes, the digital camera, and the computer on her first day here! Needless to say, it was a very exciting time. When she headed back to Ukraine, it was with the knowledge that we were planning on adopting her and would be doing everything we could to get her back home to us.
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