SDA Accepts Updated Dossier Documents!

We just received a note from Oleg (our facilitator) that the SDA received and (apparently) approved the updates to our documents! Yeah!

They have told Oleg to come back next week (don't know which day yet) to receive the "invitation letter and appointment date." This sounds official!

So, it looks like sometime next week will know when we need to be in Kiev for our SDA appointment. If you're following this blog, you'll be the first to know!

Keep praying...it's working.

Thanks,

Bruce

Hey, our new and (hopefully) improved papers arrived early! They are in Oleg hands. I'll let you know what happens next.

Hey there praying people,
the time has come for you all to pray that our document will be accepted by the SDA. The first try was not successful. We..actually Bruce spent All of his day driving every where to get two documents redone. They could still have issues with them but we could do nothing to make them better. This is where you come in, pray that the SDA will OK these fixed papers. Bruce just sent these and they need to get to Ukraine by Wednesday. Fedex say it won't get there untill 6:00pm. Oleg, our facilitator needs these that day. This is where you come in again, pray they get there earlier than 6:00pm.
Thank You !

I'll try to be brief but informative reguarding what led us to this big decision.



Our friends Jim and Kari started the process of adopting after they had been exposed to and got invoved with people who had adopted, camps that hosted orphans for a few weeks in Northern Colorado and after God knocked on their heart and asked them if they had room for one or two of "The Fatherless" in their home and hearts. They answered yes.



I thought that was great for them.....probably not for us though. You know, it sounded a little messy.



Well, I got exposed and involved and then I got a knock on my heart too. Soon after Bruce ....well I'll let him share whatever he wants to. The kids were on board with the idea too....I hope they will share some of their thoughts with you also.



Some stats:

• Ukraine has experienced an 80% decrease in their standard of living over the passed 20 years.

• Orphans age out of the orphanage at 16, and are then entirely responsible for themselves.

• 10% of orphans commit suicide after leaving the orphanage before their 18th birthday
  60% of the girls end up in prostitution
  70% of the boys end up in crime
  Only 27% are able to find work

Today I went to our neighborhood school to see what kind of program they have and if it would fit our new kid/s. I was nervous. I walked in and told a few people our situation. Much to my delight the English as a second language teacher talked to me mapped out some possible schedules. She was great and welcoming AND dosen't speak Spanish.....which is good for our situation. God went before me :-) .

We were waiting to hear from our facilitator that he received our dossier...and he did. We messed up on one document so back to here and there to get it fixed and sent to Ukraine. I think our travel date will be in the next 3 to 5 weeks!! Now I need to get ready by assembling all that we need to take with us to Ukraine. Don't worry I have Kari and Heidi to tell me what to bring...if I didn't have my friends with experince guiding me you would need to worry though.



Leah(our niece) will probably be staying with Abigail, Bradley and Benjamin while we are gone..God is good!! If anyone close by would like any sweet child mentioned above for a weekend just let me know. We could be gone for up to 4 weeks before either of us is able to come back. We will keep you up on dates as soon as we know.

I hope to have a moment to share with you how we came to the decision to adopt and why we are adopting from Ukraine. I will post soon about that.

Now that our paper work here is done I have a moment to blog. Having the dossier( all those time and money consuming papers that we need to send to Ukraine) out of my hand feels great! whenever we had to do anything with the dossier I was sure someone would come out from some bush and spill coffee on it. That didn't happen.



Fedex has sent its magical fairies to deliver our dossier to our facilitator in Ukraine, and now we wait to have him translate it and give it to the SDA(State Department of Adoption) and then we get an appointment date. Wow.


There are decisions and many possible glitches that are ahead. Please pray that God will go before us. Thanks.