Submission Date!

Our Home Study was registered today and we received a Submission Date of March 23rd.  The only problem is that we still have not received our I-171h (approval from US Immigration).  I have been expecting it for a couple of weeks.  I called today but I had to leave a message so hopefully someone will call me back soon.  I need to get that in time to send it to Ukraine by the 23rd or we will have to get a later Submission Date.  If we do get the approval in time to be submitted on the 23rd, we will likely be traveling toward the end of April.  Wow!  I'm getting really excited and I can't believe it is this close!  For those who aren't familiar with how this works, here is a quick overview of the rest of the process:

* Our Dossier will be submitted to the State Department of Adoption on March 23rd.
* About 2 weeks later we should be given an State Department of Adoption (SDA) appointment date.  This date will usually be in about 2 to 4 weeks.  Recently it has been only 2 weeks.
* We will travel to Ukraine for our SDA appointment where we will be shown files of several children who meet our criteria (girl - ages 6 to 9).  We will hopefully find a good match and then request a referral for that child.
* The next day we will receive the referral and travel to the orphanage where the child lives.  This could be in the same city or sometimes it includes an 18 hour train ride.
* Once we meet the child, we must all (Me, Jody, and the child) agree to the adoption.  If it is a good match and everyone agrees we will begin the paperwork to get ready for our court date.  We will also be able to visit her each day and develop our relationship.  If the match is not right for some reason (there are many things that can go wrong), we would then request a 2nd SDA appointment.  A family may have up to 3 SDA appointments.  Of course we will be praying that we will only need 1.
*  We will remain in Ukraine until our court date.  Once we have the court hearing, the child is officially ours but there is a 10 day waiting period before it is final.
*  We will travel home for the waiting period because by then we will have been gone for 2 1/2 to 3 weeks and I know I will be missing my kids terribly.
*  When the 10 day waiting period is over, I will fly back to Ukraine with Ellie and ????.  Jody really needs to be here working but I'm not sure someone else will be available to go with me.  I don't want to go alone though.  A lot depends on the time frame so we will just have to wait and see.  Definitely something you can be praying about!
*  At the end of the waiting period, we get to take our girl away from the orphanage forever!  She will be with us, running around getting Visas, passports, medical exams, ect.  Once we have all of the necessary forms and documents, we will bring her home to her new family!

I just can't wait to have her here with us!  In the meantime, I will continue working on our scrapbook, getting the girls room ready, and trying to figure out what to pack for our trip to Ukraine.   I have been trying to think of some fun things to take for us to do when we visit our girl each day.  It seems like you spend a lot of time sitting together in a room so it's nice if you have something to do.  I would LOVE to hear some ideas.  We have to pack light so it can't take up much room and she won't speak English so keep that in mind.  I would love to do some things that will help us start to get to know each other better.

I have been trying to figure out possible time frames but it's so uncertain.  Originally we were going to take Ryan (11) and Ellie (10) back for the 2nd trip but then we thought it would be right in the middle of baseball season and Ryan couldn't miss.  Now that I have his schedule, it might be after baseball season so he could go after all.  I wish I knew exact dates because then I would know if I should get him a passport or not.  It costs $110 so I hate to pay for it and then not need it.  But I would also hate for the dates to work out and then he couldn't go because I didn't get him a passport.  Oh, all these decisions!

Our Spring Break has been fun.  My sister and her family have been here and we've enjoyed spending time with them.  She and her husband left today and the kids are staying until the weekend.  Ryan has a couple of baseball games this week and we will probably go watch some of our friends games too.  We enjoy hanging out at the Little League fields.  So far Ryan's team is really fun.  All the parents have been positive and encouraging and hopefully it will stay that way.  (it seems like baseball brings out the worst in some people)  Jacob's games start next week so that should be fun.  With cousins here all week, my kids have stayed up way too late and they are exhausted.  They are ALL asleep right now.  My house is completely silent - something that is very unusual around here.  I will have to wake them up in a little bit to get ready for Ryan's game.  I'm off to check to mail - I will let you know as soon as that approval arrives!