Please pray!

Here is the copy of the email I received from our USCIS officer today:

The information that was sent, still has not made its way to my desk.  I am on the lookout.  If it does not come to me by the end of today I will send an email to the mail people and see what is happening with the correspondence.  I will also add that mail department has 5-10 days to get the correspondence out to the needed party. 

We overnighted it exactly 2 weeks ago and they received it on Monday the 4th.  Then our agency forwarded this email to me today:

Hi,

I have just been informed that the State department of adoption (SDA ) will be temporarily closing for adoptions as of either June 1st or June 13th so that they can move offices and do a changeover to report to another ministry.  That might take around three months for them to move the office and get restructured and when they do open up again, they will have a new name.

Those families who already have SDA appointments, will continue to have their assigned SDA appointment and No DELAYS are anticipated.  The SDA stated today that they will continue accepting dossiers until June 1st (or June 13th - I heard both dates as you can imagine all the facilitators were talking in the SDA hallways!).  Some SDA appointments may still be assigned if the dossiers are turned in within the next couple of weeks and for those who get dossiers turned in closer to the temporary closing deadline, they will be given the first appointments when the new SDA reopens in three (or four?) months.  A long shut down is not expected because the SDA moving offices stops domestic (within Ukraine) adoptions from happening as well as international adoptions so there is motivation to make the change of offices time period relatively short.

There may be some revisions to documents since the SDA is changing names but we are hoping that it will be similar to last time, in that if a dossier was turned before the shut down, they honored the paperwork and made those couples the priority for first appointments.  In case you are wondering, this has nothing to do with Hague, it's not on the table right now.  Families should continue having contact with their children and they will be able to host their children in the summer (again).

Our next submission date is the 20th but there is no way we can make that because I would have needed to receive the paper yesterday in order to make that happen.  If we aren't submitted in the next couple of weeks, SDA will be closed for 3 to 6 months and we won't be able to adopt until at least September.  I am just so frustrated with all of this mess.  It just doesn't make sense that we are being delayed on the US side of things.  If we can get our approval from USCIS and be submitted in the next couple of weeks, we could still go before the SDA closes.  That is what I'm praying for although I do know that my view of this situation is so limited.  Only God can see clearly what is to come.  I'm so tired of thinking about all of this.  My emotions are crazy - just like during pregnancy.  What if I have to keep doing this for another 5 to 7 months? I guess God will never give me more than I can handle.