Arrived safely

Our dossier made it safely to Ukraine! Let the translation begin!

On another note, thank you for all of your comments about court attire. I can put the clothes thing behind me now.

Now are any of you willing to share where you found the best deals on plane tickets? Which airline did you fly? Did you use a travel agent or did you buy tickets off the internet? Are there any direct flights from any big cities in California? Is it better to buy one way tickets or change the dates on a regular ticket? We are happy flying coach, and if there is a Ukraine airline, we are fine flying with them too. I just want a good deal ----- translation, I am cheap.

Lastly, I am excited to report that I have firmed up childcare for two weeks for five of the kids. Someone had asked me what we were going to do with all the kids when we travel. It is hard to leave them, but I know they will be in good hands. Thanks to this blog, they will be able to get regular updates.

How much clothes to pack

I've been told to pack light. As light as possible. On our last adoption trip, we packed way to much and had way to many suitcases to pull and carry. I don't want to repeat that nightmare.
So, I am going to take my agency's advice.

Yesterday, I took my oldest son Adam shopping for new pants. I also found a nice outfit for court. I plan to wear dark brown pin-striped slacks with a brown cable sweater with a white collar shirt underneath. I also bought some nice brown boots on clearance to match. Does this sound dressy enough? Please, please share your opinion. I am counting on you guys. ;)

My plan is to wear this same outfit to our SDA appointment and our first visit to the orphanage. One outfit for three different occasions seems like a good idea. Did anybody else do this? What did your husband wear to court? Last time, my husband wore a suit, but would slacks and a nice shirt suffice?

How many everyday outfits should I pack for each of us? Since we are planning on doing two trips, I hope we will be over there only two weeks this first time. Would three outfits in addition to my court outfit be enough? How about just two pairs of shoes?

Ahhhh, let the planning begin.

BTW, our dossier package left from the UK early this morning. :)

Dossier is on it's way!

I watched our agency coordinator seal the envelope that has our completed dossier. It is officially on its way to Kiev. I can't believe how good it feels to finally be done with this stage. Now I can take a deep breath and relax for a bit.

We got our I-171h!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off to apostille tomorrow morning!

Should I do the dance?

Christine,

I can assure you, you have not been mislead. Processing time is dependent on the number of applications we receive. This can change daily. The information in the previous emails are correct. Your application was processed on February 15.

This is what I was just emailed! Woo-hooo (I hope)!

Am I pushing it?

Dear Stephen (aka immigration officer),

I can't understand this delay. I can't help but feel mislead. This previous email written by you back on February 5, more than two weeks ago says that you will process our case as soon as possible. My husband and I would like to know what that means. The email before that stated that the approval we are seeking is taking about 2 1/2 months. That time has come and gone. Everything that you have told me indicates that our approval should already be in the mail and I hope that you can keep to the timeline that you have already relayed to us. Can you assure us that you even have our file?

Thank you,
Christine

It'll make you chuckle!

Since I have no great news to post, I wanted to share what my sister-in-law sent me. It made me chuckle. Here is some great baby advice.

Still no 171h!

I am pretty bummed out! Still nothing in the mail and our local Congressman's office is pretty useless at speeding up anything. I called the office and the one in charge of adoptions said he would call and check on the status of our 171h. That's it. I called him today and he said that he still hasn't heard anything. sigh.

Getting Practice

I filled out my first Ukraine post-placement report for my daughter Rachel. Even though we adopted her from a disruption, she is still originally from Ukraine and so I feel obligated to do her post-placements.

I look at this way... it is practice for when our son comes home.

P.S. If you have previously adopted from Ukraine and then went to adopt from there again, did they ask if you were current on your post-placements or ask to see the reports?

Good news or delay tactics?

Just got this email in response to my latest inquiry about our I-600.


Christine,

Thank you for your inquiry. We will process your case as soon as possible. Sorry for the delay.
Thanks,
Stephen D. Hull
Adjudication Officer
Fresno Field Office
FREadoption@DHS.gov


Does this mean a couple of days or does this mean a couple of weeks? I guess only time will tell.

Just one more thing

We are 100% offically done with all of our paperwork except for that one little piece of paper from our wonderful government------called I-600 approval. Ugh!

I emailed our local office again nicely asking him to let me know if it would most definitely be here in the next 2 weeks as his previous email had said. I also politely let him know that this was the last piece of paperwork holding up our dossier submission.

That was last week. sigh. I wonder if he'll get back to me. {twiddling my thumbs}