Welcome

Hi everybody. We decided a blog would be the easiest way to keep everybody updated on our trip. I guess the first thing we need to cover is everything that has brought us where we are right now. Our story began last summer. We were able to host a beautiful little girl from Ukraine for the last three weeks of August. Natasha is ten years old and currently resides in a boarding school in Ukraine. We had a lot of fun during those three weeks. All of the girls got along wonderfully. It was not long before all of us had become attached to Natasha and realized she belonged in our family. Her return departure at the end of August was hard for all of us. We immediately started working on the immense paperwork required for our home study and our adoption dossier. We completed our dossier in October and forwarded it to Ukraine for translation and submission to the Ukraine SDA (State Adoption Authority) in Kiev. Bob was able to visit Natasha for a day during a two week mission’s trip to Ukraine in October. We were fortunate that Natasha was able to return for another three weeks during the Christmas holidays. Her second return in January was even more emotional for everybody. After several delays, our dossier was submitted at the beginning of this year. We received approval of our dossier and an appointment date with the SDA for April 17. Shortly after receiving our approval and appointment date, we found out that Natasha only became available for adoption at the end of February (they have to be on the national registry for 14 months before they are available for international adoption).

We have purchased our tickets to Kiev and will leave at 9:00 am Sunday morning April 15, and arrive in Kiev at 9:00 am Monday morning, April 16. We will spend the first three days in Kiev and then travel to Donetsk where we will see Natasha and finalize the adoption. We have our train tickets and will leave Kiev Wednesday night, arriving in Donetsk on Thursday morning. Bob met a wonderful couple through their blog. They have spent the last couple of years in Donetsk at Donetsk Christian University. They graciously helped us to obtain the apartment above them at DCU, which will become our temporary home in Donetsk.

We expect to be in Ukraine for approximately 4-5 weeks to finalize our adoption of Natasha. We are currently finishing off all of the last minute details for our trip. We are anxious to see Natasha again and bring her home permanently, although we are concerned about leaving the rest of our family behind for so long. Please feel free to check back as we post the details of our trip to bring Natasha home.

Right now we are moving bedrooms around and getting ready for when we return with Natasha. We would like to have everything ready for when we walk back into our home. Hahaha. We’ll see if that happens. Gail has also started packing. LOL. But, she will probably still be packing at the last minute anyways. Bob will probably pack Saturday night.