Jodi Speaks Her Mind

Victory is near 12/30/2004

This good news just in. What I wouldn’t give to be in Kiev’s Independence Square tomorrow night for the celebration. WooHoo!

Jelly Beans in a Jar Contest 12/23/2004

Steve had a fun idea related to my request for clever responses. He suggested a “Guess our adoption date” Game in which anyone who wanted to participate could pick a date they think might be when we’ll actually get our L.T. The person who guesses the actual adoption date wins something.

Given the vast possibilities of dates and the limited number of participants - I mean, really, how many people actually read this site!? Come on, lurkers, now is your chance to come out of hiding! - each person can guess up to 3 dates just to make it slightly more interesting and to increase the chances of someone’s guess actually landing on the actual date our child “becomes ours.” Your dates can be continuous like a range: August 12-14, or random: May 15, June 28, and July 5.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Maximum of three guesses each - no secret identities or aliases. 2. You can change your mind but only up until the deadline at which time all guesses are “frozen”. The deadline is January 14, 2005! 3. If you want a date and someone else has already claimed it, you can’t have it unless they change their mind. 4. Use the honor system. You could theoretically move other people’s guesses around, so don’t go there!

Now for the most important part - the PRIZE: $25 paid from paypal to be spent however you want or just converted to cash.

“Worth playing for?” Why not - there’s no cost to play! The winner’s identity will be verified to be someone legitimately connected to us by way of real life or cyber-life. Spammers beware, as you are explicitly not invited to play!

How to Play:

1. Go to this link. (if that one doesn’t work try this one) 2. Select your date. Click on it. Enter in your name or self-identifying label and if you want you can include a link to your blog in the url window. 3. Repeat this process for up to 3 dates.

Remember: All dates will be frozen on January 14!!

Good luck and happy guessing!

Light bulb!

This article from the NY Times is one of the most interesting and insightful that I’ve read regarding the current political situation in Ukraine, as it explains some ideas on why their situation is so unique. I strongly encourage you to read it. You have to sign up (for free) with the NY Times in order to read the full article (though you can read page 1 without that), but I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Ukraine is really a special place!!

Adoption Process - Week 20 12/22/2004

More of the same.

Meaning there’s a bit of good news and a bit of bad news.

The good news: Our latest round of documents have been reviewed by our facilitator and he is confident that they will be acceptable. He has done his translation of them.

The bad news: His printer borked just before he printed out the translations, so now he has to wait for a repair technician, who is currently scheduled for tomorrow.

The current plan (I think we’re up to Plan K or so): Assuming he can get his printer repaired tomorrow and successfully print out the translations, he thinks he can get them finalized (i.e. notarized and authenticated) on friday. He then hopes he can submit the whole thing to the NAC on monday or the official dossier submission day designated for next week. For some reason there is only one day each week the NAC accepts dossier submissions. And it changes each week. I have no idea what the reasoning, if any, is behind this, but that’s how it is.

So this is where things currently stand. We’re not quite at the rejoicing stage yet, but we look at each step, however small, as one step closer to bringing our L.T. home and that is something to be glad about!

Moving again! 12/20/2004

Well, I almost feel like I should eat my words, as our documents have not only been cleared by customs, but already picked up by our facilitator!

We are on the march again…

WooHoo!!

Stalled out

Our documents are currently being held by Customs in Kiev. “Shipment Exception” is the status listing at Fed-Ex tracking with the details being shown as: “Regulatory agency clearance delay.”

This is probably not unusual. When I traveled to Russia for the very first time in 1992 I made the mistake of leaving one of the zipper compartments on one of my suitcases unlocked. When I received my luggage in the states, all the contents from that section were gone, including the extra suitcase strap! I have since always made sure everything is locked up tight!

In this case, they will probably open our package, read all the contents, hopefully determine there is nothing illegal, espionage-related, or that they themselves can benefit from, and release it for delivery. Thankfully there are no checks or other monies in the package!

Now that you, my readers, have a better idea of how the system works over there, I am accepting suggestions for the best response to the question: “When will you get to travel to adopt your child?” as I get asked this question several times each week and need a better answer than ” I don’t know, maybe April or May” since it feels now like it could be anywhere between April, 2005 and December 2008. The Christian cliché answer is that we’ll get L.T. “in God’s timing”, and I really do know that and even believe it! But surely there is something I can say to people to get them to understand that the system in Ukraine is inconsistent at best and further delays are not only possible, but likely. So, bring on the suggestions, ’cause I really need a good laugh today!

Adoption Process - Week 19 12/15/2004

I could practically have copied and pasted this post from Week 17…

Really, though, it’s good news: the documents which will complete our dossier are on their way to Kiev as of today! Yes, the FBI received our fingerprints on Friday and completed processing them on Monday. They were mailed from WV yesterday and received in AZ today. I can’t imagine the government of any other country in the world procssing official requests like that with such speed and efficiency! I then took the clearances along with letters from AZ DPS explaining the stupid laws we have here (ok, concession here, our country and states are far from perfect) and got them all apostilled by the AZ Secretary of State - I was in and out in under ten minutes and the cost was $3 per document. These items then all got stuffed (gently) into an International Fed-Ex shipment to Ukraine, which will take a few days to get there.

Assuming, hmm, that’s almost never a good thing to do, and something I’ve been doing far too much of lately, but assuming it is received when expected - namely Saturday - it should be submitted to the adoption center next week barring some freakish problem. So, please pray against any freakish problems, okay?