Jodi Speaks Her Mind

(3)…2…1…blastoff! 7/22/2005

Week 50 is coming to a close, and our departure is in just TWO days! I’m not going to bother listing what we did this week because anyone who has taken a trip abroad knows it is too much to list. Planning an Adoption and all the preparations needed for a new child in the house is yet another lengthy list. Needless to say, we’ve been busy busy busy!!

I am now home from work and managed to close everything out there with minimal hiccups. Everyone was very encouraging and supportive and I made many promises to bring our child in for “show and tell” as soon as feasible once we get back. I believe Steve has done a similar work close-out and is on his way home. We now have just under 48 hours to get completely ready to walk out the door to later return completely different people with a whole new look to our family!

For those who want details regarding what’s ahead for us, here is a summary of the adoption process in Ukraine:

1. We meet with the NAC (that’s National Adoption Center) on July 27 where we will be shown files for children that are available for adoption by foreigners (minimum age 15 months). If we can find a match, we can move on. If not, we will schedule a second appointment and try again. This might be necessary because of the poor availability of young children right now. We know that God already has a child picked out for us, so it is our prayer that we will be matched to that child on our first appointment. 2. We must get approval to meet the child and then proceed to the region where the child is living (in an orphanage or children’s home). We then get more permissions so we will be allowed to meet the Director of the Orphanage to discuss the child’s file, health, prognosis, etc. If we still desire to meet the child after this meeting, then we will be permitted to do so. 3. We have up to a week to decide if we wish to adopt this child. During this time, we can interact with the child, ask more questions about his or her health and background, have doctors evaluate the child and the medical records, and so on. 4. Once the decision is made, you notify the orphanage that you wish to proceed with the adoption OR you compose a rejection of referral letter that has to be filed and also taken to the NAC and used to request a new appointment. In reality, these days you can only reject a referral for medical and health reasons; for example, if a child is sicker than you were led to believe and you feel you are unable to address the child’s needs. Our prayer is that the child we visit will be the child God intends for us, but some families do find that their first referral is not “the one” and find their own child the second time around. 5. Once you say “yes” you proceed with the adoption, which consists of quite a bit of paperwork on both ends (ours and theirs) all of which eventually leads you to court, where it goes before a judge to decide if you are fit to be the parents of this little Ukrainian citizen and that your adopting him or her is in the child’s best interests. This paperwork to court process can take anywhere from a few days to 3 weeks. 6. “Gotcha Day” is the day you have court and the judge declares the child officially yours! This is a day I can only dream of right now and can hardly comprehend may be a reality in a very short time!! But, believe it or not, the process doesn’t end there. 7. There can be an immediate execution of the adoption, which means the child can be taken home as soon as all the necessary paperwork has been processed OR the judge can legally impose a 30-day wait before the adoption decree can be executed. We pray this does not happen in our case, but God is in charge! 8. More paperwork has to be completed before we can take full ownership of the child. Once it is completed, we pick him or her up from the orphanage and proceed back to Kiev. I think this part is just a day or two for paperwork and then time for the necessary travel arrangements to be made. 9. Back in Kiev, before we can depart for home, we still have to have the child reviewed by a doctor specially approved by the US Embassy. We then have an interview at the embassy for processing of the child’s immigration visa, which is of course permission for us to bring a child into the U.S. and for that child to be declared a US citizen upon arrival. 10. We buy our return tickets and bring our new family member HOME!!!!!

Moments of Terror: I had a really neat picture the other day as I was thinking about how scary all of this is. I was praying about it and acknowledging some of the many fears I have to God. I felt like He gave me a beautiful picture of a mother soothing a frightened and upset child, reassuring the child that she will protect him and he has nothing to fear. I identify with this picture of course, because I soon expect to be this mother, comforting and consoling a confused and heretofore lonely child. But what He wanted me to understand is how tightly He is holding us through all of this and how securely we can rest in Him. We have nothing to fear because He is our protection, just like we will be earthly protection for our own child. What encouragement - what comfort!!

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ Psalm 91:1-2 (the rest of Psalm 91 is really good, too!)

I may post one more time before we go, but if not, you’ll hear from us “on the other side.” Thank you again for all your prayers and support!

Adoption Countdown - 1 week 7/15/2005

Week 49

Things are starting to get very very busy at our house as well as at both our jobs as everything both winds down and gears up at the same time.

For the Adoption trip we:

• Ordered our cash (I know that sounds weird but that is how you do it. I sort of did this last week, but when I went to pick it up, it wasn’t in the right denominations, so the order was clarified and I’ll pick it up next week)
• Packed our first suitcase - but will most likely have to repack it
• spent a lot of money on certain travel items (food, necessities, toiletries and the like)
• registered our trip with the US State Department
• started organizing our contacts list that we’ll need to take with us
• We received our Attache from our agency containing all our important documents and instructions for the adoption
• received back Steve’s cell phone, which was sent off to be unlocked. It is a GSM phone that can be used with a Ukrainian SIM card, which we will purchase upon arrival.
• Received the iPhoto book that we ordered from Apple - it looks awesome!!
• Received via e-mail a picture of our facilitator/translator! I can’t wait to meet her in person!
• Received back my passport and visa, which was returned untouched, as it has finally been clarified that US Citizens are no longer required to acquire visas to Ukraine so long as your trip is shorter than 90 days. We have visas anyhow because we applied prior to the decree. That’s $280 we would gladly have saved…but oh well. “Eto zhisn” ( “That’s Life!” in Russian).

We also continued to talk about, pray for, and envision life with our new child and the joys and challenges the three of us will experience together. We are also continuing slowly but steadily (or maybe not so steadily, maybe just slowly) on our Russian studies. Still, it is fun and challenging! Most of all we are just getting really really excited to be so close to our final destination on this adoption journey!!

It’s so hard to believe that in one week I will be posting our final preparations before departure!!!

Our Adoption - 2 weeks til departure 7/8/2005

Week 48

This week we managed to get a few things checked off our to-do list:

• completed and ordered our iPhoto book - we’re so excited about this!!
• found a pair of shoes I needed for our trip
• sent my passport back to the Ukrainian Consulate for correction (it took a long time to determine if this was needed)
• sent Steve’s cell phone off to be unlocked (it’s a GSM phone and will work with a Ukrainian sim card once this has been done)
• purchased a carry-on/backpack combination that should be perfect for us
• made arrangements with the bank for all the crisp new bills we will be needing
• bought the ergo baby carrier (with some help from my Mom), which I really really wanted! (www.ergobabycarrier.com) - thanks Mom!!
• decided on the specialty paper to get for our adoption announcements (Steve is doing the design)
• sent out an e-mail update with specific prayer needs (if anyone reading this is not on the list and wants to be, just shoot me an email - ivyredgirl at gmail.com)
• revised and updated a lot of our packing and final shopping lists

I’ve also been working on the Living Language Beginning/Intermediate Russian course! Mostly I’ve just been listening to the cd’s and trying to study the book when I can. It’s very much of an immersion style program, which is great, but you have to take some time to read the lessons in the book, so you know the meaning of the words in the dialogues that you’re listening to. I’m not yet able to determine meanings from context, because I can’t yet “think” in Russian except in certain, very rudimentary contexts, not to mention they speak incredibly fast on the CD. “Poftereetye medlinye, pozhalsta”!! (repeat it slowly, please!)

I had a special treat last night, when I got a call from my dear friend Vlada, who is from the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine herself, but who has lived in the US for well over 10 years now. She is not only a good friend, she was also my original Russian tutor back in 1997 when I prepared the first time to go to Moldova, Ukraine, and then Russia (St. Petersburg). She was the most patient tutor, and we had a good time taking trips to the grocery store, and sitting outside in the springtime while I tried to mutter through with my limited Russian. I’m afraid even with review, I’m not much better off than I was back then, but we’ll see how it goes this time around. The most important thing to me is to be able to communicate with our child. Of course there is a possibility that he or she will only understand Ukrainian, rather than Russian. If that happens, I will be learning the Ukrainian phrases for children as fast as I can!!

Whew! Yes, it’s been a week like that! Tonight my office is giving us a little shower. That should be a fun diversion from all the craziness of preparations, so we can be reminded of the reason that we are doing all this, which is for a beautiful, amazing, precious child that God has set aside just for us!!

Our adoption - 3 weeks to go 7/2/2005

Week 47

This week flew by of course as all the others have done. We are entering “crunch mode” with not a lot of time to make a lot of preparations! Really, though it is exciting more than anything. There isn’t much to tell about this week in particular. Mostly we’ve been making lists of all the final things to do, make, buy, learn, and so on. I’m not sure we really accomplished much on any of those lists as yet.

Right now I need to do some organizing and cleaning.

By the way, we hope everyone has a happy 4th of July. I encourage us all to not take for granted what a wonderful country we live in!!!

Hopefully, next week’s update will be more interesting and that some of our to-do’s are actually DONE!

We continue to covet your prayers during this time, which can be stressful, and it is affecting our sleep. Of course please pray also for our child that he or she will be safe, healthy, and ready for us in a few short weeks’ time!

Thanks and God bless.

Our Adoption - (less than) 4 weeks to go 6/28/2005

Week 46 came and went and I missed the update. But here is what it entailed:

We received our Visas from the Ukrainian consulate! Visas are entry permission documents stamped right into your passport. Receiving ours was quite exciting until we discovered that they wrote my visa in my maiden name rather my married name. We’re not sure if it was a mistake or if they always issue the visas according to the name in the front of the passport. My passport was issued before I married and later amended. I applied in my married name AND pointed them to the page with the amendment, so it may have been intentional on their part because it seems like this would be important enough for them to do it correctly. I tried to call today to learn if it needs to be fixed, but today is a Ukrainian holiday and the Consular office is closed. Will try again tomorrow.

My friends gave me a baby shower on Saturday. This was an amazingly special event because it made the reality of us soon coming home with a child so much…well, more real!! Our house is now full of little toys and toddler dishes and other things which clearly indicate the presence of a little one. And the best part is it looks so natural in our house and feels so right in our hearts. I know I won’t believe it fully even after we’re home with a little one, but it is becoming more believable each day that our trip draws nearer.

Actually, the real highlight of the shower was a time of prayer the ladies had for me. I was so blessed by this and must have needed it even more than I realized. Afterwards, I felt a huge sense of peace and of renewed trust and assurance that God is in control and He’ll see it through to completion! I’ll have to continue to return to these truths again and again before it’s over, though. Please keep praying, folks! It makes such a difference!

There’s another reason to pray besides our spiritual and emotional well-being. The adoption situation in Ukraine is soon supposed to be getting MUCH better. However, the “much better” phase is not likely to happen until some time after our trip. And until then, things are NOT good some might even call them BAD. We are refusing to give up though, remembering that God is in charge and it is up to Him to connect us to the child meant to be ours. Still, please pray for the children in Ukraine who need homes that the current barricades will soon be torn down and adopting them will be easier and faster than ever before! These children deserve homes and families to love them!!!!

We continue to prepare for our travels, collecting gifts to take, buying the right toiletries, evaluating our wardrobes for appropriate attire to take, and so on. We are also finally working on the photo book we will be making for our child to see as a way to “meet” his extended family and begin to get more comfortable with us and our home and such. We hope he likes it!! We’re still collecting digital pictures from family to go in the book, then we will build and organize it, and then we’ll print it through Apple’s iPhoto book program. So cool!!

I’ll do another update this week on Friday… at least that’s the plan.