Happy New Year! I guess I better get the monthly post written before January comes. This is my first time writing a post (Heather). All of December has been a big push for documentation for our Dossier (adoption application and support submitted to Ukraine's State Department for Adoption).

Since our last post, we have received our Home Study from the Social Worker. We were approved for two children 0-8 years old. We were waiting on the Home Study to include in our Dossier and to send to US immigration for their approval.

At this moment our Dossier is being reviewed by Cathy Harris from Ukrainian Angels. She's making sure everything is accurate and hopefully we won't have any snafus with the documentation in Ukraine. Once she reviews, she will assign us a team in Ukraine, which would include a Facilitator and Translator.

We are also waiting on our I171H approval from US Immigration. The I171H is a US Visa preapproval for our two children. Once everything is finalized in Ukraine and we are ready to come home, we will stop at the US Embassy in Kiev and actually get the US Visas issued for the kids.

Here is a list of items included in our Dossier. These are all items required by Ukraine.

1. Petition to Adopt - letter stating our intentions and asking to be considered for Adoption
2. Two copies of Letter of Obligation - letter stating we will register the kids with the Ukrainain Consulate in New York and provide annual updates to the Consulate on the kids progress.
3. State Police Clearance Checks
4. Two Copies of our Marriage License
5. Two Copies of our US Passports
6. 6 months of Pays Stubs for Andrew and Heather
7. Copy of our Deed and Assessment information for our House
8. Home Study performed by Social Worker and Copy of Her License
9. Medical Form completed by Dr for Heather and Andrew along with copies of the Dr. medical License.
10. I171H Immigration Approval
11. Letters from Fulton and Simon-Lever verifying our salary and that we are in good standing.

All in all, it totals about 60 pages of stuff, all of which is notarized. We also have to take all the documents up to Harrisburg to be apostilled. This means the Department of State verifies that all the notaries are properly licensed and essentially legalizes the documents for acceptance by Ukraine as part of the Hague Convention.

Hopefully, we will be able to FEDEX the dossier to Ukraine within the next two weeks. Then it is a waiting game for us, as the Dossier is translated and we get in line to be submitted to the State Department of Adoption in Ukraine.

At home, I've been picking up things here and there to donate to the Orphanage(s). When it was back-to-school time I picked up tons of Crayola stuff like crayons, markers and colored pencils. I also got some hats and scarves and other items. I'd also like to pick up some Matchbox cars to take along. I've also been picking up little things to give to some of the people in Ukraine who help us with the adoption. Makeup is a big thing, so I try to pick up some essentials when they are on sale to make little gift bags.

Also at Home, I am trying to get some of the antique furniture we bought stripped and refinished for the kids. Andrew is gearing up for tax season, so I will have lots of time in the next three months to focus on the kids room and getting things organized.

For Christmas we got two Duffel bags we plan on using for our trip and I got a dual voltage hair dryer to take over. We also got Ukrainian plus Russian phrases for Children (language learning CD) and we just ordered our camcorder with the giftcards we received for Christmas. We are definitely getting ready.

Well, paka-paka (bye-bye) for now!

Here's a link to learn some basic Russian!

http://www.speakingruss-ru.1gb.ru/

The Next Step

We're one step closer to completing our dossier.  Since our last post we've started the next step in the process.  After a little side step we contacted a social worker from Hershey to help us with our home study.  We had originally been working with Pressley Ridge for the home study but a snafu with the date of the agency's license and our anticipated submission date for our dossier caused us to look elsewhere.  We were concerned that the license would not be valid long enough to survive the review process.  We did not want to have to redo our dossier.  It's hard enough without this headache.

Pressley Ridge was great through out the whole process and we really appreciated the adoption education classes we took with them.  Heather searched high and low on the Internet for an independent social worker that could help us.  After we answered a questionnaire together and wrote individual autobiographies we met separately with Eva for one hour each.  I (Andrew) usually don't have any problems talking about anything for any period of time but it was definitely an awkward conversation with Eva.  I'm sure it was a technique but Eva wouldn't ask her next question until there was at least 10 seconds after I stopping talking.  It was weird. 

After our one-on-one meetings Eva met us at our house for the joint session and inspection of our house.  The meeting went well and now we are just waiting for Eva to write everything up.  Hopefully we'll have the final home study by mid-December.  That will keep us on track for sending our dossier to our facilitator/translator in Ukraine.

We had a scare on Saturday morning.  Cathy Harris sent us an email about new requirements for our dossier that were recently passed in Ukrainian Parliament.  It's great to have someone looking out for us but it daunting to see all of the hoops we have to jump through just to send our dossier.  In the grand scheme of things the new requirements aren't that big of a deal but we are really anxious about getting everything in order.

Ever since we announced to our family and friends that we are starting our journey to adopt from Ukraine everyone has been very supportive and curious.  We get questions all the time and we find joy in answering those questions and helping to teach others about the adoption process and Ukraine.

This time of year is our favorite.  The holidays are time to spend with family and friends and to reflect on what we are thankful for and how grateful we are for love that surrounds us.  We can't wait until next year this time when we can share the holidays with our new family.

Some more useful links:

U.S. Embassy - Kiev Adoption page

- This page explains the adoption process in Ukraine.

The Eberly's Blog 

- A local Lancaster family that just got back from Ukraine

Ukrainian Culture 

- Ukrainian travel site

First Post - Yay!

We are Heather and Andrew Hirschmann. We are just beginning our independent Ukrainian adoption journey. This blog is to document our adoption journey and to update our family and friends with our progress and to pass along what we have learned through out the process to others interested in Ukrainian adoption.

Below are a few links to websites that we have been frequenting lately to learn more about independent Ukrainian adoptions.

http://www.ukrainianangels.org - Website of Cathy Harris who is helping us facilitate our adoption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApimI5pF2gs - Youtube video showing orphanages and some of the wonderful children in the Ukraine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reTJ_28J6K0 - Another Youtube video