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/