Well, its been a while since we last posted, mostly due to the fact there was nothing to report. The updated Dossier was sent to Vlad at the end of June. I talked with him and he said everything looks good, so we have just been counting down the days to our September 7th submission date. The submission date to the appointment date in Ukraine has been around 3 weeks, so hopefully we will be heading over to Ukraine at the end of September.
We have been really busy at home getting the house ready and the rooms ready for the kids! My rather long and daunting list has been whittled down to a few things with the help of my brother-in-law (Thanks Jason!) and some hired help (Thanks Tony!) and of course Andrew and myself.
I finally finished my scrapbook of pictures to take with us to show everyone in Ukraine where we come from and to get the kids familiarized with faces and the house and of course Chas and Jake (our cocker spaniels). We were able to borrow a few things from my friend Joni who adopted in 2006 from Ukraine (Thanks Joni!). They should come in handy.
One bag has been packed for the orphanage, its at the limit 49.4lbs. I've been getting everything else together that's sort of miscellaneous--kids medicines, vitamins, rubber gloves, duct tape, toilet seat wipes, anti-bacterial handsoap and gel, peanut butter, cell phone, sewing kit, plug adapters. Some of these things you never know if you need, but its better to have them than wish you had them. Some things are hard to find in Ukraine.
Once September 7th rolls around, I should have more interesting news to report!
~Heather
Friday, August 21, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Good News - Bad News
Well, we thought things were on track but we heard from Vlad on April 27th that our submission date of June 22 was changed to September 7th. This is the date our file was to be submitted to the State Department of Adoption in Ukraine.
This pushes us back a few months and means that our whole dossier needs redone. As of today, the whole dossier has been redone and tomorrow I plan on going to the Capitol in Harrisburg to have the documents apostilled.
The reason the date was pushed back is the SDA thought they would be shorthanded because of vacations in the summer and therefore would not be able to review and approve all the files and have the appointments for the families. In addition, the Ukrainian government and many of the officials and inspectors go on extended summer holidays. The government pretty much shuts down. This makes traveling and adopting during the summer an extended affair and can take longer than 4-6 weeks. Also, its really hot there in the summer with no air conditioning at most places.
Our best estimate at this point it to travel for our appointment sometime in the 4th quarter, possibly in November. Our hope is to be home in time for Christmas with the kids.
We're ready to prime and paint the kids rooms and finish up the furniture that we are refinishing. We have been trying to keep up with the yard work and Andrew is finally recooperated from Tax Season.
I try and keep in mind that when we are invited to Ukraine for our appointment, then that is when we are meant to go to find our children. The children that are meant for us will be there then.
Since I last posted, time has flown by, hopefully the next few months fly by just as quickly and we don't have any more hiccups in our journey....
Das Vidanya
~ Heather
This pushes us back a few months and means that our whole dossier needs redone. As of today, the whole dossier has been redone and tomorrow I plan on going to the Capitol in Harrisburg to have the documents apostilled.
The reason the date was pushed back is the SDA thought they would be shorthanded because of vacations in the summer and therefore would not be able to review and approve all the files and have the appointments for the families. In addition, the Ukrainian government and many of the officials and inspectors go on extended summer holidays. The government pretty much shuts down. This makes traveling and adopting during the summer an extended affair and can take longer than 4-6 weeks. Also, its really hot there in the summer with no air conditioning at most places.
Our best estimate at this point it to travel for our appointment sometime in the 4th quarter, possibly in November. Our hope is to be home in time for Christmas with the kids.
We're ready to prime and paint the kids rooms and finish up the furniture that we are refinishing. We have been trying to keep up with the yard work and Andrew is finally recooperated from Tax Season.
I try and keep in mind that when we are invited to Ukraine for our appointment, then that is when we are meant to go to find our children. The children that are meant for us will be there then.
Since I last posted, time has flown by, hopefully the next few months fly by just as quickly and we don't have any more hiccups in our journey....
Das Vidanya
~ Heather
Thursday, March 26, 2009
News from Vlad
We finally have some more good news to report. Our Dossier was delivered on schedule to Vlad in Ukraine on March 2. Our file was translated and our facilitator presented our file to the State Department of Adoption in Ukraine to get a submission date. Vlad emailed me and let me know that our submission date is June 22, 2009. (YAY)
That date means a couple of our documents will have to be redone, notarized and apostilled and sent to Ukraine before June 22th to be translated. This is because every document we submit on June 22th has to be good for an additional 6 months. Some of our documents were as of December 1st, 13st, etc. so they have to be redone...Its only a couple, so its not too bad.
At this point, we know the SDA has up to 20 business days to review and approve the dossier and then schedule our appointment. So now, the best we know is we will be going to Ukraine in the 3rd quarter sometime. Everything can change at any point, but a family who submitted in the very beginning of February had their appointment on March 25. So the appointment was about 6 or 7 weeks from the submission date (mid August maybe, for us). We'll see.
The plaster work we had done in the kids' rooms is complete and ready for priming and painting. Hopefully, with warmer weather coming and Andrew finishing up tax season, we can get some of the furniture painted and the rooms painted.
If you're interested in looking at some of the orphanages, check out http://www.iorphan.org/ click on orphanages/Ukrainian...There are some cute pics of kids and what the orphanages are like.
Bu vai (Bye - Ukrainian)
~Heather
That date means a couple of our documents will have to be redone, notarized and apostilled and sent to Ukraine before June 22th to be translated. This is because every document we submit on June 22th has to be good for an additional 6 months. Some of our documents were as of December 1st, 13st, etc. so they have to be redone...Its only a couple, so its not too bad.
At this point, we know the SDA has up to 20 business days to review and approve the dossier and then schedule our appointment. So now, the best we know is we will be going to Ukraine in the 3rd quarter sometime. Everything can change at any point, but a family who submitted in the very beginning of February had their appointment on March 25. So the appointment was about 6 or 7 weeks from the submission date (mid August maybe, for us). We'll see.
The plaster work we had done in the kids' rooms is complete and ready for priming and painting. Hopefully, with warmer weather coming and Andrew finishing up tax season, we can get some of the furniture painted and the rooms painted.
If you're interested in looking at some of the orphanages, check out http://www.iorphan.org/ click on orphanages/Ukrainian...There are some cute pics of kids and what the orphanages are like.
Bu vai (Bye - Ukrainian)
~Heather
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Its Been a While
Well, its been a while since our last post. We were pretty much just waiting for our immigration approval from Phila USCIS (sent home study to USCIS 12/22/08). We finally received the approval on Saturday February 21. I was so happy, but it also put me in a tailspin because there were still a couple of changes to be made to documents because of changes in the Ukrainian laws within the past month or two. I mapped my plan out for this week and I am happy to report that our Dossier (application for adoption) was sent, via FEDEX to our faciliator Vlad in Ukraine today, February 26th.
This week was crazy and included multiple stops to AAA for some notary work, updated employment letters from work because of wording changes, a trip to Harrisburg Capitol to have documents Apostilled with the PA Secretary of State's seal, some scanning and copying of documents for our files and then finally, with a sigh of relief, a Fedex shipment to Ukraine.
The FEDEX is supposed to arrive on Tuesday March 3, where it will be translated 7-10 business days and then our facilitator and his team will try and get us submitted to the Ukrainian State Department of Adoption. Hopefully, this will happen within the next few months......
At this point, we have no idea about exact timing, but hopefully we will know a little more in the next couple of weeks.
We hope that things go well. I have been continuing to practice my Ukrainian and Russian phrases for children. Andrew seems to have trouble with the words...its pretty funny. I keep buying clothes in various sizes for either boys or girls. We really hope to be able to find two children in the 3-5 year old range.
We are having someone come in and get the rooms ready for the kids with some new drywall and plaster. Then we can paint and get somewhat ready...With our age range 2-8, either gender, its hard to be able to plan and prepare. And of course that drives me crazy, since I am such a planner.
Now that our journey has really started and is "official", hopefully there will be more news to report on a regular basis.
~Heather
This week was crazy and included multiple stops to AAA for some notary work, updated employment letters from work because of wording changes, a trip to Harrisburg Capitol to have documents Apostilled with the PA Secretary of State's seal, some scanning and copying of documents for our files and then finally, with a sigh of relief, a Fedex shipment to Ukraine.
The FEDEX is supposed to arrive on Tuesday March 3, where it will be translated 7-10 business days and then our facilitator and his team will try and get us submitted to the Ukrainian State Department of Adoption. Hopefully, this will happen within the next few months......
At this point, we have no idea about exact timing, but hopefully we will know a little more in the next couple of weeks.
We hope that things go well. I have been continuing to practice my Ukrainian and Russian phrases for children. Andrew seems to have trouble with the words...its pretty funny. I keep buying clothes in various sizes for either boys or girls. We really hope to be able to find two children in the 3-5 year old range.
We are having someone come in and get the rooms ready for the kids with some new drywall and plaster. Then we can paint and get somewhat ready...With our age range 2-8, either gender, its hard to be able to plan and prepare. And of course that drives me crazy, since I am such a planner.
Now that our journey has really started and is "official", hopefully there will be more news to report on a regular basis.
~Heather
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
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/
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/
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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
Monday, September 29, 2008
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
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
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