Adoption Update and Stuff

This morning I am on an early morning flight headed for Memphis. My final destination is Newark and then on the Staten Island to meet up with Pastor Ray Parascondo and the folks from Crossroads church to take part in the process of ordaining their first pastoral candidate. Our church, Temple has had an on going partnership with them for years, it is very special to be able to be part of this occasion with them. It will be a quick trip, and I’ll be back in the ‘Burg by mid-morning tomorrow, but what a cool opportunity!

So, on to the adoption stuff! As many of you know who have followed our journey for very long, international adoption can be a lot like begin in the military, it is a lot of hurry up and wait. Well we are in a hurry up phase right now for sure! As of Friday, we received our approval from USCIS (The Department of Homeland Security) for advanced processing of immigrant visas of up to 3 (no our plans have not changed—but you never can be sure) orphaned children to become US citizens. Wooo Hooo! That is a big hurdle cleared. Not that we expected not to be cleared, but it takes time, and time is not on our side.

With that approval, we are assembling our dossier with the goal of having it FedExed to Ukraine by Friday! We will fax copies of the notarized documents to Ukraine tomorrow for translations to begin even before the documents arrive. There are several things that we are praying for in particular:

1. That our documents are right the first time and able to be submitted without incident at the earliest possible date.
2. That we find favor in the eyes of the Ukrainian SDA and get a quick appointment. There is a new wrinkle in the law that an Interpol clearance has to be run on adoptive couples that slows things down by 40-days. Please pray that they will run the check while we are in process for the appointment and not make us wait for the check to be the appointment
3. For N & K’s encouragement. Two of our dear friends, Lee and Barbara Drake and in Ukraine right now pursuing the adoption of 3 boys from the same orphanage. N & K don’t know we are coming. K has never met us. N desperately wants to be adopted. Pay that they make good choices, and that they hang on just a little longer. We are on the way!
4. Pray for things on the home front too! We are definitely seeing the stress in both Erick and Nicholas and it isn’t pretty. Lot’s of bad behavior. They aren’t dealing well with the immediacy of the change or the prospect of momma and daddy being gone for 6 weeks, Adoption ain’t a fairy tale! :)
   

That’s a lot, and it’s enough for now.

Thanks for loving us and for praying!

Blessings,

Rick