Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Today, we had a very helpful meeting with Igor, our adoption coordinator. It was helpful because we covered all of our timelines from here on out including transportation to court and the airport, lodging for Jeanne upon her return to Kyiv and the final leg that concludes with both Jeanne and Sasha flying home.

The schedule from here:

• Friday, April 15th at 11:20 AM--Dave, Jeanne, Lucas and Sasha plus 2 more - our attorney and the orphanage social worker - will meet with the judge to legalize the adoption.
• On April 27th the adoption decree (as it is called) that finalizes the adoption will be issued and available for receipt.
• Since only one parent is needed after the court date is completed, we decided that Jeanne would fly back around May 1st and get Sasha, complete paperwork and bring him home. (May 1st is after a 10-day waiting period for the decree to be processed plus 4 other days of country holidays including Easter where government offices are closed.)  This is how Igor and us arrived at the May 1st date.
• The adoption decree is what we use to obtain Sasha's re-issued birth certificate, his exit medical exam, his U.S. passport and an interview from the U.S. Embassy. This typically takes about 12 days to complete which puts us at a mid-May timeframe.

Back to the immediate future: We begin travel back to the U.S. this Saturday, April 16th and arrive in the Cities on Sunday, April 17th in the afternoon. It is bittersweet. Once again, we say goodbye to Sasha (with greater assurance of our future!). For Dave and Lucas, it will be a final goodbye to the orphanage children, staff, Jessie the dog and Ukraine. Not to say that we wouldn't return for a visit some time.  Thank goodness for memories embedded in the blog, pictures and emails.

Times with other adopting families and their children have become precious relationships to hold onto not only for us but our Ukrainian children...as illustrated below in playing a dice game:

  And where, might one ask, is the other child in our family? Take a guess...