Appointment Date

It has been quite a journey for us to this point, full of ups and downs and deep insights into God’s love for us. After our long delay, we finally received our appointment date this morning.

It is December 11! That gives us a month to panic, get everything ready, and finally travel to go and find the children God has chosen for us. We anticipate being in Ukraine for 3 to 4 weeks. I cannot think of a better Christmas gift than the one God is giving us.

For those of you who don’t know I will recap a little of the story to this point. After several months of pondering (and being hit upside the head by God’s 2x4) Bruce and I decided to adopt from Ukraine in October of 2004. It was something we really felt called to do. It has been a long journey and we have spent the last 18 months or so living in limbo. The Ukrainian government decided to completely revamp their adoption system and that basically shut everything down. We kept hearing that the new system would get rolling and then we would travel in early spring, no, it will be June, wait, make that August. People finally began getting appointments in September and we found out this morning that our date was in December for sure.

By all accounts the new system is much better than the old and things are running much more smoothly. Here is how we anticipate it will go. We will leave here, probably on Dec 9 fly to Kiev. We will be traveling with 2 other families from our area. Our Ukrainian facilitator will pick us up at the airport. When we go to our appointment, we will be shown a book that has pictures and medical histories of the children that are available for adoption. We will choose our referral from that book (i.e. We want to meet this child). We will then travel to where ever that orphanage is and spend time with the child. If we feel it is not the child God has chosen for us, we will return to Kiev for another appointment. You generally get 3 chances to choose a child. If we feel it is the right one we will begin the legal adoption process. Once the legal process is finished, the child will come stay with us, but there is a mandatory 10 day waiting period before we can leave the country. We will go back to Kiev to get the Visas for our child(ren) to get into this country. [You have probably noticed the use of the plural. If we can find siblings, we are open to adopting more than one. But by Ukrainian law they must be siblings to get more than one child.]

When we return, we hope that Bruce will be able to take at least one more week off as we settle into our home and new routines. We will need to isolate ourselves for a few weeks so our children will be sure that we are Mom and Dad. The orphanage situation is not good and the children do not learn how to make healthy attachments. By our isolating ourselves for a little while, the kids will learn to trust us and that we are not going anywhere. Once they are firmly attached to us, we will come out of hiding and begin introducing them to their broader world of family and friends.

We don’t know what ages we will come home with. By Ukrainian law, we must be at least 15 years older than the child we adopt so that would make the oldest we could take 10. By Ukrainian law, a child must be in the system for 1 year before they are eligible for adoption, so the youngest we can get is 13 months. The exception to that rule is if they need some kind of medical attention that they won’t be able to receive if they stay in the orphanage. (Things like a cleft palate or a heart defect, often things that are easily fixed over here.) We also have no preference in gender – this has been a God thing all along and we just want whatever God has chosen.

It has been quite an adventure, and I am sure the adventure is just beginning. I alternate between being incredibly excited and unbelievably scared. I am also very humbled that God is allowing us to participate in this venture that is so like what He has done for us though Son. In the future we will be able to tell our children that they were chosen, not because of anything they did or would do, but just because we loved them and wanted to rescue them from the horrible position of isolation and pain they were in.

Please pray:

• For clear minds as we prepare to travel and be away from home for such a long time.
• For clear paths through the adoption system in Ukraine.
• For clear discerning as to which child/children we should bring home.
• That God would prepare our children’s hearts to be loved and be able to give love in return.
• That God would begin the healing process in these little lives who have already lost so much.
• That we would have wisdom as we begin our role as parents.

T minus 1 month and counting . . .