Our Journey to Kiev

Peter and Annette's adoption adventure begins...

Adventure Blog

A new and improved Blog pageHi - we've moved. No, not to Kiev but to a new web site. Please goto http://spaces.msn.com/journeytokiev/ for our new site.Our Scouting Trip to KievSorry for taking so long to update you. This is the first time we have had more than a couple of minutes at the internet cafe. Our Journey turned into more of a scouting trip than anything else (just call us the advance planning team) It's a long story, but there was a "small" problem with our appt. --- It isn't until March 27th! The facililitation team told Orson (our agency director) that they were going to try to get us into an appt that had come available on Feb 23rd. But, when they told Orson that they were going to try to get us scheduled on the 23rd he apparently didn't understand that it wasn't a done-deal. He did know later, but didn't communicate this to us. Maybe he assumed it would get straightend out before we got here. Anyway, since the director of the NAC (the National Adoption Center in Ukraine) here hasn't been around for almost three weeks, the facilitation team wasn't able to change us to the earlier appt. (Susan and Laurel's Appts are OK though!!!) We waited till today for the director to come back (because only she can schedule appts). She was in very briefly today but did not do anything with appts and is gone again until next Friday!!! So the team wasn't able to try to get her to let us have an appt next week and we've decided rather than wait any longer that we will just come back at the end of the March. So, this was sort of like a scouting trip for us. We now kind of know what to expect and who the people are that we will be dealing with -- and they know us. The team is really great. They seem very honest and are very hard working. I trust that they are doing their best for us. Ilona (the facilitator most involved with our dossiers) seems genuinely concerned about all of us (I've seen it in her face). Have faith in her. We leave today!We will be leaving NJ for Ukraine today. Only Peter and I will go on this first trip -- Jack will have Nana and Pepere (and Willie) taking care of him while we are gone. This first trip is to "find" a child to adopt and to start the process with the courts. Once we get a referral, we will go to the orphanage to visit the child, have a medical examination done, and petition the court to adopt. Once the court approves our adoption, there is a mandatory wait period. During this waiting period, we will come home for about two weeks, get everything ready here for the child, and squeeze in a little work. We will take Jack with us on our second trip which should be about a week long. During this second trip, we will have our final court appointment, get the new birth certificate, passport, and complete the US immigration paperwork at the US Embassy. Our flight leaves around 6:30 pm this evening. We first fly to Amsterdam and then on to Kiev..... 6:30 PM (Mon. Feb 20th) Leave Newark, NJ 7:55 AM (Tues. Feb 21st) Arrive in Amsterdam11:05 AM (Tues. Feb 21st) Depart Amsterdam 2:55 PM (Tues. Feb 21st) Arrive in Kiev, Ukraine

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