Thomas Family Adoption
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Thomas Family Adoption

The Thomas Family

We are Mike and Melissa Thomas.  Mike and I met while living in the British Virgin Islands, in 1988.  We were young and looking for adventure.  We fell in love and were married on June 11th 1990 under two palm trees over looking the Caribbean Sea.

We knew we wanted to start a family right away but this proved not to happen.  After many years and countless attempts at fertility we decided the path for us was through adoption.  I knew I was meant to be a mom and realized this did not necessarily mean giving birth.  So our son Stephen was born in our hearts and was awaiting us in his orphanage in Ukraine.

We adopted our son, Stephen Gareth Thomas on September 8th 2000 at the age of 22 months.  This was the happiest day of our lives.  We cried many a tear of joy.  There is nothing in the world as wonderful as holding your child and rocking them to sleep, or getting sweet little baby kisses, or the first time you hear "I wub bou mommy"

Now 4 years later we realize our family is still not complete and so off to Ukraine we go to find our daughter.  Stephen is so excited at the prospect of being a big brother and can hardly wait.  But just like giving birth adopting a child takes time.

So follow along with us as we travel half way around the world to our daughter's home in Ukraine.


Janurary 2005

We have officially begun our paperwork as of this week. I have been fundraising all fall and we now have enough to pay for all the stateside paperwork. Thank you to all who bought our cookbook and we hope you have enjoyed cooking with it. And a very heart felt thankyou to those friends who have given us donations to help bring home our daughter. We cannot put into words our gratitude.


May 2005 Now our journey begins

It has been a long 5 months but the paperwork is finally done and has been sent to Ukraine. We thought this time around the paper chase was going to be a breeze since we had already done this. WRONG! So much has changed since we went to Ukraine in 2000 to adopt Stephen. But hopefully my mistakes will help other oldies from falling into the same pitfalls.

We finally sent our documents to our facilitator May 18th. Because of the weekend I expect them to actually arrive to our translator by Monday the 23rd.

Our facilitator feels our projected appointment date of November is pretty good. They are currently giving out dates in Sept (our original choice. Oh well) and Oct. We still wish we could go in October but to avoid getting a date we do not want we will ask for the beginning of Nov. Stephen is being a real trouper since he knows the odds are he will spend his 7th birthday in Ukraine. But at least he can have a party with his new sister and her friends.

So this summer will be spent fundraising. We are half way there gathering the funds we will need. I have become proficient at fundraising. I still have cookbooks left if anyone is interested. In June was are having a huge yardsale. I have been collecting donations for two months now. We hope to raise $2000. Wish me luck.

It is also time to begin preparing for the journey. Thinking of all the things we will need to take, making contacts, researching health issues. So we will still be busy but at least now we feel this is really going to happen. Lindsey is already part of our lives. Her room is coming together. Big brother is thinking of ways he can help and mom can not walk past the Barbie section of Toys-R-Us with out aaaaawing!


The Cost of Adopting

Over the past 4 years a lot of you have asked us what the cost of adopting is. Some have questioned why we are fundraising for this adoption. The reality of it is when you give birth to a biological child there is health insurance to cover the cost. Even if you do not have insurance there is medicade. But when you adopt there is no one to help you with the cost. No health insurance, no medicade nothing but loans and going into debt.

This has kept a lot of people from fulfilling their dreams of becoming parents.

When we adopted Stephen, we took out a 2nd mortgage on our house. It took us a good part of the past 4 years to pay it as well as all the credit card bills we maxed out. Add to this the bills we amounted for all the fertility treatments we did prior to the adoption and we had a big debt.

For the first 3 years we really did not feel we could financially afford another child.

Raising the children was not the problem. We are more than able to give children a comfortable wonderful life. It was just the cost to bring them home that was daunting us.

Until a good friend told me how she fundraised all the money for her 4 adoptions. That is right! All 4 children she brought home from Ukraine. I learned from the master.

The following is an estimated list of what we expect to have to spend to bring Lindsey home.

Date Expense

1/19/2005 $525.00 INS I600 A

1/19/2550 $140.00 INS FBI, finger print cards

1/19/2005 $3.00 Post Office Money Orders& postage

2/4/2005 $600.00 Adoption Planning, Homestudy

2/18/2005 $1,000.00 Cathy Harris, IUAFN Fee

3/10/2005 $80.00 Ga St. Board of Med. Examiners, Doc lis.verification

3/10/2005 $40.00 British Consulate General, Taffs cert.copy of passport

4/25/2005 $78.00 Superior Court Apostilles, documents

4/25/2005 $71.00 Fed Ex Shipping to Great Britain

4/26/2005 $48.00 British Legalisation Office, Apostille Mike's passport

4/26/2005 $80.00 BVI Registars Office, Apostille of Marriage license

4/26/2005 $47.00 DHL, Shiiping from BVI

5/2/2005 $1,000.00 Cathy Harris, 1st installment facilitator fee

5/4/2005 $84.85 FedEx, Shipment to Ukraine

June $84.85 Fed Ex, Prepaid Return envelope

June $84.85 Fed Ex, Appt request to Ukraine

August $84.85 Fed Ex, Prepaid Return envelope

August $200.00, Ukrainian Embassy Visa's

August $20.00 FedEx to Jeff Doyle, Visa service

August $2,400.00 air fares for 4. Could be more.

November $3,500.00 Facilitator, 2nd installment facilitation fee

November $335.00 US Embassy, IR3 Visa for child

$80.00 VIP" Airport Service $2,000.00 food,taxis,passport, souvenirs,tele

$850.00 Food in Ukraine

$150.00 Taxis

$85.00 Passport for Lindsey

$200.00 Souvenirs

$150.00 Lindseys clothes

$2,000.00 Expediating Fees may be $1000 to $2000 higher

$65.00 Medical for LIndsey $65.00

$200.00 Tip Translator

$50.00 Tip Driver

$200.00 Tip Facilitator $1,000.00 Extra fee For Stephen coming

$3,000.00 cushion for trip

$20,836.40 Cost of Adoption



June 2005

Today Kiev announced it was temporaliy closing adoptions while they transfered power from one Ministry to a new one. They did say they would honor all dates already given out, of which we are not one but no new applications would be taken until the transfer was complete, estimated to take 2 months.

We are disappointed and a little nervous but then again Cathy had predicted this back in Aug. of last year which is why we held off in beginning our paperwork for so long. The change over can only be good.

In a news conference a couple of weeks ago the new president commented how international adoptions had dropped off over the past year and this was not acceptable. That this change was to improve conditions and make it easier, faster and hopefully less expensive. And the welfare fo the children was to be put first and this has not been the case for a least a year. His administration encouraged international adoption.

So we will wait and watch. Perhaps this will speed things up and we will still get there this fall If not it will be for the better and this adoption should be smoother.

Cross your fingers and say a prayer


October 2005

This week we finally heard back from our translator and we have our registration letter. 

The next step is to decided when to request our appointment.  We are going to ask for a date the beginning of March.  Hopefully by then they will have worked out all the issues affecting the adoption center and it will be smoother sailing.


Update November 2005

We are still waiting for our letter giving us a date. It should be here in December. Janurary the latest. We are still hopeful for a March date. However all our dossier papers begin to expire in Jan and by March most of them will have expired, so we must add this extra cost into the adoption.

It is so frustrating. The paperwork this time was so much more difficult than when we adopted Stephen and caused me a ton of stress. This time around it should be easier as I know what to do and how to get it but we expect it to add about $2000 to our overall cost. But what can you do!

Things are changing in Ukraine and as far as we know, the changes will be implemented the beginning of the year. They still say December we should begin to see this. Let us hope so. Everyone keep us in your christmas thoughts.


Sponsors


February 2006

Okay the NAC has finally re-opened to continue adoptions until the new program is iniatiated beginning May 2 of this year.

families are beginning to get dates. I am hopeful that we will receive a date for sometime in May.

Mike and I had actually begun to discuss whether or not this was going to happen for us. Then the next day a deluge of emails on the messages boards on appointments and the ball was rolling again.

So cross your fingers say a prayer and it looks like Lindsey will be home by the summer FINALLY!!!!



 

 

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