TRAVEL DATE!!!

Eugene and I have received our invitation to visit the State Department of Adoption (SDA) in Ukraine on January 18th, 2011!  Once there, the adoption process will likely take approximately six weeks, and our best guess is that the kids will return home with Eugene in early March. 

Clearly, we ran into the Christmas holiday closings, and this made our appointment six weeks in the future instead of the more usual 2-3 week timeframe.  On one hand we are disappointed to have missed the December window - we were very close!  Still, it is a big relief to know what we are dealing with.  Until today, Christmas plans had been foggy for us and many who love us.  We so appreciate all of our loved ones being so flexible in their willingness to drop everything at a moment's notice and fill in the gaps so that our boys will be well cared for while we are away!  It is a big blessnig to be so well loved and cared for!

This timing will be great we think.  We will try to relax and enjoy the holidays, and be thankful that we have so much time to prepare for this exciting trip!   

Nesting!

As we wait for an invitation from the Ukrainian government to come and begin their adoption process (hoping to find out our travel date in a couple of weeks), I have enjoyed some serious nesting!  Being patient is not a strength for any of us, but it has been such a pleasure to use this time to prepare a cozy spot for each of them.  I pray that their new rooms will help them to feel a sense of security and a sense of belonging once they arrive.

Last week we had our entire 2nd floor spruced up with a fresh coat of paint and new colors.  We were able to find out from the kids what colors they would like for their new rooms.  Vitalik requested a light green room.  We think that he may have appreciated this color, as it is the color of the room he inhabited at Eleni and Adam's home during his wonderful three-week camp this summer.    

The boys enjoy leading the tour of the new bedrooms.  They describe Vitalik's room as, "the coolest sports room in the world."  I don't know about that, but I do think he'll like it! :o)

To noone's surprise, Lera requested a pink room.  As someone who had become confident that a daughter was not in the cards for me, preparing a cozy pink room for my new daughter has been an unexpected joy.  As I hung the curtains and carefully made the bed, I felt a sense that I have been waiting my whole life for this!

I think it makes us all feel really good to walk by and see these rooms ready for our new children.  It gives us a sense that this is all real.  As I periodically walk by and rearrange the pillows or pick up a speck of dust in their rooms, it makes me laugh to think that soon, real teens will live in (and mess up) these rooms, and they will likely never look this spotless again.  So now the rooms are ready, and I guess all we need are the kids! :o)

Paperwork and Packages

After waiting a few weeks for all of our paperwork to be translated, we learned on Monday (11/8) that our dossier was submitted to the Ukrainian State Dept of Adoption.  We are now waiting for a response, which is expected to be an invitation to visit Ukraine and go forward with the process.  The response generally takes 3 weeks, and we're still unsure whether our visit to Ukraine will be before or after the Christmas holidays.  Traveling sometime before the end of January looks very likely.

Lera turns 13 on December 4th, so of course, we wanted to try to get a little something to her for her birthday.  Mailing a package to Ukraine is expensive and takes a long time, so I decided to just go ahead and mail packages for both kids Christmas at the same time.  It is our understanding that the only Christmas gifts the kids have ever received have consisted of a few pieces of candy, and we think that it's unlikely that their birthdays have ever been celebrated.  We followed the recommendation of those who know about these things, sending a simple package of cards, candy, gum, and photos. 

It is difficult to describe how much effort went into these simple packages, and how much emotional tenderness I have felt in sending these little items to our children. 

I prepared 4 large envelopes.  One for each child to be delivered near Lera's birthday, and another for each of them to be delivered for Christmas.  I bought cards, returned cards, bought more cards, returned more cards... I printed little messages in my best attempt at Russian.  I printed photos, wrote captions in Russian and English on the back of each.  The boys drew pictures, and even wrote "To Lera From Spencer" using Ceryllic characters.  Fitting it all into an apporpriate container and creating a Fed-ex label was far more difficult than I would want to admit.  Since it was more than just "documents" I had to complete lots of customs information that seemed silly and harder than it should have been.  I literally spent hours and hours on creating and mailing this humble little package. 

Yesterday, I dropped it in the Fed-ex drop box and literally just prayed that it will reach them and help them to have a tangible reminder that they are loved.

My online tracking tool tells me that the package weighed 3.2 pounds, and that it has now arrived in Paris.  Fingers crossed.  :o)