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)