Good news

Just a quick update to let you know that our dossier was submitted yesterday to the State Department on Adoption and Children's Rights (SDA), November 14th. This past week, it was being translated by our adoption facilitator's team. It is a great sign that the facilitator's team found no problems with it, and didn't ask for any additional documents or corrections. They are extremely careful and only want to submit perfect documents, so we are very hopeful that the Ukrainian government will find it (and US!) up-to-snuff. 

From here, we will wait approximately four weeks to hear if the SDA has approved our dossier. If it is approved, we should receive an invitation to travel shortly after that! So, sometime in the New Year... likely end of January (any of my adopting friends feel free to tell me if that's ridiculously optimistic) or February, we should be going to Ukraine! 

In the meantime, we will get to have Tolia home, for Christmas hosting! We are so thrilled to have this opportunity to spend some more of the "waiting time" with him in our home, in HIS home!

Christmas 2012. I'll have to take a similar shot this year for comparison; he has grown so much! 

So, just to make this waiting time a little fun, I'm going to steal an idea that has been used as a game at many baby showers. I'm going to take guesses for when the next part of this process occurs (hearing if our dossier was accepted). Whoever guesses correctly will win a book that we really like, called The Grace Effect, by Larry Taunton. It follows one family's journey of adoption from Ukraine, but also weaves in philosophy, theology, and a bit of Ukrainian history. It is a great book! Leave a comment with your guess (remember, typical range will be 25-35 days from now), and I'll let you know who guesses closest and wins the book!