What an amazing two days we have had. We started out on Thursday completely refreshed and ready to enjoy Kiev while we waiting for our facilitator to meet with us at 1:00. We went down to the city center, which is like their time square, and had a great time exploring and walking around. We had “another” pizza lunch and then came back to Karen’s wonderfully apartment, packed and waited for our facilitator to take us to the US Consulate to fill out some documents before Mark has to go home. One O’clock came and went and no facilitator. Then 1:30. Our appointment was at 1:45. Mark asked me, should we be concerned. I told him it was not in our control so go with the flow.
At that point our facilitator drove up and asked us, “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you.” Yesterday during our SDA appointment they told my facilitator that we needed a special letter from the Embassy authorizing in advance Karina’s adoption since she has turned 16 already. The SDA (Ukrainian Adoption Department) would not issue our referral unless we received this letter. We needed this letter by Thursday or we would be held back another week in Ukraine. The SDA also needed the letter by 12:00 in order to process it or no referral on Thursday. When our facilitator pulled up she informed us the Embassy issued the letter (AMEN) but the letter had a mistake and the SDA would not accept it. It was now almost 2:00 and there was no guarantee that the letter would be accepted by the SDA in time to receive our referral. Needless to say so much for our nice relaxing morning being a tourist. :O) We ran over to the US Consulate building, got the forms signed that we needed to get signed, picked up the corrected letter for the SDA, ran back to the SDA and waited and prayed and waited and prayed.
God answered our pray. He has a plan for Karina. Somehow, Lord willing, the SDA DID accept the letter and DID give us our referral. Thank you Lord!
We immediately started to make plans to get to Kirovograd. Trains were sold out, buses not an option so off we went with a high dollar taxi ride to Kirovograd. We had to get there as soon as possible because of the next hurdle.
If we didn’t submit our petition for adoption on Friday morning, we would have to wait a whole week before we could petition the court. We didn’t get to Kirovograd until 12:30. In bed at 1:00 am and up at 6:00 am to meet with Karina at 7:30 because, by Ukrainian law, she needs to accept us before anything can be completed. The amazing lawyer arranged a 7:30 am meeting (before work hours) with Karina so she could accept us. It was so wonderful to finally meet her. You have no idea how happy I was to finally hold her in my arms. But no time for this. Paperwork needed to be expedited.
So off to the notary to fill out the request for the petition that needed to be in the courthouse before 9:30 am. Are you feeling the time crunch! Poor Aydan was falling asleep everywhere. Both the kids were exhausted but not me. I was too excited. After the notary, back to the courthouse for my formal meeting to be approved for adoption. I was so nervous. My interpreter gave me the low down on some possible questions they might ask me. When they finally brought me in, they asked me three questions……three questions……that was it. They had already approved us. They were all in the meeting with Karina at 7:30 and I guess they had decided at the point. The questions were just a formal acceptance. God was surely with us today. Then back to the notary office, lawyer’s office and grocery store for some much needed food and finally some lunch by 12:30.
After we started preparing lunch our interpreter called us and Karina, who had a final exam in Biology, was done and wanted to know when we were coming. So shoveled down some food and we were at the orphanage by 2:00 for some quality time with Karina. We talked for 2 hours (with the interpreter of course). It was a wonderful happy 2 hours. We had to go back to the lawyer’s office for one more form at 4:00 so we parted ways until tomorrow.
Here’s the kicker, the lawyer got us a June 17th court date and she is 90% sure she can have the 10 day waiting period WAVED!!!! Please pray this happens. If this happens we can be back 7-10 days after our court hearing. God you are AMAZING! Your love for KARINA never stops amazing me. Karina keeps asking how Evan is and how far he is from our house and is super excited to reunite with him. She was very excited that he lives so close and can not wait to see him. It will be a glorious day to see them together. Evan, HERE SHE COMES!
Thank you everyone for continuing to pray for us and support us. We miss you.
Blessings to all,
Debbie
Yeah, what she said.
-Mark
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