Ukraine

This is where we are headed on Monday! Ukraine!

We can't wait to see this beautiful country and their beautiful people. Most of the population speaks Russian. We will arrive in Kiev on Tuesday 4/20 and we will spend the first week there getting everything set up for us to visit Sofia's orphanage and we will have some free time to explore her native country. Her orphanage is a 7-8 hour train ride away in the city of Dnep.

We will probably meet Sofia on Monday, April 26th if we can't convince the SDA to let us get our paperwork early and head over in time to meet her on the Friday before. Since our SDA appointment is Thursday at 9 am...there is a small chance we could get the ok by the end of the day but most of the time you get the ok the following day at 5pm. We can wish and hope it's sooner, right?!?

When we get to Sofia's orphanage in Dnep, we will meet with the director and the medical team and then we will be introduced to Sofia. At that point, we tell them whether or not we "accept" her and I can assure you that we WILL! Then things move at a rapid pace as our facilitator will gather all the necessary paperwork to submit to the judge in the region and to try and get as quick as possible a court date which would make Sofia legally our child. This can take anywhere froma few days to a few weeks. The bonus to waiting for our court date is that we get to visit Sofia twice a day at her orphanage for a few hours each visit.  We get to love on her and start the bonding process. This little girl has no idea what love feels like and we can't wait to show her. PLEASE PRAY that we get our court date quickly so that we can start the process of bringing her home more quickly too. We can't wait to meet our judge and share with him our family and how excited we all are to bring her home. We have a few photo albums to share and we are so ready for this!

After the judge rules, that is when the 10 day "wait" begins. Some regions waive the 10 day wait. Ours has not waived in the past but there is always a FIRST! If we do have to wait the 10 days, Hector and I will return home to our boys for the 10 days and then decide if one or both of us will return to begin the Visa, Passport and medical appointments necessary to bring Sofia home (another 7-14 days).

So...let's just get to Ukraine first and then we can deal with the rest! We are on a mission to meet our baby girl and bring her home as quickly as possible to her waiting family.

Just tonight at bedtime, Diego and Mateo prayed for Sofia. They want her home now. They don't want us to go on a second trip. They also want to cash in their Saving Sofia piggybank to help bring her home. On Sunday, we will take their bank to cash it in and I plan on using whatever money they raised these past few weeks with random pocket change to buy some souvenirs for Sofia that we can give her through the years on her birthday to remind her of her heritage. It will be the boys gift to her.