While we are waiting...

Well-
Our adoption is underway. We have finished our Home Study, which was a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be! We traveled to Birmingham several times to meet with our social worker at Lifeline Children's services. We had to answers lots of questions about our homelife, finances, how we raise our children, and even our past. We were questioned about our marriage, and the way we (and others around us) feel about international adoption.
We have all had our medical exams and some us of have gotten our shots to travel (the other four people are a little skiddish about immunizations). We were so busy when all of this first started, that it feels like nothing is happening now.
We are waiting now for our Home Study (a paper about us written by our social worker) to be approved by the state of Alabama. Once Alabama approves our family to adopt, then our Home Study document will be sent to the Citizenship and Immigration offices in Atlanta, GA. The CIS office will give us a date to go to Birmingham and have federal fingerprints taken. Once our federal fingerprints are cleared, then we will wait on a piece of paper from CIS that gives us permission to adopt from Ukraine. This usually takes 90 days to get. When we get permission from CIS, then we will gather up all of the documents we need to send to Ukraine. This bundle of paperwork becomes known as our dossier.
Our dossier will be sent to a Lifeline representative in Ukraine who will translate everything. (Which is a BIG job, I'm sure) and then he will sumbit our dossier to the SDAPRC-State Department for Adoption and Protection of Rights of the Child. The SDAPRC is kinda like our DHR in the United States. They manage all of the adoptions in the country of Ukraine. It usually takes 2-3 months to get at appointment date at the SDAPRC. We will not know the age or any information about our child until we get to our appoinment at the SDAPRC office in Kiev, Ukraine.
There is a lot of faith involved in what we are doing! But every step of the way, God has reassured us that this is His will for our family. I am trying to be a good Mom to the three beautiful girls that I have now, and trust that all of the details will work out in perfect timing!!
I just wanted to try this blog thing out before we get ready to go!! Maybe by the time we travel to Ukraine, I will know how it works!!