The day after

I hope all of you had a blessed Christmas. We had our traditional Christmas eve at Robbie's parents and Christmas day my parents came over and exchanged gifts. We enjoyed our family.
This year Sam seemed to be extra excited about Christmas. She counted down the days and couldn't wait until Christmas eve to go play with cousins. We are going to take the next few days and spend time bowling, movies, and play new board games.

Sad post

I am sad to say the judge in the case has ruled the children stay in the state that they are in (we are in a different state). This is not a final judgement but was not what we were hoping for. Maybe once the judge is educated on the situation she/he will change the ruling. The next hearing will not be for a few months. This was disappointing as we would of like to take the next step, but as we have learned the adoption process is so unpredictable. It is difficult for me not to get emotional and attached to children we are praying and hoping for. Thanks for you thoughts and prays this week.

Please pray

Since we have chose to use St Joseph Ministry we have been offered a sibling group of three. Two girls and a boy. This week is the court hearing to determine if the foster care contractor or a family will be able to adopt them. Two family's have been chosen (us being one) to adopt these children. Please pray the judge will rule that a family will be able to adopt these children. It will be better for the children if they are adopted to a out of state family instead of in the small town with the foster care contractor.

MIA

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. We took a little trip just the three of us to spend some time together before things change. It was a nice break.
On June 3, 2008 we had our appointment with INS. Rob got called to go out of town on a business trip the week before so we had to cancel the appointment. The same week my Aunt from Kansas called and advised to check out St Joseph Ministry's they helped three of her friends and were very successfully with adoptions. I was in contact with one of the mothers and she told me her beautiful adoption story and spoke highly of St Joseph Ministry. We changed course and are now pursuing domestic adoption. This was not easy as the agency we were working with advised this was against state laws. So we hired a lawyer to advise it was legal just not easy. Needless to say after two lawyers our agency changed its mind and decided to work with St Joseph Ministry. Doors were opened all we had to do is follow threw them.

Happy Thanksgiving

Some of the things I am thankful for are family, friends, and health. I am grateful for all the blessings God has giving me. We are looking forward to spending the day catching up with cousins, watching football, and relaxing. Our traditional thanksgiving meal is turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, cardunas (a celery like vegetable we dip in Italian bread crumbs and fry), chocolate cream pie, and of course pumpkin pie. Enjoy your Thanksgiving day!

Why Ukraine

When we started the adoption we were going to Ukraine. Why Ukraine?

1. It was one of a few country's that a child was not preselected for you before travel. We felt that when we saw our children we would be able to form a bond in person. Most country's pick a child for you by the information you have given them.

2. Robbie has a cousin who adopted (Logan) from Ukraine and we thought that it would be a special bond the children could share forever as cousins.

3. Finally Ukraine allows independent adoptions. You have a facilitator that is in the country and works for you translating, working with the government, and guiding you while you are in the country. The cost is less this way because you are not dealing with a agency form that country.

This would have taken over a year to complete INS papers and translation of documents before we even traveled. Also as of April 2008 the United States passed the Hague law, this is making international adoption more difficult. Some of these obstacles and God's hands opening many doors lead us to change to a domestic adoption. I still pray for Ukraine orphans as well as orphans all around the world. Your eye's are not opened until you have seen how many of God's children are without family's.

First for me

I am starting my blog today I hope it will be interesting, informational, and most important documentation of the process of our adoption. We made the decision to adopt in March of this year. Our first choice was to go internationally to Ukraine.
After two months of papers being filled out, medical exams, educational classes and a home study. God directed us down the path of domestic adoption. Thankfully we had not sent our paper work to INS. So we had our home study amended, and have started our journey with St Joesph Ministry's.
We are being considered for a sibling group of three children. All are under the age of our daughter as we wanted to keep the birth order of her being the oldest. So for now I wait to hear the news that we are going to meet my future children.


Rhonda