Paperwork almost done!

We finally received the last piece of our paperwork - the Immigration approval. We are approved to bring 1 child to the U.S., and this approval is valid until August 2008, 15 months after our fingerprints were taken. Many people on the adoption board reported a very bad experience with the USCIS (US citizenship and immigration service), but I can't say anything but good about the Buffalo office. The officer in charge of adoption personally called us to tell the good news about our approval.

Our next step is to have the notary's signatures on all our documents certified at the county clerk's office where the notary is qualified, and then go to Albany to have the documents apostilled at the Department of State.

And then the million dollars question - who will submit our dossier to the State Department of Adoptions in Kiev? We are still trying to find the connections to help us there. Stay tuned!

New pictures

On the first picture Raya is proudly displaying her new winter coat. The second one is from the New Year's party (the Santa Claus is the element of the New Year's celebration in Ukraine). And on the last one Raechka is posing in Lena's (her guardian) classroom.