Day 21 - no date yet

We don't have a travel date yet, but I didn't really expect to hear anything this week. I heard from my facilitator today, he told me the invitations are issued by SDA on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yesterday they were announcing the dates for the dossiers that were submitted up to July 14th (we were submitted on the 30th). So my online friends who were submitted on the 16th should hear something really soon!

It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over, and Labor Day weekend is in a couple of days. Alex starts his sophomore year at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) on Labor Day (!!!) and Victoria starts preschool 2 weeks later.

We've got some pictures from our friends' daughter's wedding we recently attended. The bride was the most beautiful I've ever seen:

And Oleg and I had a great time:

The Russian parties are a lot of fun. I tried to explain to my friends what does that mean to party like Russians (Ukrainians, or any other people from former Soviet Union), but I couldn't find the right words. But yesterday I found a very humorous essay on the subject (please don't be offended by the first sentence :)

http://www.columbia.edu/~ip71/w116/2006/06/partying-with-russians_29.html

So if you are happened to be in New York, Toronto or Los Angeles, go to the Russian restaurant, you'll have the time of your life!

Birthday Parties

This weekend Victoria attended 2 birthday parties. She painted the pottery masterpiece:

and had fun meeting the clown, doing the face painting, etc:


That got me thinking about her incoming birthday. It's not until December, but I thought I should plan something now, before we go to Ukraine. A friend of mine is opening The Little Gym franchise, and I think it's a good idea to have Victoria's birthday party there. And thinking about her birthday made me realize that if everything goes well, Raisa will celebrate her 10th birthday on the US soil! Her birthday is also in December, so (I keep my fingers crossed) if everything works the way we want, we'll have a busy end of the year!

Today marks 16 business days since our dossier was submitted to SDA. This Friday is a holiday in Ukraine (Constitution day), so our 20 business days will fall on Tuesday, August 28th. Most of the time it takes much more than 20 business days to receive an appointment date, so I'm not really hoping to get it next week. But it would be nice to finally have a date, start planning, get tickets, etc.

Additional days in Ukraine

It looks like the number of days we need to spend in Ukraine is increasing in geometric progression. Well, maybe in arithmetic, not in geometric (it's the former math teacher in me talking :) Yesterday the American Embassy in Kiev announced that the procedure to get the visa for adopted children has changed. Previously the process was to have the medical exam and the visa interview in one day (most of the time). Sometimes the visa was ready at the same day, sometimes the next business day. Now the process is the following:

"Parents must drop off all required documents at the Consulate no later than 12:00 noon on the business day prior to day of the actual visa interview. No appointment is required to submit documents. Visa interviews will take place at 2:00 pm on the day designated, and can only take place if we have already received all the required documents. We will make every effort to issue the visa on the next working day. However, it is important to note that additional checks are required by law if the adopted child is 16 years or older. These checks delay visa issuance by up to 72 hours. Please plan your travel accordingly."

So it's one business days to drop off the documents, second day for the visa interview, third day (hopefully!) to get the visa, and on the fourth business day people can finally leave the country. Basically another week. On a top of 10 days mandatory wait for the court degree plus 10 days wait for the passport plus unknown number of days while waiting for the court date, it comes to a long time. If in the past adoptive parents stayed in Ukraine approximately 4-5 weeks, now it's more like 6-7-8 weeks. We are definitely thinking about 2 trips now, it will be much easier financially (less days without a paycheck) and emotionally (less days without our kids).

Today is 11th business days since our dossier was submitted. Hopefully we'll know our appointment date in a couple of weeks!

The passport situation in Ukraine

The Ukrainian government recently decided to start issuing the new type of passports. Supposedly it was done to fight the corruption since all the new passports will be issued in Kiev and sent to the regions. Of course, THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH new passports! Some regions still have old passport blanks and people are still gettings passports. Some people are not as lucky. I know of several adoptive families who are currently waiting for 4+ weeks after receiving the court decree because the newly adopted kids cannot leave the country without a passport. A couple of days ago American Embassy released a notice where it says that in addition to the mandatory 10 day wait after the court, it's now necessary to wait 10 MORE days to get the passport. And the problem is that it could be more than 10 extra days to get a passport. So how long do we have to stay in Ukraine? Looks like instead of 4-5 weeks it could be 6-7 weeks or more.

I think in this case the best idea would be to do 2 trips to Ukraine. The first trip will be for the SDA appointment and court, then back home while waiting for the 20 mandatory days, and after that the second trip to finish the paperwork. Oh well, why is it getting harder and harder all the time?

We are on our 6th business waiting for the appointment date. I know of one family who was submitted on July 9th and received the word today about their appointment date on October 16th. They waited exactly 20 business days, as promised, so I hope we'll find out what our travel date is in another 14 business days, on August 28.