Rand & I have decided to adopt a child (or two) from Ukraine, since we have not been able to produce another
one of our own. I (Mar) have always dreamed about adopting a child ... an idealistic thought from and
idealistic youth that somehow did not get contaminated by grown up cynicism!
Adoption is not for the faint of heart, I've discovered. I had read Ann of Green Gables, but reality is a little different,
you don't just go to an orphanage, pick up a child and bring him/her home!
Adoption is an involved process that will examine you and your family inside out, skeletons in the closet and all.
This part is called a "home study" or preliminary study.
Since we are adopting internationally, we have to submit
the approved home study and other documents to the INS and be fingerprinted in order to get a provisional visa
for our newly adopted child. After that, all of these documents get translated into Russian and sent to the
National Adoption Center in Kiev. If everything is absolutely perfect, they will give us a date for our trip to Ukraine.
We started the long and winding road by the end of July 2005 and are now (11/12/05) in the process of
completing our home study, which should be ready by the end of November. As for how long the rest is going
to take, it is a mystery.
We hope to be able to bring our child/children home by the end of 2006.
