Stahlke Adoption

Processing the Dossier

Many people have asked how soon we are going to Ukraine. That question is impossible to answer, so we have to be flexible. When people have biological children, they also don't know the exact timing either, so this situation is not unique to us.

We mailed the dossier last Friday to Darlene, the Ukraine adoption coordinator at Lutheran Social Services of New England. She is looking at all the paperwork to make sure it is properly done and complete. Assuming everything is ok, she will airmail it to Masha, our facilitator in Ukraine, who will also check the dossier for accuracy and completeness. At any point, we might have to redo some paperwork.

Once the dossier is approved by Darlene and Masha, we will send $300 to Masha by Western Union as her fee for translating the dossier. When she is done translating everything into Ukrainian, she will travel from her home in eastern Ukraine to Kiev and personally deliver the dossier to the Ukrainian government office that handles adoptions. They will look it over and decide if we look like good parents. (Since we passed muster last time, I'm assuming that they will decide in our favor.) Then they will send us a letter giving our appointment time to meet with them. Most adoptive parents get a month's notice before their appointment time. Two years ago, we received our letter ten days before we got on the plane. This year, if we do get ten days notice, it will mean seeing Mikola sooner.

posted by Stahlkes @ 9:22 AM