Stahlke Adoption

A Conversation with Masha

Jonathan telephoned Masha today. There's an eight-hour time difference, and he called her at 1:00 pm Chicago time, which is 9:00 pm in Ukraine. She told him that the documents in our dossier are all in order--accurately filled-out and complete--and that her translation work is done. She has not yet been able to submit our dossier to the SDAPRC (State Department for Adoptions and Protection of Rights of the Child), which is the branch of the Ukraine federal government which handles international adoption. We know from the U.S. embassy website (kiev.usembassy.gov) that the submission procedure is detailed, and Masha is working with it as fast as she can.

Masha asked Jonathan about the extension of our U.S. visa (I-171H). The current visa expires in July, and we can obtain one free extension. Our home inspection yesterday was one of the steps in getting the visa extended. Masha was pleased to hear that the extension was in process. We are now waiting for DCFS to process our case worker's report from yesterday. DCFS's time frame for this work is about three weeks.

I'll keep you posted as events unfold.

posted by Stahlkes @ 1:15 PM