Stahlke Adoption

The Letter Explained

The SDA letter that arrived two days ago gave us quite a scare. The Concordia librarian's initial translation seemed to reveal that the 2008 quota of adoptions from the U.S. had already been filled. We know that special-needs adoptions are not included in the quota, and as a member of a sibling group, Mikola's case fits within those exceptions. As far as we know, however, he is healthy, and we were apprehensive of a misunderstanding in his legal situation.

Jonathan and the Concordia librarian telephoned Masha yesterday morning to read her the SDA letter. The call did not go through, despite repeated attempts. The librarian persuaded my computer-averse husband to scan the letter and send it to Masha as an Email attachment. This process took awhile, and then the two of them tried to call Masha one more time. She answered!

She had a different take on the letter. She explained that it was a response to a request we had sent to the SDA last February. We had asked that our letter be placed in Mikola's file, so that if any action took place on his case, it would be clear that we had his siblings and wanted to adopt him. Yesterday's letter from the SDA told us that they could not place our letter in his file until we had registered with them. Since our registration occurred on June 24, the recent letter was moot. Whew! What a relief.

Masha then asked if we had received her Email. Jonathan said no, since he had spent the morning trying to contact her. She told him that our appointment date is Tuesday, September 9. Yeah!!!!!!!!!

For the next two hours, Jonathan and I tied up two telephones making calls to family members, employers, colleagues who will cover our jobs, and our travel agent. It is recommended that we arrive in Kyiv on Monday, September 8, which means departing on Sunday, September 7. The travel agent has already given us some options, and we hope to make a decision sometime today.

After our initial telephone calls yesterday, it was time to celebrate with the children. We went out for lunch to their favorite restaurant--Subway!

posted by Stahlkes @ 12:22 PM