We have a submission date.

I just received word yesterday that we have a submission date for our dossier of April 15, 2010. I am so excited to have a date although wish it was sooner. But, God is in control and he knows when the right time for us to travel is. So I will start gathering documents in January and Feburary so that by March I can get them to our translator. The documents have to be valid for 6 months from submission date and are only good for 12 months from notarization. Therefore, I can't do them too quickly. Julia, our adoption facilitator, told me to look on the bright side about the date, Ukraine will be beautiful that time of year, not too cold and at least we have a date. In my heart I know she is right and so I am thankful.

Apostilles

The Power of Attorney forms were notarized and on Aug. 25 I went to Jefferson City to have them, along with our Homestudy, apostilled. The Power of Attorney forms were missing part of the notary information and I had to take those home and have them fixed. I then sent them by overnight mail back to Jefferson City. On Aug. 27 Cathy sent us an email introducing us to our adoption facilitator and to give us further instructions. On Aug. 31 I received our apostilled documents back from the Secretary of State's office and I received an email from Julia our adoption facilitator. I can't wait to meet her. I sent the first part of our dossier over to our translator Irina on Sept. 3 so that we could jumpstart our submission. She received those on Sept. 10. On Sept. 8 we had our appt. with USCIS and got our fingerprinting done. We received our approval letter on Sept 15. We will start gathering the rest of our paperwork once we get a submission date. Sooo, we patiently wait and know that God's timing is perfect timing. He knows when we should travel to get our child(ren) and we can't wait.