News

My profound apologies to those of you who are faithfully checking this only to see the same post every time. As it happens, we have had some news to share for a while, we've just been really busy! To back up a bit...

The good news is that Ukraine reopened to adoptions from Spain. Spain was also on the list of countries who were no longer allowed to submit dossiers due to not submitting their post-placement reports. However, they got everything in order and Ukraine began accepting new dossiers from Spain a few weeks ago. This was a great encouragement to us as it means that once the US starts turning in those missing post-placement reports, Ukraine might open up for us too!

The bad news is that we received some information (verified by multiple sources) that the first of the year is not looking so great for adoptions. The NAC is currently* planning on reserving January and February for families who went to adopt this year and were unable to find a child. Families who are registered with the NAC and currently waiting for an appointment (there are many) will be scheduled in March and beyond. This includes nearly everyone who submitted a dossier from June/July through September. This is bad news for us since our dossier isn't even submitted, so we do not fall under the category of "waiting for an appointment". That makes us believe that it could be summer or fall before we actually travel. On the plus side, we will have lots of time to save up money for the extra expenses of children! ;)

*Note that everything contained herein which relates to future events is subject to change at a moments notice!! :)

More good news (just came through yesterday but only confirmed through one source)...the NAC has reopened for dossier submission for families in 3 categories:
1. families wishing to adopt siblings of children they have already adopted
2. families wishing to adopt children 10 years old and older
3. families wishing to adopt orphans considered to be invalid

Many of you may know our hearts and our desire as to the type of children we adopt. We are looking to adopt 2 children (siblings) who are close in age (preferably twins). What you may not know is that we are open to a number of medical conditions, which may allow us to fall into category 3 for dossier submission. We are waiting to hear from our facilitator as to whether we would need to submit a letter stating our desire to adopt children with a medical condition in order for our dossier to be submitted. Due to our backgrounds working with children, and a significant number of special needs children, we feel that God has prepared us to parent children that many other people would not adopt.

Please keep us and our children in your prayers. My heart aches daily for them, especially knowing it may still be a long time before we find them. We continue to pray that God would keep them warm and healthy and that He would give them a caretaker to bond with until we can reach them.

We have so much to be thankful for, and so many blessings that God has provided. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and may you see the blessings in your life as well!