Appointments for all!...well, most...er, some

The NAC has started issing appointments! We know of a number of families who now have appointments in early March. Unfortunately for us, they are only issuing appointments to those families who were registered before the shutdown. And unfortunately for many of them, the NAC appears to be going in chronological order by when the dossiers were received. Since there are families who were registered last May(!) and the shutdown didn't occur until September, you might notice that there would be cause for a small bottleneck here. Okay, a rather large bottleneck. There are believed to be about 1000 families who were registered from May to September who did not receive appointments last year--plus the families who had appointments but did not find a child and are being invited to return. The basic idea of all of this is that it's probably going to be awhile before we're going to Ukraine...to put it mildly.

Yes, it's very frustrating. While we still believe that God has a plan and that it simply may not involve us going to Ukraine before autumn, it doesn't mean we're particularly thrilled with it. While I would love to say that we can be patient and wait, etc., etc.--which is true!--there are days it is really...really...hard. There are tears, there is frustration, there is anger over parents who beat their children, neglect them, poison them. Why would God give them such a precious gift when they don't appreciate what they have? Why do they have the opportunity to ruin their children's lives, when we don't have the opportunity to love them, cherish them, hold them?

Only God knows the answer, and I can't begin to wrap my feeble human brain around the plans He has. I know that when the plans we think are so wonderful fail, He has an even more marvelous plan that is beyond our comprehension. Even in my sadness and pain, I am excited to see what God has planned for us. It will be quite a journey.

Latest word from the embassy

The U.S. Embassy released another notice today stating that the law has been signed by Pres. Yushchenko giving the NAC temporary authority until May 1, when the new ministry will take over adoptions. That would be the general summary. :) The important part for us comes in the FAQs they listed at the end:

"Q: Will the NAC accept all new adoption dossiers after it re-opens?
A: The NAC has advised that previous restrictions on acceptance of new dossiers will remain in effect. (See our earlier notices regarding the Government of Ukraine’s concern about the non-compliance rate by American adoptive parents with regard to post-adoption reporting, which is required under Ukrainian law.) The NAC will only accept dossiers filed by U.S. citizens on behalf of certain categories of orphans: siblings of previously adopted children; older children; and children with serious health problems. "

sigh...looks like our dossier will continue to wait in Ukraine. From what we can gather, our dossier will most likely be submitted in May, after the new ministry takes over. That means that we probably won't travel until late summer or fall, which could be very good. Plane tickets will be cheaper and Mark will be that much closer to finishing grad school. Plus, we'll have plenty of time to paint the room that still hasn't been painted. ;)