Happy birthday to me!!!!

We are submitted!! :) :) :)

And yes, today is my birthday. I'm hoping we'll have another (actually two!) big birthday presents on Mark's birthday in December! I emailed Kostya late yesterday and he had actually gone to email me after the SDA appointment and realized he didn't have my email address with him. He said he was glad I emailed since he knew I would die if I had to wait for news until he got home on Wednesday. ;)

The SDA had some questions for Kostya regarding our dossier when he submitted it, including (to quote Kostya) "why the heck is the Highway Patrol the state background clearance check?" LOL That's a very good question, and I have no idea. But it sounds like the SDA was just curious, not saying it was a problem.

Now is the big waiting game. The SDA has 20 business days to review our dossier and accept or reject it. However, in reality it's been taking a little longer than that sometimes. The SDA told Kostya to check back in a month, so we definitely won't hear anything before then. So if you're only reading this for adoption info, check back mid-September. It's probably going to be lots of house stuff until then. ;) I have now given myself leave to begin making packing lists--and we both love lists, so this will be a lot of fun. :) :) Since we've been to Ukraine before we know what to expect in terms of living conditions and cultural differences, and I think that will make things easier. It also helps that we're both pretty low-maintenance people. We're okay with only taking a few changes of clothing.

Yippee! We're making progress!!