In one week, July 10, Rob, Elijah and I will leave for Aaron's country. Ben will stay behind. If all goes as planned we will arrive in his country the next day - Sunday, July 11. We have a day to get our bearings, adjust to the time change and MAYBE get some sleep! On Tuesday, July 13 we will have our SDA appointment. At this meeting we will be given a referral that allows us to meet Aaron. The referral takes about a day to write up so late the next day, July 14, we will get the referral and take off for Aaron's part of the country.
If all goes as planned, on July 15, 2010, we will walk into Aaron's institute. We will meet with the orphanage director, the doctor, the caretakers. Then they will bring Aaron for us to meet. From what we have gathered, this first meeting is fast, a bit wild and very emotional. Aaron will have no idea who we are. We will be emotional basketcases as we see our son for the first time. After only a brief visit (based on other families experiences), we will then agree that we want him and will begin a whirlwind of paperwork in order to get a court date. We will receive visitation rights to see Aaron. Each day we will visit with him for a few hours. The rest of the time we will be doing paperwork or just waiting for the next day to go see him again. We are taking work so that we don't waste our time. We also hope to do some sightseeing and learn more about Aaron's world during this time. Our court date could be in a week or 3 weeks or more. We will stay until we have court.
In court, we will stand before a judge and state that we want Aaron as our son. We will be asked questions about how we plan on caring for him, why we would want a special needs child etc. etc. If the judge likes our answers, Aaron will become our son.
It isn't over after court. In Aaron's country there is a ten-day waiting period before the adoption is finalized. Some judges waiver the waiting period. Most likely Aaron's judge will not. I will stay during the waiting period and when it is over will finish the paperwork and bring Aaron home. That will take 2-3 weeks. Rob and Elijah will leave after court. When Rob gets home he will put Ben on a plane and Ben will fly out to help me in the last weeks.
We have learned that in the adoption world - to always expect the unexpected so even though this is the typical process - it may not be our experience. Thankfully we have Reece's Rainbow facilitators who will walk us through every step of the way. They WANT Aaron to be adopted and they are going to do everything in their power to help it happen.
Our leap of faith continues...
Hey, we are flying into Ukraine at 9am on the 11th! Let's definitely arrange to meet before we start our mad dash to finalize things and you start your mad dash to get things rolling :). My email is fourloraines@yahoo.com. Let's stay in touch.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing adventure!! I am beyond thrilled for you and for your family, but especially for sweet Aaron. I'm already looking forwards to the "after-events" photos and details! I hope that someday I, too, will be able to adopt a special needs child. So many without love, which is a true tragedy. Aaron is going to be so fortunate to have you as his mama! :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like we will barely miss you. How sad!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog! We adopted a little girl from Ukraine who has Arthrogryposis. She was from the green forest special needs orphanage.
ReplyDeleteOur paperwork arrived the day she was to be transferred to an institution in Western Ukraine. Praise the Lord, her director kept her back until we arrived 8 months later.
God Bless as you continue your adventure. It is only the beginning! Our daughter has been home 4 years now.
You are exactly a week before us! So it will e fun to follow your journey :)
ReplyDeletewho knows, maybe we will overlap somewhere.
You'll be in our prayers for God to go before you and open the doors.