What's In a Name?
So, apparently Nastia's mom's name was different on one document than it was on another. Something like one married name on one and another married name on another. This little glitch, however, still has to be corrected before we can proceed.
Our facilitator suggested that we come for a court date on the 20th of this month (rather than earlier, like we had hoped) to avoid any possibility of arriving there without things being completely ready...like last time. Marsh has an important work responsibility that day, so we have requested that it be moved to Monday the 23rd to avoid that conflict. We are still waiting to hear if that is going to be possible, but at least we can expect to be able to go to Ukraine sometime around that weekend.
As soon as we know for sure, we will be calling Ruslan and Nastia and letting them know when we are coming. Our arrival will now be a week later than we told them it would be...which was a week later than we thought it would be anyway!
It's a good thing we came home. This was supposed to be a 10 day waiting period but with this paperwork issue, it's actually turning into a 26 day waiting period instead.
Passports
Our region was the last one in the country to be able to allow expedited passports because they still had a stockpile of old passport covers. That means that by paying a fee, the passports for the kids could be ready the same day rather than having to wait the 4-5 day processing time. Unfortunately, we were just informed that that expediting is no longer an option since all the "old passport covers" are gone and all the new ones need microchips.
I have to say that my initial reaction to this news was to want to sit down and cry. I took a deep breath and thought about it for a minute...it was funny to me that THIS was when I was going to cry, not in many of the other difficult situations we've been in (except for our first SDA appointment!). See, I was really counting on those passports taking a day...not an extra week. I already have had to be away from my other children so much that the idea of it taking so much extra time makes my tummy hurt.
It will be what it will be and there isn't a single thing I can do about it, so I am just going to have to exercise all the faith I am supposed to have learned and be okay. Silly me...I thought when I graduated from college I was done with finals.
I have found tht LIFE is alawys a College Final!
ReplyDeleteI have learned that, too!
DeleteIf I remember correctly, the new passports were done after the kids were with us. Will this be the case for you? If so, the delay can be a wonderful opportunity to start some bonding without all the distractions of everyday life. We had a glitch with our US home study since Misha was 12 and we were approved for up to age 11. He couldn't leave Ukraine until that was fixed. The extra days to straighten this out were priceless to us even though we missed our bio kids at home. It gave us time to just be with Misha and Anna. Praying for you. Keep breathing. :0)
ReplyDeleteTracy, I totally hear you on the time with the kids. I haven't blogged about it, but we had some incredible experiences with our children during this last trip because of the specific circumstances we found ourselves in. We even got to take them out of the orphanage for an outing that lasted about 4 hours. Almost all the other children were at summer camps so we had the perfect two-on-two and one-on-one opportunities for several days. We came away so grateful for the difficult circumstances because they gave an opportunity for real-life bonding and experiences. My concern this time is that my husband will not be there with us during all those days. I do know that we will have the kids while we are waiting for the passports, so you are right about that, but we will probably have to wait in region, rather than in Kiev. That seriously limits some of the experiences I wanted to have with them. Oh, I'm just being particular. It will all work out. Thank you for your prayers!!
DeleteSo when we went to Donets'k for the red passports we were told that we got the last two and that if we'd been there 20 minutes later those last ones would have already left for some office in Kyiv. Sounds like Becky and I owe you all dinner or something. Do you know if you will wait in Mariupol or in Donets'k during the passport wait (hope it is short)?
ReplyDelete