Farewell

It has been a year long adventure full of ups and downs. But we are ending it on a perfect high by closing the chapter of searching for our son. And therefore will be ending this blog. Thank you so very much for all of your prayers and support; we could not have succeeding in bringing our son home without you. For other PAPs here are a few stats:

Mode: independent
Start to Finish: exactly one year to the day
Total cost: $27,576

Original approach: 2 brothers under the age of 5 with mild correctable ailments only
Beautiful outcome: 1 boy 4 years with a cleft palate
Adoption region: Poltova (Kremenchuk city)
10 day appeal period waived: No
Facilitator: Kostya Farkovets (Ukraine Christian Adoption) - base plan $13,100

Please email me at monica dot massie at agedwards dot com if you have any questions --- I would love to provide whatever assistance, recommendation, referrals or anything else that I can to you.

DATES
Dossier submission: May 19, 2008
SDA appt given: Jun 6, 2008
Arrived in Ukraine: Aug 20, 2008
SDA appt: Aug 21, 2008
Court date: Sept 9, 2008
Left Ukraine: Sept 11, 2008
Returned Ukraine (mom only): Sept 23, 2008
Left Ukraine with our son: Sept 30, 2008

*** let me know if there is any other info that I can give that will be helpful

Safely Home

Mother & Child completed their long journey and arrived home worn & weary but safe tonight. They were in their beds fast asleep soon after. Thank you everyone who has followed and supported this process. I'm sure more details will be coming soon.

In Kiev

Nicely done David :-) I am thrilled to have found this new internet cafe, it appears to not be on dial-up as the first ones I tried! Garrett is doing great - going with the flow and without complaints. He went for a pony ride yesterday and thought that was a blast! He has a clear affection for animals (even the pigeons - yuck!) just like his sister. I have no fear that he will take to the zoo we have at the house just fine!

Kiev is much easier to get around in then Kremenchuk. Nearly everyone speaks fairly good english and if they dont there is someone standing in line with you that does. Although I lost my phone charger and ran out of minutes as soon as I bought a new charger! I seem to have busted the PC battery charger as well (aren't I on a good roll!) and am on the hunt today to find one. I would love to watch an English movie after Garrett falls asleep tonight!

Thanks everyone for all your prayers. In case you have not heard, we will be home Tuesday evening if all goes as planned....... Plan now that is an interesting work that I do believe the Ukraine adoption community has never heard before!

A few more days

Well it's David with a rare post. Monica does not have internet in her apartment and the battery on the laptop is having issues, so she has not been able to get it to a Wifi spot.

I know alot of people are checking back to see what is going on so I thought I should give an update. My post will lack the flair and eloquence of Monica's, but here are the facts:

Monica picked up Garrett on Thursday. They made it to Poltova to pick up the passport but it wasn't quite ready. They then headed to Kiev. Today Monica & Garrett got the medical exams completed and started the process at the US Embassy while Vanya returned to Poltova to pick up the finalized passport. Monica will get Garrett's visa completed on Monday and they are flying back on Tuesday. It will have been 364 days since the process began.

Monica & Garrett sound like they are doing great. Aley and I have not burned down the house yet and we are very excited and cannot wait until the whole family is together at last.

Thanks everyone.

We are in Kremenchuk

Vanya and I are safely in Kremenchuk. We are staying in the same apartment that David and I stayed in on our first visit. It has been nice how repeatative this trip has been so far (I was a bit hesitant going solo) all 3 of my flights took off from the exact same gate as on our first trip! Of course the same taxi driver picked me up at the airport (Sasha is the nicest driver in all of Kiev!) and now to be back in the same apartment -- it gives me great comfort to be amidst the familiar.

The passport director has said that the passport will probably be ready (in Poltova about 90 mins from here) TOMORROW! Probably of course means maybe not tomorrow -- but I am hopeful:-) If the passport is ready tomorrow, we will pick Garrett up from the orphanage in the morning, drive to Poltova to pick up the passport, and drive back to Kiev.

Then we will hit the US Embassy first thing Friday morning - they have done same day visas before (usually it is a 24hr turnaround). Currently our return flights are for Monday morning so it would be great to get his visa on Friday -- but again another probably.

So for now we will wait and see!!!! Can't wait to see Garrett in the morning!

Bye Bye (Paka Paka)!

I am off to Kiev tomorrow :-) We can not wait to have this journey over and have our son here safe at home!

False Alarm

I will not be leaving tomorrow as we had hoped. Long story short..... we did not get the whole story. And we are not being told a new story, so I have nothing more that I can share about my return trip to bring our son home. Please pray for those that can make a difference in this situation that they will be compassionate to our son. Please pray for patience for us and a peaceful resolution to a tense situation.