THE PROCESS

Now that our decision has been made here is some insight on how we expect to move forward, or sidways, depending. Running marathons has prepared Kathy and I well--International adoption is an endurance sport. We believe we are halfway home.

On Monday we have our meeting with the judge in Mykolayiv. We expect all to go well. Sasha, our facilitator here, tells us we are lucky. We have the "nice judge." After court, we begin a ten day waiting period, a standard process to give parents time to be absolutely sure about the family fit. After these ten days, we have the option of either bringing the children to our apartment or continue to visit the orphanage. Though it is nice having the caregivers change the diapers and wash the slobbery clothes, we agree that we want the boys with us as soon as possible. There is so much to learn about them before we travel. During this, our facilitators will be filing paperwork to get new birth certificates with our names included, Ukraine social security numbers, and their passports. The wait for passports should be approximately five days. Then we return to Kyiv, hopefully by car and not train. The train leaves Mykolayiv only at 7pm, takes twelve hours to Kyiv, and Olga warned us to expect a sleepless night from all the rattling. By car it is a five-hour drive with pit stops.

Once in Kyiv, we register the boys with the US Embassy where they get a medical exam and Olga submits paperwork for their visas. With all this complete we begin our travel home. It is a short flight to London, and a long flight to California. Of course this is all written in mud, dependent on many variables that like to change unpredictably. So hang in there, we'll be home as soon as we can.