Thursday, December 9, 2004 8:07 PM CST - Ukrainain Adoption Procedures
Hello family and friends! We created this website for everyone to keep updated with our adoption journey. As some of you may know that Robert and I have been planning for a family for about 4 and a half years. Earlier this year God has put on our hearts to adopt 2 children from Ukraine. Yes, I said 2 children. =) We would like to adopt a young sibling group, one child as young as possible (which in Ukraine is around 14 months old for international adoptions) and the other child up to 4 years old. Preferably a boy and a girl, however, we are open to 2 boys or 2 girls.We decided to adopt outside of the USA since it is a shorter wait and because we didn't want the possibility of the birth mother changing her mind on giving her baby up for adoption. Each country has their own set of adoption rules and procedures. When adopting from Ukraine it is required to travel to Ukraine to select and bond with your child/ren while the paperwork in Ukraine is completed and then attend a court hearing where the Judge makes it official. We all then would have an final appointment at the US Embassy in Ukraine before coming home. The average stay in Ukraine is approximately 21 days. Depending on each individual adoption experience, time of year (holidays, elections etc) depends on the length of stay. After the court hearing in Ukraine, we will officially be parents and our children will automatically be American Citizens. They will hold a dual citizenship until they are 18 years old.We submitted our dossiers (a package of original, notarized and apositilled by the state documents) to our translators in Ukraine on November 22nd. They will translate our dossiers and submit them to the NAC (National Adoption Center) in Kiev, Ukraine. So now we wait until we hear that we are approved by the NAC. Once we receive our approval letter from the NAC we will then send them a letter requesting an appointment with the NAC. This appointment we will meet with the director of the NAC and go through binders of orphans available for adoption in Ukraine. These binders contain pictures of the children, their medical reports and what orphanage and region of the country they are located. Then we travel to the region and orphangage of the children we selected to meet with them. While visiting with the children in the orphanage every day, our adoption facilitator will get the children's paperwork in order for the court hearing. We will stay in either a flat (apartment) or motel/hotel somewhere close to the orphanage. We will have a translator with us for the majority of our adoption legalities, however, when we are at the orphanage we are on our own. That is why we are starting to learn a little Russian and Ukrainian to help us during our stay and to comfort and communicate with our children until they learn English. Even if our children are not quite speaking yet, they have only heard Ukrainian and/or Russian and are possibly understanding the language. Imagine yourself as a child, walking away from everything you've known with a stranger that you can't communicate with or understand. We want to make as peaceful of a transition as possible for our children. Thankfully I have 2 Ukrainian coworkers to help me with the language barrier. I'm learning more than Robert is right now...I think he's waiting for our approval before studying the language. I'm still in the weee beginning stages of the language. I'm more focused on learning parenting phrases and directives right now. My Ukrainian coworkers, Boris and Vitali are so generously teaching me everyday phrases. It's been fun and yet frustrating learning two new languages.
This Christmas, I am organizing a toy drive for orphans in Ukraine. If anyone would like to bless an orphan in Ukraine with a toy this year for Christmas (most are fortunate to get as much as a lollipop for Christmas)please email me at rkmillilo@msn.com and we'll arrange for your contribution to be mailed to the person who sends the gifts overseas or you can click on the link below at Life2orphans.org to get the address to mail to them directly. Ukraine celebrates Christmas on January 6th so we still have time. Imagine the impact that one toy could have on a child. Sow the seeds of love to orphans in Ukraine this holiday season. May your seeds of love sown be multiplied back to you one hundred fold in 2005. A child at the Children's Hope Rehabilitation Center in Ukraine stood up and made a comment that the reason they don't run away and live on the street anymore is because they get food and a Christmas present.Let us not forget the reason for the season this year and His name is Jesus! "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Might God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
Please sign our guest book. We'd love to hear from you.We will keep you update as we are updated with any news from the NAC in Ukraine.
From our house to yours, Have a Merry Christmas!
Blessings.Robert & Karrie Millilo
Gift of Adoption
11 years ago
