**updated 7/25/05
Summary of Timeline
| August 11, 2003 | | |
| August 25 | |
| | September 9 | Done with all home study requirements |
| | September 18 | Fingerprinting packet came |
| | September 22 | |
| | October 22 | |
| | October 24 | Translator assigned to us! |
| | October 29 | |
| | November 18 | All state authentications complete |
| | November 18 | Dossiers faxed to translator |
| | November 24 | Dossiers FedExed to Chicago Courier |
| | December 1 | Dossiers hand-delivered to UA Consulate |
| | December 11 | Dossiers FedExed to Ukraine! |
| | December 15 | Dossiers arrived in Ukraine! |
| | December 22 | Documents delivered to NAC! |
| | January 27 | We learn we need new medical form |
| | February 18 | Medical forms apostilled and FedExed to UA |
| | March 9 | New medical forms submitted to NAC |
| | April 16 | |
| | April 16 | FedExed Appointment request letter |
| | April 20 | Appointment request letter at NAC |
| | May 22 | |
| | May 25 | |
| | June 2 | |
| | July 24 | |
| | July 27 | |
| | August 11 | Court! The kids are OURS! |
| | August 17 | |
NAC no longer allowing adoptions of 2 kids at once unless they are bio siblings. This will make things a LOT more difficult to come home with two kids. Good thing we are open to age, or this might have realllly been a kicker for us. A family who had been hoping for two kids under four years old recently came home with only one child because of this rule. Very sad news.
February 20, 2003 - Received packet of info from Pauquette Adoption Services
July 6, 2003 Sunday - We hit our "$7,000" mark - Still have a ways to go, but Time to apply for our homestudy!
July 16, 2003- Wednesday
Made first official withdrawal from adoption fund to cover application expensesHad 11 forms notarized at bankSent in our initial application for home study. Including:Registration form $35
Application $200
(2) Child Abuse and Neglect forms -notarized
Statement of net worth - notarized
Autobiographies
Consent to release form
Agency services and agreement form
(2)Background disclosure forms
July 23, 2003 Wednesday
Sent insurance letter to Gundersen to have them prove when the adopted child would be covered. Will be returned to us to be sent to Pauquette. Had John's police clearance forms re-notarized. Called all police stations from each town we've lived in in the last 10 years to see if they charge to do police background checks and get their addresses. Sent police clearance forms out for: La Crosse, Onalaska, Holmen, Owatonna and Westbrook (had to do so for every city we've lived in in the last 10 years) Asked John's boss for a proof of employment letter Asked T for a reference; gave her ref. letter guide Asked S and P if they would give us references Made doctor's appointments for both of us. Mine Aug. 13; John's Aug. 15. Re-sent Criminal check for state of Wisconsin (had forgotten check). $31 Found out how to apply for passports Found out where to call for John's birth certificate and our marriage cert. Also, my birth certificate Called Pauquette to make sure they received application Bought more stamps! John and I decided to proceed with filing form I600-A so we can apply for grants, even though it costs a lot to file it (and we may not even adopt internationally)
July 24, 2003 Thursday
Gave S and P the forms and envelopes they'll need for writing reference letters for us.
July 25, 2003 Friday
Went to La Crosse Co. Courthouse, got 4 copies of my birth certificate. Administration building, 4th and La Crosse St. $12 first copy/$3 each subsequent $21 Went to Credit Union, got 2 notarized letters telling when our accounts were opened, total deposits for the year, and current balance Went to Bank, got 2 notarized letters telling when our accounts were opened, total deposits for the year, and current balance Called Steele County and requested a form to get John's birth certificate.
July 28, 2003 Monday
Found out that L is a notary! Handy to know! Work number is 785-1423 or 785-1424 Pastor's letter is done, and L will send it to Pauquette tomorrow
July 29, 2003 Tuesday
Social worker from Pauquette Childrens' Services called! Appointment set up for at the office in Portage at 12:00 on August 11. Bring list of all necessary documents from BCH and Ukraine. Second appointment for our house on Wednesday the 20th at 9:00 a.m. Filled out form for getting John's birth certificate, our marriage certificate... they are ready to be notarized!
July 30, 2003 Wednesday
Judi gave John the letter for his salary and job info. Only gave us one copy, and the amount on this year's expected salary looks wrong.
August 1, 2003 Friday
Judi printing out another copy of letter and will send it to Pauquette next week.
August 2, 2003 Saturday
John got letters notarized for getting his birth certificates and our marriage certificates. $34 Steele County $24 Houston County sent today
August 4, 2003 Monday
Called J - asked for a reference Email from JP - list of services and fees from Cathy Harris sent to me John's boss mailed the notarized salary letters today
August 5, 2003 Tuesday
Marriage certificate came
August 6, 2003 Wednesday
John's birth certificates came
August 7, 2003 Thursday
Filled out form I600-A Filled out passport applications Called around for passport photo prices: Sears- $14.99 ($2.00 coupon online); JC Penney's- $14.99 ($5.00 coupon online) Walmart- $10.50 Office Depot $7.99, Walgreens $7.99!!! :O)
August 11, 2003 Monday
HOMESTUDY IN PORTAGE!!!
August 12, 2003 Tuesday
Went back to the bank and the credit union - had them re-do the letters. John's name spelled wrong on both, CCU's not on letterhead, and neither had last year's deposits
August 13, 2003 Wednesday
Called BCIS for I600-A form Dr. Appt. for Shelly
August 14, 2003 Thursday
Sent out mass email announcing our plans to adopt in Ukraine
August 15, 2003 Friday
John's Dr. Appt Emailed Cathy Harris asking her to help us adopt independently
August 16, 2003 Saturday
Email from Cathy Harris saying she'd be glad to help us! Shelly's TB test read: negative
August 17, 2003 Sunday
Four emails from Cathy Harris detailing what her services, fees, process for dossier, and what services the translators will provide us
August 18, 2003 Monday
Bought fire extinguisher and smoke alarm for Wednesday's "House Inspection" by the social worker - hopefully these will be worth a few brownie points John's TB test read... negative, of course. Talked to both of our dr.'s and asked for duplicate letters of our "medical approval" - preparing for if we decide on two kids! First major glitch... paperwork for Pauquette states that post-placement visit is required. Very sad Shelly.
August 19, 2003 Tuesday
Called SW... hopefully cleared up problem about post-placement visit Picked up our medical letters from Gundersen
August 20, 2003 Wednesday
Last homestudy visit! Yay! Everything went well!!! :O) Glitch in medical letters though, gotta go back and get them redone again. :O(
August 21, 2003 Thursday
Shelly started learning a little bit of Ukrainian!
August 22, 2003 Friday
Passport pictures taken at Walgreen's 6 each $50.58 We were in line at Walgreens in front of a lady who had been in Kazakhstan a few years ago in a farmer exchange program. She made some travel recommendations and gave us ideas for gifts. Form I600-A came in the mail!!! Filled it out, and realized that the cost for filing it has been LOWERED! The cost for filing it is now $405, and fingerprinting is now $25 for each of us. Much better than the $460 and $50 each we were expecting!!! Yay!!!!
August 23, 2003 Saturday
Got contract with Cathy Harris notarized (finally). Stopped at the Post Office hoping to get passports applied for - Can't do that on Saturdays. Have to come back during the week between 9-12 or 1-? Looks like we have another project for next week! Tried to email Cathy Harris - her emails are getting returned to me. Freaking me out a bit. Found out that we don't have to file two I600-A's for two kids... at least not right away. We will have to pay for the second one IF we do adopt two, and then it will be in Poland. We can deal with that! John and I start learning Russian together! We had heard from my adoption digest ladies that Russian is better to learn than Ukrainian since *everyone* knows Russian, and Ukrainian is only spoken by part of the population. So, by the end of the night, we were sounding out Russian words, and able to guess what a lot of words mean. The website we found had a map of US States, and then had the Russian names for each of the states, and we had to put the name with the state... Got ‘em all right, except we didn't know the Russian words for "North" and "South" so we got the Carolinas and the Dakotas mixed up. Looked through a list of Russian names written in Russian. That will help our decision for names for our child... Some of the Cyrillic letters are Really beautiful.
August 25, 2003 Monday
Brought medical form to Dr. Teske... she put the hemoglobin result from APRIL on the form. Emailed social worker to see if this is going to work. (IT WILL! As long it is within the last six months, it will be fine!) Called J. Her reference letter was put in the mail last week :O). Found out the I600-A is indeed $460 as originally quoted. Bummer. We were hoping it was good news that the price was lowered. Turns out, we were sent an old form. :O( Photocopied birth/marriage cert's, and sent form I-600A today. $560 which includes $100 for fingerprinting. Noticed that the notary on the medical letters didn't bother writing "State of WI" or county name...*sigh.* Here we go again! Sent Cathy Harris our notarized agreement form along with a $500 check. John and I went to the Post Office to apply for passports. Were told they'd come within 6 weeks. $170.
August 27, 2003 Wednesday
SW sent back medical forms that had been notarized incorrectly.
August 29, 2003 Friday
Realized that Ukraine is actually a NEAT PLACE instead of just the stereotype of Soviet-era cement colored apartment buildings and not much interesting to see but a few churches. They have CASTLES there! They have a rich history! It is COOL! A country that we thought we'd have Nothing interesting to see/do/know about has become to me one of the most interesting places in the entire world. I-600-A sent from Chicago to Milwaukee.... I had sent it to the wrong address. Oops! Correct address is:Attention: Orphan Unit
Department of Homeland Security
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service
Milwaukee Sub Office
310 E. Knapp Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
August 30, 2003 Sunday
Email from Cathy Harris saying she received our check, and she sent us her phone numbers so we can reach her any time 24/7. Would have heard from her earlier, but her sil had surgery this week.
September 1, 2003 Monday
John cooked me an egg... and I ATE THE WHOLE THING! Have to try to learn to like eggs before the trip. Don't want to offend anyone while I'm there.
September 4, 2003 Thursday
John goes to the clinic and has them re-do medical letters. They do them wrong again. :O( Shelly cuts out the quilt blocks for Mom Fisher. Can't wait to see them finished!
September 5, 2003 Friday
Shelly drops off medical letters at the clinic for another re-do. The clinic didn't call to say they were done, so we'll pick them up Monday.
September 8, 2003 Monday
PASSPORTS CAME!!!!! :O) Only took 2 weeks! (That includes a holiday and weekends!) Cool!
September 9, 2003 Tuesday
Sent medical forms to Kari. ALL DONE WITH HOMESTUDY REQUIREMENTS!!!! Picked up medical letters from Gundersen this afternoon.... Had been there this morning to pick them up, but they had LOST THEM. Finally found them this afternoon. Found out our bank letters will need to be redone. The lady who typed up and signed the letter also notarized it herself. Illegal. :O( Also found out we will have to redo our state criminal check... We hadn't requested a letter on State Letterhead for our dossier. (Another 31 bucks down the drain).
September 11, 2003 Thursday
Got bank letters redone. I think they're perfect now!!
September 14, 2003 Sunday
Asked Cathy Harris how to go about the State Crime Check Letter. (Have the form, but a letter is needed... not sure what to do!)
September 16, 2003 Tuesday
Called the "State of WI" to ask what we should do about our crime check letters. Need to have our social worker fax the crime checks that have already been done back to the state, with a request for the certified letters. Looks like it's a freebie!!! :O)State of Wisconsin
Department of Justice
Division of Law Enforcement Services
Record Check Unit
P.O. Box 2688
Madison, WI 53701-2688
608-266-5764
Tell them that you need an ORIGINAL LETTER, on State letterhead, signed and notarized.. (One per parent adopting)
Letter must state that you have no criminal record, nor have you ever been arrested.
September 18, 2003 Thursday
FINGERPRINTING PACKET ARRIVED!!!! We get to go to Tomah for printing instead of St. Paul! :O) Bought rest of fabric for the Kids' Quilts. Fun, fun, fun!
September 22, 2003 Monday
Fingerprints taken in Tomah!!! Woo-hoo! Email from Social worker saying that she had sent our home study to Milwaukee last week, but per my request, she will send our home study to St. Paul today. Also mentioned that she will send our home study to Cathy. Might save us some time if she does that and Cathy sees something that needs to be fixed. Send $45 to Pauquette for La Crosse Co. background something-or-others. Not sure what that was or why we had to pay it.
September 23, 2003 Tuesday
Received bill from Pauquette for home study. Note on invoice says that they won't release our home study to us without full payment. (SW told us that she had already sent BCIS our home study though, and was working on the shortened version for our dossier.)
September 24, 2003 Wednesday
Tomah p.d. called and said that we have to come back to the police station and bring our BCIS packet. The guy who took our prints didn't take all the right information from it. Looks like we make another trip tomorrow! Mom Fisher brought over the first two quilt squares that she embroidered. Exciting to see something other than paperwork to show that we're going to be parents!
September 25, 2003 Thursday
Drove back to Tomah to give them our paperwork. Asked for my driver's license, and then asked me if I had JOHN'S! (Um, NO!???) I guess it was fine. They are sending the prints to Nebraska. (NEBRASKA?) Went to CCU to withdraw $2,000 for homestudy. Deposited it into F.F. and then went home, wrote out a check for $2,000 to Pauquette and dropped it in the mail.
September 30, 2003 Tuesday
SW called and verified which docs we still need and said she'd send it all to us tomorrow after she gets a few signatures from her boss. Mom Fisher says she got four more quilt squares done! (two designs x 2)
October 1, 2003 Wednesday
Home study came in the mail along with a bunch of our docs. Only one copy of our state crime letters was included. Looks like SW gets to send for another copy for us for our second dossier.
October 8, 2003 Wednesday
Sent for another copy of our marriage certificate. $8.
October 10, 2003 Friday
Marriage certificate came from Houston county
October 15, 2003 Wednesday
Broke down and called social worker... she hadn't received my email about our homestudy needing changes, or about sending us our second sets of state crime letters. She said they'd be here on Tuesday.
October 22, 2003 Wednesday
I-171H came!Revised homestudy came!
October 23, 2003 Thursday
Notarized copies of passport, I-171H
October 24, 2003 Friday
Faxed all docs to CathyCathy says only thing we need is a letter from the State licensing board for our agency saying that they were in good standing and that they are qualified to conduct home studies. This is because the agency license did not have a date of expiration on it. Cathy assigned us a translator! Cathy sent 12 emails detailing the next phase of our adoption process and talking about our dossier docs.
October 27, 2003 Monday
Notarized POA letter, Letter of Obligation, Petition to adopt
Got an email from our translator!John says his Christmas bonus might not happen this year... :O( We were really counting on that extra adoption money.
October 29, 2003 Wednesday
Letter from State licensing board came... Might be a problem. Notary's commission expires before we'll travel (Plus, I only requested one letter... need two, I think). Hafta ask Cathy. Cathy says it's fine: Dossier Complete!
November 5, 2003 Wednesday
Sent away for state authentications. $20 to MN, $270 to WI
31 docs all together: 2 marriage, 2 employer letter, 2 home studies, 2 passport copies, 2 letter of obligations, 2 petitions to adopt, 2 POA's, 2 agency licenses, 1 letter from state licensing board saying the agency license doesn't expire, 2 social worker letters, 4 state crime checks, 4 medical letters, 2 copies of our I-171H, 2 copies of social worker's license. MN was $5 per doc, WI was $10 per doc.
November 12, 2003 Wednesday
Answering machine message from the WI Sec. of State... The notary at Pauquette notarized four docs wrong. She didn't put a date on the docs, just signed them saying they were true and exact copies.
November 13, 2003 Thursday
Called the Sec. of State, was told we would get a credit slip with the rest of the seals for the 4 missing docs.Rest of the WI seals came.Called Pauquette, they will redo the docs and use today's date... so I can send for the seals right now.Sent for other 4 seals.Emailed Dima and asked what date to request when I write the letter to the NAC. Want to fax our dossier ASAP.
November 17, 2003 Monday
Minnesota State seals came!Faxed dossier to Dima. Emailed him confirming the fax was sent. Glad John's boss let us fax our docs. Print shops in our area charge $6 for the first page and $3 for each additional page. OUCH.
November 18, 2003 Tuesday
Dima emailed me saying he had not received the fax... Must try again.John faxed dossier again.Last four WI authentications came... All done!!!
November 20, 2003 Thursday
Most Stressful Day of Paper Chase Ever.
Yesterday I was told, (via an all-day phone and email tag), that if our documents were notarized on different days, they couldn't be bundled together when it came to getting stamps from the Ukrainian Consulate in Chicago. Fine, it will cost us an arm and a leg to send them off as individual documents ($60 x 29 docs), but oh well. Well, this morning, I call and email a courier in Chicago to ask for confirmation on this info and leave a message and send emails.
Meanwhile, I get a call from the lady who sells Butter Braids and she is going to stop by tomorrow and drop off some free samples! I do a little extra thinking about future fundraising, and I hope that Butter Braids will be ok... kinda nervous about passing around an order form, but the lady selling them is sooo nice! Maybe this is the Lord's way of stretching me yet again. I hate all this fundraising business, but whaddaya do... Can't wait til the last one is DONE.
Nothing back from the courier all day. I decide I don't want to bother anyway, so I plan to go ahead and do all of this myself. Ran around making photocopies of everything, etc. Got back home to sort through my document mess, and think, "I'll try calling one more time." So, I get ahold of the courier who says that my info was incorrect, that I CAN bundle things regardless of the date. This will save us a bunch of money ($480 to be exact). Very good news in fact. Too bad I'm so stressed just then to really comprehend what good news that was.
So then, I go out and get a cashier's check drawn up for our $1,270 for UA authentications, and go to the place I normally go to for shipping. They don't do "pre-pay" things (I have to put a pre-paid return envelope into the envelope with the dossier so they can send it back to me for us to send on to Ukraine. So THEN, I drive around town looking for where on earth the regular FedEx office is. No luck. Can't find it.
I drop by the camera shop to get my pictures that I had developed and the shop is closed because the owner is in the hospital. Great. Those pictures need to be picked up and taken to a "Charming Prints" customer who is on a rushed timetable. When on earth am I going to get them?!
So I get home from getting John from work, and I post on our groupie site about not getting a call from the courier, and all the hassle of the day... A few seconds after I posted, there was a post on the site FROM THE COURIER with all the answers to all my previous questions. (Who knew she was one of the groupies that had access to the site!!??) AAAGGGHHH!!! (I didn't say anything nasty or mean in my post, but I did say I had fewer hairs today because of not hearing from her.) I suppose that isn't bad, I don't want her to feel bad either.
I could easily throw up. My head is splitting. Too much going on today. Yes, I saved a TON of money by making that last-ditch call, but I'm telling you what, I earned every single nickel. Not sure what I'm going to do about the pictures though... Time for a bubble bath. And they say adopting is the "easy way" to have kids... HA!
November 21, 2003 Friday
I got an email today saying that I need another document. A gal on our Ukrainian adoption discussion board has been following my "drama" and one of the things I mentioned made her question whether something was right. She checked around and sure enough, I am going to wind up needing another document yet. It looks like God was making me run around yesterday not letting me do anything because He was making sure I'd find out that I needed this document, and He wanted to save us a migraine headache later on. If I had found the FedEx office yesterday, I would have sent everything off and then I would have been in Big Trouble. It may have meant that we would have been declined for a second child if we had plopped it on the NAC director's desk without that document. Our translator would have no doubt caught it before that would have happened, but it would have still caused a great expense and great headache. Thank you, Lord for looking out for me even though I kicked and screamed all day yesterday wishing I were done with this mess. It never ceases to amaze me how my Heavenly Father looks out for my good whether I'M being good or not. Just another confirmation that God wants us to be adopting from Ukraine.
November 22, 2003 Saturday
Pauquette sent the true and exact copies of the State Licensing Board's letter saying that the agency license does not expire. (Got two copies... will take out the one directly from the state and use these two. We can bundle with some of the other documents that way and save money at UA authentications time.)
November 24, 2003 Monday
Since we don't need 21 bundles, only 20 bundles, I had the cashier's check written out for the wrong amount on Friday. Went to the Credit Union and had it re-done. $1,210.John and I decided to go ahead and use the courier in Chicago. Got a cashier's check for her too. $180.FedExed everything to the courier. Enclosed a pre-paid air bill so she can send it on to Ukraine after she's done. Dossiers are officially out of our hands and we won't see them again until we get to Ukraine.
December 1, 2003 Monday
Got an email from our courier confirming that our dossiers were bundled correctly and that they have been hand-delivered today to the Ukrainian Consulate in Chicago.Courier said that they will pick up our dossier on the 11th and ship it to Ukraine then.
December 3, 2003 Wednesday
UKRAINE SIGNS THE HAGUE TREATY. *Gulp* That could mean that all of our documents need apostilles and NOT authentications now... It will be very interesting to see how Ukraine deals with our documents now that they are caught in Limbo. We might have saved a whole lot of money if Ukraine had signed it a month ago... I think it might have meant we wouldn't have needed to send it to the Consulate before shipping to Ukraine. Time will tell.It is sure wild that because we're adopting, we now know about things like authentications, apostilles, Hague Treaties, and the like. To think a few months ago I wasn't even sure how to pronounce the word "Dossier" and now I have TWO of them. I also didn't know what a notary did, what a Secretary of State did, and I sure didn't think they would ever concern me. We're definitely getting an education!
December 11, 2003 Thursday
Courier picks up our documents form the Ukrainian Embassy, and ships them off to Ukraine!
December 15, 2003 Monday
Our dossiers arrived in Kyiv today!! Exciting!!!
December 16, 2003 Tuesday
Got a cashier's check for our translator ($2,000)
December 23, 2003 Tuesday
Made scrambled eggs and bacon for supper. Didn't die. Got it all down. (Practicing for if I have to eat them in Ukraine.)
December 28, 2003 Sunday
Major Test: John and I were at his grandparents' house over Christmas... Grandma made a breakfast casserole with eggs, etc. I ATE IT ALL!! (Thank God for our practice runs at home!) *Hopes Grandma doesn't read this!*
January 2, 2004 Friday
John put together the bookshelf for the kids' room! Starting to look kiddish in here!
January 5, 2004 Monday
Finished the $500 angel pin order! Woo-hoo!
January 27, 2004 Tuesday
Translator tells us that we will have to have the newly required medical form done since our dossiers were not registered until Jan. 14. (The new requirement came into effect on Jan. 1. Our paperwork has been there since December, of course, but that matters not to them!)
February 2, 2004 Monday
Off to the clinic to have our new forms done. It has been snowing and bitter cold the last week (car dead and everything), so this has been the first I've been able to get out and get it taken care of. The clinic will call when the forms are done. (Please, Lord, please let them be done correctly.)
February 6, 2004 Friday
Stopped by clinic to pick up forms. THEY CAN'T FIND THEM.
February 9, 2004 Monday
Clinic found forms, but they have been untouched all week. They have photocopied the forms onto letterhead, but nothing has been done otherwise. "Come back tomorrow."
February 10, 2004 Tuesday
Clinic says "forms half done." "We'll call you when they're done."
February 11, 2004 Wednesday
8:30 Clinic has them done, but they notarize them wrong. (They stapled the physicians' licenses to the forms, and notarized them once.) (Need notary for each doc.) I get to come by later. So much for sending for the apostille today! 4:00 Went back to clinic, forms done and done correctly!! Yahoo! Put request for apostilles in the mail before pick-up. Yay!!!
February 17, 2004 Tuesday
Apostilles came in the mail.
February 18, 2004 Wednesday
Medical forms FedExed to Ukraine.
February 25, 2004 Wednesday
Medical forms arrived in Ukraine.
POAs in Ukraine emailed us saying that our medical forms cannot be submitted to the NAC until our dossiers have been officially rejected. Apparently our dossiers have not been given that official "rejection slip" as we'd thought. As soon as our POAs hear of our rejection, they will resubmit our dossiers with the correct medical forms. Hopefully we'll be "rejected soon." All the time from now until our rejection is wasted time.
March 9, 2004 Tuesday
New medical forms submitted to NAC.
April 16, 2004 Friday
DOSSIERS APPROVED AND REGISTRATION NUMBER GIVEN!!! :O) FedExed appointment request letter to Ukraine.
April 18, 2004 Sunday
Ladies at church gave us a "packing" shower. They gave us all kinds of things from off our packing list. Soooo sweet!
April 19, 2004 Monday
The Fishers came over and the guys moved our computer room into the next room so the "kids' room" could be empty. Big mess now, but it feels good to have the kids' room empty so it can start to feel like we're *actually* going to have kids live here soon!
May 3, 2004 Monday
Updated our homestudy for "just in case."
May 6, 2004 Thursday
Email from POA saying that our appointment letter is in the mail, and has been for "several days." Unfortunately, they sent it via Ukrainian Snail Mail instead of with the pre-paid airbill we sent them. *sigh*
May 8, 2004 Saturday
John goes to bank to talk about getting cash pulledapplied for an adoption grantwrote up a contact sheet for us to take to UA and to leave with family
May 10, 2004 Monday
John goes to Credit Union to talk about getting cash pulledCalled pediatrician to set up a pre-trip appointment to talk about conditions, etc.Researched MedJet/MedEvac info. Going with MedJet.Sent for visas!Sent inquiry to INS
May 12, 2004 Wednesday
Sanding, sanding, sanding the beds
May 13, 2004 Thursday
Sanding, sanding, sanding the beds
May 15, 2004 Saturday
Sanding, sanding, sanding the beds
May 17, 2004 Monday
Picked up some more "packing list" stuff at Walmart.Vacuumed and mopped up basement to get rid of sawdust in air so we can stain beds. John and I disassembled beds for staining.Appointment with pediatrician. Gave us rx's, lots of advice, and permission to call him while we are in Ukraine. John gets to start his Hep. B vaccination series tomorrow. We mentioned our concern over contracting giardia... He gave us a rx for something to take BEFORE we go and while we're there. Hopefully that will keep us safe from the wormies.
May 18-20, 2004
Worked on beds!
May 22, 2004 Saturday
Worked on beds! Done staining beds, sanded w/steel wool. Sanded drawers.Visas came!
May 25, 2004 Tuesday
Appointment letter came! Faxed it to translator for verification of July 27 appointment.
May 27, 2004 Thursday
Apostilles came for updated homestudy
May 28, 2004 Friday
Vaccinations today: hep. A, B, tetanus, diptheriaMy brother John brought over the beds! No drawers yet, but they look great! Hopefully drawers will be done next week, and the quilts sometime soon too.
June 2, 2004 Wednesday
After days of researching ticket prices with a ton of agencies, etc., we finally bought our tickets! Marina Nepomnyashchaya with Elite Travel of Brooklyn, NY, got us the best deals we could find under the circumstances (peak season travel). After tax, it is going to be $2,405 for both of us. Still a lot, but even after our change fees, it will still keep us within budget, and is hundreds of dollars less than anything else we've seen. I highly recommend her. marina@tryelite.com 1-717-616-1282. She called me several times to make sure we got what we were comfortable with, gave us several options, and when I mentioned my worry about getting to our appointment in Kyiv in time in case we missed a flight, she redid all her figuring and came up with itineraries for a day earlier. She even told us to call her from Ukraine and she'd see about getting us a good deal on the childrens' tickets! In my book, she went above and beyond... we'll be using her again...if I can ever talk John into a trip further away than Iowa after this. ;O)
June 4, 2004 Friday
Brother John came over and adjusted the beds so they fit in the room. They look GREAT!USCIS letter came.
June 5, 2004 Saturday
President Reagan died. We salute you, Mr. President. If it hadn't been for you, we'd never have been able to get our kids from Ukraine. You helped make this world a much nicer place. You will be missed.
June 9, 2004 Wednesday
Helped Mom Fisher lay out the second quilt and pin the backing/batting/top together. They look soooo cute! :O)Tickets came in the mail... a little soggy (mailman put the package in the door. Got rained on.)
June 11, 2004 Friday
Sent for State Crime Letter update. President Reagan's funeral.Met with Bryce and Kristen.
June 15, 2004 Tuesday
Kari (sw) called to say that our State Crime Letter came, but that they only sent one copy for each of us (same thing that they did for us last time!) Good thing I kept the name, phone number, and fax number of the contact with the state from last year when we had to do this! LOL! Pays to be Hyper-Type-A sometimes! ;O) Kari said that she would send for certifications when the second set of letters come. Nice of her!Finished making 14 Ukrainian Angel pins to bring with us to UA as small gifts of appreciation. Also made kite bulletin-board for the kids' room.
June 16, 2004 Wednesday
picked up prescriptions for our trip (scabies rx, giardia rx, and a "traveler's tummy" rxsent for new marriage certresearched phone options for while in UA. www.net2phone.com. Will buy cards for family, and then rent a cellphone week-by-week for us to use in UA.
June 23, 2004 Wednesday
New marriage certs and state crime letters came
June 28, 2004 Monday
Second quilt DONE and on bed!! :O)
June 29, 2004 Tuesday
June 30, 2004 Wednesday
last notarized doc done today!!! Sent for apostilles for new docs.
