Update on the Journey...

For those of you who are following our Adoption #2 story, here's a little update.

We FINALLY received our Homestudy!  It took a record 2 months but the wait was worth it.  While we were waiting for the final approval we heard that a few families were rejected in Kiev and had to spend 8 weeks adding an addendum to their Homestudies... So our Social Worker decided to add this to ours right now to prevent this from happening.  So, that's good, I guess???  Unless by the time we get to Kiev for our meeting they'll have an entirely new set of documents that they want us to add.  Not being negative, just saying.  Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.

So, now that we have received this precious document we will be frantically gathering all the documents required for the US government application process for the 'Orphan Petition Approval.'  We hope to send this packet off sometime in the next week.   USCIS can take anywhere from 2-16 weeks processing our application.  So, worst case scenerio we get our Approval by mid February.

After we receive this golden dipped, etched in stone Approval (at least that's what it feels like) then we proceed with Phase III of the process.  (You didn't know this was a church building campaign did you?)

This phase is to take that precious Approval letter with 14 other documents that we are now trying to gather (from tax returns to house plans) to Austin to get the State Seal.  Then they will be sent off to Ukraine.

At this point the ball will be out of our court.  The documents will be translated and submitted and the meeting with the authorities in Kiev will be set.  We are hoping for sometime in late March. 

Thank you for praying with us and for the children.

Just for your information... The precious boy had a birthday on November 1st and turned 14.  The girl will be turning 16 in a few weeks as well.  We have been told that there is a slight chance we might not get to adopt them.  There is an Aunt in the picture that may want custody.  If this is the case and she denies us the chance to adopt them we are willing to adopt up to two other children.  We have been told by our Facilitator in Kiev to put age range from 0-18 to make sure there is someone to adopt at that very moment of our interview in Kiev.  So, only God knows how the Grinn family will look come Summer, 2016.

Happy Fall Y'all!