Day 3 - SDA Appointment

We got her! With no problem at all, the SDA accepted our request for Rima. We will get the referral tomorrow between 4 and 5 pm. A dream that has been two years in the making will finally come to fruition this adoption trip. Rima will come home!

The day started early for us. At 7:00 am this morning we arose and started getting ready to go. Our facilitator said that he would be here at 8:10 to pick us up. It was snowing and there was lots of traffic. We arrived late but Oleg wasn't worried. He said that everyone was running late. Heidi and I were completely at ease this time and if Oleg wasn't sweating things, why should we. On the way we picked up his assistant and translator, Nadia, who would actually accompany us during the meeting.

At 9:30 we arrived, waited a few minutes, and then were taken into the same office we had been in for our three children. We met the same social worker as last time and she remembered us too. Another younger social worker ran the meeting as the original lady looked on approvingly. We pulled out the photo album of our kids and the ladies ooh'ed and aww'ed over the pictures, falling into the trap I had set, hee-hee!

In no time at all, we had Rima's file in front of us. The social worker read the bio of Rima and we nodded as if all this information was new to us. "Yes, yes, really, wow! We will take her!" They asked us how we knew her and we told her that we hosted her in 2007 and waited for her to be eligible for adoption.

We were told that we could have her referral tomorrow and that it would be ready between 4 & 5 pm. The entire meeting took only 30 minutes. So that is where we are in the process now. Oleg bought the train tickets today but once again we couldn't get the elusive, "Volf family only", first class cabin. Instead, Oleg bought the entire 4 bed cabin for us.

You may remember that we also want a boy this trip. Well, the SDA is making a decision on whether or not to give us two referrals under the same meeting. If their answer is no, then we will get the opportunity to return to the SDA (kinda like the Christofferson's did with Tanya) after we visit the ONLY single boy available in the region. Of course we will not speak adoption with him, but rather we will size up the situation and make a decision at that point. Word around the camp fire is that he once told his caretaker that he wasn't interested in adoption, so this may be a moot point anyway. We didn't want to hold up Rima's adoption to go on a wild goose chase when the boy may not say yes. That being said, the SDA hasn't said no yet, they may still give us his referral tomorrow and the boy may say yes after all. We are not stressed or teary-eyed over this so don't be worried for us. Rather, we put it all in God's hands again and ask His guidance in the situation. We are in the wait and see mode and we are ecstatically happy that all is going according to plan on Rima's adoption. We will tell you more tomorrow before the "shake & bake" overnight train ride.

I got to see my Galina during lunch today! She was very happy to see us again and we spent two hours over lunch telling her about the kids. She told us that she has two single boys that she would love to send home with us! Ughh, we can't possibly do two out of region adoptions right now. It would add two weeks and whole lot more $$ to the equation. Money we don't have I explained to Galina.

As expected, we will not get Zina's referral this time. Indications are that she will be available for us in February 2011. Yep, another winter adoption in Ukraine!

~ Felix ~