Anticipated Adoption Process

This is the process as we understand it:

• We will arrive in Kyiv (the official translation for Kiev was officially changed to Kyiv) on July 27. We will be met by our agency’s facilitator Konstantin. He will get us settled into our apartment (he selected a location close to the adoption office, downtown).
• Our appointment at the SDA (State Department of Adoption and Protection of Children's Rights of Ministry of Ukraine of Family, Youth and Sports) is on July 30th
• During our appointment, we will be shown files of children available for international adoption. They could show us anywhere from 4-10 files...depending on whatever criteria they use to pull the files and the number of available children.
• We hope to choose a child to visit from these files. The files include medical history, family information if known, and any other pertinent information that is known to the SDA.
• After making a decision, we will wait for the SDA Director to sign a permission letter for us to travel to the region to visit the child. This typically takes anywhere from 1-5 days.
• We will then travel to the region via train, plane or automobile...depending on where the region is located. Ukraine is roughly the size of Texas so we could end up traveling to a region 12 hours away.
• When we arrive in the region we will have to get permission to visit the child from the local head of children's services.
• After we secure the permission, we will visit the orphanage. We will meet with the Director of the orphanage and/or the orphanage physician. They will give us a more detailed description of health and history.
• We will then meet the child. It may be in a group setting or one-on-one.
• We will make the decision to adopt or not to adopt. If we choose not to adopt this child, we would then travel back to Kyiv and await another appointment (5-14 days) and start all over again.
• If we decide to adopt, then a whirlwind of paperwork ensues and a court date is scheduled, usually within 2 weeks. During the wait for court, we will be allowed to visit our chosen child daily.
• When we finally go to court, the child will be declared legally ours., however, there is a mandatory 10 day wait period. This period cannot be waived so we will continue to stay in the area and with our daily visits to the orphange.
• After the 10 day wait, we will be issued the court decree. We can then obtain a passport and an amended birth certificate listing us as parents. This can sometimes take 2-3 days.
• Once we have all the documents in hand, we can travel back to Kyiv.
• In Kyiv, we have to get our child a physical at a clinic to obtain a US visa.
• We will then have an appointment at the US Embassy to obtain a visa for our new child to enter the US.
• We are then free to travel home...back to Lola and our families.