We don't live in a cardboard box - Honest!

Dearest Dema,

In this crazy upside down world that adoption is - I have been in a high high and a low low all in the same day. The day started off promising enough - the first two families from North Carolina that participated in a similar hosting program heard about a travel date. They submitted their paperwork a week or so before ours. So I was at the calendar in a flash to count out seven days so that I knew exactly when we would be notified of a travel date for you.

Then came the disappointment. We heard from the adoption facilitator that our dossier had been approved with one minor problem - they wanted a third party verification of our lease even though they had the lease contract and a notarized, apostilled statement from the landlord. ARGHHHHHH! And to further complicate things, if we did not back date the document to November (when we had all the other documents done) we were going to have to resubmit the paperwork all over again with updated dates. So - deep breath - then found out the lady that had notarized all the documents to begin with that worked for Daddy John had just left the company several days previously to start a new job. What are the odds of her backdating a piece of paper for us and notarizing it? At a new job? Just about so small they can’t be counted!

For the first time in all of this I had to struggle back tears. I felt we were so close and then it was snatched away. I truly felt that we would not get to you until you were 22! Then luck shined on us - Daddy John got in contact with Melanie at her new job and she agreed to do it if we could meet her between 12:45 and 12:50. Then the family you had stayed with a few days before coming to us just so happens that the mom is a real estate agent and was willing to help out.

So in the end, everything worked out. We got the paper done, signed and in the mail. It should be in Ukraine in several days and everything should be back on target. We hope to be traveling by the middle of April!

Can’t wait to see you,

Love,

Bethany, G3, G4, & Amanda