The Adoption Process So Far

We are very blessed to be helped by a non-profit adoption  ministry called Open Arms. The  directors, Steve and Carol Ellisor, are friends of ours.  They have already adopted 4 children from Ukraine and have already been a HUGE help to us in walking through the international adoption process.!

The first step we have had to do as part of our adoption process is our Home Study.  Carol and Steve recommended a social worker for us who is doing our Home Study for us.  Her name is Teresa Smith and she is a strong Christian and a wonderful person to work with.  Up to this point, we are almost finished with our portion of the home study.  We filled out loads of paperwork, gathered lots of vital documents  and then last week, we had Teresa come to our home and interview us and look at our home.  We cleaned for a week to prepare and were exhausted!  Praise the Lord, the home study went well. Teresa is currently out of the country, but will return next week and will write up our study and send it to DSS.  Once DSS approves it, they will send it to US immigration for approval.

The next step for us is what is called our dossier.  The dossier is all of the legal documents that we have gather for the Ukraine part of the adoption.  We are already corresponding with a Ukranian facilitator who is helping us with the adoption process on the Ukranian end.