We're Making Progress...

I'm posting as we sit in traffic, on our way to the lake for the weekend. I just love rush hour :)

Our dossier is now complete! Zack went yesterday morning and picked up the INS approval. He met our coordinator today & gave her the remaining documents, and she took them for apostilles. They should be in Ukraine by Wednesday! Please keep praying that our facilitator is able to submit on May 7.

In an older post (February 22), I mentioned a couple that is just ahead of us in the adoption process. Since that time we’ve had the pleasure of meeting the Taylors. They adopted their son, Zachary, from Russia in 2004, and now they’re seeking a daughter from Ukraine. We were excited to learn that their dossier was submitted this past Monday!! So if we get ours in on 5/7 then we should only be a couple of weeks behind them in travel! Anyway, please be praying for the Taylors and their daughter. And feel free to check out their blog – they did a great post today on facts about Ukraine.

This Day in Ukrainian History

21 years ago today, the worst nuclear disaster in history took place at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in what is now Pripyat, Ukraine (65 miles north of Kyiv, near the Ukraine/Belarus border). Thiry-two died as an immediate result of the event. Additionally, “an estimated 5,000 Soviet citizens eventually died from cancer and other radiation-induced illnesses caused by their exposure to the Chernobyl radiation, and millions more had their health adversely affected.”


It is estimated that 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus due to the direction of the wind. The radiation “was several times that produced by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

To read more and learn about the details of what actually happened to cause this disaster, you can visit:

• http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6879
• http://www.infoukes.com/history/chornobyl/

Special thanks to Eric for reminding us of this important date in Ukrainian history…

Спасибо!

Thanks for all the prayers, comments, emails, and calls yesterday. It is great to know that so many people are with us on this journey.

Yesterday brought bad news and good news. While we still have not received our approval, we have definitely made some progress. A big thank you goes out to Julie Nolte - your comment on the blog yesterday inspired me to do some digging. I didn't have an email address or phone number to check on status, but after asking around I got what I needed and was able to send an email and leave a voice mail. The lady called me back yesterday afternoon around 4:30.

Bad News... Apparently our application had gotten overlooked and has not been processed.

Good News... The wonderful lady that returned my call found it and is going to have it completed by the end of the week. She said we can come there and pick it up.

So Zack plans to get it from USCIS and will meet our coordinator to give her the last 2 documents. She'll then take them downtown & have them apostilled (makes them official/legal in other countries). There is another couple leaving early next week for Ukraine, and they will hand deliver the documents to our translator/facilitator so she can complete our dossier and have it ready to submit.

Today's Really Good News!... Our facilitator may be able to submit our dossier to SDA in Ukraine on May 7 (a lot sooner than expected!). There are always things that could happen between now and then to delay things, but this is very encouraging news.

Please be praying that everything goes smoothly and this milestone is met as expected.

The Tuesday Ten

Ten Things that are causing stress for Zack & me (probably the reason I only slept a few hours last night)...

1. We are still waiting on our INS approval
2. Our INS approval has not arrived
3. Our INS approval is not in our mailbox, or in our house, or on its way to Ukraine
4. The mailman keeps passing by without delivering our INS approval
5. We can't mail our INS approval to Ukraine, because
6. We don't have our INS approval
7. Our INS approval is the only thing missing from our dossier
8. The government still hasn't sent us our INS approval
9. Without our INS approval, we can't submit our dossier to SDA
10. We need our INS approval!!!

We really need your prayers right now. There is a chance that our facilitator could submit our dossier sooner than originally anticipated if we can just get the approval to her ASAP...

En Route: UPDATE!!!

Our dossier is on its way to Kyiv! It was mailed yesterday afternoon. We're awaiting 2 more things before it’s complete, but our coordinator wanted to mail what we have now so our facilitator can begin translating. We still need INS approval and Zack’s medical form (which he will pick up today). Hopefully the 6th version of the medical will be the last one (prayer request!) – maybe I’ll blog about that nightmare later.

We hope to receive INS approval this week (prayer request!). Once we have both of those, we’ll send them over, too.

I tracked the package when I got to work, and it left Indianapolis around 2:00 this morning – maybe it’s a good sign that it made a stop in Peyton Country on its journey! Please pray that the documents are delivered quickly & safely, as it took A LOT of work to get them to this point. And please pray that our last 2 documents are in our possession soon, so that we can send them on their way as well.

UPDATE- I got my medical form today and it looks great! We are just waiting on the approval from the US now. Who knew that the US Government would be slow on something? Go figure!

UPDATE 4/20/07 - Our package arrived in Kyiv overnight! It looks like it's in customs right now, and I have no idea how long that will take. Keep praying as it goes through the final leg of the journey. And we're still waiting on our INS approval...

The Tuesday Ten

Still waiting on our INS approval. So to pass the time, here's another Ten...


If we were stranded on a deserted island, here are 10 things we'd want with us (exluding people, rescue items, toiletries, or electronics):

1. Adie (our Jack Russell Terrier)
2. Bible
3. Diet Coke
4. Pizza
5. Wickles
6. Ketchup potato chips (very hard to find in Georgia)
7. Golf magazines for Zack
8. Krispy Kreme donuts
9. Sudoku puzzles for Jenn
10. Peanut butter

What items would you take?

Fed Ex Made My Day!

Be sure to look at our timeline (scroll down, on the right side of the page) – do you notice anything new?? Yep, yesterday was a VERY good day. It won't be long before we can send our dossier to Ukraine!

We're only waiting on a couple of things now:

1. Zack has to pick up his final medical form. They must be PERFECT, and the doctor's office made minor mistakes on his twice - I just know the third time's the charm!
2. And we're watching the mailbox for our approval from the U.S., which should come in the next week or so.

Please keep praying - the journey is far from over!

The Tuesday Ten

This week's Ten deals with one of our favorite things... food! If you know us at all then you know we love to eat. We tried to think of some of our favorite spots that aren't too pricey.

So here it is, in no particular order. Oh, and be sure to let us know a few of your faves in the comment section!

1. Frontera
2. Chick-fil-A
3. The Pickle Barrel
4. Rudy's Pizza
5. Williamson Bros. BBQ
6. The Brick
7. The Rexall Grill
8. Applebee's
9. Cardamuro's Italian
10. Moe's

Да!

Here are the latest pictures of Little Guy's room.

We think it's looking really good!




Our very talented neighbor Tammy did the cool bubbles on the walls - she did a great job of tying everything together! If you ever need any cool painting done, be sure to check out her website by clicking HERE. She does awesome work, and we appreciate her helping us make Little Guy's room really special.



We would have posted pictures sooner, but we've been waiting on the furniture to be delivered.



Well it finally arrived today, and I think the dark wood looks really cool against the bright walls.



Things are progressing nicely with our dossier documents. We each went to the doctor this week to get our medical forms completed. We had to have lots of tests done, and had to get our Hepatitis A&B vaccinations. Zack is finished, but I have to go back on Monday to have my TB test read & to pick up all of our forms. Please be praying that everything is filled out properly. I won't leave until I make sure it's all perfect, and I'm taking extra forms with me just in case :)

It's supposed to get down to 25 on Saturday night... unheard of for Atlanta this time of year. I'm sure there will be lots of cold little girls at church on Sunday morning in their pretty Easter dresses!

We hope you all have a very Happy Easter! And if you're in the Gwinnett area & looking for a church for Easter, feel free to visit Crosspointe - we're having 3 services this Sunday (8:00, 9:30, and 11:00).

The Tuesday Ten

I was 'reprimanded' by my brother Joey last week when we didn't post the Tuesday Ten, so it's back this week. I'll try my best to continue it each week, except on weeks when we have big adoption news.

Okay, this week's Ten requires your participation (that includes you, Joey). We've named ten of our favorite movie characters - your job is to guess the movies they're in. So we expect lots of comments to this post...

1. Marty McFly
2. Lester Burnham
3. Idgie Threadgoode
4. Regina George
5. David Wooderson
6. Captain Ivan Drago
7. Tommy Callahan
8. Norman Thayer
9. Clark Griswold
10. Pete Mitchell

No Cheating!!! We know you're capable of using IMDB, but resist the temptation. It will be more fun to see your guesses!

Our “German” Friends

If you've ever clicked on our link "Jeff & Deanna's Adventures in Germany" (on the right side of the blog), you've read about our friends who are serving as missionaries in Germany.

Jeff & Deanna have been in America the past few weeks, along with their adorable kids Jeffrey & Georgia. They are heading back to Germany tomorrow, but they were kind enough to spare a couple of hours for us today. We had lunch at Frontera with them after church (like us, they love Mexican food, but can't get it in Jena).

Zack & Jeff have known each other since they were kids. We've known them as a couple for a number of years now - they're the ones who first led us to visit Cross Pointe Church . If you get a chance, take a few minutes to check out their blog - Deanna does a fantastic job of telling their story. We're also excited for them as they prepare to welcome their third child into the world this July. We can't wait to meet the newest member of the Davis family when they return from Germany next year.

Prayer Requests
Here are the major items we ask you to be praying about as the week begins:

• CIS/US Approval
• Passports
• Physicals - we both have doctor appointments this week to complete medical exams for our dossier (Zack on Monday, me on Friday)

Thanks to those who prayed about the situation at SDA. The 'bad news' we received last week was misinterpreted and wasn't nearly as bad as we were first told. SDA is still going through changes so we're not out of the woods by any means, but this is definitely a big PRAISE!!