We're here!!!!

Just a quick note to let you all know we are here in Kiev.

Our flight was pretty uneventful until we were landing and Morgan threw up all over the seat. She was so good the whole flight too, poor thing. She isn't sick - I think it was just a combination of being tired and all the travel.

Our apartment is very cute. It is a one bedroom and we have a washer, a kitchen, air conditioning and internet access!!! We are also in walking distance of the SDA. I couldn't ask for more.

We went and had pizza for lunch and it was pretty good.

Now we are going to take a nap. It is only 8:30am at home and we should just be waking up. None of us slept very much on the plane.

I'll try to post a few pictures of our apartment later. Also, we only have a temporary phone for right now, but will be getting another one tomorrow. I will pass on the number.

Our SDA appt. is tomorrow morning at 11:30am. I'm still not sure how things will go. I'll let you know tomorrow afternoon.

I can't believe we are finally here!!!!!

Heading out.

We are leaving in a few hours for Ukraine.

We are still not 100% sure what will happen when we get there. We are okay with our Plan B though if that is the way we have to go.

I will update as often as possible!

Just when we thought....

that this rollercoaster ride of international adoption was on an upward climb, we have been thrown on an upside down loop.

I found out today (4 days before we are scheduled to leave and 6 days from our SDA appt. date) that the region the little girl we are hoping to adopt is in has shut down court proceedings for adoptions. It is due to some law that they passed (the region she is in is considered an independent region, so they can make laws separate from the rest of Ukraine) and there is a bunch of political stuff that I don't fully understand or care to get into.

We are not 100% sure what this will mean for us. Hopefully we will know more this weekend.

I imagine one of three things will happen:

1. Things will get straightened out and we will travel as planned and to the orphanage we planned.

2. We will travel as planned but once we arrive in Ukraine will have to go to a different region to adopt.

3. We will have to post pone our trip.

I am hoping it is one of the first two options. Obviously option #1 is what I am praying for, but option #2 would be okay too. We have known all along that there is no guarantee that we would adopt the little girl we are hoping for. We are attached to the idea of her in our minds and hearts, but the reality is that there are many, many HIV+ little girls in Ukraine that need a family and we would be happy to bring any of them home.

I will keep you posted as I know more, but in the mean time please pray that we leave as we have planned this Tuesday and that we are able to adopt the child (or children, as we are strongly considering adopting a second child) that is meant for us - whoever that may be.

Appointment Date!!!!

Our appointment with the SDA in Ukraine is Thursday, July 30!!!!

I booked our tickets. We are flying out of JFK in NY on Tues. evening July 28 and will arrive in Ukraine on Wed. morning July 29.

We have decided to bring Morgan with us. We are all very excited for this trip!

I can't believe we are finally to this point in the journey!

Wonderful, exciting, awesome news!!!

I found out this afternoon that our dossier was submitted to the SDA today!!!!!

Please pray that they don't find anything wrong with any of our papers. As long as everything is okay we should have our travel date by next week!!!

Aren't you scared....

of adopting a child with HIV?

I get asked this question a lot and to be honest my answer is no and yes.

No, I am not scared of my child's HIV being transmitted to anyone in my family or anyone else for that matter. Once I knew the facts of HIV, the thought of transmition rarely crossed my mind when I think about our little girl.

No, I am not scared that I will not be able to watch her grow up. I am confident that our little girl will grow up and live a very long, fulfilling life. I am confident that she will go to her proms, graduate high school, go on to college (if that's what she chooses), get married, have children, have grandchildren, etc. The medications available today have done so much for the life span of people with HIV and I can only assume that the medications will get better as our little girl gets older.

So, why the yes? What am I scared of? Well, there is one thing that scares me just a little bit. I do think about the medication that our little girl will have to take and worry about what the long term side effects will be. No one has the answer to this because the medications have not been used long enough to know the long term side effect. But, I am sure that the benefits of the medication far out weigh any side effects, either in the present or in the future, of that medication.

The thing I am the most scared of though and think about the most often is that my little girl will be treated differently, or worse cruely, because of her HIV. We have not decided how open we are going to be about her status, but we have decided that it is not something that we are going to try to hide. We feel hiding her status only adds to the stigma associated with HIV. If she had inherited a genetic disorder from her birth mother no one would even think twice about it. And no matter how a person contracted HIV they still deserve to be treated with respect. I am so scared that people will be mean to her. As a parent you never want your child to be hurt, whether it be physically or emotionally. I can only hope and pray that our little girl will help to open people's hearts to people with HIV and that she will never have to feel ashamed of something that does not define who she is, but is just another part of her.

New Look

As you have noticed I have given my blog a new look.

I want our blog to be not only about our adoption from Ukraine, but also about advocating for the adoption of children with HIV. I have added a few "buttons" on the side of the blog that will link you to some wonderful websites and blogs that have so much information on HIV and adopting a child with HIV. Please visit these sites and read the information and stories there.

I hope that through our journey we can open the eyes and hearts of even just one person to these wonderful children that are so deserving of a family. I also hope that even if in just some small way we can help to break the stigma associated with HIV, so that families do not have to wrestle with whether or not to disclose their child's status to people.

I hope you will enjoy following our "Positive Adoption Story".