Dec 9, 2008

43 Days and Counting

Posted by Jason & Sharon Epperly

Did I mention that I wasn’t much of a writer?  Thus the reason it has been so long between posts.  We now have airline tickets and are scheduled to leave Charlotte on January 18th.  We will arrive in Kiev, Ukraine on the 19th and then have a day to relax (recover) and prepare (pray) for our appointment on the 21st.  Many of you have asked for details on this, so here is what we expect:

We will go to the SDA appointment.  The SDA will use our dossier to filter the selection of available boys for us to look at. For us, we have our dossier limited to boys, 1 or 2, ages 2-7. We are really hoping for one boy age 2-4, but we never know what is in store for us (repeating “I am not in control” in my head)   (Prayer Request – That God will make it so clear which one we are to choose).  After choosing a particular child's dossier, arrangements will be made for us to visit him at his orphanage.  The orphanage could be anywhere in Ukraine, so we will travel to that region to meet him (Prayer Request – we bond with him immediately) and if everything goes well, we will start paperwork to adopt him.  There is a lot of paperwork to do, but our Facilitator helps with this. If all goes well up to this point, we will be given a court date (Prayer Request – that the court date is soon). God can do anything – he’s already shown us that. After the court approves our adoption, we move to the 10 day waiting period. After the 10 day waiting period we will be ready to go the U.S. Embassy to complete the last of the paperwork, then we can come home.

I promise to update as we get closer, right now we are preparing for our journey.  Making preparations for my family that will be staying here with our girls (Prayer Request – for our girls and my Mother and Sister who have so graciously volunteered to help out here while we are away)  Oh, I haven’t done any Christmas shopping yet.  I better get on that!

Until next time!

Sharon

Nov 25, 2008

Introduction

Posted by Jason & Sharon Epperly

Here we go, our first blog post.  We’ve wanted to do this for some time now and  can’t put it off any longer. It has been the desire of my heart to adopt a little boy for many years.  We, as a family, made the decision to pursue the adoption of a little boy from Ukraine this year.  This video tells the story of adoption in Ukraine and it still makes me cry every time I watch it.

 

A little about us. Jason and I (Sharon) have been married for almost 12 years now.  We have 3 beautiful daughters.

Morgan is 11, Emma is 7 and Madeline is 5.

Now let’s rewind so you can see where we have been

  • March 17, 2008 – Jason made the decision that we could move forward with the adoption.  This was not a case where he just woke up one morning and said, “Ok, let’s do this.”  I had been talking about it for months and in January he told me to give him 3 months to really consider it.  Thank God, (and a lot of prayer) it only took about 6 weeks!
  • April 20, 2008 – First Home Study Meeting
  • April 30, 2008 – Mailed I-600A petition to adopt an orphan
  • May 30, 2008 – Fingerprinting at NCCIS
  • July, 2008 – Choose a Facilitator
  • August 21, 2008 – Received I171H
  • October 10, 2008 – Mailed Dossier to Ukraine
  • November 4, 2008 – Dossier Submitted to the SDA
  • November 17, 2008 – Received our appointment Date (January 21)

What is next?

  • January 21, 2009 - Our appointment in Ukraine with the SDA (State Department for Adoptions)

Honestly,  I didn’t think that it would happen so quickly.  We have had some hills to climb and it has not been easy at times, but God has been there through it all and miracles have happened for sure.  We are very excited  and can’t wait to meet our little guy.  Nervous because we fear the unknown.  Please pray for us and specifically that the need will be met financially, wisdom, discernment, our girls, our little guy and those that are caring for him now, safe travel.  Thanks, enjoy the journey and this miracle of adoption.

I’ll close with this verse from James

Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.  James 1:27