Trip 2 to visit girls

So, we straightened out the "competition" over Oksana - sorta. The host mom is not interested in adopting Oksana, but the agency(s) involved in that hosting program are still spreading rumors about a Ukrainian family wanting to adopt Oksana...which is funny since the orphanage director confirmed that Oksana was not even legally released for adoption, nor was she registered. Which means that not only can we not adopt her, but neither can a Ukrainian family. Plus, according to the new State Department of Adoptions, only 10% of adoptions each year are to Ukrainian families (90% are international families)and of that 10%, 80% request a child under the age of 1 (which are not available to international families at all). So, Oksana has 0% chance of being adopted by a Ukrainian family, even when she finally is registered - which we are working on still. My friend, George, who works with Life2Orphans, tracked down Oksana's mom's last known address (given to him by the orphanage director) and she has not lived there for 3 years and no one knows where she is - ie she abandoned Oksana. So, the director is working with the local police department to file a sort of missing persons/abandonment report, which they will then use in court to have the judge terminate her parents rights. Once this happens, the director can file the adoption registration papers with the district level. After one month there, it goes to the region/oblast, and then one month later it goes to the national SDA database....then we have to wait one more year to adopt her...unless they change the laws, which is likely according to rumors. They are saying it will be reduced to a 6 month wait, not one year and maybe even no wait for kids over 5 yrs old. Since I last updated this the SDA also announced its grand opening and new policies about new dossiers - they are going to process the backlog of registered dossiers this fall, and then they will accept new dossiers in January 2007. Since we are not registered yet, we have to wait until January - which means some of our papers will expire and will need to be redone this fall and retranslated and resent. But so far the SDA seems to be keeping its primose - registered families are getting their appointment letters for September. They are also apparently favoring families who have "identified" or "known" children - ie through hosting programs, previous adoptions etc - we fall into this category! :) so hopefully this will bode well when they start accepting new dossiers too - there is rumor they will start accepting new dossiers for older known children starting in November...But in the mean time, we decided to go visit the girls in Ukraine - now we have plenty of time to save up money for the adoption, so we might as well spend some of what we have saved to visit and reassure them we are coming to get them...eventually. So, we leave this next weekend for Ukraine. Things started out bumpy in the planning, but thanks to good ol' George, things are now wonderful. He really came through for us and offered to go with us as a translator, made apartment arrangements, travel etc. AND he saved us tons of money. My only fear at this point is the whole plane ride to and from Ukraine. Not because of the "terrorist threat" - I guess it is related in a round about way though - I'm affraid of making our connections and losing our luggage. The main part of the flight I am worried about it the flight from Atlanta to JFK. We aren't flying into JFK - we are flying into Newark NJ and somehow we are transfering to JFK. We also have a short layover in NC - only 35 minutes! I like having more time between flights, but since its a domestic connection, it should be ok. I hope. We aren't bringing a whole lot of luggage and I'm even considering FedExing some of my "gifts" to George so we don't have to put them in our luggage. At least we arent driving to NY like we had originally planned. Talk about JetLag.