The following timeline details the sequence of events that took place during our adoption process. We began the process on January 4, 2000, and returned home on August 5, 2000. We could have traveled as early as May, but Matt was working a second job to bring in some additional funds. The job lasted until July 11th, and three days later, we were on a plane for Ukraine. Hopefully, this timeline will help you judge the amount of time to expect between steps in your adoption process.

      A word of caution though -- just because the adoption paperwork could be done within five months, it doesn't mean that you can be scheduled that quickly. There are many families traveling to Ukraine and there are just not enough facilitators or children to support the number of families that want to go.