Adoption Update

Everything is going fairly smoothly and quickly with Nikolai's adoption. We completed our homestudy and were recommended for adopting Nikolai. We mailed what is called our "Child Specific Petition" to Ukraine requesting to visit and then adopt Nikolai. We are awaiting approval from USCIS (immigration) to give us an appointment in Atlanta so we can be fingerprinted and have background checks done on an international level.

Please pray that USCIS moves quickly and approves our application to adopt Nikolai. We have completed ALL other paperwork, so they are the one thing that could greatly delay this process. Once we receive our approval from them, we can submit the rest of our paperwork to Ukraine.

Please pray that Nikolai will be held at the orphanage and not transferred to a mental institute. The week we sent in our commitment to adopt him, he was scheduled to be transferred, but we were told that the Director of the orphanage agreed to keep him there. We are in communication with a facilitator in Ukraine and trying to ensure that he will indeed be kept at the orphanage for us.

God has continued to provide in many ways for us. Various friends and even some we don't know have given nearly $4000 toward Nikolai's adoption. Our home study agency is also a licensed international adoption agency and is acting as our adoption agency at NO CHARGE to us. This saves us thousands of dollars and also enables us to apply for several adoption grants which require that we adopt through an agency, not just a facilitator.

For those of you in the Greenville, SC area...our friends Jason and Joanna Bursch are giving a benefit concert for Nikolai's adoption. The concert is May 7, at 7:30pm at the North Hills Community Church - Community Cafe.

After much debating and discussion we have decided to name Nikolai "Kole". There is still much debating going on over a middle name :). Kole turns 6 this week on April 7. We wish so badly that we could be together for his birthday, and are looking forward to having a big party for him after he is home!

We covet your prayers and we are so thankful for the many emails and notes we have received encouraging us as we go through this process.


Grace and Peace,
Drew, Kam, Lane, Hudson and Kole Miles