The SDA, a Ukrainian government office, isn't directly impacted by the political conflict between the President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. They are the centralized adoption authority. And they have been processing adoption paperwork. But my pet theory is that the SDA's staff turnover is directly linked to the political conflict.

The SDA stopped accepting new dossiers some time between March 27 and April 1, 2007. The US Embassy linked the SDA staff resignations to dossiers not being accepted. I have heard several places that the office is understaffed. And they are struggling to process dossiers within 20 business days. By law they are required to do so.

But the good news is the SDA started accepting dossiers again on April 16, 2007.

The US Embassy a few weeks ago said the SDA would start accept dossiers on April 16. But typically the SDA runs behind their published schedule. So this is a very pleasant surprise. :)

The slightly sour note was that they only accepted the submission of 5 new dossiers. Typically they accept 8.

The schedule for dossier acceptance is below. It hasn't changed since the SDA posted it, but I just recently realized that I never shared it.

• Monday is for American families.



• Tuesday is for Italian and German families.


• Wednesday is for Spanish and French families.


• Thursday is for everyone else... This includes countries like Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Netherlands, England and Canada.

Right now I am waiting to hear the Ukrainian Constitutional Court's decision. The issue boils down to... Does President Viktor Yushchenko have the authority to dismiss parliament?

I am currently trying to puzzle through The Orange Leave Ukraine's Court Without Options news story.

My first impression was that the article is describing a soap opera. First we start with Orange and Blue protesters discussing if they could sing together. But they called off the singing when Orange insisted on singing in Ukrainian. And Blue insisted on singing in Russian. This is an interesting snapshot of the political divide.

An easier news article to read is Ukraine's Constitutional Crisis. I laughed a few times. I had forgotten about the dead voters in Prime Minster Viktor Yanukovich's election. The voter fraud was very easy to spot. More then 100% of the registered voters voted.

If you don't want to leave a comment, but want to chat please me at adoptukraineblog@adoptionmail.com