One more bump in the road

Well, we had hoped when we got our LOI that we would be done with delays but it's happened again. We got a call from our agency this week that was good news and bad news; the bad news was that our coordinator in Kazakhstan wants us there on October 12, a full 2 weeks later than we had been told before. The good news is that we're still moving forward...our boys are being transferred from their boarding school orphanage in Ridder to Ust-Kamenogorsk and will arrive in Ust on October 12. We assume this is because we will be doing our required 2 week bonding period in Ust. We are actually a little disappointed that we won't be bonding in Ridder...we were looking forward to exploring a new area of Kazakhstan and spending time with our boys' friends and teachers...but at this point, we'll take whatever we can get.

On the positive side, we know Ust very well and have many friends there. We also know we can find our way around to our favorite shops, restaurants, etc. Best of all, our friend Yulia has offered us a place to stay again; her mother's apartment is the same place we stayed last summer when we visited. Yulia was our translator when we adopted Tanya in 2004 and the ties we formed with her have remained strong. She is one of the most generous people we know and we are honored to call her and her family our friends.

We still have to work out some kinks that this latest delay has created. We need to change our flights and adjust our mindset to leaving later than we had hoped...we won't be home for Halloween with our kids as we had hoped and we'll be in for colder weather in KZ than we were expecting (winter arrives early there and in November, we could well see quite a bit of snow!) Craig's brother has been planning to visit us for Halloween week for months now...we're bummed that we'll miss his visit but the kids are thrilled that Uncle Dale will be coming to help them celebrate the big event in Mom and Dad's absence. We've told the kids that Uncle Dale really likes Halloween and he's somewhat of a master at decorations and costumes...and for those of you who don't know, we do live in Salem, MA which is really the center of the spooky universe at Halloween...our kids are used to turning our living room into a haunted house each year and they were worried that they wouldn't be able to pull off the special effects without us. No worries...I'm sure the kids will have plenty of help preparing for the spooky fun!

Craig and I are just so ready to go...we would board a plane tomorrow if it would do us any good...but instead, we're taking several deep breaths and reciting the Serenity Prayer...for the millionth time. I'm updating a few documents for court...for the 4th time...but I'm not bitter or anything...and we'll have our visa photos taken tomorrow. So much of this process requires patience...and I refuse to be beaten. My mother always said I was stubborn and she was right!

adoption

Kazakhstan requires that adoptive parents prepare a dossier before they are invited to travel and given a referral of a child. The dossier must be translated and certified by the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington DC prior to being submitted to the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Kazakhstan in Astana, the entity that controls and maintains the databank of all orphaned children in Kazakhstan.

According to the Kazakhstan law, orphaned children are required to be registered with the Ministry’s Database for at least six months before they are eligible for international adoption.