Snow Angels

Saturday brought a little over three inches of snow and Molly and Aidan were in Heaven. They dashed out the door as soon as they saw the first flake and began running around the yard laughing and shrieking. Talk about your happy campers. After church on Sunday we bundled them up and they were off making snow angels, snow balls, rolling down the hill in our front yard and making a tiny snowman with Daddy. The snowman looked quite festive until Aidan ate his carrot nose and raisin mouth and buttons. Molly managed to eat several snow balls. One of her favorite wintertime activities. I smiled when I got out of bed this morning and looked out of the window to see Molly and Aidan's foot prints winding here, there and every where. Hopefully there will still be some snow to enjoy when they get home from school this afternoon.

Our dossier is still at the MOE. We discussed options for region assignment with our program coordinator and all include more waiting. With so many waiting families (from our agency and others) and fewer children available time to travel is getting stretched out further and further. At this point we're looking at a 4-6 month time frame. This means we'll be faced with the dreaded dossier redo. SIGH. I'm hoping we'll be surprised but prepared for more waiting. I'll keep praying. You never know. In the mean time we have our Molly and Aidan to fill our hearts and keep us busy. For that we are ever thankful.

The Kazakh Man - A Retrospective

On October 29th our Aidan Patrick turned 5. He is a wonderful little boy who sees and experiences the world in his own unique way. He is sweet and loving, curious and inquisitive, and has a smile that melts your heart. Aidan is bright, engaing and full of life. He is a Blessing and a joy. We are so fortunate to have him as our son. Happy Birthday Kazakh Man.

She's A Big Girl Now

(sob, sob)

Our Molly Claire is 5 today. She is a delightful little girl who is full of life. Molly is kind and thoughtful, sweet and caring and has a great, great laugh that we never tire of hearing. She is happy, bright, creative and outgoing. Molly is a Blessing to us. We are so lucky that she is ours. Happy Birthday beautiful girl.

Moving Along...

Well, our dossier has cleared the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is at the Ministry of Education. Another huge milestone reached and we are thrilled. However, there are a few big bumps in the road ahead.

Once our dossier has cleared the Ministry of Education it will be assigned to a region. It has been in our hearts all along to go back to Kostanai. Molly and Aidan will travel with us and we wanted them to see the town where they were born and the baby home where they spent the first 9 months of their lives. To perhaps meet some of the people who so lovingly cared for them. We wanted to return to the wonderful place where our live were forever changed. This may not happen. Our program manager has indicated that things are moving very slowly in Kostanai. They have one family registered in Kostanai who have been waiting six months or so to travel and I do not believe that they have a travel date yet (I hope I am wrong about this). Our agency is hesitant to request an assignment to Kostanai for us and we are too. The agency is going to contact its in-country team and see what if anything is going on. We've been asked if we would consider another region. I know people have had terrific experiences in many other regions. Its just that we were so set on Kostanai. We will have to make up our minds quickly as our dossier should clear the Ministry of Ed the next several weeks.

There has been some chatter on Blogs regarding a potential change to the length of the required bonding period from 14 to 30 days. Our agency sent an email on Friday indicating that while there has been no official confirmation their in-country coordinators feel that it is very likely to happen. They've indicated that the change would be implemented beginning in January 2010. Some people may think "What's the big deal? Its just a couple of weeks.". True but its another two weeks of lodging and food and another two weeks of missed work. Its not the time so much as the associated expenses. Here are the options for travel:

1) one trip lasting 3 months (yikes)

2) two trips; #1 6-8 weeks, #2 5-7 days in length (traveling about 4 weeks after 1st trip)

3) three trips; #1 4 weeks for bonding, #2 5-7 days for court proceedings (4 weeks after trip #1), #3 5-7 days for medical exam and US Embassy processing (4 weeks after trip #2)

We were in Kazakhstan for 9 1/2 weeks while we completed Molly and Aidan's adoptions. It was an amazing trip. But now we're a one income family with two nearly 5 year olds. One trip is sadly not even on the table (unless we win that Powerball). We were planning on two trips prior to the news about the change in the bonding period but one trip 6-8 weeks in length is not really feasible either. And three 30 hour each way trips to Kazakhstan is daunting. Some options. Sigh.

So, we are moving along but somehow feel farther away from our precious Kaz baby.

In meantime were enjoying our full and happy lives with Molly and Aidan. School started last week. They missed our school district cut-off for kindergarten by a month so will be in a pre-k program at the same school they attended last year. They go 4 times a week. So far they like their teachers ("they're old mommy") and have made new friends.

Dossier Approved!!

Can you believe it? I checked my email last night and there was a message from our agency indicating that our dossier was approved on Tuesday (8/4)and was on its way to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Astana KZ. Totally unexpected and very cool news. We've been busy running around (vacation bible school this week for M & A among other things) and I haven't been checking email that frequently because I wasn't expecting to hear anything until the end of August at the earliest. Woo Hoo!!

And We Have Lift Off

I received an email from our agency saying that our dossier was sent to the Consulate of Kazakhstan in NY yesterday and should be arriving today. Another milestone to check off and another step closer to our Kazakh bundle of joy:) Now.....more waiting.

Never Forget Kostanai

That's what the sign says that this funny little guy is holding. A souvenir from our most unforgettable trip to Kostanai Kazakhstan and our precious children.

This time 4 years ago we were fulfilling our dream of becoming parents. After 15 months of waiting we were finally holding our beautiful children in our arms. We first met Molly and Aidan on the evening of June 8th, 2005. We were greeted at the Kostanai City airport by our facilitator, Olessya, and driven directly to the baby home. We met with Dr. Irina, director of the Delphin baby home, and after introductions and a brief conversation were shown several files. We asked to see Molly and Aidan and it was love at first sight. After a too short visit our babies were returned to their rooms and we floated over to our hotel. The next day we toured the baby home, were assigned a time to visit (1:00PM - 2:30PM), and began the required bonding period. We had our preliminary court date on July 4th and final court on July 8th. After the mandatory 15 day waiting period the court decision came into power on July 26th and Molly and Aidan were ours forever. If you're interested in all of the details check out our entries beginning June 7, 2005.

We didn't publish any pictures on our Blog during our trip because the adoption wasn't finalized and we were connecting to the Internet via dial-up and that would have been too painful. I intended to go back and update postings with pictures but life with two babies/toddlers/preschoolers is hectic to say the least. So now I'll post a few as I reflect back upon those magical days.

I'm a big follower of other family's adoption Blogs. Frequently I find a person or family who are trying to decide what country is the best fit for them. Many of them are hesitant about choosing to adopt from Kazakhstan because of the extensive travel. I usually leave a comment about our positive experience and emphasize that while the travel may seem daunting it is one of the the most amazing parts of the journey. To be able to spend that amount of time in your child's country of birth and to be able to share those memories with your child is a rare and wonderful opportunity.

Forget Kostanai. Not in a million years.