We’re All Smiles

I didn’t write anything yesterday because the reality of the news was both exciting and stressful at the same time. We received the notice that we were waiting for, our visa registration numbers are finally in Kazakhstan system. Why is this important? These little numbers are the last approval we needed before we could apply for our visas. They are the official, “O.K.”, from Kazakhstan that allows our invite to be processed and our visas approved.

Yippee! We’re really going to Kazakhstan!!!

As I said, this news is exciting. Our adoption looks like it is actually moving forward. Now we really get busy (which is the stressful part) because we are leaving on September 1st. Yes, only two and a half weeks away!

I spent yesterday looking for plane tickets, which will most likely get booked today. We finished our visa applications in the morning and Doug FedEx-ed them in the afternoon. Coordinating money to bring, to have available for paying bills while we’re gone, and for paying adoption fees is being done. Setting up our Skype accounts on both computers, getting the video to work between Kazakhstan and home, and checking out the cell phone (thanks KJ and Steve) are a couple other things on the list to check off. What do I bring for the baby? What do I wear? I’ve been thinking about this for months but not really knowing when we were going, we couldn’t plan on seasons. Luckily, I dug out my fall/winter clothes a couple weeks ago to have ready for when we leave. I’m looking forward to talking with some of my current Kostanai travelers on what they are finding is most important to bring and to leave. Girls? Advice?

Even though we’ve been trying to figure out everything needed to travel and checking it off as we go, there is nothing like imminent departure that really makes the necessary steps for travel become clear.

My brother asked me yesterday how long this process has taken us, so I thought I’d outline it here (minus the year or so of fertility treatments):

2006

• March- signed on with MAPS (Maine Adoption Placement Services) to adopt a child from China.
• Spring and Summer- completed dossier for China
• August- dossier sent to the Chinese Consulate in NY for authentication.
• November 14th- Official LID (Log in date) to wait for the then 15th period to adopt a child from China.

2007

• Winter- Wait times for China are seeming to increase exponentially from what we expected.
• Spring- Begin to consider other options for adopting.
• July- Change our country of adoption to Kazakhstan (and feel really good about it)!
• August- Completion of Kazakhstan dossier (which was much more extensive than the one for China).
• End of August- Dossier sent to be translated.
• October 2nd- Translated dossier sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kazakhstan

2008

• February 20th- Dossier reaches Ministry of Education.
• March 11th- Assigned to Kostanai, Kazakhstan.
• March 24th- Begin official leave from school based on recommendations from adoption agency. (We thought we would be leaving soon.)
• April 17th- Receive word from Kazakhstan that our trip has been delayed until the end of August.
• April 21st- Return to school and teach the remainder of the school year.
• June 6th- Receive official letter of invitation (LOI) to travel to Kazakhstan between the dates of July 20 to October 20th.
• June-July- Redo entire dossier (my third time doing one) because all of our documents expire. LOI dates also changed to August 25th-November 25th so that our visas don’t run out while we are in Kazakhstan.
• August- Dossier update sent out.
• August 14th- Confirmation of visa registration numbers.

Scattered among these dates are multiple trips to the INS office in South Portland, ME to be fingerprinted (three times) and to renew our I-600A form once; two trips to our local police station to be fingerprinted in the more traditional format (ink); multiple trips to Augusta, ME, our capital, to have all notarized documents apostilled; and countless phone calls, visits to physicians, banks, our adoption agency, etc., etc.

Could all of this finally be coming to an end? I dare not ask!

It has been a long journey leading up to the most exciting part: meeting our child. I have a few details on that end, too, but will leave it for verbal conversation and personal emails at this point rather than posting it on the Internet.

I’m sure I’ll be writing more and soon, but I just wanted to do a quick entry and shout:

WE’RE GOING TO KAZAKHSTAN!