NEWS - and wow what news!!

Hi everyone - well what a week we've had! I think we've said to many of you that 'you'll hear the screams from where you are, when we get our news'....... well, EEEEEEEEEEEK! So there it is. :-)

We found out a couple of days ago that we are to be in Kazakhstan next Tuesday, June 3rd. We've been matched with a babyhouse (orphanage) in Almaty, the largest city in Kaz (it used to be the capital city, during Soviet times).
Because so many international adoptions occur in Almaty, the process there takes longer - a full 3 months, so it's been recommended that we go for one month, then come home after court for one month, then go back again to finish the paperwork and bring our little one home.

So we'll leave next Monday, arriving late on Tuesday (with the 11 hour time change). We'll have a day to sleep/ settle in and get our bearings a bit, then we have an appointment with Ministry of Education on Thursday June 5th. Hope with us that all goes OK and we'll get to meet our child that day!! Once we confirm that we'll pursue the adoption of the child we've fallen in love with, we'll visit every day to fulfill the mandatory 15-day bonding period, then we'll petition to go to court to formally request the adoption. We are aiming to be home around June 27 - date flexible to allow for delays. Then we'll go back in late July/ early August to finish everything up. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!

I've been making lists (who, me? :-) ) and throwing things in suitcases for a while already, and packing is somewhat easier now that we know we'll do 2 trips, as we don't have to bring all the stuff we'd need to have custody of/ travel home with the child. When we come home in between we'll know much more what we need as we'll already know the child (that's so exciting to say - and terrifying too!). We're already dreading having to leave him/her, but either way it looks like we'll be home 'as a family' by late August/early September. Wow!!!!

We'll keep in touch best we can via this blog page- please feel free to leave comments, questions etc and we'll check and reply as often as we can. You don't need to login to leave a comment, just select 'anonymous' and it will let you. Remember to leave your name in this case, so we know who it's from. :-)

Thanks for all your support and encouragement during this bizarre and amazing journey!

take care,
N&P

ps - if you're just seeing this blog for the first time now, remember to read it in reverse order, from the bottom-up. Also see earlier entries by clicking on the month, on the right-side of this window. (ya you can take the girl out of software support, but you can't take the software support out of the girl...........) :-)