Our Adoption

It has once again been a while since I've updated our blog--not so good at keeping up with these things! :) Anyway, below is an email that I sent to a group of friends that will explain what has happened with our adoption. The email was sent on August 17th.

On Thursday we received some devastating news that a process change has happened within Kazakhstan and our adoption has fallen through. The Committee of Child's Rights Protection in Kazakhstan has decided that it is "discrimination" to choose a specific gender when adopting from their country. So, effective immediately, anyone who has not yet received an invite to travel, and who specified a gender in their dossier is being rejected and their dossiers are being sent back to the US. So, even though we have been waiting for a year and a half, and should have gotten the travel invite in March/April, we are in the group being rejected. Even though it was their process that allowed us to specify a gender in the first place, and we "followed" the rules thus far, they have basically changed the rules in the middle of the game, and are not allowing us to just sign an addendum saying we are open to any sex. (Which we of course are) At this point, our options are: to start all over with Kazakhstan, and submit new paperwork specifying no gender (paying all the fees again), and the wait time would be about 2 1/2 years. Switch to another country, each with their own "issues" and comparable wait times, or stop the adoption process altogether.There are other in's and out's to the situation, but this is it at a high level. Thanks for remembering to pray for us as we are dealing with the news and sorting out what God's plan is for us moving forward. There have been a lot of tears, as you know that these last 4 years have been hard and it's been a long road. But, God is giving us a true peace and comfort that only comes from Him. He has a plan for our lives. If He is saying no to this, then He has a better plan for us and we just have to trust Him and be patient; waiting for His perfect timing. Please pray that we will discern His will clearly. We have made a commitment that we will not move forward until there is perfect peace about what HE wants through all of this.

It is now October and we continue to wait for a clear direction from the Lord. Our dossier has not yet been returned, so we haven't had to make any decisions as far as that is concerned yet. I will update the blog again in a week or two, as I expect to have some news about the direction we are heading by then. I believe that God has good things in store as we wait on Him!

Update & Baby Shower Pics

I thought I'd give everyone an update since it's been a while. Things are still looking slow for us. We are technically "at the front of the line" but, who knows when the call will come, considering we were originally slated for March/April timeframe. There have been several people that were behind us in their timelines, but that have received the invite to travel already. At first I struggled with it, but now I have a peace that this is all in God's timing. When we are ready, and our son is ready, then we will go. God has been teaching Andy & I a lot over the past several months, and I think there are still things that He wants to work out in our hearts before we go. So, we are embracing this time to be transformed to be more like God. Afterall, this will prepare us for parenthood and make us better parents for this little miracle! Waiting is hard, but God is trying to teach us dependance and patience.

Well, since I promised a LONG time ago to post pictures of our baby shower, and I still happen to be up at 1:45am, I figured now was as good of a time as ever! Enjoy!

Nursery: Check!

We finally have the nursery done and I finished a few final touches today. Its very hard to walk by and see it empty day after day but I just think about the little man that is across the ocean and how much I hope he loves what his mommy and daddy have put together for him.
There are many things you have to consider when you are trying to create a new home for an adopted child... especially one that has come from an orphanage. You don't want to over stimulate them because they may not handle it well... but you also don't want to create a replica of the orphanage either!
Eventually we will have pictures of Kaz up on the wall for him to see so he can always be reminded of where he is from. Those will just have to wait till we get back!
Oh and yes, that is rocking moose! How cool is my son already?

Timeline Updates

I thought I'd post some thoughts today as the last few days have been a whirlwind of emotion. We found out recently that Kazakhstan adoptions through our agency have not sped up, though the number of adoptive families has increased. Essentially, we have sent a lot more dossiers to Kazakhstan than in the past, but Kazakhstan has said, we are not going to process any more than we have in the past. So, things haven't technically slowed down with their processes, but they have slowed down for waiting families because there are so many other families "waiting in line" with us.

I've been feeling really discouraged about this because we are now being told that we won't get "the call" in April. It will be longer, and they cannot even give us a month range. So, it could be June, it could be August. There are 29 people at the same stage as we are, and we are in the bottom quarter of the list. The only positive for us is that we are adopting a boy, whereas many in front of us are adopting girls. Girls take longer since so many people ask for girls rather than boys. So, while we are behind many people in line, we may get our invitation to travel before them because of this. I just keep trying to pray and trust that God knows our son and sees the exact timing it will take to bring us together. But, waiting to be a mom like I have over the last few years has definitely taken a toll on me.

So, as if this news wasn't enough, we got another scare yesterday. We found out that something was going on with Kazakhstan adoption and that there may be a freeze on all adoptions. Needless to say my heart sank. But, here's what I found out from a webcast this morning...

Apparently, there is a new Kazakhstan ambassador to the US. He is reviewing overall processes/procedures and wants to make sure all adoption processes are "above board" now that he has taken on this position. That's about all they know as to the "why."

As to the "what," there is a temporary suspension of new dossier processing in effect; but this is NOT a closure of Kazakhstan adoptions altogether. Basically they are saying that they will not process NEW dossiers until that review has taken place. They don't know how long this review will take, so no timeline has been given at this point.

As of right now, they are saying that anyone who currently has dossiers in Kazakhstan at the MOE will not be effected and will be processed. Luckily, our paperwork is at the MOE. Thank you Lord!

Keep praying that we will have an abundance of patience and faith as we wait to meet our son!

Baby Shower

Saturday we had a shower thrown for us and it was so wonderful! We had a really good turn-out and were blessed with more than we could imagine.

It's been amazing for me to see God's faithfulness to us. We haven't had to buy a thing out of our own pocket for our little guy except for some paint for his room! Everything else has been given to us or we've been given gift cards to cover the costs.

Once they are developed we'll post some pictures from the shower. Now for the hard part of making room in the house for all of his stuff! :) Can't wait to get his room finished and post those pictures too! I'll keep everyone posted on our progress!