We're Home

Just a short post for now: Finished paperwork in 2 days; took a flight out 3:20am Wed, returned Wed 8/20 to Chicago, then drove back and arrived at our home by afternoon. Thrilled to have Ana in our home!

More later -

The Byrne Family...all five

In Daddy's Arms

Dan arrived in Almaty about midnight Monday morning(1 pm Sunday in Wisconsin). Less than 2 hours later he was handed Ana. Daddy and Ana are spending a few days in Kazakhstan for more paperwork. We are counting the minutes until we are a family of five in our home.

Love From Around the World,
Allison, Joe & Matty and Dan & Ana

Due Date

We have a due date. After a lot of bureaucracy Dan is leaving August 16 to go to Kazakhstan to get our daughter home! She is legally ours according to Kazakhstan - if we could get the US on that train we would be in great shape. Seriously, we do not foresee any hangups (?!.) Dan and Ana will arrive in Chicago on August 22.

Dan is reading over my shoulder and said I was being too reserved in my comments so I will add an official "who-hoo" from the new-again Daddy.

Love The Byrne Family

Dan, Allison, Joe, Matty and Ana

Four Home

Dan and I are writing this blog from our couch in Wauwatosa, listening to music sung in English, drinking real coffee. Joe is playing legos and Matthew is still asleep after 12 hours.

It feels like Christmas morning.

Thanks everybody. We'll keep you posted this month. Keep praying the magic day will be about August 15.

Love, Dan, Allison, Joseph and Matthew

Bonus day with Ana

Well, the punch line of this story is that we went to court today and the hearing went well, and we were granted our request for adoption – so that is GREAT news. As it happened…our supposed 10am appointment at the court finally got underway about 4:25pm! There were no issues with our paperwork or anything, this was just one of those random things that can happen; who knows, maybe something pressing came up for the courts or an official was out of the office unexpectedly, or whatever. In fact, there were probably 4 additional families who also were supposed to have their court hearings in the morning, and all of us were delayed until the afternoon.

So this threw us for a loop only because we were supposed to have our court appt at 10am and then be on a plane to Almaty at 3pm. So after waiting from 10am until about 1pm, we ended up changing our flight to Almaty to one day later (so now Thursday we go from Ust back to Almaty). We should still be in plenty of time for our flights back to the states, we should land in Almay about 5pm Thursday and our flight to Frankfurt doesn’t leave until 3am so some 10 hours later.

But now we do get one added bonus, we get to see Ana one last time tomorrow morning, since our flight (there is only 1 per day from Ust to Almaty) doesn’t leave until 3pm. So we are now back in the Shiny River for our second “last night.”

The big news of the day, though, is of course that the court hearing went well. All that now remains, at least from the perspective of the Kazakh adoption process, is to run out the clock on the 16 day waiting period. So now we’ll count the days until July 26.

We’re not sure if we’ll be able to post again before we get back to the States – hopefully we won’t be writing from the Shiny River again tomorrow night!

Some pictures below, one of Ana teething, one of her noticeably not enjoying a Mets hat (we’ll need to fix that), also a picture of the boys on a little boat at a park we found and Matthew in front of the WWII monument (we had a lovely walk by the river & monument with our translator, Olga, who has been a great help to us). Also one is a shot of a picture Joseph made for Ana's room while we're gone.

-The Byrne Family

Getting closer...

Very important news: today Ana got her first tooth! We know she has been teething (this based on copious amounts of slobbering & chewing on her hands and anything else she could find for the past 2 weeks). This morning we felt and then saw the top her first tooth, on the bottom left side. So when she chews on things now it will sometimes sooth her and other times give her a shot of pain from this or maybe other teeth that are close. Just makes us want to get her home all the faster. We were imagining today that when we finally get her home she’ll probably have even more (unless she is as slow at teething as her brothers were). But it was neat to be here for her first one anyway.

So now we are busy getting everything ready for our last visits…gifts for the caregivers, translators, drivers; court documents, etc. It’s actually good to have these things to keep us busy in these last few days.

Somewhat disappointed we missed the 4th of July at home, this is always such a great holiday in our neighborhood. But we told the boys we’d have our own little 4th of July celebration the day we get Ana home, again this is making the assumption that this adoption stays on track & all goes well.

So here’s where we are in terms of process: After court (Wed, July 9) the “appeal period” starts. This lasts, we think, for 16 calendar days. Then on July 25, if no one has objected during the appeal period (her biological parents, grandparents, etc.), then the deal is really done. As of July 26, no one can undo this thing, from there on out it is just cleaning up paperwork and getting her back to the States. So on July 26 we’ll breath easier and start the real party! Again – this is all on the assumption that the court hearing goes well on July 9, which we expect will be the case.

Boys continue to do well, although the trip is starting to wear thin on them. Meltdowns are become somewhat more frequent. But who can blame them! We are so happy we brought them along – sometimes on a tough evening here it has been only the boys who could put a smile back on our face. I don’t think the combination of this process and being away from the boys for a month would have been easy to swallow. Will try and finally get the boys to the zoo this afternoon, also we hear there is a Mexican restaurant over there with potentially good Fajitas and Margueritas, so we'll give it a try.

Well, we have only three more full days here in Ust, almost can’t believe it. We have encountered so many good people along the way that have made this tough process easier for us. And we have received great support from our friends and family at home. We are so blessed, and so thankful to everyone.

Few more pictures below, one is of the boys on a playground here, this is a typical playground that we see here, usually positioned in the middle of several multifamily housing units kind of like a courtyard.

All the best –

The Byrne Family

Week 3

We’ve had some really fun visits with Ana the past few days. Seems she is feeling better, she is still congested a little but maybe her bronchitis has been mostly taken care of with the meds they gave her. She is giving us more in the way of interaction and smiles all the time, which is great.

Only real news to report is our court date. We found out yesterday that our first court date is July 9. This is good news, as it should allow us to keep our original airline schedule for return flights, etc. So the plan at present is to leave Ust on July 9 after the court hearing, spend July 10 in Almaty, then leave for USA at 3:20am on Friday July 11, putting us back in Chicago by 10:30 or so local time (connect in Frankfurt), then a couple hours to Milwaukee via car and HOME.

We are really looking forward to home, except of course it is getting harder to think about leaving Ana for a month. But we’ll make it and provided everything goes as expected, we hope to finalize this sometime in mid-August.

Also – we’ve said it before, but it has been so great to have many other wonderful families here going through what we are experiencing, it is a necessary support group. Thanks to everyone for their help during this process.

More pictures below, enjoy. The one with me & Matthew is haircut day. I convinced Allison to cut my hair rather than try & figure out a barber, and Matthew wanted to help. So Allison duct taped some paper strips on a grapefruit and Matthew had a great time cutting "Mr. grapefruit daddy's" hair. Also there is a picture of Matthew sleeping in his "cozy bed" here, he likes it when we push together the two armchairs & then put a comforter & blankets in there for him.

-The Byrne Family

Week 2 Update

Well – more of the same for week 2. We do our two visits a day (one a day on weekends), arrange meals, then do our laundry & dishes in the sink. However this weekend we are at the point where we will need to get materials ready for our court appointments, so that will make it seem like things are moving along.

Ana is doing very well. She is still congested from the bronchitis (she has a pretty good cough from time to time) but it does seem that whatever they gave her has helped. When she first sees us at the beginning of a visit we are now regularly rewarded with a smile, which makes us feel great. Her favorite things now are patti cake; watching the boys’ antics; her “crinkly” book (one of those baby books with the cellophane or whatever inside); her inflatable globe; and also just being held when she’s tired.

It is great to visit her, but it is getting predictably long…by that I mean that you can only do so much seeing her a couple hours a day. We just want to get her home now, but that won’t be until mid-August (we hope) which seems like a long way away to us right now. So its day to day – each day down brings us a day closer.

The boys are doing well. They have been really sweet to Ana which is great to see. From time to time they get to bouncing off the walls of the hotel, but who can blame them…so do we at this point! We do our best to make it a fun trip for them. There is a courtyard of sorts in front of the hotel so we take the soccer ball down there & kick it around almost every day. We try to get to a park or to their favorite restaurant (it has a ball pit) every day or two. Also the fact that the weather has been warm and dry has been a godsend, as the boys can play outside at the baby house on the playgrounds right with us while we’re seeing Ana. This would be a lot tougher to pull off with the boys if we had to be inside!

Our driver, coordinator and everyone involved with our process has been just great. We feel they are helpful, knowledgeable and that our process is in very good hands. We are so thankful for that.

At this point although things are going well here, we are craving the sights, sounds, tastes & company of home. It will be great to see our family & friends, our neighborhood, our patio, the grill, and the wine rack at Sendik’s!

We have some updated pictures below. Thank you to everyone for your continued thoughts & prayers.

-The Byrne Family

Daily Life

Day 10 of "bonding" went very well. Life here is surreal. A wonderful couple across the hall from us summed up life here is Ust very well - "Think "Groundhog Day" meets "Life in Translation." What really makes bizarre is the one CD that the hotel has that they play over and over and over again - just a little too loudly. Stylized muzak versions of "Over the Rainbow", some Godfather song, some wierd circus theme and then some synthesizer thing. Everyday we go to the breakfast buffet, the boys say hello and thank you in russian, we pass over the number of beef tounge and cabbage choices and stick to the yogurt, tomatoes, cucumbers, fruit and baked goods. Dan has an omelette daily. We carry out breakfast and instant coffee to a table while listening to hear where we are in the music rotation.
There are several wonderful families here. There are four from Spain, including an adorable three year old. I pull out my Spanish and they pull out their English and we all do our best. The 10 plus families with six or so siblings are kind and supportive. Joe has started playing a little soccer with a dad from Spain - Joe is trying to hit his ball with his head.
We just finished lunch - peanut butter and nutella sandwiches, apples, peanuts, milk with a 1 year shelf life and Nesquik. I did a "load of laundry" in the bathroom sink. Being married to a sailor has advantages - you should see what he can do with a 6X3 bathroom and a laundry line.
I hit paydirt yesterday - I traded 2 of my books with a Canadian mom for three of hers.
We are meeting with another couple of and their child tonight. We will all share what we have for a feast. Last night we met with 2 families from our hotel. We shared Kazak beer, screwdrivers (when in Rome...), Kazak bread, and a delicious cake from the grocery store.

More tomorrow,
The Byrne Family

Monday Update

Happy to report that Ana seems to be feeling better, she has been more awake and alert the past few days. Whatever they are giving her for the bronchitis seems to be working. Our single visits on Saturday & Sunday and our two visits Monday went very well.

This whole process is quite a roller coaster though. Although we've come a long way in this process, we are aware that there is a long way to go as well. We have a good four weeks of paperwork and "appeal periods" where this could fall through. So while we find ourselves getting attached to Ana (of course) we are remaining conscious that this is really not over until its over, as they say.

After our court date in about two weeks, there is an appeal period, but after that appeal period is done I think we are probably out of the woods. So now we are counting the days -

We had a fun evening with the boys last night, we found out there is another hotel in town that has a pool and allows people to come and swim for a reasonable fee, so we took the boys swimming last night & they had a blast. Made them pretty tired so we had the first real meltdown for Joe last night before bed. He's done so well this trip I think he was due. They're still sleeping (its 7:50am here) so will let them sleep a few minutes more at least.


Thanks so much for all the support from everyone, we couldn't do this alone!

Sorry no pictures today, more to come soon.

-The Byrne Family

Week 1

Thanks for your patience everyone – we have some more pics below. The week has actually gone very fast for us here in Ust, it has been very full, and sometimes daunting (Cyrillic alphabet still making no sense at all). But we have met little Ana. Actually not so little! She is a big kid for her age considering she has been in the orphanage – almost 18 pounds.

Where to start - ? After meeting Ana on Monday, we began our daily routine. On weekdays, we see Ana from 10am until about 11:30am. Then we see her again in the afternoon from 2:30 to 3:30. We usually take the boys along in the mornings, then in the afternoons one or the other of us sometimes goes since it is Matthew’s naptime. For each visit, we have a driver pick us up (arranged by our agency) and that has worked great. The Baby House (what they call the orphanage) is about 15 minutes from the hotel, not bad at all.

Poor Ana is sick right now though. We could tell she had a cough the first day or two, and then on Wed we got there & were told they took her to the hospital for a chest Xray. By the next day she was on meds for bronchitis. We think this is making her feel a little better, but unfortunately it also makes here pretty sleepy so sometimes our visits are more about just holding her & making her comfortable than active interaction. In any event, we look forward to her getting over her illness and also getting off the meds & “waking up” a little more. Today we did get some good smiles and more laughs than yesterday so we hope she is on the mend.

The boys have been great on this trip, real troopers. Joseph as the big brother has been asked at times by us to make several concessions to his three year old brother that go above and beyond what a 5 year old should really be asked I think, so we informed him that if he continues to do such a great job he can pick out one of those big Lego sets he’s been wanting when we get back. He’s very excited and tells everyone he meets about it!

Matthew has also been great. He’s been going to sleep really well and has taken a good nap every day (those of you who know Matthew know this is crucial or he turns to the dark side at about 4pm!). He has been lots of fun in the hotel room here making up all sorts of games with his brother, jumping on the beds, dancing, etc…! You know Matthew, never a dull moment. Both boys have been very sweet with Ana as well.

We have been so fortunate on this journey in many ways. Allison’s father Dan joined us for about the first week of the trip to help with the boys as we got settled in, did initial paperwork, etc. We were so grateful to him for this; it made a tremendous difference and allowed us to focus on what we needed to for the first few days. He is now back in Queens and no doubt went straight to the avenue for a cup of decent coffee and an English newspaper, two things that are near and dear to his heart and also nearly impossible to find here in Ust!

In addition, we have become acquainted with several other adoptive families here, some from the US, also from Ireland, Germany, Spain, Canada and more. Everyone, without exception, has been so generous in helping us get settled and it has made a big difference having them as a resource. Everyone who comes here from the west is great about passing on all they have learned about getting along here in Ust. We’ll of course do the same when we become the “veterans!”

Tomorrow we have one morning visit (only one visit a day on weekends), that will be day 7 of our 14 days of official “bonding time.” We’ll likely head to a park or something in the afternoon, and might go out for a bite in the afternoon or evening with some of the other adoptive families.

As time & internet connections allow, we’ll post again in a few days. Thanks as always for all of the good thoughts & prayers coming our way.

-Dan, Allison, Joseph & Matthew

Here She Is

We are thrilled to introduce the baby girl we hope will be our daughter!

We were “matched” on Monday afternoon with a beautiful, 8 month old baby girl. Everything is going well, we of course have many more hoops to jump through, but at this point things look good. We now have about another 2 weeks of “bonding” time, after which we will set a court date here in the Ust region.

Her given name is Anastasia, at this point we think we will keep her name and call her Ana. Just today she weighed in at a very healthy 17.75 pounds and she is rolling over. The boys had a great time meeting her today and were very sweet.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts & prayers! Internet connections here are a little spotty, but we'll do our best to keep everyone posted.

Love,

Dan, Allison, Matthew & Joseph

We're Here

Hello Family and Friends,

We made it. After forty hours, Frankfurt without euros, conversations with Belgians adopting from Kareganda, KZ, breakfast in an outdoor restaurant in Almaty, and a stunning view of Ural mountain range we are settled in our hotel in Ust-Kamenogorsk. What an adventure. We have already met about 4 American moms or couples in our hotel also adopting. Across the hall from us is Crytal and her gorgeous daughter Adell, who turned one and learned to walk here in the hotel. Next door is Laurie and her 8 year old daughter Marina.

The boys have been wonderful. Joe is more accommodating than most adults I know. Matthew wondered if we could slip back to our house to pick up something for him. Both are willing to change diapers for their new baby girl.

We go to the baby house tomorrow. Seems surreal. Our adoption coordinator met us at the airport and before she left our hotel she said the baby she has in mind for us will be a wonderful fit for our family ?!

Had breakfast with Lauren from DC. She had a picture of her five year old daughter Tanya. She is already a proud beaming mom and told us wonderful stories about Tanya. She said the other children in the orphanage break her heart. Another little girl there said “I love you – now can I come home with you.” What can you say.

More tomorrow. Lots of love,

Allison, Dan, Joseph and Matthew

Process and Paperchase Update

We are still on course to travel to Ust, hopefully mid-June or so. Very excited but nervous!

A few weeks ago we had a paperwork fire drill, we figured out that our I-171H was actually going to expire on June 18, probably while we are in Kaz. So we went through a full court press sort of process, updated our home study, background checks, etc. and then sent everything off to the USCIS with a rush on it. Ultimately we won that battle and got our new I-171H late last week.

Now we are in the process of getting the paperwork in order for visas and getting some final things apostilled...also checking the box on things like travel insurance, financial arrangements, etc. So much to do, but we have now kicked the process into high gear.

Thanks to everyone for all of your help and support!

Dan

LOI Day !

We need to be in the baby house in Ust-Kamenogorsk sometime in mid June! So we think this may actually happen soon!

Tomorrow we have a call with our coordinator and might get some more information, but for now we are just so excited and honestly can't quite believe it!

More soon -

Dan, Allison and soon-to-be-big-brothers Joseph & Matthew Byrne

Region Change

We found out yesterday that our paperwork has been moved from Aqtobe to the Ust-Kamenogorsk, and our agency now estimates that we will travel in June...although as everyone knows in this process, that could change to be sooner or later for any number of reasons.

While this past month or so has been tough with the process up in limbo once again, we feel good about this most recent development. So we have a renewed (if guarded) optimism this morning!

Also, our agency told us that Ust is a "good" region in terms of the speed of the process, and their tolerances on paperwork. That means that if the schedule unfolds as expected, we will likely not have to redo (once again) things like doctors' appointments, etc. So that is good news as well.

Thanks to everyone for your support, thoughts and prayers. We'll post again when we have any more news.

-Dan & Allison

Still waiting

We have no further news, Alla our caseworker from Adoption Ark has been in Kaz for for a little over a week now; she will be there until about April 13, I think. We are anxiously awaiting some color from her on our status - hopefully we will hear something this week. We have heard of some other families whose process is moving along so we are hopeful that we'll get word soon.

Thank you to everyone for your support and your encouraging posts on our blog!

-Dan, Allison & the boys

Possible Delay and/or Region Change

Yesterday we received news from our agency, Adoption Ark, that although our paper work was received in Aqtobe, that region now may have a wait of a few months. So this was obviously a bit of a downer.

But we really do feel AA and Alla are doing their best on all of this for us and the situation will resolve itself. We are adjusting our expectations on travel times to be a bit farther out now (May or June?), although honestly we wouldn't be shocked, given the uncertainty of the entire process, to get a surprise call in April saying for us to come right away. Seems you just never know what to expect with this process.

Good news though is that Alla, our coordinator, is traveling to Kaz on 3/31 and will be there for a week or two. At that time she will meet with regional adminstrators from both Aqtobe and Ust-Kamenogorsk, a different region in the far East of Kaz. There is a chance that we may be able to switch to that region, where Alla feels that the timeframe might be shorter. So - we therefore look forward to getting more clarity in early to mid April when Alla makes here trip to Kaz.


We are still pushing ahead with paperwork so we're ready to go, just in case we go sooner rather than later.

Until next time,

-Dan, Allison & the boys

Paperwork continued...

We received our updated I-171H today with updated fingerprints, so we won the battle with USCIS. Good Grief. Also we've had another round of checkups and made sure immunizations have been taken care of or are in the process.

Our paperwork should now be with the Aqtobe regional ministry now. We still anticipate travel in May or maybe as soon as April. As Allison says, we are "trying to balance our excitement with our nerves."

-Dan

Paperchase: Not a very exciting post.

We are pushing the paperwork update as fast as we can, the stopper right now is the fingerprinting update at USCIS. We are scheduled to get re-fingerprinted on 3/4, but hoping we can do it tomorrow, 2/27. The question really is how can we get them to expedite the processing after we get re-fingerprinted. Adoption Ark (our agency) has been very helpful, and gave us a letter that we passed on expressing how we could travel at any time. Hopefully we can lever this to get processing expedited.

Doc appointments next week to once again confirm that we are in good health. Also need to make sure our "in country" folders are in order.

We have found so many other people who are either traveling to or have traveled to Aqtobe, and all have such great positive stories to tell - this has been a great comfort to us.

Our extended families are supportive and nervous at the same time. As much as this whole process is an unknown to us, it is much more so to them. We have faith that ultimately everything will unfold as it is meant to in this process, and all the work will be a very small price to pay for the end result.

Dan

First Week since Region Assignment

It has been a good week or so since we received our region assignment on Feb 8th...so much to do and so much to learn in probably just a few months. We are having lots of fun looking at other adoptive families' blogs and websites and learning about their experiences. Everyone we have reached out to in the adoption community has been so generous in offering their help.

The paperwork review is in full swing, we are double checking things and updating anything necessary. We need to get our fingerprints on our I-171H updated, hopefully that will happen this week. Also we schedule doc appointments for updated physicals for Allison and I in early March - the timing is per our agency's recommendation.

We have also started talking to our boys about this a bit more. They know, more or less, what we are going to do, and they also know that while we MAY do this sometime soon, it also may not happen soon. Don't want to get them too worked up and the let down if there is a delay for some reason.

At this point we are planning on taking the boys. I think it could be a great trip for all of us, an adventure undertaken for the best reason possible, and one we'll always remember.

On the more mundane fronts, it is back to paperwork reviews...fun fun. Need to check international health coverage, travel insurance, and other relevant items. This week need to have a pretty concrete list of anything we need to put in force before the trip.

Dan

Anticipation

Went to talk to the international adoption clinic at Children's Hospital today. They gave me great advice for travel and are willing to help with any health questions we have here, in Kazakhstan and if we bring a kido back. While we are in Kaz we can get them information and they can get back to us within hours. They suggested some antibiotics to bring for us and the kido. We are also working with homeland security to renew our fingerprints. We can't call or go so we have an appt on Tuesday.

When researching Kazak culture I learned the Kazak people are of Turkish, Uzbek, Chinese, Mongolian and Russian decent. Makes researching ethnicities a little difficult. On the upside I learned something cool. According to "Amazon Warrior Women," a PBS "Secrets of the Dead" episode, there is evidence that some of the Kazakh population are descendants of the culture which spawned the Amazon Warrior myth within Ancient Greek literature (wikipedia).

Seems perfect for my daughter.