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