Winter Wonderland

What better way to pass the endless days of waiting than with 7-8 inches of snow! Over the weekend we had a big snowfall. We are used to getting between 1-3 inches of snow. So when the boys woke up on Saturday morning and saw the winter wonderland in our backyard, they were thrilled! We immediately suited up in winter gear (the Monkey does NOT like the cold weather much so he was wearing several layers; very reminiscent of the brother in A Christmas Story) and braved the cold and had a blast playing outside for several hours. I'll include a few pictures of our fun snow day:





Of course, now we are paying for all of that fun. The Monkey has come down with a bad case of croup and pneumonia on top of that. Poor little guy. It seems like he has been sick all winter. We are so ready for spring to arrive!

No news on the adoption front. I still have a feeling that something is going to happen soon, but of course, I've felt that way for almost a year now and we're still waiting:) But seriously, I really do expect to see some movement very soon. I would LOVE to have a referral before Easter but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I'll be sure to post as soon as I hear anything.

Anxious

I'm not sure why but this past week has found me extremely anxious about the adoption. Not in a bad or depressed way; I guess I should call it more anticipation that anxiety. I don't know if it's because we have several good friends traveling to meet/pick up their children (both in Astrakhan and in Kyrgyzstan). We love following their journeys and hearing updates about their travels, but it is bringing up all of those memories of how exciting/overwhelming/exhausting the trips can be. Seeing pictures of the new families simply makes my heart melt. I'm sure knowing that we're near the top of the list isn't helping my patience level either.
Whatever the reason, this week has definitely brought a new level of anticipation to this process. I "feel" like something may happen soon. I have a need to finish so many of the projects that I've been putting off. I have a major case of nesting going on. I'm dying to start on the nursery, but I've promised myself that I'm leaving that project to undertake between our trips.
We've been on this journey for well over 18 months and have been waiting to meet our HotDog for almost 15 months (in both Russia and Kyrgyzstan). I feel almost a physical ache to hold my little girl in my arms.
The Chipmunk and I are heading to Atlanta this weekend to visit family. It will give the Monkey some good one-on-one time with his daddy, and will hopefully get my mind off of this craziness for a little while.

A Short and Sweet Story

I just had to share this sweet moment from this weekend. We had roasted turkey for dinner one night and, as always, I searched for the wishbone for the Chipmunk and Monkey. After breaking it, Chipmunk got the bigger end and I told him he could make a wish. He thought about it for a moment, and then said "I wish that HotDog comes home soon."
Me too, buddy...me too.

The Waiting Game

Many of you have asked when we can expect a referral. The short answer: Who knows?!
The longer answer: It is difficult to know when to expect a referral in Kyrgyzstan because there is no central database listing available children (as opposed to Russia). The children are referred as they enter the orphanages or in some cases the maternity hospitals. What we have heard from our agency sounds very promising. We are currently 4th in line (with our agency). However, our agency is expecting 2 referrals to come in this week, which means we will move up to number 2. And because we are very open in our request for a referral (regarding age/race/etc), there is a possibility that we will get a match ahead of the family in front of us. Does that make sense? So we are near the top of the list with our agency! Yeah! Of course, it could be several more months before any more referrals come to our agency. But knowing we are getting very close to seeing our little HotDog's face has me VERY excited. I'll admit, I've been sneaking peeks at all of the clothes for little girls. They are so cute! Especially the adorable little bathing suits. But not to worry (especially you, Stu!), I will resist the impulse to buy anything until we get our referral and know what size she is and her age. But after that, all bets are off!

The (Second to) Last Piece of the Puzzle

Today we received our updated I-171 with our country change! This was the very last piece of the dossier and we didn't expect to receive it for several more weeks. We were actually concerned that it might hold us up since the CIS is definitely not known for sending documents in a timely fashion. We were thrilled that we received our new 171 less than two weeks after sending in our change request. In addition to quick service, they let us know that they allow a one-time change of country for free. We completely expected to pay $340 to do this, so this was a wonderful bit of news. They also said we could go ahead and request an extension to our 171 at the same time (since it was due to expire in a couple of months) and they would take care of it all at the same time. Seriously, our local CIS office ROCKS!
Now the only thing we are waiting for is a referral. Sigh.

Adios Dossier

We finally completed our dossier and it is on its way to our agency! While this doesn't really change anything about our process or getting a referral, it is such a relief to get that thing out of my house. With two little Tasmanian devils (formerly know as Chipmunk and Monkey) at my house that tend to destroy anything that gets in their way, I was anxious anytime they were within 10 feet of my beautiful pile of paperwork. I don't think I realized how worried I was about something happening to it until the other night. We were having a terrible storm with hurricane-strength wind that was sounded like it going to blow the house down. I woke up at 2:00 in the morning thinking that a tornado was approaching. I'm emabarassed to admit that my first thought was not to make sure my boys were safe and okay but to make sure that my dossier didn't get blown away. Yes, I realize how sad that is and I won't be nominating myself for any mother-of-the-year awards anytime soon. So I was thrilled to hand that baby over to Stu this morning and say goodbye to it. I have no idea what happens to it now; I'm just thrilled that it is out of my hands.
Of course, this also means that we are truly just waiting at this point which is so hard. We've been waiting for 7 weeks(yeah!), but I've been busy putting the dossier together so it has flown by. Now my work is finished and I think I'll be obsessing over the wait every single day. Thank goodness I have my two rays of sunshine (okay, three rays of sunshine if you include Stu) to keep me occupied!

A Little About Kyrgyzstan

Since so many of you have been asking about our new country and the process I thought I would do a brief entry with some details.

The country:


Kyrgyzstan was born on the 31st of August, 1991 as a sovereign modern democratic state. Though young in years, it has a rich heritage and cultural continuity that dates back to many thousand years of antiquity and history.

Situated in the North-East of Central Asia it has a total area of 198.5 thousand square kilometres supporting a population of 4.7 million. Kyrgyzstan borders with Kazakhstan in the North, Uzbekistan in the West, Tadjikistan in the South West, and China in the South East.

Placed along the Silk Route on the historic crossroads of trade and cultural exchanges between China, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and the Arabian Sea, Kyrgyzstan is home for more than 8O minorities and ethnic communities. Kyrgyz, Russian, Uzbek, Ukrainian, Germans, Tatars, Kazaks, Uigur and Tadjik among others. As a multi-national state Kyrgyzstan has a rich variety of languages, literature, folklore, arts, crafts, customs and communities that lend color and variety to Kyrgyz culture.

The process:
The adoption process in Kyrgyzstan is very similar to Russia in some ways, very different in others. I'm still very new to this country so I know the basics but not many of the details. And if I screw any of this up I hope one of the other Kyrgyzstan families will help me out.
Kyrgyzstan has only been open to international adoption for a short time (relative to many other countries). I believe the first agencies started working there in early 2006. There are still very few agencies that work there; maybe 6-8 them. But it seems there are more agencies journeying to this country everyday.
So our first decision was to choose an agency. Each agency has advantages and disadvantages and since there is no centralized system, many of the agencies do things quite differently. After talking with all of the agencies and several families, we made the big decision. We sent in the contracts and were officially placed on "the list" for a referral as of mid-December. While we wait for a referral, I'm busy updating our old Russian dossier to meet the new requirements. Luckily for us, the Kyrgyzstan dossier is so much easier than our Russian one and we had most of the paperwork ready to go. Our homestudy agency has been busy filling out new paperwork for us and I think our new dossier should be ready to go by the end of this week.
Referrals for infant girls tend to take between 2-4 months; we've already got one month down - Woohoo!! Of course it could come sooner (although highly unlikely) or it could come later. There is no centralized database with available children so it is hard to estimate when we could anticipate a referral. They process the children as they enter the babyhomes, I think.
A big difference (for us) is that we will get pictures and basic information/medicals when we receive a referral. We've always traveled blind in our previous adoptions, meaning we got absolutely no information other than the referral met our requests (i.e. a boy under 18 months). Surprisingly we have always like this option. There was no picture to get attached to, no obsessing over incomplete medicals, etc. I think it is going to be so much harder for us this time, having our daughter's picture, knowing she is half way across the world waiting for us. However, I do believe seeing a picture of their little sister will help the boys understand why Stu and I are leaving on our first trip.
Anyway, once we receive a referral we will travel to meet her a couple of weeks later. This is where the big difference in agencies comes in. With most agencies the first trip is between 3-6 days. One agency actually offers a one-trip option (you don't go for a bonding period, just to pick-up); however that agency has closed its waiting list to even apply due to the explosion of interest. Our agency requires a 14-day bonding period during the first trip.
Many of you might be thinking we are crazy for actually choosing an agency that makes the first trip so long. We, however, are okay with this for several reasons. We had already anticipated a longer trip if we had completed our Astrakhan adoption (actually the second trip would have been over 3 weeks or we would have returned third time). What is more exciting is that we will have some good quality time in our daughter's home country. It is very important to us to soak up as much about Kyrgyzstan while we can because with three young children at home there is probably no way we will be able to come back and visit anytime in the foreseeable future. I think we'll visit with her for several hours each day so we should have lots of downtime to get out and explore a bit.
After our 14-day bonding period, we will come home and return in 4-6 weeks to pick up our daughter! The second trip is about a week and then we fly home.
So that's the new country in a nutshell. If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Everything is so new that I am learning new details everyday.
I do feel so fortunate to have found this program when we did. The interest in adopting from this country has exploded. So many new families have signed up for this country just since we applied. The wait times have already extended by several months and will continue to do so I believe. But we are 100% committed to Kyrgyzstan and know that our daughter is there.
And the wait continues.....