some light

Word from Maeven before AA closed for the holiday was.." get docuements updated, we are preparing your dossier to be sent to the embassy in Jan /Feb". This is good.

some movement

I think we are either 6th or 7th. to have our dossier sent to the embassy. Maybe we will get it there by the end of January, but I think thats a big if.

Update

One more dossier approved at the embassy, one more sent to the embassy from our agency. Now 9 dossiers sit ahead of us to be sent to the embassy.
Patience my dear, patience.

No new updates from our agency regarding dossier submissions. Our dossier is 11th in line to be sent to the embassy. Please keep praying for us as the waiting con't to get more difficult. We know our child is out there and the timing will be in Gods perfect plan.

And the Wait Goes On- or was that supposed to be Beat Goes On

We continue waiting: updating documents as needed. Our dossier may not go to the DC embassy until Jan. I pray that is worst case scenario and that through some miracle it will be much sooner.

continuing the paperchase

Thursday we sent new medicals and my udated FBI clearance to the agency. Previously, Maeven said we were 14th in line to have our dossier sent to the embassy, I think now its 13th. We may still need to wait 2-4 months before ours gets sent. Lets keep our hopes on the short wait. Things are moving slowly regarding the embassy but at least a few dossiers have made it through since the embassy had a staff change-over earlier in the year. We are prayerfully thankful that our agency is Hague accredited, that they seem to be in good favor with the Kaz authorites and that things should progress - even if it is slow.
Happy Fall to all- my favorite season of the year!

another bump

I received a letter from my doctor on Friday that she will be quitting her practice and moving to Mayo clinic in AZ- A little too far to go for paperwork updates (like 2400 miles). I hope the documents we have (and will update just before she leaves at the end of the month) will be suffiecient. Keeping hope that our dossier wil be sent very soon.

more waiting

Word from our case worker with Adoption Ark is that our dossier has been received by the agency and we will now need to wait another "few months" before it can be sent due to the backlog of dossiers at the agency. I know that the nature of international adoption is uncertain (at best) and I don't blame anyone for the slown down but I just feel that for us the stumbling blocks are numerous and more boulder like rather than block like. What gets me the most is that there is a child in need waiting and unknowing of a family who so much desires a homecoming. Please keep us in your prayers as we struggle with patience knowing that the timing is not our will -but Gods.

BIG Job done- so far!

We finally got our dossier off to Maeven on Friday July 11, 2008 (will post a picture later) after 2 trips to Lansing and a lot of sweat, tears, and ever so patient waiting on the government and the FBI. Now we wait(some more). We will probably have to update a few things but hopefully our dossier will be sent off to the Embassy soon. There is a backlog of dossiers to send but we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed that ours will go soon. Our little darling is waiting!! - and so are we.

Welcoming Summer

June 14th- Mom, Dave and I went to Makinaw Island for Lilac festival. The weather was perfect and the lilacs were gorgeous! This time of year one can expect anything in the weather. We went prepared for rain , cold, wind, you name it. We had a perfect day and topped it off with a stop in Cross Village (north of Petosky and Harbor Springs) to have dinner at our favorite Polish restaurant.

So, now we have all documents needed for our dossier except the FBI clearances ( email from FBI states "in process" and Letter from Daves accountant who has not responded to emails. Hmh? Must be on vacation. All documents have been notarized.. THANK-YOU Kitty. I have attempted to fax them to Maeven for checking but the fax number is not answering and I just found out 2 people including Maeven are out of the office today. So- holding until Monday.

An Inch Closer...
Now that we have the I-171 we can move the ball closer to dossier submission. We have some vacation days starting July 9th and plan to go to Lansing for Apostille stamps on the 10th. We would have liked to drop everything and go now but work schedules, redo'ing now outdated documents and an upcoming holiday with friends coming to visit prevent us from going sooner. I will be patient and continue to plod along. Please keep us in your prayers.

One little step closer

Saturday June 21- received the 171-H -our immigration pre-approval. But also realized when looking through dossier documents that several of them need to be re-done because they are more than 4 months old. This stinks.

Hello to all. We continue to wait for our Immigration pre-approval to come through. I am hoping that it will come by the end of June. Until then- PATIENCE!!

Fingerprinting is done. Dave and I went to GR Tuesday April 29 for our 3rd fingerprinting adventure. We will probably have to wait about 2 months for our I-171h ( immigration pre-approval to adopt a child internationally) to come back. We can then get our dossier authenticated in Lansing and finally send it to the Kazakhstan embassy in Washington. Keep you fingers ( and toes) crossed.
My friend Heidi from work is also adopting from Kazakhstan and is about 2 months ahead of us. We are trying to keep each other sane.

Good Morning
Finally, a little progress. We received our fingerprinting appointment date in the mail. We go to Grand Rapids Tuesday, April 29th 9:00 am. Once done with that we wait 2-3 months for our immigration pre-approval to come in. Once that happens we can go to Lansing, get all our documents stamped with the Michigan state stamp (appostilled) then mail our dossier to the Kazakhstan embassy in Washington DC. Meanwhile...
Life continues here. I started planting this weekend. 40 Strawberry roots and 12 asparagus roots are in. Rhubarb is coming in like crazy- Dave saw them when they were just starting and wondered what "those green brains are". Anybody want some or know of some great recipes? Many seeds have been planted in peet and are doing well.
We also purchased 5 fruit trees- 3 cherry, 1 each pear and peach. They go in and out of the barn daily as they acclimate to the weather. The garage is clean, the leaves are raked, mulched and blown into the pines. The patio furniture is starting to come out and the dogs are enjoying laying around in the sun. Kaitlin brought home a baby bunny Friday, a grey and white mini lop she named Georgia. Annie loves to lay by her hutch and watch her. McGee actually demonstrated a very nice point when he took notice of her. A true bird dog at heart. Yesterday Dave cut down the Pussy-willow (sorry mom) and with the help of a friend got the massive stump out as well as another stump in the front yard. It was a good weekend and we have the sore muscles to prove it. Have a wonderful week.

hurry-up and wait

I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will receive our Homestudy in the mail today, so that I can get to the PO before they close and Priority mail our I-600a packet to Detroit so we can wait for the I-171H approval in order to finally send our dossier to the Kaz embassy-- all this hoping the embassy doesn't suspend accepting dossiers again before we can get ours in and approved.
I just read this back to myself and it makes my head spin!

Riding the roller-coaster

Well, for the second time this year (and its only March) Kazakhstan has suspended accepting new dossiers. We don't know the complete status of this situation yet and we anxiously await information from our case worker- Maeven at Adoption Ark(AA). We are pretty much done getting our dossier together and now need to figure out the next step since it will involve sending money to both agencies- Family adoption consultants (FAC) who is doing the homestudy update and AA doing the Kaz adoption. -- Hurry up and wait!!! Meanwhile I keep looking at the face of the little girl we hope to adopt and trying to draw patience and determination from her hopeful smile.

Paperwork- BLAH!!!

More paperwork to do! Just received a BIG packet of paperwork to fill out from our China agency because they will be the follow-up agency for our Kazakhstan adoption. I think this is the point where anyone faint of heart may just have a major meltdown--I am close!!! Pray that I keep my sanity and don't drive those around me crazy.

Waiting

It seems like all we do is wait. Today is Valentines day and I want to give our new child a great big hug and kiss and can't yet. We are hearning of delays at the Kazakh embassy and just become disheartened when things aren't seeming to work out for us. We will continue to pray and hope for God to bless us with children. We pray that this dossier will go through smoothly and we will be united with our Kazakhstani child soon. We will be positive and continue working on our dossier in good faith. Please keep us in your prayers.

Working on the Dossier

We received our dossier packet last Friday and are now busy putting it together, hopefull will get it sent out soon.

New Journey

We have started a new journey.
Yesterday we sent application to a new adoption agency to begin the process of adoption from Kazakhstan. Our long term goal is to have 2 -3 new children in our family. We continue waiting in China, however due to significant slowdown in the referral process, that wait may still be several years yet. In searching photolistings of waiting children we found a little girl.
She waits in Kazakhstan for her forever family. We hope that family will be ours.
She is nearly three and she is beautiful. She was born with cleft lip and palate. The palate still needs surgical correction.
We hope you will follow us on this journey as well as our journey to China.