Dossier Done!

Yeah! I dropped our completed dossier into the FedEx box Saturday morning (2 days ago) to send it off to the courier in Tallahasse for it to be Apostilled - all 40 notarized documents that took me exactly two weeks of craziness to compile. Not bad though, I think two weeks was pretty good. Luckily, everything went smoothly obtaining the records. I expedited everything I possibly could, so I think that helped.
I have to say, as I dropped that envelope into the box, I had to resist the urge to try to reach back in, tear it open and recheck everything. Now I'll worry until I have it all back safe in my hands. It makes me panicky to think of having to do all of it over again if something happens - horrible thoughts of FedEx or the courier losing it or papers torn, etc. run through my mind.
Of course, then I will send it to the agency and it will go back and forth across the Atlantic a couple of times! THAT'S when I will REALLY worry!
I have started getting some things together for the trip. I made a packing list compiled from several lists that I found on various adoption travel websites. We are going to have to start shopping for winter clothes to take as our Florida clothing will certainly not suffice for winter in Kazakhstan. This is assuming no unforeseen delays occur that would push our travel dates off until spring.
I seem to be thinking more about having to leave little man for this trip. I guess since it is getting closer. I just don't know how I am going to do it! I have to just keep pushing it out of my mind.
I also joined a new yahoo group that formed - AdoptAttach - it is for discussion of attachment and attachment parenting. I completely agree with the entire concept and hope to learn as much as I can to prepare for our new addition. But, in many ways reading some of the posts makes me feel guilty and worried about the fact that I will have to return to work full time after 12 weeks. But, at least my great mom is there to help instead of having to go to daycare.
Will post again soon!

Change of plans!

I have been very bad about posting on this blog! We have just been so busy this summer, and really nothing had changed much with our adoption process --- until now!
Since the end of May everything has been "on hold" in Russia. Our prelim. dossier completed, but just sitting waiting for our agency to get NGO registration and reaccreditation. So, I guess that there really hasn't been much to post about! I'm not the type to sit down and write about my feelings and thoughts and keep a journal every day. Sorry!
Well, now I will change the name of our blog to "Our Kazakhstan Adoption".
Very unexpectedly about 2 -3 weeks ago a little 2 1/2 year old boy "fell into my lap". I was just looking around online on some various adoption related websites (my obsession these last few months - absorbing all the information I can get) when I came across Until All Have Homes. This is an organization who tries to assist in finding adoptive families for waiting special needs children. There were a couple of children on their website that were in Russia and I inquired about them. This led me to an adoption agency that was representing the children. Upon speaking with the caseworker at this agency, I told her where we were at with our adoption and what age child and special needs we were willing to consider. She told me she had just received a referral of a little boy in Kazakhstan who was a preemie and had undergone open heart surgery earlier this year for a congenital heart defect. To make a long story short, over next 2 weeks I was able to speak with an IA doctor here in the US who had already reviewed his case (and consulted with 2 pediatric cardiologists here in the US) and received a total of 12 -15 great quality recent digital photos of him. I also spoke with a family who had just returned from his baby home where they were adopting a 4 year old boy. After much of this research and soul-searching, we have decided to take that "leap of faith"!
I feel blessed that we have received so much information on him that we likely would not have gotten on another referral. He is doing well and his cardiac prognosis is great. He is very small in weight and height, but all along his head circumference has been normal for his age. He is not speaking but "mama" , but I've been told his receptive language seems fine.
I'm sure we will need to pursue speech therapy and likely some other Early Intervention services.
So, now we have changed agencies and countries. I just received our new dossier 2 days ago and having been tackling it head on to get it done ASAP. We want that travel date! Knowing that there's a specific little boy waiting really makes every day that ticks by seem like it is taking too long.
I wonder if I can get the record for the fastest completion of a dossier for Kazakhstan? Ha! Ha!
Once our dossier is submitted, we were told we would likely travel in about 3 months. That makes it likely January (maybe sooner, maybe later) which is the MIDDLE OF WINTER where it gets 40 below celcius at midday! And here we are Floridians!
We likely will be in country for about 3 weeks. They have a 2 week bonding period first, followed by the court date. We then can return home and one of us can return 2 -4 weeks later to get him or have an escort bring him to the US. We are still debating which option to choose. Actually, I am hoping that we may luck out and have the appeal period waived and could bring him home with us immediately after court and the embassy proceedings in Almaty. We were told the judges rarely waive the waiting period. But, if it did get waived, our time in Kazakhstan would likely be a total of about 4 weeks in order to finalize everything a bring him home with US.
So, I'm busy with paperwork and also trying to learn as much as possible about Kazakhstan. A bit of trivia - it is the 9th largest country in the world!
I won't give out any more details about our little boy such as his name, the city he is in, or our new agency's name. This needs to remain confidential until things are completed.
I will do my best to keep this up-to-date from now on!