Go With the Flow

I thought it would be a smart idea to check with coordinator because the most frequent questions I expect at our "Pancakes for Emily" fundraiser will be "Have you heard anything yet?" and "When are you going?".

At our last estimation, Tom and I thought we were somewhat on target to at least hear something in April or maybe May and then travel after that. And, frankly, that would have worked out great. I could have been in Kazakhstan at the end of the school year/beginning of summer and have the rest of the summer to stay home with Emily before school started back up. Tom has a couple of weddings coming up (he's a pastor - not getting married again!) in the summer so we could have been back by then.

On Tuesday, I heard the following information from our coordinator:

"Your dossier is waiting on translation, takes approximately 4-6 weeks, then your dossier gets sent to the Consulate in NY, the same day we receive the translations, where it remains for approximately 60 days, then gets sent to Kaz, takes about a week to get there, then our partners walk it into the Ministry where it will remain for about 2-6 weeks. When it exits the Ministry, that is when a referral could be given, not guaranteed, as there are many variables, depending on your criteria for a child and how many clients may be waiting before you, also when your contract came to us, so it may be longer."

Our dossier's been waiting on translation for 2 weeks already so that takes 2 weeks off the timeline. In short:

• Translation of our paperwork into Russian (2-4 more weeks)
• New York Consulate (60 days/approx. 8 weeks)
• Ship paperwork to Kaz (1 week)
• Paperwork to Kazakh Ministry of Education (2-6 weeks)

This puts us right around June 20 thru August 1 before we might get a referral. Then, we could travel anytime between 2 weeks to 2 months after that.

I'd be lying if I didn't say this new information was hard to swallow and a bit frustrating but at the same time we've been told over and over again to go with the flow and we know the adoption process is never very predictable. Even the information above could change tomorrow.

In the meantime, we're doing everything we can to prepare for our fundraiser tomorrow. We'll be getting up mighty early to go crack eggs at 6:30AM in preparation of a long day. The donations are being collected, the food is being delivered and the decorations will be put up after work today.

Tomorrow will be here before we know it! 

Thanks for following along! Email us if you get bored! tjhypes@yahoo.com