I'm not sure if that is a real word or not, but a friend used it in an email to me recently and it fits my attitude these days.
Waiting sucks.
Being told by your coordinator that I need to be ready to travel within 3 days of getting a phone call and then the same person not being able to even tell you what month you will be getting that phone call sucks.
The constantly changing process sucks.
The lack of information on the process in my region sucks.
Trying to live your life, but not being able to plan anything sucks.
Not having a vacation for 9 months since you are saving your time for the trip sucks.
Being cranky because I have not had the above vacation in 9 months sucks.
Watching Christmas get closer and closer and knowing that unless I travel soon, she will not be home for Christmas sucks.
Knowing that you are probably very close to traveling, but not knowing it for sure so you have to stress and worry about it sucks.
Suckitude-it may not be a word, but it should be!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
My latest gadget
I am having lots of time to wait and think of things to worry about these days. My latest is what would happen if I got lost. I have a map of Shymkent, but I have no idea if they have street signs or not. So I decided to buy a GPS unit. They don't have the streets of Shymkent mapped out yet for GPS, but I bought one that hunters use. So if I mark where my apartment is, it can direct me back there no matter where I roam. So I have yet another item for my suitcase which is already full.Saturday, September 6, 2008
The Kaz Process
I did talk with my coordinator Friday and got an update on the process. While I am close to getting my LOI, it will still be a while and most likely will not be this month. I did find out that the time from LOI to travel is very short for Shymkent and I may not have much notice so that will be an exciting time.
I thought this might be a good time to review how the process will proceed from here. I am currently waiting for my LOI or letter of invitation. You cannot travel to Kaz or get a visa to Kaz without a invitation. It also means that there is a child or children in the baby house that matches the request in your homestudy for age, gender etc. When you are sent the LOI, the Kaz embassy is also sent a registration number. Once they have that and you have the letter, you can apply for your visa. This involves sending your passport, some forms, and of course money to the Kaz embassy. They put a special stamp in your passport which allows you to enter the country. Some region take a while to get this number to the embassy, but I guess Shymkent is one of the fast ones so I will be expected to overnight the visa application to the embassy and have them overnight it back the next day. I will also have to find plane tickets to Almaty on very short notice. It does not sound like I will have much time to do these things so I will need to have everything ready to go. So it will be a matter of more waiting and then go and go fast.
As a note to my blog friends, most people invited to this blog are family or friends not from the adoption world. I have invited a small number of families that I have met who are also adopting from kaz and have graciously shared their blogs with me. I would just like to please ask all my blog friends to use discretion and not discuss anything they read on this blog with their coordinators or post anything on their blogs. I trust each and every one of you and I know no one would do anything that they felt would harm my adoption(and no one has), but I have found out that Shymkent is a region very sensitive to this. I know of another family I met from their blog that got hurt by something that they had on their blog that was passed on to one of their blog reader's coordinators. It ended up causing this family a lot of grief and did put their adoption in jeopardy. What the family had posted wasn't anything bad, it was just information on how their first day meeting went. I don't think the other family meant to hurt them, but the information got back to kaz and caused them a lot of problems. For those not involved in a Kaz adoption, this probably seems very strange, but this is their process and we must follow their rules.
I thought this might be a good time to review how the process will proceed from here. I am currently waiting for my LOI or letter of invitation. You cannot travel to Kaz or get a visa to Kaz without a invitation. It also means that there is a child or children in the baby house that matches the request in your homestudy for age, gender etc. When you are sent the LOI, the Kaz embassy is also sent a registration number. Once they have that and you have the letter, you can apply for your visa. This involves sending your passport, some forms, and of course money to the Kaz embassy. They put a special stamp in your passport which allows you to enter the country. Some region take a while to get this number to the embassy, but I guess Shymkent is one of the fast ones so I will be expected to overnight the visa application to the embassy and have them overnight it back the next day. I will also have to find plane tickets to Almaty on very short notice. It does not sound like I will have much time to do these things so I will need to have everything ready to go. So it will be a matter of more waiting and then go and go fast.
As a note to my blog friends, most people invited to this blog are family or friends not from the adoption world. I have invited a small number of families that I have met who are also adopting from kaz and have graciously shared their blogs with me. I would just like to please ask all my blog friends to use discretion and not discuss anything they read on this blog with their coordinators or post anything on their blogs. I trust each and every one of you and I know no one would do anything that they felt would harm my adoption(and no one has), but I have found out that Shymkent is a region very sensitive to this. I know of another family I met from their blog that got hurt by something that they had on their blog that was passed on to one of their blog reader's coordinators. It ended up causing this family a lot of grief and did put their adoption in jeopardy. What the family had posted wasn't anything bad, it was just information on how their first day meeting went. I don't think the other family meant to hurt them, but the information got back to kaz and caused them a lot of problems. For those not involved in a Kaz adoption, this probably seems very strange, but this is their process and we must follow their rules.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)