Lucky

Having recently met some new SHymkent adoptive families, I have been reading a few blogs again.  Things change fast in Kaz.  According to one blog, the judge I had when I was there was replaced.  The new judge is no longer as pro adoption.  He is also anti-single mom adopting.  A lot of single moms had been adopting from Shymkent because the judge was so pro adoption.  Due to some issues with the girl's paperwork, we were worried that even the pro adoption judge would not allow the adoption.  If he had been replaced a few months earlier, I wonder what my court experience would have been like.  I am also in contact with a family who met a little boy in Taraz 6 1/2 months ago.  A new judge there has started to deny all adoptions.  After going through the whole bonding process, they were denied and so far all their appeals have also been denied. They are finally having to come home after visiting their son every day for over 6 months.   I cannot imagine what that would be like.  I guess I am just feeling very lucky to have my girls home and to not have to deal with any of the stress of the adoption prcess anymore.

I have my 1 year post placement social worker visit this Saturday.  Even though it is not due until October, it take quite a while for the report to get written, apostilled, and sent to Kaz.  Can it really be that close to one year home that I need to be writing this report already?  Time has gone by so fast.   So this is 2 reports down, 17 more to go!  Only 2 more (2 year and 3 year) need a social worker so they will get much easier after the next 2 are completed. 

On the positive side, I also found some photos of the renovated baby house.  They fixed up the outside quite a bit and added some new slides.  The gym, where we spent a lot of time, was painted and got new curtains.  A ball pit was added(I had heard they had one while I was there, but I never saw it).  I got these pictures off another blog, but I am copying them since they have no people in them.

Sadly the red swing that the girls loved so much and that we spent so much time on, seems to be gone.  Also gone are the broken walkers that the girls had so much fun pushing around.  The gym equipment seems to be in a new configuration with some additional pieces.   The carpet is the same, but it was in good shape.

The little pool has been painted and the slides added.  We never went in this area as it was just full of weeds and broken down equipment.  I am glad things were fixed up.  I remember the workers washing rugs on this driveway one day a week every week.  I am going to try to write this family when they get home and see if they have any more photos that they would be willing to share.  I would love to see if they fixed up the other playground too.