Halloween

Hi, this is Frosty. My mom doesn't know that I can use the computer, but I am a lot smarter than I look and I need your help. My mom had been telling me that this year was going to be different and that I would be spending the month of October in my favorite kennel, playing with the other dogs and having a good time. Now she tells me that she probably isn't going to be traveling for a while so we might as well go to the store for some treats for Halloween. I hate Halloween, but she did mention a ride and treats so I was excited anyway. Well, we are back from the ride and I didn't get a treat, but I did get this:

I hate Halloween. It is the most humiliating holiday for me each year. My mom seems to enjoy it, but then again she thinks I look cute in my outfit. She did mention taking me for a walk in my outfit and if she does that, I will never be able to face the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood again. I can hear them laughing now. There should be a rule against totally humiliating your dog. Does anyone know the number of the ASPCA or PETA?

Baby's room Update

Since I don't have any info on the adoption to update, I thought I would post some recent pictures of the baby's room. I finally got my rocker in. After I put it together in the living room, I realized how big it was and barely managed to get it through the door to the baby's room. That was a duh! I also finally found a lamp I like and paired it with the matching wall hanging. I also added the stickers along the bottom of the wall since that will be the eye level of the baby when she gets home. They are hard to see in the pictures, but they are animals and flowers. The cushion on the chair is a light sage. For some reason, it keeps coming out tan in the photos-maybe it is the light from the windows behind it?

No news

Several other families whose blogs I follow have received their LOIs this week. I am really happy for them. However, now all the families whose blogs I follow and who were at about the same dossier timing as me have traveled or have their LOIs and are preparing for travel so I am feeling left out. I still have no news other than now it may be a while before I travel. I really thought I would be traveling this month, but LMI is new to the Shymkent region so what you think is going to happen seems to change a lot. Once you get there and meet your child, the rest of the process including court seems to go smoothly. It is just the first part that seems to be tough.

I think this is the toughest part of the wait, to know you are close, but not knowing how close. It just leaves you confused and wondering what is going on most days!

More gadgets

This portable hard drive will hold about 60 hours of video or 2 hrs of video/day I am in Kaz so that will be much easier to handle than trying to take blank disks and burn them there. It is about the size of a post card and 1/2" thick so it is very small. I laid out all my electronic that I am bringing on the table today. It looks like a small electronics store! I also have about 100 movie DVDs packed so I should have enough to keep me occupied as long as my computer is functional. I have no idea of Internet capabilities in Shymkent, but since it is a larger city, there should be Internet cafes at least and hopefully I can get semi-reliable Internet in my apartment. I have been on cable Internet for so long, I am not sure how well I will handle using a very slow dial up system.

No update on when I will get my LOI. All I know is that when I get it, they expect me on a plane within 5-7 days. It doesn't sound like I am going to get any advanced warning. My suitcase is packed except for clothes which is really a very small part of the packing. It has to be since the suitcases are already full. Most of what is packed in my check-in bags is donations, gifts, baby stuff and a few things for the apartment. My electronics and dossier/paperwork fill up my carry on. Now that it is getting colder, i will also have to drag along a winter coat. I hope I don't have to lug all of this very far once I get to Kaz. Most of the apartments seem to be on the 5th floor with no elevator so the first trip up with the luggage may be very interesting.

Suckitude

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!

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.

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.