One Year Anniversary

One year ago, I submitted my dossier. At the time, the estimated wait was 6-9 months. In some regions, it is not much longer still. In Shymkent, no one from my agency has traveled for a girl since they have been back in the region so I have no time frame to estimate off of. There is another family assigned to Shymkent who has waited about the same amount of time so I am not alone in my wait. My coordinator keeps telling me any day now. Of course, she has been saying that since September! Hopefully, I will be traveling in early 2009. I'd rather not have any more wait anniversays to note.

I think my neighbors are related to the Griswolds!

I was walking Frosty last night. It was about 36 degrees and windy and drizzling rain and dark already, but my neighbors were up on the roof of their 2 story house putting up their Christmas lights on the edge of their roof. They had no flashlights or other lights up there so I couldn't actually see them, but you could see the Christmas lights moving and hear them talking. The whole time we were walking, I kept thinking of Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation and I was waiting for one of them to slide off the roof. No one did while I was watching, but I think they are a little nuts. My neighborhood always has a bunch of people who try to be the first one to turn their Christmas lights on Thanksgiving night, but we still have almost 2 weeks to go!

Lots of families are traveling in other regions, but my region is still going slow. So chances are I will not be traveling until next year. I am at the 5 months since region assignment point so it is starting to get old. Originally, I was told 3-4 months from region, now they are saying more like 6-8. We'll see what they say when I get to 6-8 months wait!

Just a rather sad note on the families in Esik. If you remember, I was briefly assigned there, but moved to Shymkent. I never went into details, because some families were still fighting to bring their children home, but it has finally ended for those families and not in a good way. Last December, a judge in Esik decided that he did not like International Adoption and refused to schedule court dates. This was not told to families traveling last December and they met and bonded with children for 2 or more weeks, but were unable to get a court date to finalize the adoption. At least one family has been fighting since then to get a court date. After involving the embassy and anyone else they thought could help, they finally got a court date a few weeks ago, but the judge refused to grant the adoption and it seems like their options are at an end. They may come up with another plan, but it does not look good at all. So even though I hate waiting, I would much rather wait to travel to a region where I know the court is favorable to adoption, than to travel quickly to a region where it is not. The Kaz judge's rulings are within the laws of Kaz for adoption, but you just have to feel sad for the families who met a child and fought for a year to bring the child home, only to fail in the end.

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!