Welcome To Our Blog!

My apologies to Johnson & Johnson for stealing their tag line!

Patti and I started our adoption process about a year ago. We completed our "home study" in March. The home study consisted of three in-depth interviews with our social worker (Jennifer). Patti and I were interviewed together to discuss how we met, our marriage and how we came to decide on adoption. We were also interviewed individually to discuss our personal life history from the day we were born right up to the present. This included everything from how we were raised as children, how we were taught values, discipline issues, relationships that we had and currently have with our family members, education and employment issues. In the end, we were approved by our agency as suitable prospective adoptive parents!

Patti and I researched several different countries in which to adopt a child. In the end, we decided that Kazakhstan was the best fit for us. We have requested to adopt and infant boy, from 6 months to 16 months old, with only minor correctable medical issues. We also are open to a "sibling group" with at least one boy, under 4 years old. Although it is possible that we will be adopting 2 children, it is not very likely, as sibling groups are rarely available.

We then spent the next few months gathering all the required documents that made up our "dossier". Our dossier is a set of about 30 documents which include, marriage license, birth certificates, medical forms, mental health verification forms (I still can't believe I passed that one!), bank statements, tax records, home ownership forms, criminal history checks, NYS child abuse registry checks, employment verification and about a dozen form letters to Kazakhstan governmental departments. We also submitted several photographs of Patti and I and our home (inside and outside). We also needed several letters of recommendations from friends that attest to our good character and suitability as prospective parents (the checks are in the mail)!

When we gathered all the required documents, we had to have each one of them notarized. Then we had to have the notary's verified and certified at the County Clerks Office in Schenectady and Albany. Once that was completed, we brought our complete dossier to the Secretary of State's office in Albany and had each document "appostilled". We made 4 photocopies of our dossier and sent them all to our agency to be reviewed on June 18th. Three weeks later, we were contacted by our agency and told that one of the form letters was missing one sentence and had to be rewritten, notarized, certified by the county, appostilled and sent back to them. There was also a new form that was required that we had to complete. On July 20th, we were notified that our dossier had passed the review and was mailed to Kazakhstan to be translated into Russian. Translation was expected to take about 4 weeks.

In our research, we learned that August was not the most productive of months in Kazakhstan as many of its citizens take the month off for vacation. In mid September, we were notifed that our dossier finally had been translated and was sent back to Washington D.C. to be registered at the Kazakhstan Embassy. Two weeks later, it was sent back to Kazakhstan to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) for an estimated 6 - 8 weeks. At the end of November, we were told that our dossier was still in MFA.

The first week of December, we were notified that our dossier had cleared MFA and was recently transferred to the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Kazakhstan. This step usually takes about 6 - 8 weeks but we were advised that MOE was swamped with work and that it could take much longer. Three days later, we received an email from our agency telling us that they couldn't explain it, but our dossier has somehow, miraculously cleared MOE in record time. It was sitting on someone's desk just waiting to be assigned a region (THE last step)!!

We were told by our agency not to expect any more news until mid January because the entire government of Kazakhstan (and all of eastern Europe) closes down from Christmas Day until the second week of January for the their holidays. Although Christmas is not that big a deal in Kazakhstan, New Year's is a huge, week long, celebration. They also have a big celebration for the Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7th.

Patti and I called in for an agency Kaz program teleconference on January 7th. We were told that we had been assigned to the region of Karaganda and that we should be traveling sometime in February!! We were both SOOO excited to finally know where (and when) we are going!! Well, actually, we don't know where we are going, in fact we don't have a clue where we are going but we DO know is that where we are going actually has a name!! I ran to the computer and googled it. After a few clicks, the excitement of traveling to Karaganda, Kazakhstan in February was suddenly replaced with the "stark reality" of traveling to Karaganda, Kazakhstan in February! According to the weather.com,... It was 29 degrees... BELOW ZERO!!! Now, for those of you who know me, know that I consider myself a "fairly bright guy"; I just KNEW that it couldn't possibly be THAT cold! Weather.com definitely has some glitches to work out.

I'll have to finish this post later, Patti and I are on our way out the door to go to Wal-Mart... I've got to buy a pair of long johns!