Nick Graduated

May 19th Nick Graduated from elementary school. Where has the time gone? At his school they keep the graduation day a secret from the kids. Then on the day they arrive at school. There is a note on the front gate and SURPRISE it is graduation!!! Nick was surprised. He didn't even suspect when I made him take a shower in the morning.

It was very fun and a sweet ceremony. The theme was "Dancing to the Tune of Life" and they all got funky, sparkely graduation caps. Lots of poetry and songs were shared.

In the Mean Time

While we wait many wonderful things are happening. The weather is getting warmer and everything is blossoming. It is so nice not to run in a million layers. And the days are getting longer. Yeah sunlight!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still Just Waiting

No news on a court date yet. Someone from the Yahoo group for Kyrgyzstan adoption let me know that in May there are many holidays in Kyrgyzstan so court does not happen. Brian confirmid this with one of his patients from Russia. She said especially in the first two weeks. I just don't understand why our agency didn't tell us that! I think they limit information because they don't want anyone to get mad. I feel more frustrated over what they don't tell us than what they do. Well, the month of May is nearly over so we shall see what the next few weeks bring. Tomorrow is Memorial day and one year ago our good friends got news of there beautiful twin girls who they adopted. So this day has a reputation of good adoption "juju" according to our friend Susan. There is no harm in hoping!!!

Dimitri Turned One

In the beginning of May Dimitri turned one year old. It was a hard day!!!! I got home at 8:30 pm and the kids were going to bed. We realized it was already Dimitri's birth day in Bishkek. So we sang him Happy Birthday. We need to get him home soon so we can celebrate with him and he has lots of love and hugs and gifts waiting from some of our wonderful friends.

In the mean time we have gotten two sets of new pictures of Dimitri from families who have traveled to Bishkek. He is definitely growing. He looks bigger! Not very happy but bigger.

We are hoping Dimitri feels all the love and warmth coming from our amazing community of friends and family who also are all continually sending prayers and just waiting to welcome him home.

And Wait

Well, looks like we will wait some more for more details. We did get an encouraging message on Mother's day. It seemed like we would be getting some definite information by the end of this week about a court date. However, I just got off the phone and it seems we may not have any information until the end of the month or later. I guess the process and what is and will become the standard process for adoption in Kyrgyzstan is not quite clear. It seems the changes have not fully come to be at this point. It seems that all level are in the dark to some degree and are hesitant to give any answers for fear of being wrong. I understand, but it is still frustrating not to know. Another lesson in letting go and trusting in god's plan.
Recently, a good friend and I were talking about trusting and going with the flow. She reminded me that we can have trust in god's plan and go with the flow, but there are times that we need to grab a paddle and row with all our might. Well a few weeks ago my small voice inside was encouraging me to be alert and looking for where I may obtain a paddle if needed. However, lately I have felt a sense of calm about the process. I am feeling like it is ok to just go with the flow again, now that the flow seems to be flowing (although not quickly). I hope that small voice is right but more often than not, it is.

As We Wait

Well I now have a bit of time on my hands so I have decided it is time to update the blog. Wow I just realized we have been back for 8 weeks. At this point we are waiting for a court date. Life has been very full over the past two months, so time has past swiftly, making the wait a bit easier. About a month or so ago The Kyrgyzstan Adoption program was put on a hold. It has been hard to figure out what parts of the process are on hold. We do know that the embassy in DC is not accepting new dossiers at this point. In the long run I believe the hold is a good thing. The program in K has grown quite swiftly since the first of the year. Lots of people switching over from Vietnam and Guatemala as these programs have major problems and I believe are shut down to adoption from the US. From what I understand, the officials in K are putting the program on hold so that they can reevaluate the process and make some changes to better handle the volume of dossiers they are receiving. I think the changes will help to make the process more streamline and consistent and hopefully avoid some bigger problems in the future as the program grows.
Where are we in the process? Well our dossier had already been through the embassy in DC and was in Bishkek by the time the hold went into effect. This is good. They have formed some new committees in Bishkek to review paper work and it seems that those committees are now working and cases already in country are now moving forward. I believe that our paperwork has been submitted to the committees. I have a call in to Karen at our agency to ask about the progress. I am hoping to know more specifics by the end of the week. I have gathered from reading a few other blogs that the paper work goes through two committees and then a court date is assigned. Once our court date is assigned, our in country coordinator represents us in court. After the judge gives us approval as parents, we wait for a mandatory 3o days and then can go back to pick Dimitri up and bring him home forever. YEAH!!!!!