Our Timeline

This is our Kaz adoption timeline. For those of you not involved in an adoption, you may not have any use for this post. BUT every person who is in the process of adopting (or thinking about it) will be interested to know how long each step of the process took.

I also have to point out that we had started the process to adopt from China back in April of 2006. We completed all of our paperwork (in the adoption world the term is "your dossier"), so there are certain things, such as our homestudy, which had already been completed and just needed an update and therefore, did not take as much time as it usually does. Also our USCIS approval was switched from China to Kaz and therefore processed in a bit less than 60 days, since we did not have to get re-fingerprinted.

Here is our Kaz Adoption timeline:

April 2007

• April 2: Sent initial application to WPA
• April 2: Started collecting documents for dossier
• April 30: WPA received our contract

May 2007

• Working on dossier all month.

June 2007

• June 4: Completed Dossier sent to WPA
• June 5: Dossier arrived at WPA
• June 11: Dossier to translation
  (estimate: out of translation between June 25 – Aug 11)

July 2007

• July 5: Dossier to NY Embassy (Expect it to be in Embassy for a minimum of 60 days)
• July 23: Found out the completely unexpected and great news that our dossier is out of the Embassy and in Kaz!!! Now our dossier is at the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and it should be there between 4-6 weeks. Then it goes to the MOE (Ministry of Education).
• July 26: First round of Vaccines for trip to Kaz.

August 2007

• Aug 23: Dossier has been at MFA for 4 weeks...any day now...
• Aug 28: Second round of Vaccines for trip
• working on the nursery!

September 2007

• Sept. 10: REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Sept. 11: Phone consultation with Dr. Bledsoe
• Sept 22: Travel to Kaz
• Sept 24: Met Madison (Madina) for the first time

October 2007

• Oct. 18: Court in Astana, Kaz
• Oct. 20: Travel back to Miami

November 2007

• Nov 10: Travel from Miami to Kaz
• Nov 12: Alex and Madi meet for the 1st time; Take Madison to be with us forever!!!!
• Nov 13: Medical Appt in Almaty
• Nov 15: Embassy appointment
• Nov 17: Leave Kaz and arrive home!!!
  
  
  
  
  

big sis

Hi, im alex the big sister and i am so excited for my little sister to come!!! We started a china adoption but then it was taking too long so we switched to kaz and it is soooooooo much faster.....thank god!!! Im really anxious to begin her room because i really like to do all those things having to do with decorating things!
well tata for now!!
xoxoxoxox
alex

Kaza....WHERE??????

Where in the world is Kazakhstan???? Don't feel bad, we didn't know anything about Kazakhstan before we started this adoption journey! So, I will try to include a map of Kazakhstan with this post. I say "try" because I haven't added an image before...we will see how this works...this is a learn as you go process. Thanks for bearing with me guys!

Yeah!!! It was actually VERY easy to do. So, there you can see Kazakhstan in Yellow, although I see they are spelling it without the "h" in this map. Hmmmm, not sure why. I'll research that in my free time and get back to you ;-)

The First Post EVER!!!

Finally, I have started a blog! Why would I want a blog? What is a blog? I know that is what you guys are asking yourselves right now... If you are reading this then you can see for yourself what a blog is. This is a blog. We started this blog so that our family and friends can follow our journey to our daughter who is waiting for us in Kazakhstan!

Until this week, we thought we would not be traveling to Kazakhstan until sometime in 2008, maybe February or March. We just learned that it may be a lot sooner!!! Maybe October or November...maybe even September!!!! I can't believe that she may actually be home for Christmas. I am trying to not get too excited about it all since things in the world of international adoption seem to be in a constant state of change. BUT it's not working. I can't help but be thrilled! Now we have to work on getting the baby's room ready and preparing everything for our trip.