The dossier is still in the region, but which region? No letter of invitation to travel yet.

Sad news came a few days ago. The 2-1/2 year old that I was hoping to adopt is no longer available. Word is that he was adopted by a local Kaz family. Good for him, terribly sad for me.
The regional coordinator is checking to see if any other young children are available in that region.

Meanwhile, the house continues to be readied for Little Ones.

I just heard from my caseworker! My dossier has been approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education. It has gone to the local region. Now the letter of invitation is being prepared! This means I will probably be traveling in 3 weeks or so.

I suddenly realized, I am not ready at all. What have I been doing all this time?!!!!

There are a million things to be done!!!

I hope to hear something in the next three weeks about my Letter of Invitation to travel. The waiting gets more difficult with each passing week (day, hour, and minute). I have now identified a pediatrician, and have an interview with him Friday. I'm still working on childcare. Unfortunately, I have to know how many and what age or ages in order to actually reserve a spot. Rumors are rampant through the internet that Kazakhstan is now allowing adoption of only one child at a time. But that could vary by region, and I still don't know my region yet.

And I expect to hear from my agency caseworker this week about where my dossier is in the system...

I just finished my sixth or seventh adoption book, Adopting an Older Child. It is hard to believe, but any child over 2 years old (or sometimes even 1 year old) is considered an older child. Issues for children adopted at, for example, age 5 are quite different from issues for children adopted as infants. One way I've been trying to manage the wait is by reading everything I can on parenting in general and adoptive parenting in particular. The point of the books is definitely to prepare you for the worst! They're a little daunting to read. The one good thing is that they tell you no one child will have ALL of the issues in the books. But adoption is not an undertaking to be entered into lightly...


The child's room is about ready. As soon as I figure out how to load the photos from the new camera, I'll put one up. In the meantime, I have a photo of one of the lucky dogs that lives here! This is part of Fletcher's morning frisbee game in our back yard.