Journal Page
The journal is set up to document our days in Taldy-Korgan. We will be posting daily so you can hit the buttons to the left to follow along. There is an 11 hour time difference between Kazakhstan and Eastern Standard Time, which means that when we post the site in the evening, you all should be able to read the post in the morning of that same day (barring technical difficulties, which are fairly common in Kazakhstan). Should a page not show up, please be patient, we are either having trouble accessing the internet, or have other stuff going on. I know from experience how eagerly other adoptive families await the daily posts, so please know we will do our best to keep you up to date.
Our Adoption Process
O.K., here is how this whole thing has played out for us. Please understand that every adoption story is different and that no two families go through it the same way or have the same bumps in the road. Even within the same agency, each couple's case will be very different and the amount of time the process takes can vary for a million different reasons. We want to make that clear so that you understand that this is how this process has worked for us, but it will not necessarily be the same for the next family that comes along.
We first looked into adoption in August of 2003 with an informational meeting at the Vermont Children's Aid Society. We quickly decided that an international adoption was the route for us. We had done some research on different countries and Kazakhstan was one of the front-runners because of their reputation for excellent care in the orphanages (called "babyhouses"). We did quite a lot of research on the hundreds (thousands?) of international agencies out there and World Partners Adoption was in our top 5. The deal was sealed on a trip to visit Zach's sister Jenny in San Francisco, where she introduced us to some friends of hers who had recently come back from Kazakhstan with their son Bo (he was about 8 months old at the time of adoption). They were wonderful in answering our questions and Bo was just about the cutest and funniest little guy we had ever seen. They showed us their referral video and raved about their agency, World Partners Adoption. So when we got home we called them and have never looked back.
We spent several months chasing paperwork and having a home-study done and then we became official "waiters", meaning we were waiting for a referral. In February, our wonderful coordinator, Lisa, called us and asked us if we would be interested in going on a "blind referral", which means that we don't get a baby referred to us. We travel over there and choose a baby from among children in the age and gender group we have requested. We have asked for a baby as young as possible and since we don't have a preferrance in terms of gender, we know that we will receive a boy. Worldwide there are 4 boys available for every girl, and as 80% of adopting families want girls, the wait is longer for girls. You can come up with your own reasons for why this might be, everybody has a different idea. We could not care less what the sex is, so we are delighted to be adopting a boy.
So there we were, waiting, impatiently, for travel dates when Zach gets a call from our coordinator, "We have a baby we would like you to consider." We were completely unprepared for a referral, beacuse we thought we were going "blind." It didn't matter at all what we thought we had planned once that little face popped up on our screen. We were done for. We didn't even need to see the video to make our decision. Fortunately our doctor (Dr. Aronson, for all you future adopters. www.orphandoctor.com), was far more level headed, read the medical, saw the photos, watched the video numerous times and pronounced him a wonderful baby and a great referral. We were absolutely thrilled. Now we had a face to go with the daydreams.
We are not sharing too many particulars about him as our coordinators in Kazakhstan have asked us to be discrete. Once we are there, you will see plenty of pictures of him, but for now, you will just have to be patient. Join the club! We will begin the posts once we begin our trip. Please check back for the announcement of our travel dates!
