Kaz update-2 trips now required!

We just rec'd an email from our agency that due to the length of time it's taking to get a court date in Kaz, that 2 trips will now be required as sometimes the date for a court hearing can take up to 5 weeks. I had seen this coming, (one advantage to excessive blog stalking!!) and actually, I think it works out better for our family.

I am leaning towards going to meet our child, staying for bonding and filing the court papers, then coming home and waiting for our court date. Once we get the court date, I'd like to go back and stay for court, the 15 day waiting period, and the trip to the embassy to get baby's passport and visa. I think it would be better to bring Sean on the second trip. This way, we would know more what to expect, after having been once already, and he can still see the country where his sister was born, and also have a chance to bond with us and his sister before we come home.

I know it will be hard to leave the baby after you've met her, as this seems like it's harder on the baby and the parents for bonding purposes, BUT, in reality, it also seems easier to not have to pack for 8 weeks, as it's hard to leave home and work and school for that long period of time.

Of course, I still don't know when we're going, but it takes a lot off me worrying about Sean and leaving home for that long.

For those families who have traveled already, what do you think?
Do you think bringing my son along for the 2nd trip would make more sense?

Thanks for your input! I love my blog advice-it's the best!!!!

Love my horoscope for Today!!

I don't put TOO much stock in my horoscope, but I do get one emailed to me everyday.
Whenever I am working on something MAJOR in my life, it's very strange how my horoscopes seem to match what I'm going thru. It's really rather freaky!
I prefer to think of it as God guiding me along and he knows I read my horoscopes. :)

Anyway, here is my horoscope today. Eerily on target, since we found out Friday our dossier hit Kaz.

Dear Susan,
Here is your horoscope
for Sunday, October 28:

Your positive energy is perfect for movement of all kinds -- from travel to changes in career. Any new direction you choose to take right now should work out for the best for you in the long run.

In the same vein, we are teaching our kiddo's in Sunday school about Perserverance, and how good things will come and sometimes it's hard to be patient and live our lives the way God wants us too. I am learning so much from what I'm trying to teach my kiddo's. Life is certainly NEVER boring around here, that is FOR SURE!

Fabulous Friday News!!!!!

I am so excited!!!!!!!!!
I got an email from Natalya today (our case manager) and it said: (and I quote)

"Dear Susan,

I want to let you know that your Dossier went to Kazakhstan. And it is should be at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "

Friday started off wonderfully and is ending wonderfully.
My husband returned from out of town last night, we FINALLY got a break from the heat and humidity and got to run this morning on wonderfully cool weather. My socks did not get all soggy or anything! I had a great run! My son made High Honor Roll for first quarter in 4th grade, I had a fabulous yoga class, and, MY DOSSIER IS IN KAZ!


I am so happy, so very happy! :)

Going private

Based on some negativity that's rather getting me down, I am going to make my blog private.

If you are interested in reading along, and you are not negative, or a crazy internet weirdo, then, please email me and I will send you an invite. :)
Princess@tampabay.rr.com is my email address.
Thanks for understanding!

I was going to go ahead and make it private right now, but then I realized I don't know anyone's email address so then NO ONE could read it, and then I would be sad.
I get sad when i am reading a blog then all of a sudden I can't read it and I don't know how to reach the nice people to ask if I can please be their blog friend.

When you email me, I will send you a 5 page questionnaire that must be answered, and notarized, and apostilled and fed ex'd to my attention. HA HA
(Just kidding, but that was funny, wasn't it.)

Love ya!

S & M (x3)

How funny am I ...I just thought of that title for my post.

What is S&M (x3) you may ask?
Well, I met some local Kaz mommies for lunch today. Yes, women I met ON THE INTERNET. That's so crazy. And, we're all pretty much normal (relatively speaking!)
All our names start with an S (Susan, Shannon, and Sandi) and we're all on a crazy quest to become Mom's (Hence the M) by adopting our munchkins from Kazakhstan.
We talked about how crazy it that we talk about all our "friends", people we only know thru their internet blogs.
When we asked the waiter to take our picture, I said..."we are all adopting our children from Kazakhstan and we met on the internet. You can include us in your crazy customer stories to your friends later."

Here is a picture of our celebrating that we're not crazies from the internet.



Here is a picture of the 3 HOT MOMMA'S...the S&M gals!!!



We were looking at cold weather gear since we think Sandi is going to travel in December or January!
Check out Sandi in the Ugg Hat.




We also found these really cool boots from Northface at Nordstrom's. They were like $100 but felt like tennis shoes. If it's still cold when we go, I think i may have to get some. They were called Women Nuptse Fur Winter boots. I liked the white/foil gray one. They were cool! and, I just found them online for $80. But, I cannot buy another thing. I don't think I'll need them if we go in March.

My dossier is AT THE EMBASSY!

Well, we're moving along folks. The Serra dossier is at the Kaz embassy!

It's been an emotional week. I read some adoption stories that ended up negative with a couple returning home with no child, and being treated very poorly by their agency. It was very heartbreaking. Then, an email comes accross the yahoo boards that there is a bill that is expected to pass in December that would limit the age of BOTH adoptive parents at 50. Apparently, the bill was drafted in September, must pass both houses of parliament and be signed by the president before it goes into effect.

So, what does that mean? First, after I cried my eyes out for 10 minutes, I decided I could do a couple things. I could freak out and stress and be depressed and worried until we find out more, OR, I can be positive, hope for the best, and realize that the right baby for our family will meet us one way or another. Hopefully, we can proceed with Kaz.

My aunt and grandma hand stitched a BEAUTIFUL quilt for Baby Kaz. It's their intrepation of the Kaz flag. I need to get a better picture of it but this is the best I have right now. Is it not AWESOME?





I was very touched. It can go in the crib, or hang on the wall, or be on the floor for the munchkin to crawl around on.

So, I think we need to get to Kaz because this kid has her own special hand stitched quilt.

I am very emotionally and financially committed to this child, so I just know it's going to work out. Thanks to all my new blogging adoptive friends who have been so nice with their comments. I really appreciate it.
I have met so many wonderful people and I am really greatful.
I love ya'll! :)

Books recommended by "Moi"

I don't really have an Baby Kaz news to report, except I spent all day last Monday running around like a maniac trying to get some updated documents for our dossier. Apparently, nothing can be older than 4 months when your dossier hits the embassy. That makes timing tricky-and when your i-171h takes FOREVER to come, it can cause some expiration to other documents. SO, I had to find a way to get new apostilled copies of our marriage license and previous divorces done in less than a week. Since the office of vital stats resides in Jacksonville and I don't have the luxury of time to drive 4 hours (4 hours ONE WAY, 8 hours round trip) to get them, I found a wonderful adoptive mom whose business it is to get those documents for you. She then fed ex'd them to another adoptive mom in Tallahasee which is where we Floridians must go for apostilling. I was so happy to have found these wonderful ladies and I had my documents by Thursday all ready to go.
So, now the new documents join my other documents and travel to the embassy this week-hopefully before anything else expires. We were told it's a 4-6 month wait once our dossier is in country before we go meet our daughter. However-we must remain flexible and patient in international adoption. So, I am telling everyone we hope to go by March.

Another couple who is using our same agency and same caseworker was just told they are traveling IN ONE WEEK, and their dossier has only been in country for only a month! It's so crazy how it works. I think we'll go later, rather than sooner, and I am fine with that. I am amazingly calm about it. I'm not sure why-as that is not my nature. It must be the yoga, or maybe taking my Sunday school lessons to heart, or maybe my calm husband, or probably a combination of the three.

I am busy with teaching Sunday school, being a fashion diva at Steinmart, 4th grade attitude, running, and reading.

I would love to recommend a couple great books-found at my local library.



The first one is by Theresa Reid-Two Little Girls, a Memoir of adoption.
It is SO good, a true story about a family's experience adopting from Russia and the Ukraine. They got a referal for Kostani, Kazakhstan,but i'll let you read the book.




The second one is just hilarious. It's called Momzilla's-by Jill Kargman. It's about a family who moves to NYC from California and the mom is surrounded by these crazy Momzilla's who pay zillions of dollars for 2 year old preschool. I was seriously laughing out loud. The author reminds me of Sophie Kinsella (author of the Shopaholic books) if you've ever read those. They are great!!!

Got my travel guide today and the trials and tribulations of 4th grade

Fed Ex just rang my doorbell and I have, on my lap, my ADOPTION TRAVEL GUIDE for Kaz!
This is rather exciting!

It has Emergency telephone numbers, visa applications, and other stuff. I am excited to read it.

My dossier was out for delivery in Colardo today so the program director for Kaz can give it the once over. Hopefully, it's all good.
Then, she sends it on the embassy.

So far, I've been quite patient. Once I got that freakin I-171H, I have calmed down a bunch. I'm not sure why this is, maybe because my entire dossier was sitting and WAITING on that one unimpressive piece of paper. Plus, because of it's arrrival, I didn't make my goal to have my completed dossier turned in and apostilled by end of August like I wanted to. However, I did receive it on 9/14, so, really, I was only 2 weeks past my deadline and it wasn't in my control.

I'm so goal oriented, I like to set goals and then reach them.
Now that I have no clue when we'll travel, I don't have a goal in mind, so maybe that is why.
Plus, we are so busy getting adjusted to 4th grade.
I had been told that 4th grade was a big step up from 3rd grade. The first month of school was ok though-the math was harder and I couldn't do it, but that's nothing new. However, they've stepped it up. Sean has so much homework and it takes a while to do! Plus, he is not the most focused boy in the world. I think that's a boy thing as well. He gets distracted real easy and he's super messy, so you can't read his numbers or his cursive writing very well. Yesterday I had the idea to take him to the library thinking a quiet environment might be better and he would have less distractions than at home. We were there almost 2 hours-and he broke his pencils, went to the bathroom like 3 times, and stares a lot into space. Then, some dude is near us and let's a really smelly one RIP (he tuted). Of course, that sends Sean into a fit of giggles.

I'm trying to be the serious mom, but it was funny.

Tomorrow he has a big science test and vocab test.
I am going keep thinking of ways to get him to focus.

I'm very concerned about pulling him out of school for 8 + weeks to go to Kaz. I don't want to leave him out either ,he really wants to go. Who knows, depending on when we go, maybe he and Joe will leave after bonding and court and I will stay.

I shan't worry! What will be, will be. :)