Overview of the In Country Process

Now that I have your attention (since we are actually leaving), I thought I would give you an idea of what is going to happen during the next 2-3 months. Unless you need Lasik surgery, you have caught on by now to the fact that Mom and I are leaving on Saturday for Trip #1. We will get to Almaty, the former capitol of Kazakhstan, in the middle of their nighttime Sun/Mon. We will be met by our interpreter and driver who will take us to spend a very short night at a hotel. After more of a nap than a good night's sleep, Mom and I will take a +/- 1.5 hour domestic flight to Semipalatinsk, or Semey, as it is called in English. If this flight is anything like the ones I used to take domestically when living in the USSR, it should be very loud and cold (or very hot) and kind of like a movie. I remember loud beeping signs screeching the whole way. Good times.

Once we get to Semey, we will probably be taken to the accommodations we will be staying in for the coming month, which at this point seems to be the new "Rich Hotel", a hotel with 8 rooms which opened in May and has a/c, new beds and linens, and free wi-fi. There is also a common room with a billiards table, a kitchen, and a washing machine. We will obviously take pictures of everything for you. I am not sure if we will drop off our bags and go straight to the baby house or if we will have a chance to wash up and change. Really, who cares. Lemme at my baby.

We (or possibly just I) will then be taken by our coordinator/lawyer, interpreter, and driver to the baby house where I may meet with an official from the Ministry of Education who would briefly interview me. I will then meet the Baby House Director and again be asked some questions. At that point, someone will bring the baby to me for the first time. I may only have a few minutes with her at this point depending on the time of day. If it is later in the afternoon, which I suspect it will be, they will need to take her back pretty quickly to get her fed and in bed on time. Kind of what I have to do with Mom afterwards! :-)

So, we will then come back and I will try to blog right away, as I will do as often as possible to keep you all up to speed on what's happening. We will then spend 15 days "bonding" with my baby, which means we will come to the Baby House every day for 15 days, 4 hours a day. I will change her, feed her and play with her during those hours. Kazakhstan requires this because it gives the adoptive parents the chance to really contemplate if this is the right child for them and it gives the child the chance to get used to her new parents before they leave the only familiar surroundings they have ever known.

After the 15 days are up, we can apply to get a court date, which will likely occur a week from the end of bonding. While we are waiting, we will continue to see the baby daily. Then I will have my court date, at which point the judge will hopefully sign the adoption decree. We will probably then leave the next morning to go back to Almaty and then on to the U.S. without Lily.

The reason we leave without the baby is because there is still a lot that has to happen and it will be about 4-6 more weeks before Lily can come home. After court, there is a 15 day appeals period where the natural parents can reappear and say they want the child back. This rarely happens. It is important to know that all children who are up for international adoption Kazakhstan have had no contact from any family members at all for at least 6 months. This is one of the reasons I chose to adopt from Kazakhstan. You KNOW the child you adopt has been given up for adoption purposely and willingly. I am just telling you guys this so you don't flip out that the birth parents can return until that point. After those 15 days are up, the adoption is final and I can technically take custody.

I am free to return at that point, however because it will still take some time to get her paperwork in order, I will wait until my agency tells me to return because even if I can take custody, I cannot leave the country with her until her papers are ready. This will take another 2-3 weeks. So now we are at 4-5 weeks after we have completed Trip #1.

Around that time, Dad and I will return to Kazakhstan for the second and final trip, which will likely be less than a week. We will fly to Almaty, spend a night, go to Semey, pick up the baby, and fly back to Almaty for a medical evaluation at the SOS Clinic and then for an Embassy appointment at the U.S. Embassy where her final visa will be issued. I applied for this visa over a year and a half ago, so I have been through the process, I just have to complete it in country. Once we have her Kazakh passport with American visa, we are free to go home.

I expect to be headed home from trip 2 with Lily in mid/end of October. When our plane lands in Boston, Lily will be our country's newest U.S. Citizen.

And that, my friends, is the short version. *Taking a bow*