Six Weeks
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, 06-26-2010 at 12:38 PM (2816 Views)
Today made six weeks since we left home. I have to say it’s getting tiresome. We were supposed to get a court date by the end of the week and it didn’t come through. Now they’re saying we’ll know possibly by Monday afternoon. I hope so. My job is getting antsy. We were hoping for a quick court date to make up for the delay at the beginning, and it didn’t happen. I had said I would be back at work sometime before the end of June. Then I told them I would be back by the fourth of July. Now it looks like at least a week after that.
I may have explained this in replies to comments, but let me put it here too. The court date is the big day. That’s where we get interrogated as to why we are worthy and capable of adopting. The judge will make a decision. There is no guarantee, even after all this, that we will be approved. I don’t see why we wouldn’t but it’s always possible.
We were told by our translator that usually the judge makes a decision right then at court. But the last time he went through it, the judge took over a week. It took the British couple about two weeks to find out. So the trend may be away from an instant decision and to longer intervals. Once the judge approves, then there is another two week period to allow appeals. I guess this allows the family of the child to change their mind. It’s at that point we will be informed that Matthew is completely ours.
After our court appearance, whether we’re approved on the spot or not, we will be heading home. We still have one stop to make. Our fingerprints, believe it or not, have expired again and we have decided to have them redone at the American Consulate in Almaty rather than back home. We will have to connect planes in Almaty anyway. But then we go home and wait for the decision and the appeal process. If approved, then the government here needs another two weeks or so to write up all of Matthew’s documents and certificates with his new name and generate a passport. At that point we come back out to pick up and go. So if all goes well, we should have Matthew home by early August.
Last week the Baby House asked for a donation. We knew this was part of the process. We had anticipated a monetary donation, but what they wanted was a cabinet with a sink. So on Friday the driver and translator took us to the part of town with the home construction bodegas and we stopped at a cabinet making store. I don’t know how they do business here, but after the driver and the store owner talked in Kazak or Russian, they came to a price of 30,000 Tenge (just over $200). No dimensions were given, no invoice generated, no receipt written. An agreement was made and we just handed over the money, and sometime next week the cabinet would be finished and delivered. We are getting off easy if that’s all they want as a donation. We had anticipated more than that, even if we still have to buy a faucet for the sink.
We’re getting on each other’s nerves being out here this long. It’s not easy being tied to the hip for six weeks and stuck in a small apartment. We don’t have that much to do during the day and almost nothing on the weekends. Neither of us goes out on our own. We can’t even get into a car and just ride. TV is essentially useless since there is no English. Thank God for the World Cup or the TV would be a complete bust.
We bought some melons on Friday after the cabinet store. I had seen some melons being sold along the street and I had our driver stop at a good fruit and vegetable market. I picked a nice watermelon and the driver suggested we try one of these yellow melons. Ok, I bought one of each. We finished that yellow melon in a snap. It was delicious. I’m not sure we have that kind of melon back home. It’s yellow on the outside and has whitish flesh inside and it’s sort of crispy like an apple almost and very sweet. We loved it. We just tried the watermelon and it was very good too.
So much for now. I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures. This time I’ll feature my wife and Matthew.
This next one has a little story to it. Matthew just loves being walked around and sticking his head though doors and rooms and just being nosey. We stick our heads into rooms all the time. Here my wife took him up to the glass door and showed him the glass with me being on the other side. He was fascinated with the glass and touched it. The next day, one of the Baby House workers stopped us in the playroom and told us not to have Matthew touch the glass. It leaves fingerprints and her Director believes she doesn’t clean. LOL, Matthew got into trouble for the first time.
And finally Matthew and my wife in an outside crib under a gazebo. My wife gets the best smiles out of him. No question he can tell our genders and reacts accordingly. In fact, with all the women that work at the Baby House, I’m probably the only adult male he’s ever had contact with.