Virgil

Good grief. It's been a hell of a journey. We just got internet connection a few hours ago. The thirty something hour trip was an adventure. We left on Saturday and we got to our destination Monday, and there were no hotel room stop overs, just travel and layover. Not sure I have the energy to talk about it. Shymkent is an interesting old world type of town. I will blog about it as I get to know it better.

Yes we have news and it's mostly good news, but there are still the adoption uncertainties that just leaves the nerves on edge. The day before we left home, we saw that there will be a six month break from accepting new dossiers for Kazakhstan and of course we froze at the news. Something to do with international adoptions and it’s through the Hague and we don’t completely understand it, but luckily it does not affect people who currently have dossiers in Kazakhstan. So we’re ok there.

So after that thirty something hour travel and after roaming the airport searching for our contacts and being pestered by a persistent taxi driver and just when panic started to kick in we did meet our contacts, which thank heavens included a translator. After some brief introductions, a little small talk, they whisk us to our apartment to drop our things, a quick bathroom break, and off to the Ministry of Education, which apparently is in charge of adoption. After waiting a couple of hours, we’re in front of the Minister and with our dossier in front of her and she’s drilling us with questions. Mind you, we probably slept four hours in the last forty and this interrogation was completely unknown to us. The Minister was a stout woman with gold teeth and a severe Russian expression. I’m not even sure I can remember what the questions were. I assumed our translator was answering correctly. She seemed to have approved us.

Then we were off to the baby house where we were told we would meet the babes that very first day. The baby house is on the outskirts of town where we pass a boy on flat board buggy being pulled by a donkey, up chopped up road that probably hasn’t seen paving in a decade, around a bunch of turns and to an old building, ala soviet days. It’s a temporary facility we are told and in a month they will be moving to a new place. But it’s got lots of shady trees and stray dogs roaming about.

We meet with the chief doctor, a tall slender woman, who seems very kindly. She asks us a few personal questions and tells us there are two boys up for adoption to choose from, but now that it’s late in the day, we will meet them in the morning. After that we go and meet with our coordinator in Shymkent, a smart looking woman lawyer whose office seems a bundle of energy. She lays out the game plan for us – one month and we’ll be set. Sounds like everything is under control. Hmm.

Next day, bright and early we head over to the baby house. We wait sitting in the hall on a bench as if we were in school and we hear all sorts of yakking in Russian inside the various rooms around us. We’re sitting on the edge of the bench jittering with nervous anticipation. I think Pussnboots asks me if I’m nervous. “A little” I said. Finally we’re called into the room, they sit us down and they bring in a set of children. We know the standard operating procedure out here is to show the very hard to adopt children first. They bring out children with Downs Syndrome, with heart problems, with dwarfism, and with cerebral palsy. We’re kind to all of them, but our expressions show that this is not what we were looking for. They understand and it’s not a hard push, more a perfunctory attempt.

Finally they bring out an eight month old chubby baby and put him in my arms. We go through his history (without getting too specific, mother’s first pregnancy and abandoned him, she having some psychological issues which were not explained) and he’s healthy. Only medical issues are that he’s a little crossed eyed and that he’s overweight. Overweight is a problem for babies? I thought one was to fatten babies up. He was 3.0 kg (6.6 lbs) and 50 cm (almost 20 inches) at birth and now at eight months he’s 8.7 kg (19.1 lbs). According to their tables he should only be 6.5 kg (14.3 lbs). Well if this is the worst, then we can live with this. Worst case is possible diabetes or thyroid issues, but frankly 19 pounds is not that over weight.

Meanwhile, the baby is enjoying himself in our arms. He feels no anxiety with strangers, he smiles when I tease him and he even giggles when Pussnboots rubs noses with him. He’s got a grip like a wrestler, grasping my finger where I couldn’t pull it out. He grabs the book that’s on the table and later with a wry smile on his face grabs my glasses off my face and then when we take them away he starts grasping at my nose.

This is great. This will be our baby ! We found our little boy.

Apparently babies up for adoption in Kazakhstan must pass a registry period before they can be adopted. They think he's got another month to go before he comes off the registry. What that means for us is that our adoption period won't start until another month, and then our time begins, which is about another month.

So the question is now what do we do ? If we go home, what guarantee is there that the baby won't be given up to someone else ? I don't know if there is a guarantee. can we stay here an extra month ? I can't be away from work for two months. On top of it, our fingerprints expire now before this will end and we will have to have them redone, and so we need to go back home for at least that. This is all so exasperating.