Virgil

We got word today. It’s official. Baby Matthew is ours! We are officially proud parents. Unfortunately I didn’t put any Champagne in the refrig, so I’m only celebrating with a glass of wine. Now we need to hear word for when everything is ready for us to go pick him up.

Let me bring you all up to date. We left Shymkent on Friday for Almaty, where we were promptly whisked over to the US Consulate for us to update our fingerprints. Amazingly it was free! Shocked the hell out of me, free only because it was the second iteration and they allow a re-attempt. We spent the weekend in Almaty, a very lovely city with a much more cosmopolitan flare. I’ll have to blog about Almaty once we return. We did a little sightseeing, shopped for souvenirs, and met up with a couple American families that were also adopting. One family was from Louisville, Kentucky and they had all in one shot adopted three girls, seven, five, and three years old, the older two being siblings. The girls knew no English, and the parents barely knew any Russian, so it was interesting watching them try to communicate. The other couple was from Birmingham, Alabama, and they had adopted an eleven month tiny little girl who will be a perfect southern belle one day: so sweet and gentle, with charming dark eyes. All four girls were beautiful, and we wish them and the families much happiness. We left for home in the wee early hours on Monday and got home Monday night.

Today was my first day back at work. I felt like a hero, at least that’s how they made me feel. It’s amazing all the well wishes and blessings I received today. I showed them a collage of pictures. I told them some of the stories. One of the administrative assistants was even choked up. You readers of my blog knew so much more than they did. They only had a few pictures and a quick email and had lived in the dark as I had disappeared into the middle of Asia, somewhere near countries where there are revolutions going on, terrorist attacks, and wars. Kazakhstan may be one of those “stan” countries but it’s nothing like the problem “stan” countries, but the average person from the US has no idea. They all loved the pictures, they loved the baby. I guess this is how it feels to be a new father. I wonder if I should hand out cigars. They surprised me with a huge photo – the one where Matthew is looking at Daddy being silly which you saw from one of those early blogs—and developed a huge hard copy, something like 18 by 24 inches (45 x 60 cm). It’s essentially life size. I would love to frame it but Pussnboots says there is no place in the house to hang it, not in our bedroom, not in the baby's room, not in my study since there is no more room on the walls, and certainly not in the living area. Too bad, and there is no place in my office for it either.

A few of you asked in my last blog why we had to wait four to six weeks for us to take him home, and I never got a chance to reply. First, there is a two week appeal window that allows someone to come forward to disagree with the court judgment. I’m not sure who would appeal—the birthmother? his biological family?—but they tell me it’s a formality and is never consummated. After those two weeks the bureaucracy then has to generate a number of documents: a new birth certificate with his new name, naturalization papers which makes him a citizen of both countries (Matthew will be an American citizen the second we step off the plane with him; too bad he’s too young to vote in November ), and a passport which will allow him to leave Kazakhstan. There may be other documents too that I’m not aware of. Once those are ready, we can take him home. Once there all we need to do is pick him up in Shymkent, go to Almaty to the US Consulate to submit his certificates and papers, take him to a doctor for a final exam, and have some sort of exit interview. The whole process should take three or four days, depending on scheduling, but we may stretch it a few days on top of that for a little more sightseeing.

So we are in a celebrating mood. Let’s share some more pictures with a play theme.









Hope you enjoyed them.