Dossier is on the Move Again

Our documents came back from translation Monday and were being prepared for the Embassy in Washington, DC. From the information we have received - this usually takes approximately two weeks. From there it goes to Kaz and it can take anywhere from 6-9 weeks to get our LOI. Our timeframe has changed a number of times, but now we are looking at December/January. Hopefully, our dreams will come true and we will have our miracle for Christmas.

Still Waiting

Well, it is honestly no surprise to me that our documents are not back from translation yet. It will be two weeks this Monday since they were sent. Interestingly, everyone else got theirs back in one week...apparently ours just don't fall into that category. I inquired via e-mail on Wednesday this week, but got no reply. It has become apparent to me that I am not worthy enough of a response from anyone at my agency. At least they will still speak to my husband. He spoke with our contact on Friday and was told is will most likely be back from translaation on Monday or Tuesday. We were "reminded" that e-mailing other clients or writing about our agency is against the policy that we signed. I find the need for such a policy suspect, but as we all know - hindsight is 20/20.

I had a dream last night that the child we believe to be waiting for us was no longer available for adoption. He was still there in the orphange, but money had never been received in order to "hold" him and therefore they would not let us adopt him. Of course, dreams are just dreams, but I fear mine is a foretaste of possible nightmares to come.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off to Translation We Go...

Our dossier is off for translation after a two week period of stress induced by the incompetence of our agency. If lies and incompetency were a crime our agency would be serving a life sentence. So, now we wait. We were told the documents will take approximately a week to return from translation. Then it will be off again...it reminds me of that Stanley thing - does anyone know what I am talking about? Stanley is a paper doll sent off into the world much like you did when you were a kid and released balloons with your name and addres on an index card and wait for people to reply to tell you were your balloon ended up. Remember that? We did that in elementary school. Stanley is the newer version of that. Many elementary school teachers do that and track his journey. I wish I could track our dossier's journey :-)

I am glad we are moving forward again. Every accomplishment bring us at least one step forward toward our son. We know where he is not: Karaganda. We are playing the hot/cold game with our agency right now. Is he here? Your getting warmer. Is he here? Colder. At times we are sure he probably doesn't exist since that has happened to dozens of clients too. The last updated photo we received was in May. So, although the director of the agency says he is still there (altough ironically he claims he doesn't know where "there" is) I fear we may be one of the unfortunate families that gets there and finds out "No, that baby is not here. We have never seen that baby before."

Only those who are going through this will understand what the heck I am talking aboout, but you do feel very alone. The people you know and love couldn't possibly understand what you are going through and most of the time you don't have the energy to explain. My sweet, calm husband went off the deep end on his mom last night when she mentioned that Madonna has to go through the same red tape we do. He was yelling at her! That is not like him at all and I suddenly realized that this is getting to him just as much as it gets to me, but he has been hiding it better. We are glad we have each other. I have always been thankful for my wonderful hubby, but I am more grateful each day that we are in this together. I send thanks to the Lord every single night for my husband.

I am praying for all my virtual friends who are in Kaz right now or in between trips. I am praying for those traveling to Russian or Guatemala soon too! The many blogs of families whose dreams have come true keep me going...thank you for sharing your journey with all of us.

Bummed Out...

I certainly haven't posted as often as I did over the summer. This is partially due to life being "back to normal" with me being at work...any teacher will tell you that the beginning of the school year is always a hectic time. But it is also due to the fact that I haven't had much to say. On Friday my husband spoke to the coordinator at our agency after we got an e-mail from him Thursday night that made my go absolutely biserk. The e-mail said that many of our documents did not have an apostille. I went wild beyond what you can imagine. You have to understand, which anyone who has ever had to prepare a dossier will, that I practically have the instructions memorized! I was certain there was nothing amiss when I sent that dossier out.

WRONG! First we received a call saying that the money order for the Consulate was not good because it had to be a postal money order! Well, why didn't you tell us that BEFORE??? I really wish someone could tell me what difference it makes anyway where the darn thing is from! Then the e-mail about the apostilles sent me over the edge and I had to depend on my dh to handle it because I was certainly not rationale.

Turns out that on page 3 of the dossier packet it states in bold italics that as of June 2005 all documents for Kaz have to be individually apostilled. Now, let me just add here that I am not the first and only client who failed to get this done since I was using the checklist provided by the agency in which each document is described and then it states what needs a notary or both a notary and an apostille. Apparently, these pages were never updated and this monumental peice of information was relegated to page 3 and never mentioned again in the 50+ pages of instructions.

So, depression has seriously come over my heart. I took off work on Friday and slept about 17 hours. DH keeps telling me everything will be fine and I just keep saying that it won't be fine because it is already not fine. I am not fine with the fact that our dossier sat at our agency for a week before they even looked through the papers and informed us that something needed to be done with those documents. I am not fine with the fact that it is October and our documents are still in the US! I am sooooooo not fine with our agency - and God forgive me I wish awful things on the director on a daily basis. I am not fine that our son is 17 months old and not home. I am not fine with the fact that every setback moves us further away from having him home by Christmas. I am not fine with the fact that this agency is making a fortune and doesn't seem to have a single competent person working there. I am not fine with everyone asking me "So, when are you going to get your baby?" even though I have told them what feels like 6 million times that I DON'T KNOW!

So, there you have the updated synopsis of my recent misery :-) Aren't you glad you stopped by? lol