Expanded Parameters

With much thought we have decided to up our age to 3ish. We are still requesting a girl and still healthy with only minor correctable needs. We have expanded our parameters, but would take an infant in a heartbeat as well! We are on deck for whichever comes first!!

We love having a 3 yr old and in fact 2.5 yrs + has been our favorite age so far. I love the fact that when we meet her she will already be a little person, with her own personality, likes and dislikes. She will instantly be able to fit into our family and lifestyle! Davis and I take daily walks, ride bikes, go to the park and she will be able to join us and have a great time also.

We realize that toddler adoption and virtual twinning will pose a separate set of challenges. Virtual twinning is 2 children whose ages are within 9 months of each other, who are not genetically related that are raised together as siblings. I have read a lot of literature on this topic and it is overall not usually suggested. However, most of the literature is focused on adopting 2 same aged children at one time or adopting and having a biological infant at the same time. This is much different than what we are doing. We have a happy, attached, stable 3 yr old now and will be adding a child who will need more attention (cognitive, language development, social, etc) than he currently requires. I do believe Davis will be ecstatic to have someone to play with and will not see her as a threat in any way. He is a very talkative, outgoing child and meets friends everywhere we go. Needless to say, I know we will have issues, but I don't foresee making the decision to adopt a child the same age to be anything we can't handle. I also take comfort in having the knowledge of how a normal 3 yr old acts.


Doesn't he reek with happiness??



We are also excited about spending time in Aktobe with Davis and our new child. Having Davis will be a great ice breaker for all of us! We will have a solid 4 hours a day at the orphanage to have uninterrupted play! That doesn't happen too often at home and we look forward to this time to spend with each other.

Arrrggghhh! November?

Our agency is guessing we will travel in early November. This stinks for a lot of reasons.
1) It is far away 2) it is far away 3) our adoption won't be complete this tax year....will have to wait until next year to get the tax credit 4) we are entering the never ending Kazakhstan holidays (see below) 5) it will be freezing 6) entering the flu, cold, sickness season 7)we will miss all the holidays! 8)did I mention it's far away??

Days off will be:
December 16 to 22
December 16th is Independence day of Kazakhstan
December 20th is Muslim Holiday Ait
December 31 to January 7
January 1st is a New Year day
January 7th is Russian Christmas

The only good news is we will be very busy between now and then. Davis' 3rd birthday is Sept 29th so we are busy planning his party. Nothing major, just some friends over for dinner and to play. Geez, I can't believe I have a 3 yr old already! We have Halloween which we are already having dress rehearsals for. Yes, we went to the park yesterday dressed as Spiderman! Milon and I are going to try and be Dr Octopus and the Green Goblin. Then we have our cousin Carson's birthday and by then we should have the LOI!! I know time will fly by so I am just trying to keep that in mind but still can't help wondering if every phone call might be "the one"!!

On a separate note, last week I started to sleep better....without any drugs!! That is huge for me! I really think I have let all of this adoption stuff go. I am at the point of being fed up and just tired of worrying if that makes sense. I am trying to focus on life (which is still hard to do but I must be doing a better job)!

The New Kazakhstan

First and foremost....We still don't have any news that we are able to share. I can't go into much detail at this point but will share more when I can.

Kazakhstan is changing everyday as far as adoptions go. We have dodged a lot of bullets so far and are hoping that we continue to be so lucky until our adoption is complete! Kazakhstan decided that they no longer are allowing gender selection but grandfathered those in whose dossiers were already in Kazakhstan....(dodged that one..) They also decided that they are not processing any more dossiers that haven't already gone to the consulate until further notice (bullet number 2 dodged!). I am hoping that we don't get anything else that we can't dodge but with Kazakhstan these days you just don't know.

It has been exactly 1 year since we mailed our application in and I thought by now we would have been done and probably would have been had we been 6 months earlier sending in our application! With all of the resent countries closing to adoptions (Guatemala, Vietnam, Nepal, China being a 4 yr wait, etc) everyone is flooding the available countries...which is perfectly normal.