Time Line for Kazakhstan!

September 2004 - Discuss starting a family in May 2006. Talked about a life-long dream of adopting internationally.
March 2005 - Heather and Paul announce their pending adoption in China!
April 2005 - Started thinking about adopting before having biological children! Research! Research! Research!
April 25 2005 - Decided on Kazakhstan and World Partners Adoption, Inc.
May 24 - Mailed in our application to WPA.
June 5 - First homestudy meeting with Jamie from Adoption Options Worldwide, Inc.
June 10 - Received contract from WPA.
June 16 - Second and final homestudy meeting.
June 28 - Sent in I600-A
June 29 - Physicals, HIV and TB tests.
July 14 - Received Jerry's birth certificate and our marriage license.
August 3 - Bank reference letter. Notarized copies of passports.
August 5 - Medicals finished
August 9 - Received letter of employment
August 17 - Fingerprints for The I600-A, at the office for Homeland Security in Grand Rapids.
October 8 - Homestudy came with mistakes.
October 13 - Fingerprinted for the FBI (new requirement)
October 14 - New Post Placement Agreement form and Letter of Obligation
October 20 - Finished Homestudy came! Redo medical on new forms
October 24 - Sent homestudy to Homeland Security Office.
October 25 - Pick up bank mortgage letter (new), new Letter of Obligation,
November 1 - Received FBI fingerprints back, stamped "no record"!
December 3 - The 171H came!!! (gives the approval for us to bring orphans into the USA!)
December 8 - Sent Dossier to Lee at Paperwork Partners.
February 6, 2006 - We received our final copy of the Dossier back
February 10 - Dossier to Kazakhstan to be translated!
February 15th - Sent Letter of Invitation, General Power of Attorney and copy of 171H to be Apostilled in Lansing.
February 27 - Dossier has been translated and heads to the Consulate office in New York City, for 60 days minimum.
March 2 - Received LOI, GPA and 171H with apostille.
March 6 - Sent LOI,GPA and 171H to WPA.
March 8 - We learned that Kazakhstan has changed some rules and are no longer allowing 2 unrelated children to be adopted at once. :(
March 9 - We decided that we would get a dossier together for China for our daughter and still find our son in Kazakhstan. What ever it takes to bring our babies both home!
April 9 - Baby Shower!!!
April 27 - Dossier heads back to Kazakhstan.
June 27 - Sent China Dossier to WPA!
July 18 - new Medicals, HIV and TB tests again! Updated homestudy to follow! all must be apostilled. Ugh!
July 19 - DTC! Dossier to China!
August 3 - Dossier in Kazakstan for 14 weeks!!!
August 29 - The Email!!! After 28 weeks of waiting patiently.
August 30 - Sent the medical info and pictures to the International Adoption Specialist Doctor.
September 3 - Talked to Dr. Jerri Jenista and signed the Acceptance forms.
September 5 - Sent updated Homestudy and Medicals to Lansing for Apostilles and the Acceptance forms to WPA.

We Have a DTC!!

Our Dossier went to China on July 19, 2006!!! We are using the same agency for our Chinese adoption as our Kazakhstani adoption! World Partners specializes in Kazak adoption, so it is only fair that they partner with a company that specializes in Chinese adoptions, Faith International Adoptions. So our Dossier went with Faith’s other families’ dossiers to China! DTC! Dossier to China! We are so excited! We are officially “pregnant with paperwork" again! See!

Chicago!

We went to Chicago twice in July!

July 5-6 we went there with Jerry's parents and Terri, Robby, and Maggie. It was the most beautiful 2 days! The weather was more perfect than we could have asked for! Sunny and 70 degrees! We had a blast! We went to American Girl and they now have some Asian dolls!!! So of course I had to buy the Asian Bitty Baby, for Kimi! Maggie and I named the doll Mei Ling! :) So I am a mess, what can I say?

I also figured out how we were going display all the kids books! I found these shelves at Menards! The one is for shoes, the other...? Who knows? It is part of a shelving system for a closet. But I put all the little books in the shoe shelf and some little toys, and all the large books on the other! It looks so cute! I think the kids are going to love it!

Again!

We went to Chicago again on the 15th! We went to the museum of Science and Industry, and then met some friends at Shedd's Aquarium! We had so much fun with them, and their kids are so adorable! We just loved "playing" with them! Afterwards we went to a really great Restaurant in Greek-town! We had never eaten at a Greek Restuarant before! We loved it! The poor kids were so tired, but were quite good through dinner! We finally had to say goodbye though!!!

In the Morning on the 16th, we met with Heather, Paul, Ryleigh and Kristina (their neice) at the train station in Michigan City, and we headed back to Chicago to go to the Chinatown Summer Fair! We had so much fun! We bought some stuff, and ate Chinese of course! I found the best flip flops for only $4!

So after we were exhausted from Chinatown and the heat (95 and sunny!!) we got on the train to head back downtown! Then Jerry and Paul went home and we girls stayed overnight! We went to our Hotel to cool off for a while and then went to dinner at the California kitchen on Ohio Street. We had a fun evening, Ryleigh and I , playing with the Chopsticks that came with my salad!

We came home the next evening, we were all so tired! from being so hot all day!!! But we were really glad we went!