The nursery

What a crazy week it's been. After receiving notice that things are moving forward, it seems like there is a whole new pile of paperwork to do. We've had to have three new Power of Attorney's notarized, new medicals done, and new child abuse registries completed - I'm running to the post office daily to courrier them out. We're still waiting for our confirmation number in order to apply for Visa's, so no travel date is confirmed yet, but we're still aiming for travel around February 16. I've started packing (of course), and we've got the nursery looking like a nursery. It took Dave about a month to paint the mural - he's a perfectionist, but it looks wonderful. I hope our child likes animals!

Who knew?

It's a good thing I'm not the gambling type, because I never would have believed the odds, but it happened. After coming to terms with a significant delay earlier this week, we got the surprise of the year - WE GOT THE CALL!! Well, Dave got the call, and then called me at work. It seems the review of the agencies in Kazakhstan didn't affect our agency, and we were told we have a Letter of Invitation today! We should be in Kazakhstan by mid February! We still have to wait for a confirmation number, and get our Visas approved before we can leave, so that may delay things by a couple of weeks, but it's happening! After complaining about the wait, suddenly I'm overwhelmed at how much we still have to do in such a short amount of time. So off to make more lists I go....

Another bump in the road...

Our journey so far has been filled with highs and lows. We knew this was part of the process when we started, but the closer we get, the harder it is to deal with the delays. We received notice yesterday that the government of Kazakhstan is currently doing a formal review of all agencies and files to ensure that post placement reports are being filed as required. For us, this means that Letter of Invitation activity has been placed on hold for an unknown period of time. It's beyond frustrating for us - that's the last thing we're waiting for, and now our hope for travelling in February/March is unlikely. We're trying to look on the bright side - the warmer the weather is when we travel, the easier packing should be - light shirts and shoes vs parkas and boots - it will probably work out for the best. So that's where we are now - just continuing to wait.