A Little Bit Stressful, But All Is Well

As Jeff mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we were a little under the weather yesterday and spent the entire day in our hotel room just resting. It was actually kind of nice to get a break from the multi-mile walk that we do each morning. Everyone is feeling better today, especially since I started taking the antibiotics that we brought with us. We have been spending each evening at dinner with an adoptive mom and her 3 year old daughter that came into town this week. It has been so much fun for Jacob to have a playmate and to feel like a normal kid here. They have been spending the last few days in an apartment, but are moving into the hotel room across the hall from us today. Jacob can’t wait. It has been nice for us to have someone else here in the same situation as us. This is her second adoption, so she has been a wealth of knowledge for us, and the English-speaking company is nice, too!

When our coordinator picked us up yesterday afternoon, she told us that she had found a problem with our child’s paperwork. Just when we had lulled ourselves into thinking that the rest of the trip was a slam dunk, we were told that our child’s birth father was still listed in the paperwork. We were told that means that we would have to either find a way for the prosecutor to not mention in during court (not likely), or we would have to find the father and get him to sign off on the adoption. We were flabbergasted because we thought we had been told from the beginning that both parents’ rights had been severed. Our coordinators dropped us off at the orphanage and told us that they were going to go find the judge for our case to discuss it and would pick us up at the end of the visiting time. We were both panicked, because that meant that best case scenario, we were looking at a much extended visit, and worst case scenario that the adoption might not go through after coming all this way. Our coordinators are usually very easy-going and positive, and they seemed very distressed by all of this, so we really feared the worst. We tried to focus on having a good time during our visit, but we were so distracted that it was a little hard.

The boxing competition was just winding down, and there were still lots of other kids around the orphanage. The prior day it had been entertaining to be the “Americanski” spectacle for all of these kids. Today, we were definitely not in the mood. We had to figure out a way to get the extra kids away from us, which was not easy, but eventually they understood what we were trying to communicate. I think we hurt their feelings. We were both silently praying during the entire visit. God has been in control of this whole process, and we knew that things would work out as they are supposed to, but still, it is definitely in our nature to worry. We got a little reprieve when our child’s caregiver came outside to get her and motioned for us to follow. When we got back to her group room, the kids were all lined up and ready for something. We had been told earlier in the day that a humanitarian group from Germany that visits the orphanage twice a year to visit with the kids was coming on Saturday, and the kids have a big production planned for them. We were instructed to sit down on the couch while the kids rehearsed for the show. First the kids broke into boy-girl couples for a traditional Kazakh dance that kind of resembles the Royal Ball in Cinderella. Of course, our child was the best dancer and the most graceful, or at least I think she was because I wasn’t watching anyone else! For the second act, just the girls performed a dance that was kind of a cross between a cheerleading routine and an aerobics routine. Our daughter was in the center and was actually the lead dancer. Let me tell you, this girl can swing her hips so well, she would make Elvis blush. She’s really got rhythm! We’ll have to put a lid on that, or we are in trouble when she is a teenager.

After the rehearsal, it was already about 15 minutes after the time that our visiting was supposed to be over, but our coordinators still had not come to pick us up, so we went outside. We found them talking to the director, and we got even more worried. When we caught up to them, one of them was on the phone, and we asked our other coordinator what had happened at the court with the judge. She said, “Let’s wait until Medet (the other coordinator) is off the phone so we can talk about it. I am pretty sure that my heart stopped beating right then and there. Medet got off the phone and came over to us looking very serious. Vera, our coordinator, looked at us and then smiled. She said that the part about our child’s father still having parental rights was wrong, and that they had found paperwork showing that his rights had been severed, too – phew. My heart started again while they told us about the rest of our journey. They were able to get a court date in time for us to get home on Oct 3 as planned, but what a journey it is going to be. It looks like we will have our guardianship hearing this Monday Sept 25 at 4:00. The outcome of that hearing will determine the court’s outcome. We do not expect any problems with this. Then next Thur or Fri, we will take the dreaded train to Almaty to attend an Embassy interview at the US Embassy. We will only be there during the day, and Vera will be traveling with us to make sure that everything goes smoothly. At the end of the day, we will return again on the train – that’s right folks, two train trips in 24 hours. Whoo hoo. Jacob is very excited. We will be back to spend the weekend in our region and will have our court hearing on Monday Oct 2 at 10:00. Shortly after that is over, we will have to hire a driver to drive us all the way back to Almaty so that we can make our flight which leaves that night (actually Tue morning) at 3:20 am. Then we will be home to wait out the mandatory waiting period before our child comes home. And to think, I thought this was going to be an easier way to have another child…..All worth it, though, and we will be home soon. 10 days to be exact, but who’s counting!

This morning we took a long walk to the amusement park and found a big gathering in the open air amphitheater. There were more than 100 people there, mostly school-age performing in some sort of talent show. It looked like all of the different cultures were represented in the acts, and I really wish we had brought our camera for it. Definitely not something you see every day. Jacob got to go on a few rides and all was well. Hopefully today’s visit to the orphanage will be a lot less stressful!