Translation Totaly Complete

We have taken one tiny little step forward. Our last round of paperwork with our medicals has now been translated. I have been assured that our dossier will go to the Embassy in May. What I don't know is when in May. This matters because our FBI prints expire July 15 and I will need to start that process soon again if we don't get through the next step soon. The other big news is that Kazakhstan signed the Hauge Treaty. I am not sure at this time what that means for us. Hopefully nothing as far as paperwork is concerned. I also have to send USCIS another large chunk of change to update our expired fingerprints. I still can't get a good explanation for why we need to go there in person, pay $160 to have our electronic fingerprints done again. How does one's prints expire?

Out other big task is to apply for Emerson's US passport. I be live that he will not have to get a visa because he is also a Kazakh citizen. I will be able to take a much needed breath about all of this once our paperwork is in Kazakhstan.

On the business front we are swamped. John has been installing gardens, rain barrels and drip irrigation like crazy these past few weeks. Check them out at www.thebackyardpantry.webs.com We are donating one tonight at the Party for the Planet Green Tie affair tonight.

My mom is starting to feel better and might even get to go home tomorrow. Emerson keeps asking about her saying "Mimi has a bad boo boo, I go to the hospital and pick her up..take her back home with me and give her a cars band-aid" If only it were that simple.

Learning to live in the moment

Here I am with 6 weeks and 4 days left until the summer. I am thrilled that it is comming up but with that also means that Daniyar will be returning home. Recent events with my mom are also leading me to come back to the present and enjoy what I have now. My mom at 63 years young is in the hospital for heart problems and because she had a stroke on Friday. I am learning through this to not wish my days away to getting my next little one, because then I am neglecting the days I have with some of the most amazing people that are here and who will not always be here with me.

Mom's illness has also helped finalize our decision to bring Emerson with us on our big trip. We have really gone back and forth about this knowing that the flights are going to be crazy. Oh well, such is life.

The other big news is that the Kazkah president is in Washington DC meeting about nuclear proliferation. While I am happy the world is taking this step, I am sad that the ambassotors at the embassy will not be taking dossiers until the summit is over. I must trust that this all has meaning.

Wait, Wait, Wait. Gurr

OK, I know that this all works out the way it is supposed to. I know that trying to push papers forward at this stage is fruitless, but I am tired of waiting in line. We have now had our dossier to our agency for 4 months. I know that they have recived our last round of paperwork that we were told to do later so that it would not expire while we waited in this line. Now we wait to hear it is translated. Then we continue to wait for it to go to the Embassy. After we get there things should be pretty strait forward.

I guess I am finding it hard now that it is sprint time and transition time. I am ready to buy our own house, I am ready to complete our family, but alas we must stay in this holding patter a little while longer. I also can not stop thinking about the fact that our child is there, alive and not knowing that we are here waiting and caring about them so much already. As I write this he or she is asleep and I want to shout out to the light of the moon, "I love you, your Papa loves you and your brother Emerson loves you." This I do, I just pray that our little one feels it.

The Garden is in

Well nothing yet on the adoption front but spring is here in Alabama. We put in our garden yesterday and it felt wonderful to get this started. On the adoption front I am anxious for things to start moving. I feel like so much of our life is stuck in one place due to the mounds of papework that need to indiacte our exact status for the year long process. Oh well, maybe there will be some news today. I will post pictures of the garden soon.