Our Great news!! It's a girl!!!

Meet Olivia Catherine

We are not going to Kazakhstan anymore! YEH!!!

In April, Sean was approched by a co-worker that she wanted to meet with him to discuss a private issue. She explained to him that she has a niece that is pregnant & expecting a baby girl in June & the father is not in the picture. She is in University & financially & emotionally she cannot care for the baby. Sean's co-worker said she knew we have been trying to adopt for some time now & they were wondering if we would be interested in adopting the baby.

As you can imagine emotions were running high as it appears Kazakhstan was dragging more & more & the thought of living there for 2 months was not very appealing. We were offered this gift right here in our back yard with no need to travel & learn a new language & having the priveledge of knowing the mother & her family & her family health history. We thought about it ( about 2 seconds) & said yes of course.

We were then contacted by the birth mother in May to meet with her & her family. We met on May 18 & everything went great. She advised that she wanted us to adopt her baby & we then began the process with our lawyer & social Services.

She was born on June 24, 6:26 pm, 7 lb 1 oz & is very beautiful & healthy. We were very lucky to have been included since the very beginning & met her 45 mins after the birth (c-section). We spent a lot of time with her the next day as well (the whole day actually) until she was discharged at 8:30 pm. We then took her home the next morning & have had her since. Today, Sunday July 12, 2009 is our "gotcha" day as she is officially ours today.

We want to thank you Catherine for choosing us to care for your beautiful baby girl as our own. We are blessed & truelly greatful for this precious gift.

To our family & friends & to all our fellow Bloggers that followed our blog, Thank you & good luck with your adoption.

Malory, Sean, Joshua & Olivia

will post some very exciting news on Sunday July 12

We cannot say anything right now but on Sunday I will post a news that is very exciting!!!
Stay tune.

Some more delayes, what else is new...

Well, once again we have been delayed. What seem to be the reality of going to Kazakhstan on time for a change has been shattered. We received an update from CB telling us that the Kazakhstan government has now decided to ensure that when a letter of invitation is done/sent that it is actually a child who has past the 7 months probation period (adoption within the country first) & that the child is actually free to be adopted out of country.... Cause it was not before???
CB added that this will cause delayes & that there was no way to know how long those delayes will be. So far none of the families that their dossiers were sent in early December got any LOI. Which means we will be greatly delayed as well although I am not sure why as we are asking for an older girl not a baby & chances are she has past the 7 months in country adoption notice long ago. But, as children comes to the Baby house at all age, one never knows...

In the meantime, we wait, again. I was hoping for a summer travel whch would have been perfect (school wise) but life is not perfect & we have to learn to live with disapointment. I guess that is what makes us stronger & appreciate what we do have.

I guess I am getting to a point where I wounder if this is meant to be at all... I am sure a lot of parents in our situation think that way at some point or another... Like my Mom used to say: "Everything comes to whom waits".

So we will continue to wait....

Malory

Reflection

I have been reflecting on the past 3 years since we started the adoption process.

Since we have lost our son Liam (still-birth) March 2005 , the brother we promessed Josh, it has been a difficult road. Both Sean & I lost our fathers within 2 months of each other , only a few months after we lost our son. My mother was hospitalized at that same time and almost died. That has also been a rough road for our son Josh. He was excited to be a big brother and so far this has only been a wish because we have no sibling for him thus far. We have had 3 miscarrages since we lost Liam and as I was going to be 40 years old at that time we made a decision to stop our trials at having another biological child & to adopt one instead. Sean & his sister are after all adopted & I have a sister who is adopted & my step sister adopted 2 children from Tailand. As we are more fortunate than the people in those countries of adoption, we have decided to request a girl and to give her a better chance at life & for her to enrich ours.

We have experience a lot of set backs since we started the adoption process, first with China and the expected travel going from 1 yr to 7 years. We then decided to cancel the adoption in China, loose over $8,000. and pursue our adoption with a different country. We researched different countries that Saskatchewan allowes for international adoption and Kazakhstan seem to be a great place to find our daughter. The caregivers care about the children as they would do their own and the country is very concerned & dedicated in finding the right families for their children. After reading some stories of Kazak adoptions, specially of Sally & Izak, we concluded that Kazakhstan was the right place for us.

We started the adoption process for Kazakhstan in late 2007 & since, we have experienced a lot of stress & disapointments. From the Blogs that I have been reading, it appears that stress & disapointments come hand in hand & is a natural process of international adoptions. After all, I have been pregnant several times with 2 full deliveries and one healthy child & we do know for a fact that stress & disapointment comes with pregnancy & childbirth. So perhaps this is the normal process a couple has to go through to experience it all. After all the big man up there knowns what he is doing.

In all I know that once I will be looking into her eyes, face to face, I will forget all the troubles & turbulence that came with the process just as a birth mother does about pregnancy & childbirth the moment she hold her newborn into her arms & be thankful that God has granted us the priviledge of having another child and to honor her birth-mother, who ever she might be.

Until then, I read about Kasakhstan as much as I can so I know what to tell her about her birth country and their traditions and hope she honors them in her own way.

Malory

Our dossier is in Kazakhstan: CONFIRMATION GIVEN

I emailed Nana at CB today to inquire if they eventually got confirmation from the co-ordinator in Kazahkstan that our dossier has been received and she emailed back that our dossier was received yesterday as confirmed by the co-ordinator and fed-ex tracking system. she added that he will be taking our dossier to Astana today to hand to the Karaganda co-ordinator so the ball is in motion. from there it is handed to the ministy of foreign affairs then to the ministry of education and then the director of the Baby house. So start counting 3-4 months. YEH!!!!!!!
I can finally breath that something is happening and there is a happy event on it's way....

Malory

The dossier has left the building. FINALLY!!!!

We got news today from our agency that the consul has confirmed that our dossiers were sent to Kazakhstan last week. He did not elaborate on the actual date it was sent. Our co-ordinator will be getting in touch with the co-ordinator in Kazakstan to confirm when the dossiers arrive. There is also a tracking chip in the package so the can track where they are. We were told they are expected to arrive in kazakhstan tomorrow. This is great news!!!
She also told us to expect a LOI in 3-4 months so it will be May-June travel or June-July travel. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a Mother's day present (travel in May) That would be fantastic after all that has happened. We are after not picky. We are requesting for a girl of 2-4 yrs old so it's not like we want an infant/baby. So hopefully it will be even easier for them to find one for us.
So it's 3-4 months from now, wow!, it's like I am 5-6 months pregnant & we are waiting for our girl..... This is what we have been waiting/working for. So until then we will have, Valentine's day, Family day, Sean's birthday, Josh's birthday, Lisa's birthday & if no travel in May, Spencer's birthday & Easter then that should be it before the travel. So I am starting to count down the days....Tanya will know what I'm talking about, right?
Talk to you hopefully sooner than later with exciting news.
Malory

Have a Wonderful Year 2009.....

It is now January 2nd. 20o9 but it is not too late to wish everyone success in their adoption (including ouselves) , good health and happiness.
Let's hope that 2009 will bring joy and luck to everyone with speedy process without glitch...
Please stop laughing ...Remember: BELIEVE it will and it will.
I trust that there is someone watching over us that will come thru for us this year and provide us will all we wish for: health, happiness and a healthy daughter.
HAPPY 2009 TO EVERYONE!
Malory