Panic- calm down-Panic- Mad- calm down everythings okay

Hello everyone!

I was hoping to write the next blog when we finally get a referral but, as things don't go according to plans, here it is:

We got an email from our adoption agency's executive director monday (July 14) that they just received the news from the Consulate that there was a change in the process & files are being returned to the agency to update documents & as Kazakhstan did not like the way the files were stamped by the Ministry, they were also returned to be stamped properly. The Ministry were stamping the 1st & last page of every dossier but now would have to stamp all pages & that the Ministry has agreed to only stamp 10 pages per day (a dossier can have up to approx 80 pages) that is about 8 days per dossier. The email continued by saying that all of the families affected willbe contacted the next day. I started to panic. I asked Sean to read the email & give me a level headed summary of what he thought this meant for us. He read it & said: " Mal, this doesn't affect us cause our file was sent to the Consulate June 13 so it's probably in Kazakhstan by now."- so my head goes into mode: Calm down.

The next day we get home & I check our email & there it is, we had been affected. There was an email from the agency saying that Anjali (person in charge of the program) was coming to Ottawa & was bringing our dossier along with 7 others and we needed to update some documents & she asked at which phone # we would like to be reached as she will call me the next day to discuss further. I started to Panic again. I gave her my cel phone #. I was almost in tears. I came really close to say, pull our files, we are getting out but my better judgement & mother instinct kicked in & I did not say anything.

Yesterday I carried my cell phone hooked to my pants all day & no calls. I was devastated, thinking the worst (there is something wrong & they are afraid to call... I was thinking). I wrote an email from work during my break & I had the brillance of mind to instead of sending it to them, I sent it home for Sean (cool headed guy that he is) to read over & remove any profanity I might have put in (can't remember if there was any I was too upset) & write more professionally. Then we sent the email from home. In brief I expressed our concers & desapointment of not getting any calls & said that I was expecting a call from someone the next day. (i sent the email to the person that was suppose to call us(Nana), Anjali (in charge of program) & the executive director (who wrote initial email).

I got a call back from Anjali today. She said that documents needed to be updated & so on & so forth. I told Anjali that I did not think so. That I had approched Nana a few months ago about this very thing as the papers we got inititally said 6 months & then they need to be updated. I had told Nana that as our file was at their agency for 4 months that our documents need to be updated already & she had assured me that Anjali was able to negociate a 1 yr date. So, based on this, we should be okay because the oldest documents should be around November 2007 & newest Jan 2008. She was surprised at that & went to get our dossier. She looked at it & was extatic that our dossier was fine & could be returned for processing to Kazakhstan. It has to go through the 10 page stamping per day so, to be on the safe side, it could take up to 2 months before our file is sent to kazakhstan.

She said that as some document will become stale dated in Nov 2007 that to be on the safe side that we should update all document needed before we go so we should start now & once we have then to send them the new documents for translation & to be ready to send to Kazakhstan once we get a referral. She added that she will not hold any dossier for anyone else so our will be moving along on it's own. We went from being behind 7 dossiers to be in front of all of them. As much as I feel bad for these families, I am glad we are moving forward.

Angali said that we will get an email from Nana when our dossier is sent to the Embassy & we will get another email once it is sent to Kazakhstan & she also said to me: " Malory, once your dossier is sent to kazakhstan, count 3 months then you go." That made it so real for me. I did not know what to say. She appologized for the confusion and said she will process this as fast as possible. ( calm down Mal everything is okay.)

So with that being said, we are looking at hopefully Dec-Jan unless the specific we are asking for is not available ( healthy girl between 1- 3 1/2 yrs old)

I hope to write again once we get a referral.

Malory