Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Oh... the waiting.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm not good at waiting? Back when I lived in Las Vegas, I was notorious for exiting the freeway at the slightest sign of a backup. An hour later after exploring back roads I never knew existed, I'd either find myself at my final destination or Arizona. I always need to feel like there is some forward momentum in my life, even if not necessarily in the right direction.

I've temporarily turned my adoption energy towards organizing the house. I'm attacking it with the mindset that "everything is trash until proven indispensable". With any luck my filing from ten years ago, should be caught up in a matter of days.

Uzbekistan - The Process

Looking back I realized that I never fully revisited the new adoption laws of Uzbekistan. I'm not a lawyer. I do not speak Uzbek or Russian. I am not an expert on international law of any sort. My interpretation is simply "the word on the street" and could prove to be totally false. With that disclaimer in place... here it goes:

Uzbekistan is now requiring that the prospective adopting parents need to meet their potential child (called a "referral") in person before the Ministry of Education (MOE) will process the adoption petition. I believe the parents also need to meet with several government officials (perhaps at the MOE level?). It seems that only one parent is absolutely required to travel, but they must be in possession of a seriously strong power-of-attorney. Just about the time their internal clock adjusts to the time change it's back on the plane to head home for my favorite part again.... WAITING.

While you wait impatiently at home (now you've met your future child, so the wait becomes THAT much harder), the MOE processes and approves your petition to adopt the child. My understanding is that this takes approximately a month. I just hope they don't call extended family and friends for personal references, because my mom can't understand people who speak "Texan" - much less "Uzbek"!

After this is where my understanding of the process gets even foggier. After receiving approval from the MOE, your paperwork proceeds to the regional guardianship office and mayor. Somewhere around this time, an invitation to travel is extended to you and the scramble to repack begins. The parent(s) [again, it seems that only one parent is absolutely required to travel] meet the mayor and possibly other Uzbek officials prior to the finalization of the adoption. Then there's the issuance of a new birth certificate, passport, visa, etc. Once the Uzbek paperwork is in order, then it's off to the U.S. Embassy to complete the process required to bring an adopted orphan into the United States. You can check out the USCIS website for all of those details.

My understanding is that the first trip will be approximately one week and the second will be approximately two weeks. Keep in mind that the process can change at any moment. There have been two major overhauls to the Uzbekistan adoption process in just the past four months. Be flexible, be patient and be prepared to wait. Ugh! I hate that part!!!!!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Keep your fingers crossed...

There has been news of a potential referral. Don't get excited yet, it will be weeks before we know any of the details or if the child is actually eligible for international adoption. I'm just happy that after months of waiting, I feel like the next step in the adoption process could happen in the foreseeable future.

While I continue my quest for more and more information on the adoption process in general, I stumbled across a link to an article about birthparents. The article is written by a mother who adopted from Guatemala, but the emotions and situations could happen anywhere. It is a very thought provoking article and worth reading.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/11/did-i-steal-my-daughter.html

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Turn your virus protection on!

There hasn't been any new adoption news to report. The first several families are making their trips to Uzbekistan in the coming weeks. That's great news for them and hopefully the future of international adoption in Uzbekistan. On a selfish note, that also probably means no referrals for the foreseeable future. Our Uzbek coordinator is likely to be swamped with work considering all of the families, government officials and children she's going to be "coordinating". At this point, I don't see any way that we'll be bringing a child home this year.

As for the family update... if there's a virus or bacteria to be caught in Texas, our family has had it during the past month. I *thought* we were all almost healthy when Jonathan developed a bizarre rash. Since I hadn't seen that one before, I took him to urgent care. Turns out he had strep throat. After casually mentioning to the doc that we ALL were sick, we ALL got to come back and get tested for strep. I'm happy to report that all of us almost recovered folks were strep-free. HOWEVER, the rapid test that's given for strep is only 70% accurate. Given the fact that Mike is overseas and we were all sick anyway, the entire family was put on antibiotics. At that point the doc decided to check us all out just to be on the safe side. All of us "healthy" people ended up on an additional six prescriptions. There was one ear infection, one concerning cough and one of my lungs sounded like it might be headed towards bronchitis or pneumonia. I'm glad we didn't go to the doctor while we were actually "sick"... we might have all ended up in the hospital or something.

So, just about the time we all recover from round one, Sean gets the 18-24 hour bug that involves fatigue, high fever and vomiting. Matthew took his turn next and Jonathan & I are still drawing straws to see who goes next.