Friday, July 6, 2007

Lead up to my Journey

I began my adoption journey in October of 2005. I initially was working with an agency in GA and had committed to a 10 month old little girl from Samara, Russia. I was told I would travel to meet her in June of 2006, but the trip was postponed due to agency accreditation issues in Russia. Late that summer, my facilitating company declared bankruptcy and it was determined that all fees paid to Russia had been "misallocated." My adoption agency still planned to try everything within it's power to get me to Russia to complete the adoption. In December of that year, I was told that the little girl in Samara was "no longer available" and subsequently ... my adoption agency went under.

At this point, I was devastated. Once I worked through the anger and heartbreak, I felt God urging me forward. It became clear to me that I never once wavered from my desire to adopt ... that no matter what, I knew deep in my heart that this IS God's will for my life.

After much prayer and soul searching ... I began to research adoption agencies again. I chose to start over and felt strongly led to change countries to Kazakhstan. Today is July 6th, 2007 and my dossier has been completed, translated, worked it's way past the NY Consulate of Kazakhstan, and has made it to the country of Kazakhstan. I have taken part in a teleconference phone call reference travel, court, and embassy documents and have been told that I may travel in September of this year. I am traveling "blind." This means that I will be sent to a region and will meet my child for the very first time. I will take part in a very, very special two week bonding period and will then seek approval for adoption through the regional court system. Following what I hope will be the judge's approval, I will return to the States for about 3 weeks for a mandatory waiting period. My child's passport and paperwork will then be readied and I will be invited back to Kazakhstan and will go to the orphanage to pick up my child and official motherhood will commence! This second trip should take approximately two weeks and God willing ... I will return as mother and child .

So ... this is the beginning of my recorded story.