No Sympathy for the Weary (Emma update too)

Conethia doesn't want to hear my daily woes (smile), so I'll just move on to talking about Emma.

We are most fortunate to have a baby that sleeps through the night. She is now 4.5 months old. She doesn't take a long nap during the day, but does cat nap. I think this helps for sleeping through the night, although it doesn't give me much of a break during the day for schooling.

Emma is a really easy baby though. When she is tired she throws her arms up and arches her back. She smiles a lot, and has a very pleasant disposition. She is teething, but doesn't cry about it. She makes cute raspberries. She does this crazy monkey yell when she wants your attention. It sounds like, "eh, eh, eh, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh". Stupid to write that, I know. She loves watching her uber energetic brother bounce off the walls and ceiling. Emma is also very alert. Aiden has been a good helper, and he hasn't had anything near the amount of sibling jealousy I expected.

We think her birthmother did a really fantastic job the first three months, and have a great deal of respect and admiration for her.

Going Crazy

I have a very active and demanding 6.5 year old, and now a 4 month old. I homeschool our very smart boy. I work with our contractor on remodeling our house so that we can put it up for sale, and try to keep up our temporary apartment in some order. I am trying to find us a larger home now that we have a girl. I still have our holiday decorations up, and the laundry could be folded. The cat is almost out of food, and my mother needs me to run some errands for her. Oh, I am also going crazy.

Republishing Old Posts from Ukraine

When we signed on with an agency to adopt from Kyrgyzstan, we edited our blog and removed several posts about our unsuccessful Ukrainian adoption attempt. It feels great not to have to jump through any hoops set up by international adoption agencies. Our entire Ukrainian experience is here now for anyone that wants to know what can happen.

We Have Our Girl!

We brought our baby girl home this month! She was adopted domestically, and we couldn't be happier. We didn't want to post anything earlier about throwing our hat into the domestic adoption arena because we would have also gone to Krygyzstan if it had reopened. Anyway, everything finds its balance sooner or later.

She is happy, healthy, and no exposure to drugs or alcohol. We are thrilled, and she couldn't be more perfect.

Hibernating at Home

There is nothing much to report on the adoption front.

It is hot hot hot outside, and we are staying inside and trying to stay cool. I've been doing some sewing lately. I just finished a baby quilt, and a crown. I have a pattern for some cute girl's dresses, but I don't know the sex of the child we may adopt one day.

Update, But Nothing Exciting

We are considering some other options right now. I've read that things might begin moving in Kyrgyzstan before the end of the year. That may or may not include families without referrals. Anyway, that isn't what we are checking out. But we aren't just sitting around waiting.

UPDATE: Kyrgyzstan

This from JCICS:

It is Joint Council's understanding from discussions with the U.S. Dept of State, Office of Children's Issues that a number of arrests have been made in Kyrgyzstan in connection to intercountry adoptions. It is also our understanding that key Kyrgyz officials have confirmed the arrests of at least one adoption coordinator. Joint Council is currently working to confirm the arrests of at least two other coordinators. The latest information indicates that some of the illegal activity under investigation involve intercountry adoptions for children matched with U.S. citizen adoptive parents, including the creation of fraudulent paperwork for the purposes of intercountry adoption. Joint Council is currently working to confirm the charges and the extent of investigations. It is unknown at this time how this will affect the 65 pending cases.

In response to the current developments in Kyrgyzstan Joint Council is currently advocating with the U.S. Dept of State, Office of Children's Issues for a conference call for families who are matched with a referral. Given the limited schedule of the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan this week we do not anticipate this call occurring until late in the week of May 11th or during the week of May 18th.

Further, Joint Council has at this time decided it is necessary to suspend the current campaign of waiting child stories and the U.S. congressional campaign until further information is available on the investigations, charges, arrests and extent of illegal activities. At this time we respectfully request that prospective adoptive parents with referrals not take drastic advocacy measures for their case or the 65 pending cases. In conversations with government officials it is apparent that aggressive advocacy efforts at this time may simply be counterproductive. In order to ensure that advocacy efforts are strategic and directed at the appropriate officials and within an effective context, it is necessary to see how the investigations are resolved in Kyrgyzstan. Joint Council is greatly saddened by these recent events and offers our continued support to all families. We will continue to advocate for the children of Kyrgyzstan and the processing of legal, ethical intercountry adoptions from Kyrgyzstan with the strongest of commitments. Joint Council will also continue to update Member Organizations, adoptive families and all key stakeholders as the situation develops.

Thank you for your continued support of Joint Council and the children we all serve.

One of Many Updates....Sort of

This is an edit of a post from an agency very active in Kyrgyzstan. They are kind enough to keep people updated on what is happening (or at least what they know).


The Parliament did not discuss adoption this week. Next week is holidays, so if they meet they may not discuss adoption. The following week they are back on schedule and we expect they will issue their decision. The MOE is clearly operating with the belief that they will give a green light to completing adoptions in process; they indicate that it will take about a month to catch up with the matched waiting families. We do not know if they will then continue to make referrals to other families, or if the Embassy will accept new dossiers, or what. Hopefuly all of the above. The investigations continue. Most in-country coordinators have been called in for questioning. A couple judges have been unseated. They continue to raise those bizarre questions about "Why do foreign families want Kyrgyz orphans?" We've heard that family stories and photos have been helpful at debunking myths and allaying fears. The US Embassy is actively engaging the Kyrgyz officials to resolve the impasse. I don't know how many more times I can bear saying "one more week" or you can bear hearing it, but we are still stuck.

Killing Some Time, Burning Some Money

Aiden and I spent a couple days at Disney World this week. It was nice to get out of town with another mom and Aiden's best buddy. I asked Aiden what he liked best about the trip. He said it was riding the monorail, jumping on the bed in the hotel room, and the Legos store. I didn't have to purchase park admission passes for that. But then, knowing he isn't a big fan of too many people and too much noise (I liked lounging around the hotel pool the best), I could have guessed that.

We may go back again when the crowd is thinner. Then again, we can head west for 15 minutes and get a hotel room on the beach (with good beds to jump on), ride the beach trolley, and float in the Gulf of Mexico for less than the cost of a park pass to the Magic Kingdom.

Latest Update on Kyrgyzstan Progress

Based on an email from a wonderful agency director:

The powers that be say they are working on it, but there is nothing of substance yet to report. The investigations seem to center on Bishkek, although the adoption documents from Tokmok may not have been reviewed yet.

According to The Economist, The Kyrgyz president gave the US six months to renegotiate the US base arrangement. While it does not affect adoption directly, any swing between Russia and the US from inside Kyrgyzan can influence how the Kyrgyz government feels about the US in general.

DOS has not directly reported anything new, but the talk is that they are working hard to get children home. It isn't known whether they can make it happen this month or not.