Paperwork Almost Together

Boring time. We have the updated I171H. We will have everything in a few days except the medical forms unless the doctors don't take their time about it. Maybe they won't. We are just about there.

Instead of waiting to get our dossier together until closer to referral time we were now told to put it together and the families that have them together the soonest are the ones that get their referrals first. Maybe that is good and makes it all happen faster for us. Maybe it puts us farther behind than before. I'm sure we won't know and I won't think about it.

I don't know what more to write. We will be adopting from the Bishkek orphanage. There are only two orphanages where our adoptions happen, at least at this point. Tokmok is the other city. Bishkek is the capital of the country.

I hope I get to travel around the country a bit. I cannot imagine going half way around the world to such a facinating place and not taking it in. How better to let your adopted child know about their homeland than to tell them about your experiences traveling in their native country? I want to stay in a yurt. I want to travel in the countryside.

Someone asked about the process. It doesn't seem that clear to us. It seems the dossier goes to the Krgyz Embassy for review and then back to the agency/foundation to be held until referral time. There is a translation period too, although it doesn't seem to happen right away. Our agency told us to hold off getting our dossier state certified, but that doesn't mean it won't be certified at time point. Timeframes seem to have changed too. In March it was four to six months and one year on the far end. Now agencies are saying two years (and not saying whether that is realistic or on the far end). Many of the original agencies working in this country are no longer accepting applications because it is a small country and adoptions seem to be happening out of just two orphanages. I know of one agency that is telling people there is a one trip option. Most other agencies are saying two trips. The first trip seems to be of varying lengths. I don't know why it is so different for different agencies. I don't know if it has to do exclusively with the different regions or if each agency just has different experiences.

I suppose the one thing you can bank on is that international adoption is always a changing thing, but then so is life.