More Pictures!

Michelle and Chris sent more pictures! He looks like a little boy, today. Look at that Machina right on his shirt. He will fit right in with the Johnson side of the family! Dumptrucks are my favorite! (Melissa)

Chris tells us that their translator said Maks' speech is very good! That is great news. In December of last year, his medical information said his speech was delayed. We are very thankful for any bits of information. It helps us hold on. Thanks again to the Sapp family. Hopefully, when we are there, we can take some pictures for another forever family.

A very big THANK YOU

Michelle and Chris Sapp are a couple that works with AIP and they are in Ust right now. As luck would have it, Maks is in their son Mateo's group! They sent us these cute pictures. They write that Maks "is such a sweet, loving boy! He is always FULL of smiles! I can't tell you how glad we are that he has a forever home. He is also one of the tallest in the group. "

Isn't it amazing to get a second set of updates. We are hoping and praying that we are able to go get Maks soon. So, THANKS Sapp family for taking pictures of Maks. We are so happy to hear details about him. We can't believe his outfit! The tights and sweater are too much!
LOL

Cell Phone Fundraiser

You may have guessed that the adoption is quite expensive. We have budgeted enough money for the trip and documentation. What we need help with, however, is the airfare. Especially, if we have to make two trips.

I found a quick way to earn money for the airfare. I am collecting used cell phones. Companies on the internet recycle the phones and will put money toward our adoption depending on the quality of the used phones I send them.

It is not only good for the environment (where do all those old cell phones go anyway!!) but you can help us get to Maks. If you have any old cell phones, email me and I will tell you what to do. woodsphysics@yahoo.com

Timeline

12/27/04 Jason (finally) agrees to proceeding with adoption in order to start our family.
2/2/05 Homestudy application to Angel's Haven Outreach
2/10/05 Sign with Adoption International Program
3/25/05 Received completed Home Study
3/26/05 BCIS application
5/12/05 Received I-600A
5/13/05 Paperwork notarized and submitted to AIP
5/31/05 Documents translated and sent to DC Embassy
6/15/05 New requirements for Dossier
6/22/05 Fully apostilled documents submitted to AIP
7/12/05 Dossier to DC Embassy
10/08/05 Dossier returned to AIP for new requirements again!!
10/20/05 FBI clearance, medical, and Post-placement reports will be required.
11/12/05 Submitted new requirements to AIP. Dossier complete again! Will it take this time??
11/17/05 Documents translated and submitted to NY Consulate.
12/08/05 Documents sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Kazakhstan.
12/19/05 Dossier received by the MFA
01/16/06 We have received word that our "cable" will arrive in about 1 week. We can start thinking about travel dates. We are looking at Feb 3rd or Feb 10th right now.
02/08/06 We received our confirmation number: 0330pp This means that we really received our letter of invitation and our adoption visas will be issued soon!
02/10/06 We were given the okay to book our flights! We will leave Thursday, 02/16 at 2:40 pm. It has been exactly one year since we signed with AIP that we received word we can travel. hmmm....

New Dossier Requirements

We found out this week that our dossier was returned from the DC Embassy, AGAIN! This time we need to get another FBI clearance, more medical exams, and a letter stating that we will submit post-placement reports until Maks is 18 years old.

Okay. We can handle it. It will only be a few weeks to gather the new paperwork and back to the Embassy. We know that it will all be worth it in the end. We are on our way to get him and we won't stop until we do. :)

Can't go back to work, period!!

This week was the second worst of my life. Second only to my sister being killed in April of 1999. I found out that we would not travel to Kazakhstan to adopt our little boy until "later". An undisclosed "later"! It seems that the Kazakhstani government has put a temporary hold on adoptions until new requirements can be issued.

What am I supposed to do now? I am on a semester leave of absence from my teaching duties at Santa Barbara High School. I asked for this last May when my adoption agency assured me we would leave for Kaz in "10 weeks and no later". I knew that we wouldn't be home in time for Maks and our family to bond so my husband and I decided that taking time off of work would be appropriate. We can't really afford to take too much time off - but we knew the loss in income would be extremely worth it as our son learned about his family.

So, when I found out about not traveling, I called the school district's personnel office. I was informed that because I took an official leave of absence, I would not be allowed to return to my regular duties as a physics teacher - they had contracted a subsitute teacher until the end of January. To me, this is understandable. Not only that, but - I wouldn't be allowed to substitute teach for the district, either. To boot the personnel director also informed me that I couldn't sub for any public school in California! What??!! I suppose it is my fault for trying to do the right thing and give my school plenty of notice to try to find a suitable replacement physics teacher. (they didn't from the rumors I hear) I was told we would travel in July! It is really nobody's fault... noone could have known that the adoption would play out this way - not Jason or I, not our agency, not the school district, not the orphanage in Kazakhstan - but it seems unfair.

I really can't even think right now! I am in shock. I worried when Jason and I first decided to adopt that I might "lose everything" - my home (it is a huge financial undertaking to adopt internationally), my marriage (okay - I am a worry wart - but kids add stress to a marriage), and my job (with unknowns that come with kids - both homegrown and heartgrown). Now we are stuck with half of our normal income and what is going to happen with my job!!!!?????

Well - I'll try to stop crying soon.

Cousins

Cousins Nate and Jonny say Hi! We can't wait until you come home!

Still Waiting....

We haven't heard from our agency since they told us that the DC Embassy was "not processing" any dossiers. A 2 week process at the Embassy has turned into 10+ weeks and my semester sabbatical is quickly passing by.

The wait is difficult but Jason and I know that it will be worth it. Keep us and Maks in your thoughts and hopefully we get to leave soon. :)

Where is Kazakstan?

Ice Blocks!!

Nate and Justin are riding ice blocks down the hill at Arroyo Verde Park the day of the baby shower!

Fun! Then Moorea joined in. As you can see, Roni watches as Moorea rides down the hill!
Uncle Brian and Jonny had a pretty good ride, too.

Baby Shower at Arroyo Verde Park

The BBQ/baby shower at Arroyo Verde Park was really fun. Luckily, Ireland waited to be born the next week! It was fun to have a baby shower for Ireland and a toddler shower for Maks on the same day. Boy, was it alot of work. I'm sure Auntie Elizabeth would agree. :)

Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating with us. It was great to see all of you.

About our adoption process

We are Jason and Melissa Woods. We decided to adopt a child from Kazakhstan so that we could be parents and a child could have a forever family. We signed with Adoption International Program after some research.

In Kazakhstan, referrals (the child that you want to adopt) are not official until you meet the child, spend 2 weeks bonding, then go to court to ask to adopt that child. The judge usually assigns a 2 week waiting period after the court date for the adoption to become final. Then you travel to Almaty where there is a US Embassy and you obtain the paperwork to bring the child home. Sounds straight forward, but the whole trip takes roughly 8 weeks! Sometimes, parents make two trips. We are not exactly sure if we will take one or two trips.

We started the process in January of 2005. (see timeline post) We have had some paperwork delays so things aren't going according to plan! We continue to hope and pray that it will all work out in the end.

Thanks for reading. We will continue this blog along our journey in order to keep you posted on what's going on. If you would like to leave us comments, please do. We love to read them. Which reminds me - sometimes strange comments get through. I am working on deleting them!

Keep us in your thoughts!