As of 7AM CDT today (6PM in Karaganda, KZ) the post-court appeal period expired, and the Kazakhstan court's decision to make Michael Alexei Powers our son became official. It feels so good to get to this point, and we are even more anxious to get back to Kazakhstan so we can bring Michael back home. It's been hard being separated from him - we all miss him terribly - but what has helped is getting updates from Cindy Kaplan (our travel partner who stayed behind in Kazakhstan). She's been able to check up on Michael for us when she goes to the Baby House to visit her daughter, Neve. Plus, she's been able to send us a few pictures of Michael (like the one above), and that keeps us going. We'll be so glad when it's time for us to go back!
Starting on Monday the paperwork can be started to register us as Michael's parents on his birth certificate, and once that's completed the paperwork to apply for his Kazakh passport can then be started so he can travel to the U.S. As I've mentioned before, this will be the rate-limiting step as our facilitators in Kazakhstan are anticipating delays. There is more paperwork and other steps to complete once Michael's passport is obtained, but all that cannot be done until our return trip to pick up Michael. We were given an estimate of early September before we can return to Kazakhstan to pick up Michael which is farther off than we would like. We are hoping this is an overestimation and that it will be sooner than that! I will be checking with our agency director early next week to see if they have a better idea of travel dates before we actually book airline tickets. Our hope was that we would be in Kazakhstan before or by August 29th, which is Michael's first birthday. However, it is what it is, and if we do miss it we'll just have to celebrate after Michael comes home (we were going to celebrate it at home, anyway)!
You're all probably wondering how James fared on the flights home. Actually, travelling home with James was not nearly as bad as I had feared. He handled the 32 hours of travel like a champ! The most exciting part (if you want to call it that) was having only 1 hour and 45 minutes to get through customs and immigration in Washington D.C. with our baggage, re-checking the bags, and literally running from one end of the airport, taking a short tram ride, to running to the other and making it to the gate with only 10 minutes to spare before boarding the plane to Houston - phew! Actually, once we boarded the plane I wondered if James had gone delirious on us, as he just sat in his seat and sang while waiting for other passengers to board the plane and for us to take off, especially since he was probably only functioning on a maximum of eight hours of sleep in that 32 hours. It probably was partly delirium, but mostly that he's just an easy-going kid in general - thank goodness! I'll take a 4-year old singing over screaming anytime!
Since coming home we've been getting back into our routine. Sean and James were quick to adjust back to the time change. Sean didn't have much of a choice. We landed late on Saturday night, and he was expected back at work on Monday morning. James also adjusted quickly and was back in full-day day camp in a couple of days. On the other hand, I again had issues adjusting to the time change. It definitely made it interesting when I went back to work on Wednesday last week. I would be up at 3AM, then get ready and go to work all day, then come home and immediately want to crash sometime around 8PM, only to wake up again at 3AM. The jet lag was pretty fierce, and I did not adjust back to my regular sleeping pattern until we were home for 10 days (earlier this week). So, now it will be just a few more weeks before we go back to Kazakhstan so my sleeping schedule can get all screwed up again. Sweet! At least when we go back we'll be there for only a week or less, so hopefully that won't be enough time for me to fully adjust to the time change there; maybe it won't be so rough adjusting back home after we come back with Michael... Oh, who am I kidding?! We'll be taking a one-year-old from the only environment he's ever known then flying him halfway around the world to our home - OF COURSE it's going to be rough! It's like I've all of a sudden gotten amnesia about how tough the transition was at first when we brought James home - ha!
Speaking of the big brother, James celebrated his 4th birthday a couple more times after we arrived home. He had a little cupcake party with his friends at pre-school day camp the week we returned. Then this past Saturday our families and a few friends came to our house for a swimming party, complete with a Toy Story theme. The weekend was capped off on Sunday afternoon with James finally going to see Toy Story 3 in the movie theater as we promised him. Auntie Marilyn took him, and we tagged along. Actually, we promised to take him once we saw the trailers for the movie coming out last year, but opening day ended up being June 18th, the day after we left Houston to go to Kazakhstan. Toy Story 3 also opened in Kazakhstan on June 18th, but that would have been in Russian and none of us would have understood it! James has also been telling his teachers and all his friends at day camp about Michael and about his adventures in Kazakhstan and the friends he made while he was there. So including his birthday party in Kazakhstan, that makes a record-setting three birthday celebrations for James. Well, he'd better enjoy the limelight now, as he will probably be sharing his birthday parties with his little brother starting next summer!
So that's our update for now! We'll hopefully find out more soon on our return trip to Kazakhstan so we can finally bring Michael home. Meanwhile, here are a few pics we've take since returning home. Enjoy!
~ My not-so-new, but now definitely improved Mother's Bracelet ~
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