The Powers Family Journey

(Maureen's Post)

Well, this is it - our last post from Kazakhstan! Let me start off by saying that we finally have our stroller back! We never heard back from Lufthansa's baggage office in Almaty Airport last night, so early this morning Sean called them back to see what was up. Turns out they tried to deliver the stroller to the sisters' office yesterday but it was after everyone had already gone for the day, so they left it at the security office for the building. So, this morning we looked up the Russian word for baby stroller (it's kolyasku, by the way), and Sean walked to the security office which is about a 30 minute walk away. He said no one spoke English there, but with what little Russian he does know he was able to ask if the stroller arrived and communicate that it belonged to him. He showed back up at our apartment, stroller in hand, with a big grin on his face. Does my husband rock or what?! I just knew I married him for a reason!

So, today was all about wrapping things up. This afternoon we met up with the Chinns at the Tsum to do some shopping (thank goodness we had the stroller for that excursion), and then we returned to American Bar and Grill for a chicken sandwich and an American club sandwich, both served with fries. We decided to do it as take-out (suboy) so we could take it back to our apartments and start packing. By the way, I forgot to mention that last night we ate take-out from Il Patio, an Italian restaurant on the ice rink level of the Ramstore building. We had pizza and spaghetti bolognese, both pretty good. Turns out Il Patio and American Bar and Grill are both owned by the same people. We got most of the packing done, and both Sean and Michael are catching some zzz's while I complete this post.

It's unbelieveable that our journey to Michael which started 22 months ago is finally coming to a close. And what a journey it has been! There have been so many changes to this process since we started in November 2008. Sadly, the adoption process in Kazakhstan now is nothing like it was when we adopted James in 2007. It has taken longer (a single trip for James' adoption vs. taking 2 trips for Michael's adoption with a long wait in between trips), and things have become more difficult. Our facilitators (the sisters) know this, and despite the increased difficulty they still work hard to try to help build families through adoption here in Kazakhstan. Over time, different regions here have been closing to foreign adoptions, including Kokshetau city, where James is from. I may have mentioned it before, but there is also a new law pending which states that prospective adoptive parents must bond with children for 30 days before filing for a court hearing. This would lead to going to court approximately 3-4 weeks later, then completing the appeal period and completion of the passport application and preparation another 3-4 weeks later, effectively making the Kazakhstan adoption process a 3-trip journey, which it already has become in some parts of the country.

I cannot help but think about how lucky we were to find out we were traveling to Kazakhstan when we did. Around Mother's Day is when we found out that we would be traveling to Kazakhstan sometime in June. Just a few days later (May 15th) Kazakhstan released a statement that they would not be accepting any more new dossiers for international adoption at the end of May, as they intended to become a participating country in the Hague Adoption Convention, which establishes international standards of practices for intercountry adoptions. While, in theory, this would be a good thing in the long run for international adoptions from partcipating countries, the immediate effect in Kazakhstan is that international adoptions will come to a screeching halt for the time being. It could take at least a year or more for new legislation to be drafted, the legislation to be finally accepted by the Hague Convention, and legislation actually implemented. No one really knows how long it would take. Back in May the rumor mill originally had people saying that by September there would be more news on how to move forward with changes to the process, etc., but now September is here and almost halfway gone with no new information. Unfortunately, the ones who would be ultimately affected are the waiting children, and the waiting families who will have to pretty much start from scratch on their dossiers. Fortunately for us, this halt did not affect us since our dossier had already been accepted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at that time and we were considered a transition case and could proceed.

Here's another close one regarding the new 30-day bonding period rule. This piece of legislation is almost ready to go into effect. It has already passed one body of government in Kazakhstan and just needs to pass one more legislative body and get signed by the president. If this got signed into law while we were in-country before going to court there was a possibility that we would have had to stay for the additional time for a total of 30 days, completely pushing the court date back for another 2+ weeks, not to mention having to make arrangements for returning home and to work later to wait out the appeal period. In-country delays are not unusual (we, ourselves, were delayed a few days for a court hearing and ultimately returned home a few days later than planned) but that would have been more than just a few days' delay. Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case for us, but it was a very real possibility.

At the end of our first trip, I lamented over the fact that our wait at home would take six weeks, thinking that Michael's passport was not going to be expedited due to the government's new law that all Kazakhstani citizens would require new ID cards which are issued by the same government agency, causing a backlog and delay in processing the passports. Little did I know that Michael's passport application probably did move along faster than expected, and that the 6 week wait was not so bad, after all, as now families whose appeal periods did not expire by the end of August (ours expired on August 6th) are now being told that they will have to wait 3-4 months until their child's passport is completed and they can return to bring the child home because of the anticipated backlog. I have been following the blog of one family who is affected by this, and they do not expect their child's passport to be ready untl January 2011. After considering how much progress they have made in bonding with the child, the adoptive parents have made a decision for the mom to stay in-country with their son until it is time for him to come home because they want to do what is best for their son.

Lastly, I feel I must mention the eight families in the Taraz region of Kazakhstan who are currently trying to complete the adoption of their children. These families are American, Canadian, and German, and there are ten children involved - they have been nicknamed the "Taraz Ten." These families started the bonding process with the children in December 2009 but over the past several months have been denied their adoptions by the courts three times (the local judge, the regional judge, and a 3-judge panel in that region). Their last appeal will be to Kazakhstan's Supreme Court in the capital city of Astana, expected to be maybe sometime in December 2010, a whole year after they started the bonding process. Meanwhile, the children still wait in the Baby House; the parents were informed in July that they were no longer even allowed to visit the children to continue bonding until a positive decision has been made. They had to return home in the meantime. I have been following the blog of one of the Canadian families, and it really is heartbreaking. I ask that you please keep the children and parents in your thoughts and prayers for a positive outcome.

Unfortunately, with international adoption there are no guarantees, and doing it really is a huge leap of faith. I don't mean scare anyone away from adopting internationally, but just know that it's not a smooth road and to go into it with eyes wide open. I have said it before, and I will say it again - international adoption is not for the faint of heart! With everything that is going on now we feel even more blessed to have James and Michael in our family.

So, enjoy our last few pics from today, and we'll see you when we get home!