News! News! News!

Well we have had an update...we will be in Kazakhstan in 3 weeks! We are so excited! We still have to wait to hear what flights and when but we are now returning to packing. Unlike most of our travels we can't pack at the last minute for this trip. We have been told that the area we are going to (Kyzylorda) is very excited to have us coming. They normally don't have too many adoptive families go to this region. Well we can send a message back saying we are equally as excited. Well that's all for now. We will keep everyone posted as things occur.

In the beginning...

I guess I should start at the beginning...

Approximately a year ago my husband (Andrew) and I (Nadine) decided we wanted to start our family. Before getting married we had discussed the fact that we wanted to adopt at least one child before having any of our own so it was then put on me to find out what country we were going to adopt from. I did many weeks of research and finally landed on Kazakhstan. Many people ask me why (and then where Kazakhstan is) Kazakhstan and I answer easily...its culture, its people and the way the children are cared for.

So after we decided all this we had to start the mountain of paperwork that is necessary for adoption. Luckily, I am a paperwork genius and had it all completed in 3 months (no little feat let me assure you). Then we started the waiting game, which has been on going since April 2006. We were told that our dossier (the paperwork necessary to adopt) had reached the Ministry of Education as of October 2006. We then went back to waiting, but were told as of January 17th, 2007 that we had been accepted by the Kazakh government to adopt our little girl. This was amazing news and had us really excited. We found out on February 14th, 2007 that the little girl they had picked for us had a history of Schizophrenia in the family. Sadly, Andrew and I didn't feel that this was a risk we could take for our first child and had to say no to that child. We are now waiting...again...for another child to come off the registry. We are hoping that it doesn't take too much more time as I have a 4 month work term starting in July and my best friend is getting married in the beginning of June.

So that pretty much has you up to date on the going ons so far. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we won't be waiting too much longer for our little girl. So we ask all of you to keep your fingers crossed that we hear some news soon.

On a lighter note...

My girlfriends through me an amazing baby shower this weekend. It was the first baby shower in which mommy was allowed to drink. Sadly, I don't think anyone had a camera so there are no pictures for me to show you (whew!). Our Edmonton friends Kat and Heather along with my folks (Dan and Charlotte) came to spend an extended weekend with us. They came to the baby shower and then just hung out for the weekend. In total it was a huge success. We have such good friends here in Saskatoon. Andrew was taken out for video games and beers (more one then the other though) on the same night. If any of you are reading this thanks again. We had an awesome time.

Well I think that is a long enough first post. TTFN.