Belated Happy Thanksgiving News

We learned today that our dossier has evidently made it through the MFA and has been assigned to the region of Taraz. See the link to a Map and Fun facts about Taraz on the lower right hand side of this blogsite. We're not sure if that means we cleared the MOE yet or not. But at least we have a region so we know a little more as to where we are going. Don't know the actual city or town yet. They anticipate we should be traveling in February of 2009. This region assignment, like any of them, comes with pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it is in the southern part of the country just west of Almaty which is where we would leave from on our final trip. Is a little warmer in the winter than the northern part of the country which boarders Siberia. The minus side of the equation is that it is one of the regions in which court dates can be hard to come by and delay the process. It also may require 3 trips. On the plus side, each trip is relatively short compared to the original forecast of 6-8 weeks on the first trip. Our agencies guestimate based on timelines over the last year is the following:

Bonding period - 2 weeks (plus a couple extra days for travel and paperwork)
Time waiting for court – 3-6 weeks
Court – trip lasts about 1 week
Waiting period after court – 15 days (this is mandatory appeal process)
Paperwork processed for child – 2-3 weeks
Parents can pick up child – trip about a week long or child can be escorted home

Word on the message boards is that the time waiting for court is very unpredictable. A family from our agency that traveled over the summer only had a 3 week wait but there is another family (not sure if they are with our agency or not) that has been waiting for 11 weeks for a court date.

From what we have been told it looks like it will most likely be a boy between 2-3 years of age. Nothing is definite. So we still don't know exactly what to do about fixing up our new childs room.

Since it is the holiday season time seems to be moving more quickly with all the activity so February will be here before we know it. Hopefully the new year will bring the coveted LOI (letter of invitation) which gives us the stamp of approval to travel.