We leave in 8 days and are doing final preparation for our trip. We went to Half Price Books today and I bought a couple of crossword puzzle books. I'm hoping they last! I am going to raid some friends' 'libraries' this week for reading material. And we have to give a special shout-out to Kevin and Emily for letting us raid their DVD collection and, most especially, for the loan of their ipod during our trip. Jim was grinning from ear to ear when he got it and has been busy loading it up.
We also found out that the wife of Jim's college roommate has family in Taraz. She (Natalia) is from Russia and lived just south of Kazakhstan for a time while growing up. We are hoping to meet her relatives while we are in Taraz.
Sam was sick last night. We're hoping we don't catch what he had. It would make for a very unpleasant plane ride!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Monday, February 07, 2005
Treasure
Last Sunday (the 30th) I was invited to share our adoption story at all three worship services at church. Let me back up a bit...on January 9 our church gave out a grand total of $14,000 to the members and gave us all the challenge of using that money outside the church walls to help people in any way we liked. We were to report back over the following 3 Sundays by dropping a note describing what we did with the money in the collection basket. I decided to try to grow our money (I got $10 and Jim got $3) by donating a bunch of our unused and unneeded "stuff" to charity and working out the value of our donation and pooling it with the church money. I also returned a bunch of "stuff" to Target and added that to our fund. My plan was to use the money to buy medical supplies for the orphanage in Kazakhstan.
We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our church! After speaking, people we had never seen before were pressing money into our hands so that we could buy more supplies for the orphanage. We started with $13 and we now have $1500 to use! I have been in touch with a Christian aid organization in Taraz. They work with the orphanages and are going to send me a list of things that they need. There is also the possibility that we could underwrite corrective cleft palate or eye surgery for a child. We are so excited to see this project come to fruition and are amazed by God's perfect timing--in our adoption, our church's new missionary focus on Kazakhstan and the outreach challenge we received from church, all coinciding in bringing supplies to the orphanage!
We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our church! After speaking, people we had never seen before were pressing money into our hands so that we could buy more supplies for the orphanage. We started with $13 and we now have $1500 to use! I have been in touch with a Christian aid organization in Taraz. They work with the orphanages and are going to send me a list of things that they need. There is also the possibility that we could underwrite corrective cleft palate or eye surgery for a child. We are so excited to see this project come to fruition and are amazed by God's perfect timing--in our adoption, our church's new missionary focus on Kazakhstan and the outreach challenge we received from church, all coinciding in bringing supplies to the orphanage!
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Our Timeline
A popular subject on message boards is how long it takes to get the dossier together, translated, and through the system. Here is our timeline for the 'major' events in the life of our dossier:
Early/mid June--start talking about adopting
June 30, 2004--homestudy interview done
July--doctor appointments, references, background checks, etc. to complete homestudy
July 12, 2004--BCIS fingerprints done
August 17, 2004--homestudy complete
September 13, 2004--I-171H received
September 24, 2004--dossier complete
October 1, 2004--dossier sent to translator
October 15, 2004--dossier out of translation
October 20, 2004--dossier sent to Kazakhstan Consulate in New York
November 23, 2004--dossier sent to Kazakhstan
January 10, 2005--dossier clears Kazakhstan government Ministries
February 4, 2005--Letter of Invitation received!!!
And just in time for us to book 21-day advance purchase tickets. Woohooooooo! Go Team Kazakhstan! We are scheduled to arrive in Almaty on February 28.
Early/mid June--start talking about adopting
June 30, 2004--homestudy interview done
July--doctor appointments, references, background checks, etc. to complete homestudy
July 12, 2004--BCIS fingerprints done
August 17, 2004--homestudy complete
September 13, 2004--I-171H received
September 24, 2004--dossier complete
October 1, 2004--dossier sent to translator
October 15, 2004--dossier out of translation
October 20, 2004--dossier sent to Kazakhstan Consulate in New York
November 23, 2004--dossier sent to Kazakhstan
January 10, 2005--dossier clears Kazakhstan government Ministries
February 4, 2005--Letter of Invitation received!!!
And just in time for us to book 21-day advance purchase tickets. Woohooooooo! Go Team Kazakhstan! We are scheduled to arrive in Almaty on February 28.
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