Saturday, December 30, 2006

Status Change


Well just when everything was going great, we had another spot of bad luck. Our Lawyer Svetlana has certain access to documents on these children at the baby house only after a family has decided to adopt him/her. She knows who they are and their particulars about male, female, age, weight and things like that.

Once perspective parents make a decision to adopt then the Ministry of Education and our Lawyer open up the full case and start getting the documents in order for court. While they were doing that they found a piece in Azamat's record that was not in order. As an orphan in Kaz, you must be registered in three locations. Listed in the city level for one month, Listed in the State Level for 2 months and listed in the Country level for 3 months. Az, was not listed at the country level, even though he has been in the orphange for almost a year. The guilt falls on the hands of the people working in the Ministry of Education. It is their job to make sure that all three levels are taken care of. In this case his paperwork for the third stage fell through the cracks.

On Wednesday morning, we were ready to go to the baby house and when we were picked up the lady from the ministry was with us. I did not think much about it. When we got to the house, she, our lawyer, and the director had a meeting and we sat in the waiting room. Lena, our translator told us this was not a good sign. Normally this lady never comes to the baby house and she was told that the lady had to check on Az's paperwork.

Once in the office the lady told us that his paperwork was out of order. Meaning he had not been registered as an orphan at the country level. At this point we had 3 options. We could wait until Azamat would be available to adopt and come back in April, see another boy that would be available on January 7th or take a look at a girl.

Amy and I went to a seperate room to discuss it all. I had already made up my mind but I needed to hear it from Amy before I said anything. After we finally calmed down, me from ranting and cussing and amy from crying, we decided to adopt Azamat and come back to Kaz in April.

I know what you are thinking, what guarentee do we have he will still be there? We signed a document in Svetlana's office that stated we wanted to adopt Azamat and that we would return in April. Before she left I did ask the lady if there was anything that could be done while we were there to speed the paperwork along and if there was anything her boss could do. She told me no becuase it was the court that would make the ruling and they would throw out the case.

So, we decided to come home immediately. We left Kaz on Thursday night at 10:00 pm. We arrived in Memphis on Friday at 5:00 pm. Very exauhsted and glad to be home, but a bittersweet pill to swallow.

We know that Az will be taken well care of and that he will not be adopted by anyone other than us. Lena said that she might be able to send us updated pictures every now and then.

Thanks again for all the inspiring messages and thoughtful prayers. They really helped us being so far from home. Now we just look forward to our next trip in April when we can bring William Rama Azamat Hall home.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Uplifting messages

Thanks for all your comments. It is great to hear from everyone and know that there are so many people back home thinking and praying for us. We can't wait to come home and see everyone. I hope that everyone had a terrific Christmas and we will try to post as soon as possible.

Love,
Amy and David

The Best Christmas Present Ever

Hey everyone,

Yesterday (Christmas Day), We got to spend about 2 hours with Azamat (corrected spelling). He started to come out of his shell a little. He likes to ride a toy jeep that is in the playroom. I would push him towards Dave and Dave would tickle him and he would bend over laughing. By the end of the visit he was babbling and playing with the teething ring that we brought for him. He ended up falling asleep in Dave's arms. It was so sweet, I got a great pict of this. I guess we wore him out playing. We will get to spend about 2 hours a day with him from 12:30-2:30. He takes naps before and after. We got to speak with the Doctor Hope and got good news about Azamat. He is as healthy as he could be.
Today, Tuesday Dec. 26 we will go to the baby store and buy diapers and maybe a small squeaky toy. He loves to chew on teethers and soft plastic toys. Then we will get to visit Azamat. Hopefully we will get to talk with his caretakers and learn about his schedule and his likes and dislikes.
Our stay in Pavlodar, is nice but nothing beats home. Our apartment has a large living room with a couch and entertainment center with a nice dvd collection (in english). We can only get BBC, CNN, and VH1 on the TV. The kitchen is also nice. The apartment also has a large bathroom with a huge bathtub and a washing machine, but no dryer. (Larry we now know why Nanny always ironed everything even the underwear). Our bedroom has a nice king size bed. Overall it is far superior to a hotel room and we are glad we choose the apartment.
We have pictures but are not able to post any because the computers at the internet cafe are not compatible to the camera flashcards. Hopefully, Svetlana our attorney spoke with Yakov who can help us get everything set up where we can use the internet connections in the apartment. It will be great if we can use this connection instead of the cafe. Much more convienent.
Well I guess that I need to go. We have to make it back to the apartment in time to catch our ride from Lena and Sergei to the baby store and house. I hope to have more stories about Azamat's progress soon. We really miss everyone and can't wait to be home soon with our son William Rama Azamat Hall. Please continue all your thoughts and prayers.

Hugs, kisses, and much love
David and Amy

Friday, December 22, 2006

Hey everyone. Sorry for the long delay in posting. We arrived in Pavlodar Wednesday night about 11pm. The apartment is nice, with all the amenities. We spent Thursday waiting to meet with the Kazakhstan officials. Lena thought that we would have them but unfortunately we did not, so we wasted that day. We finally had our meetings Friday morning and were able to visit the baby house Friday afternoon. We had a short meeting with the director and saw three baby boys. The first two were David and Nikita. They seemed to have some medical issuses. The third baby was Azamond. He has blond hair and brown eyes. He seemed very timid and overwhelmed b/c of the attention and toys. We have decided to adopt Azamond. We will go and visit again on Monday. We hope to have plenty of picts next week. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love,
David and Amy

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

We are alive and well in Almaty

Good Morning, It is Wednesday morning at 7:13 am. We have had a good nights rest. Our flights went well. Very long flights and a long lay over. But we made it here yesterday morning at about 6:00.

It is not as cold as we first thought. There is some snow and ice on the ground. We can see some very pretty mountains from our room. We took about an hours walk yesterday to stretch our legs and find out what is here. We changed some money into Tenge and we bought some bottle water, with gas, and coke and diet coke. With gas is different.

The buildings are very old and soviet looking. Today we are going to go to the Ram Store which is a westernized Mall. Havent been out of the US 3 days and we are going to a mall. Our flight to Pavlodar is tonight. We will be there about 10:00 pm.

We hope that we have better luck with the Cingular card there. My cell phone has plenty of signal but the card doesnt have any.

We will try and email and post by the end of the week from Pavlodar. Hopefully we will have a picture or two to share.

Love you all and keep up the prayers.

Dave and Ams

Have a Merry Christmas

Saturday, December 16, 2006

It's Saturday already!!!!!

Well time really flies when you are getting ready to begin a life altering journey. Just two days ago we had a thousand things to do and no time to even sleep. Today is a new day with a brand new list of things to accomplish and for the first time in a long while our list is limited to only 7 things to do. After that our brains went blank. Thank goodness for that.

We received our Visas and Passports back from NY yesterday afternoon. We made some copies and all we lacked was a final packet from our agency. Until this morning, Melody called bright and early and we are now going to drive over and pick up the final piece.

We have our bags packed, for the most part. All of our clothes and everything are ready and packed in vacume bags. We just have to be sure and not go over 40 pounds per bag. We were a little heavy yesterday and I think we have that worked out. We will find out for sure this afternoon.

Well I dont know if I have anything else to say. I hope everyone has a good day. Tomorrow is getting here faster than I ever thought it would. I think that we are ready. Please keep in touch here or feel free to email us. Our next post will probably be from either Amsterdam or Almaty.

Thanks for all the prayers and keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
David and Amy

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Where are we going?


Ok, I am sure everyone is wondering where in this big world are we going. Here is a map of Kaz. We will fly into Almaty on Tuesday morning and then fly to Pavlodar on Wednesday evening. Pavlodar is the city where our son is living now. We will be in this city almost the entire trip. If you want to get an idea of weather, feel free to go to www.undergroundweather.com and search Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Christmas Party


We had a great time at Del-Nat's Party. This is just a test to see how posting pictures will work. Also, I have made some changes so that anyone can add a comment to our posts. This will make it easier to talk with everyone.

See ya

Up, Up and Away

December 17th at 7:25 pm will be the date and time we leave Memphis and fly to Kazahkstan. We finalyzed tickets with KLM yesterday and will arrive in Amsterdam at 11:05 am on the 18th. We will have about a 6 hour lay over and then board a flight at 6:15pm to Almaty. We will arrive in Almaty about 5:45 am on the 19th.

The return is set for the end of January but that is subject to everything going as planned. Working out the itenarary with Yakov and his staff as to what, when and where.

As we know more I will let you know.

Love yall, David

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

New Day Dawning

Ladies and Gentleman, It is my distinct pleasure to introduce that we have received our Confirmation Number for our Visa's and we are buying plane tickets today. WOW, WOW, WOW

Who knew, that yesterday would have been such a great day and today is going so much better. We are trying to finalyze our flights so that our Visa's will process. I dont have a solid date of departure but as soon as I do I will let all of you know. Thank you to all of you for keeping up the prayers and always asking whats happening. We have been very blessed by your support.

I just wanted to give everyone an update and I will post again as soon as I have details about our flight. See ya,

Thursday, October 12, 2006

The invitation has arrived!!!!!!!!!

We received our letter of invitation today!!!!! Hurray!!! Now it time for some additional waiting. The next step is a confirmation number that will allow us to get visas. This takes about 7-10 days. After we receive this number we can apply for our visas which will take another 2-3 days. Then, when we get our visas we can get tickets and fly. We are still uncertain of a travel date. David and I have tried to stop telling specific dates since delays are highly possible. Hope we have a travel update soon!!! Continue to keep us in your prayers. I know they are definitely working.

See ya

Monday, October 09, 2006

Journey update

As many of you already know, David and I have changed cities. Instead of travelling to Kizilorda, Kazakhstan (southwestern Kazakhstan), we will now travel to Pavlodar which is located in the northeastern corner close to the Russian border. We are still very excited but not about the weather, it might be a little chilly and if you know me well I can't stand the cold. I wear longsleeve shirts when it is 85 degrees out. Oh well!! Our paperwork is still in the Ministry of Education in Almaty, Kaz. It has been there for about 4 1/2 weeks. Our adoption agency told us it would take about 6 weeks to get our letter of invitation and about 2 weeks to get tickets and visas, so our best case scenario for travelling is about a month, but delays are very possible. Hopefully we will have some news soon. Please keep us and the children in the orphange in your prayers.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Just a matter of invitation

In the words of David, our life story has finally crossed the Big Blue and is now in Kazakhstan awaiting approval. The package was delivered today, much sooner than we had anticipated. The stay in New York was pretty quick. It was in New York about 1 1/2 weeks and it took about a week to be delivered. The next step is to wait for our letter of invitation from Kazakhstan and then we can apply for our visas, get tickets, and prepare to fly. That's all the news for right now. Keep up all the prayers, I know that they are being heard.

After all that time!

Well our package made it to Almaty Kazahkstan. It was signed for today. Hallelujiah. Well Amy and I have decided to not give any more time frames. We always get burnt and never get the date right. The only thing I will say is I hope it isnt Christmas in Kaz or New Years in Kaz.

We have bought some snow boots that are rated for 20 below zero. That is how cold it could be while we are there. We will be taking every piece of warm clothing we can find. If you have any ideas for a coat please let us know.

Well we will probably look at our Visa paperwork and fill that out. Otherwise we are still twiddling our thumbs. Hope all of you have a good day.

See ya

Monday, August 21, 2006

I am a little more excited!!

Finally the entire life story of Amy and David is on its way to New York. It is about .... time. We have been up and down, back and forth with this stuff.

It left Memphis on Friday, Aug 18th bound for NY. Hopefully, by the end of next week it will cross the BIG BLUE over to Kazahkstan. After that we will wait some more. How long, no one knows. Cant make a prediction on any government.

In the meantime we are just working on this project and that project. We bought some new light fixtures and put those up this weekend. I have more painting to do upstairs in the loft. Amy is working on something in Will's room. Spending Spending Spending. I guess it is my turn now to spend all of my money. My dad always said, "Son, If I had a nickle for every time you needed something I would be a multi millionaire. Instead, I have you and Chad." real quote. So now I get to spend all of my nickles and watch my parents waist my inheritance away on toys, games and other sundries. Thanks dad for all those lessons. It is now your turn to spoil and not waist any more nickles.

Anyway, not to wander to far, I hope everything is going well in your pasture and we will talk with you later.

Moving along

Our dossier finally is making its way to the consulate in New York. We are praying that everything goes ok. The next step after New York is Kazakhstan. Our paperwork could spend 2-3 months in and out of offices. We are still not sure when we will travel. We are anxious but know that God will send us when it is the right time.
In the meantime, David and I are slowly getting the room ready. The room is already painted but no border up yet. If you didn't know already the theme is sports. Surprise, Surprise!! We are in the process of getting a play area created with lots of books and toys.
Well that's about it for now. Please keep us and the people working on our paperwork in your prayers.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

I am so frustrated!!!!!

After weeks of waiting for our INS approval, we are now just twidling our thumbs waiting on the documents to be translated and sent to NY. It just seems that no one is in any rush to do anything. They give you a time table and say, "Yeah, it should only take blah, blah days to get this done." When in all actuality it takes 3 times that to do anything.

Now we are a week away to the middle of August. Our dossier should have traveled a week ago. Now the estimate is that it will take a good 2 months when it gets to Kaz before you LOI gets to you. Well we have to include the 10-14 days it will be in NY and IT HASNT LEFT YET.

Maybe by Monday it will be shipped off. Then who knows what happens then.

See ya,

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

FINNNALLLLYYYYY, We have our INS Approval

Well after a long 10 weeks we have finally received our I71H from DHS. That means that Will will be a citizen of the US and be a relative when we come home. So much for 4-6 weeks. We ended up having to get Harold Ford Jr's office involved. He has an INS coordinator that can get information.

But, in the end it was our emails to memadoption@dhs.gov, that really got answers. She called this morning and said they had received a couple of emails from us.

So anyway, we are approved and hope to get the documentation tomorrow in the mail. Once that happens we will take it over to Williams and they will get the documents translated. That should take about a day. When that is done, off it all goes to New York to the Kaz Embassy.

That will take about 2-4 weeks for approval, it then moves to the Ministry of Administration in Kaz, and then to the Ministry of Education. So anyway we hope to be travelling at the end of September. Maybe and hopefully sooner.

Anyway, thanks for all the prayers and support we have recieved from family and friends. Without you this would just consume both Amy and I.

Thanks, I will keep you up to date when our package is sent to NY and hopefully in Kaz within a couple weeks.

See ya

Friday, July 21, 2006

Where are we?????

Well we have been at this adoption thing since Novemeber of last year. It has been a long trip and we haven't even left the country. We began with talking about whether or not we were going to bother with all of this or not.

Once we did decided we worked with Ann from Catholic Charities. She took care of the investigation into our life and our Home Study. The HS is very invasive and asks a lot of questions you may not want to answer. We talked about our families, relationship, background and even love life. It is very deep but we learned something more about each other and became closer to one another.

It took a while for the Home Study to be completed. While that was going on we decided on whether or not to do an International or Domestic Adoption. This was another hard choice to make. Amy was pretty settled early on about the two. She wanted to go after the International after meeting with Williams. I really investigated both and was heavily leaning on domestic until I learned the time table. To us time is more improtant that money. We did not want to waist 1 1/2 to 2 years on a domestic.

So we decided on International and Williams Adoption Agency. We started that paperwork about February of 2006. Of course we had a lot of papers to fill out and sign and a lot of tasks to accomplish. Now that it is July, I think we have filled out 50 - 75 documents, been fingerprinted 4 times (3 electronically and 1 for real deal ink), taken out a loan on our house to help pay the expense and talked with several people about the process.

We decided to go to Kazahkstan to adopt. We learned that it is one trip and it is south of Russia and west of China. Amy and I had wanted to travel overseas this year. We will accomplish that and come home with a baby boy.

Well right now, July 21st, we are waiting on the American governement to give us the approval on our I600A. That basically lets Will become a citizen and a relative when we land on US soil. It is only supposed to take 6 weeks but we are at 10 right now. We have called John Ford Jr's office and are working with the INS Liason to help the process along. Amy is supposed to be getting an update this afternoon.

Well that is about all I have for you right now.

Amy and David's Adoption Adventure

We have been on this Journey for a while but we figured it was time to start sharing some of the information we have learned with family and friends.