LOI!

Today's post was going to be called "The Lady Who Cried LOI" and be all about how I kept saying the LOI was coming, but being wrong every time. Okay, there's some difference between me crying LOI and the naughty little boy in the original story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".Most important, I hope not to get eaten by anything.

Anyway- the LOI arrived. We hope to travel quickly, and this will probably be the last open post until we get back, unless we find really cool touristy things to post about, or we drink fermented camel's milk. That's definitely on my list of things to do in Kazakhstan. No, I'm not kidding. Steve wanted to eat snake in China, but the opportunity didn't present itself. He could have eaten fried bee larva, but for some reason he drew the line at that.

So we're off to the races.

Packing

We're finally packing. Two adults who will be away for three+ weeks (including one appearance in court) plus gifts for who knows how many people, a few things for our son, all in two suitcases weighing less than forty pounds each. Not impossible, though one of the suitcases weighs in at about 38 pounds.

Still trying to decide where we should stay, hotel or apartment.

Hopefully our LOI will arrive early this week and we'll be on our way by next week.

Maybe next week

I was very patient with the wait for LOI until I thought it was coming. Well, the week is over and it hasn't come. No problem, maybe next week.

Tonight, we're going to pack and weigh our luggage.

I have to say we're very fortunate with our agency. They're very honest and up front about everything. When our dossier went to the region Thanksgiving week, our coordinator told us not to expect to travel until the end of January, more likely the beginning of February due to the holidays. Other families don't seem to have been told that, and are disappointed about lack of movement.

Well, the Orthodox Christmas is well over- I think the Feast of Theophany was yesterday on the Old Calendar- so maybe they'll gear up and get back to work at full speed.

Still waiting

Okay, it's been nearly an entire week since the "big travel talk" preparing us to travel to Kazakhstan, letting us know what to expect in country, etc, and no sign of the LOI. I'm trying to be patient. I had been very patient until recently, and now every time the phone rings I'm sure it's our coordinator calling us to say, "Your LOI is in! Get your anal compulsive butt-" that sounds redundant, doesn't it-- "on a plane to Kazakhstan in six days!" Not that she's really that bossy, but you get the point.

As of now, 6:16 PM EST, 4:16 AM in Aqtobe, no LOI. Maybe it'll come tomorrow. Of course we won't be ready when the time comes, no matter how prepared we think we are.

So I should just stop complaining, and pack up the piles of junk all over our bedroom.

No News is No News

No news, besides that I looked at the prices of flights again, and they went up. We're trying to decide if we should risk buying the cheaper tickets that you can change for a fee. If we do this and fly out of New York, we would be able to change the tickets 6 times before the price was the same as the fully changable ticket.

International adoption is not for the cheap.

Meanwhile, it's getting colder in Aktobe, and it's snowing today. The weather is getting worse. Maybe that's a sign we'll be traveling soon. We never travel under ideal conditions. In fact, when we plan a major trip, our close friends hunker down and wait for some disaster, whether it's a hurricane in the area we plan to be, or travel through (2002, 2003, 2005), a natural disaster like a wild fire that wipes out half of the town we're set to visit (2000), outbreaks of a dangerous disease where we're going (1997), violent anti-American demonstrations (1999), or terror attacks (2001). We didn't travel in 1998, and our trip to China in 2005 went smoothly.

So with the weather getting colder and snowier in the place we're headed, and the world situation getting even touchier, I'm sure we'll be leaving soon.

LOI Coming?

News is the LOI might, will probably, come next week. If the region holds to the pattern, we'll be expected in country around five days from when the invitation was sent.

We're finally starting to pack. We have a weight limit of 20 kgs per person, which is around 40 pounds. One carry on each, not to exceed 8 kgs. Now this isn't a big deal to some people, but I always overpack. Always. We went on our last vacation with 10 checked bags, plus carry on items for five of us with no weight limit because it was cruise.

Of course when we went to China, we had a similar limit. I took two pairs of pants, a couple tops, one dress for the consulate appointment, and I only had one pair of shoes. For those who know me well, traveling for two weeks with only one pair of shoes is just a bit short of miraculous. This time, I'm packing one pair, and wearing boots. It's far colder in Kazakhstan than it was where we traveled in China. You can check the weather box up at the top of the page, but the temperature has been abnormally warm-- almost thirty degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.

So packing isn't going to be easy. Besides day time clothes for extremely cold weather, we'll need clothes to wear to court. Some people wear khakis and a shirt, but our coordinator suggested that men wear a suit, women a dress or a suit with a skirt. I'm taking both, just in case. We'll be there for at least three weeks, and we probably won't have access to a washer (forget a dryer) and will have to wash by hand and hang clothes. This won't be a problem for us. We usually hang our clothes to dry, but handwashing is a new thing for us. We also have gifts to pack, because culturally, it's expected that gives will be exchanged. A lot of people get them: the caretakers in the orphanage, orphanage director, orphanage doctor, the official from the Ministry, and the people who help you through your stay: the coordinator/facilitator, translators, drivers. Again, not a problem in itself, but packing everything...

Of course we can just haul lots of heavy bags and pay tremendous over-weight fees, but that would be too easy. And doing things the easy way was never our way.

Sweet Home Alabama

I meant to write about this earlier, but got distracted on another message board discussing the two thing I know I shouldn't: politics and religion. But now we're back on track.

We recently went to a wedding in Alabama. My nephew finally managed to find someone to marry him. Now that there are five of us, and given the fact the wedding was on the Saturday before New Years, plane tickets were an expense we decided were out of the question. So we drove, two days down, two days home. Most people would think the aggravation of driving with three kids would far outweigh the price of plane tickets, but not us. We don't think like other people (obviously) and just as importantly, we're cheap.

Our biggest worry, and this is where the tie in to our upcoming adoption takes place, was that we had to carry cash on this trip. People who've been through international adoption know that some countries insist on fees being paid in cash-- new, American money-- once you get in country. And since you can never tell when you'll be called to go, or how much time you have to prepare once the invitation comes in, you have to start gathering up "new money" fairly early on.

So here we were, having to drive with a bunch of currency. Normally, this would't be a problem. But my husband likes to drive fast. He thinks, for example, that the red, white, and blue signs with the number "95" on them all the way up and down I-95 mean speed limit 95, rather than being route markers. All I could picture was getting pulled over- and then having the officer notice the bulge from the neck pouch. In my imagination the scene would have gone something like this:

Officer: "Sir, I'm going to have to pat you down."
Husband: "Sure officer."
Officer upon finding money: "What are you doing with all this cash?"
Husband: "We're adopting."
Officer: "Adopting what?"
Husband: "A little boy from Kazakhstan."
Officer: "Mmm, yeah, right. Is this that Borat show? You Borat?"
Husband: "No, really."
Officer: "Well this is looking mighty suspicious, you coming up the crystal meth corridor with all this cash. We're going to have to take you in."
Me: "Do you have cells where no children are allowed? Because I could really use a vacation after being in the car all day..."

But since everyone else was driving at least as fast as we were, we had a smooth trip.

And we really liked Alabama. If we win the lottery, maybe we'll buy a land and build a cool log house (like Wilderness Lodge at Disney World) near Wedowee.

Of course there aren't any Orthodox churches nearby, but I know the OCA and the Antiochians love to start missions...

LOI Pending

This is the latest news we received. LOI pending. It sounds bad-- being American and all when I hear the word pending it sounds like something is wrong and there's going to be a delay. But in Kazakhstan, this is good, meaning things are moving along well. And as in everything with international adoption (and the military as I've come to learn) the next round of crazy activity can come as soon as a day or two, in the next two weeks, or in a month, depending on when the paperwork receives that one last signature.

Weather Updates

See-- I'm getting so high tech. I managed to find a website with the weather in Aktobe (they're using the former, Russian name) and figure out how to put it on the blog without totally screwing up the content already on it. It took a couple of attempts, I really wanted it in the sidebar, but this will do. Now everyone can see how cold we are when we're over there.

Blessed Nativity!

Wishing a blessed Nativity to everyone we've yet to meet in Kazakhstan, especially our little boy.
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Now let's get those LOIs rolling!

More on Aqtobe

So some good news- from our oldest daughter's point of view- there's a professional soccer team in Aktobe that's one of the best in the country. In fact, they played in the UEFA champion's league in 2006. I don't know how that came out for them, we'll have to look it up. Their season looks to be going pretty well- I think its 6 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws. She wants us to promise we won't go see them play while we're there if the season's on.

If the team does as well this year as they did last, we'll have a tie to a city with a sports team that can actually win a championship. Of course there's always the Eagles this year...

Still Waiting

and trying to be patient about it. We know that Christmas isn't until January 7th since they're still on the "Old Calendar", unlike our church which observes all the feasts on the "New Calendar" with the exception of Easter/Pascha. IF they wait until after Feast of Theophany to get rolling over there, well, that's another twelve days after Nativity. So we're being patient. Last year this time we just learned we'd be traveling to China in less than two weeks. We had no bed, no gifts, no idea... Hopefully this time we won't be caught flat footed. I'm working on the Cyrillic again, and a few Kazakh phrases. Aqtobe is one of the regions that has full out adopted Kazakh over Russian, and they have a very strong Kazakh-Muslim voice there.

So we're waiting, but there's good adoption related news. Our good friend has returned home from China with her little girl after beginning her process two years ago. I'm glad we said all those extra prayers during and after Vespers on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day.

On another note, we just returned from my nephew's wedding in rural Alabama, and I have to say, it was a nice time. No matter what people we know say about the South (making it out like is hasn't changed in the last 100 years, and we'd be treated like interloping carpet baggers, not to mention the horror our mixed race family would cause) we were welcomed and Mad was a big hit, even though she fell halfway down the aisle and dropped all of her flower petals, then had to pick up every single one before she'd let me drag her the rest of the way down... My plan was to study Cyrillic letters and Kazakh phrases on the drive down, but all of the notes and cards stayed safely in my bag.

So like I said, we're waiting-- Of course when the LOI comes we'll be totally unprepared, and have to run around like chickens with our heads cut off. But I know I perform best under pressure.