Today we only had one visit with Hannah. Due to the fact that there are so many families here right now they have cut our visits down to one a day. That makes the day really long! We didn't do much today, we stayed in the room and did laundry in the sink (yay). Yesterday we had no visits because it was Sunday so we went to the mall with some of the other families. We bought Hannah two outfits yesterday 6-9 months and they fit her beautifully even over the two layers of clothes she already had on. So I would definately say she is going to be wearing 6-9 months for a little while. She looks beautiful in yellow! Tomorrow I think we will go out shopping with some of the other families to pass the time until we can see our little Hannah. Love you all.

Well today was day six of our visits with Hannah. Today was passport photo day. We dressed her in her new outfit and she looked really cute. She did really well in her pictures she looked at the camera but refused to smile! They also took a family photo today for paperwork here. She did really well in this one too except still no smile! We never have trouble getting her to smile I guess she just thought she would show us a bit of her independence today! As soon as the pictures were over she was back to her normal smiley self.  She is so great, all we have to do is talk to her and she will just laugh and laugh. She is also getting stronger, on day one it was all we could do to get her to roll over but yesterday she started rolling over like it was nothing! She rolled four times in a row and just laughed and laughed! Also today we noticed that she is starting to sit up some on her own of course we are spotting her in case she decides to tumble but this is a huge improvement from day one. It is amazing to see how much these kids progress with a little love and attention and goodness knows she gets plenty of both!

 

Josh and I had a pretty uneventful day between visits, we stayed in the room and watched movies today. I am feeling some better, my throat no longer hurts but I am still really stuffed up. Hopefully this will pass soon as well. The temperature changes between the baby house and outside is unbelievable and I am sure this has something to do with my cold. In the baby house it is no less than 80-90 degrees with all eight families in one room and then you go outside and it is about 20 degrees!  There are no visits with our little Hannah tomorrow since it is Sunday so we will probably have a pretty uneventful day. We will still try to post something tomorrow. Love you all.

Hannah was a wonderful baby today as always. Josh and I walked to the outdoor market today and found her a new outfit. She looked so cute! There is a caregiver here at the baby house that knits the babies little booties that they wear everyday and we have arranged to buy some of these to put back for Hannah. Tomorrow I think we are going to go to the mall between visits to look for some of the outfits that we need to leave for Hannah when we go.  Sorry for the short post but I still am not feeling very well I do however feel a little better than yesterday so maybe with some more sleep and some more Nyquil I can beat this thing. Love you all!

Today we went in and Hannah was finally dressed like a little girl and in pink none the less! She looked so beautiful! She was once again very happy today so far we have not seen her when she isn't happy. We had two great visits today she talked and laughed the entire time. There are now eight families here adopting children so the playroom gets a little crazy sometimes but Hannah loves it because she loves to watch people! We have learned that Hannah does not like her binky, when we put it in her mouth she spits it out and gets this horrible look on her face like she just tasted something sour. It is so funny!

 

Today Josh and I took a taxi to the supermarket to get some food. It was quite an adventure since we did not understand the taxi driver and he did not understand us! We told him supermarket and he took us to the mall. Luckily there was a supermarket in the bottom of the mall. We did not get to look around in the mall because the driver was waiting on us but we think we may go back this weekend to get Hannah some clothes. I am coming down with a cold I think, I am trying to fight it with Vitamin C and Nyquil.

 

Well that is all for today we are going to go get some dinner and then get some rest and see if I can fight off this cold! Love you all!

 

 

 

 

Today was our third visitation day with Hannah. We got to feed her both times today, this morning she had porridge and hot tea and she loved it. They feed the babies here with a tablespoon and you can't feed them fast enough! She had a botte with cereal in it for dinner. She was in a very good mood today she laughed and talked the entire visit! She loves to lay on my arm in the floor and play with my watch and she knows that when daddy gets her it is play time and she loves it! Sorry for the short post but the internet is moving very slowly this evening. I will try to post more tomorrow. Love you all!

Today was visitation day two with our beautiful baby girl. She is such a happy baby as I am sure you can tell by the pictures. This evening when we went in to pick Hannah up from her room it was dinner time so they let us give her a bottle and let me tell you this girl can eat! Josh and I were amazed! She finished an entire bottle in less than two minutes! We have found that Hannah loves to people watch! She is perfectly content to sit with her mommy and daddy and watch all of the people. The caregivers here are so great with the babies. There are two in Hannah's room that she seems to particularly like,they are Galena and Tatianna. They are all so loving with the babies.

Today when we went into get her the caregiver rubbed her head and then rubbed Josh's head and said "hair like papa"!  She is the perfect child for our family, we can't imagine having anyone but her. 

 

Kazakhstan is a very interesting country. It is very cold here! The roads are constantly covered in solid ice and the people here drive in it like it is nothing. They don't have 4 wheel drive either! There are no driving rules in this country and sometimes it is quite scary because people just drive on whatever side of the road they wish , we have had a few close calls! The people here are for the most part very nice and very helpful. The food in the grocery stores is pretty much the same as at home with a few exceptions one being the horse meat!

 

Well I guess that is about it for today. We love you all and can't wait until you can see our baby girl for yourselves. God is good!

 

 

 

 

Well guys we made it! Today was our first day at the baby house and boy were we in for a suprise! When we got to the baby house we were told that there were no baby boys available. They said the only little boys they had were two and a half to three years old. They then told us that they had 4 baby girls available under the age of one and asked if we would like to see them. Well of course we said yes! They brought them all in at once which was a little overwhelming. They handed us the first two and I was a little preocupied when they brought in baby number three and I heard Josh say "oh look at her" and that is all she wrote.  This little girl automatically stole our hearts and it was love at first sight! She is a very active baby always moving and very strong. She talks all the time (just like mama). She loves to cuddle and laugh. She is definately a daddy's girl!! She has Josh wrapped around her little finger already! She is absolutely precious.

 

We were a little thrown at first that there were no boys but when we saw our little angel we knew that God had a different plan in store for us. There is no doubt about it she was meant to be ours! I guess we will be returning some clothes huh! Break out the frilly dresses!

Yesterday when I got home from work I opened the door and found a Fed Ex envelope tucked inside! Our pssports/visas are here! We weren't even expecting them to come until today. Vladimir (our courrier) got our visas processed in record time and now we can sit back and relax and wait for our trip. Yeah right! Have you ever tried to pack for a month?! It is a mess! Our nursery has become packing central and it looks like a tornado went through there! I am using today to finish packing and clean the house because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we will be gone most of the day and then we leave Friday. This is finally happening! We are so excited that in less than one week we will be parents! God is good!

We got a call from Ludmilla today saying that Kazakhstan released our travel numbers! This means that all we need now are our visas and passports to fly. We have a courier in New York working on these right now. He assured us that we would have our passports/visas in hand by Wednesday the 21st. This is finally really happening! In one week we will be getting on a plane to meet our baby! God is good!

Hey guys, sorry it has been a while since I posted an update, things around here have been a little hectic! The good news is that we did make our airplane reservations! We will be leaving Charleston on Nov 23rd at 4:00 pm and arriving in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Nov 25th at 5:45 am. We will fly from Almaty to Karaganda on the evening  of the 25th and we will meet our baby on the morning of the 26th! 

 

We have a short layover in Detroit and then a nine hour layover in Amsterdam on the flight to Kazakhstan. We are excited to get to tour Amsterdam, I want to visit the Anne Frank house which is in downtown Amsterdam. No we will not be visiting the red light district nor will we visit the "cafes"! :-) 

 

We spoke with our case manager last week and she said that our visa numbers will be released this Thursday the 15th and that we should have our visa's in hand by the 21st. Since the 22nd is Thanksgiving and we leave on the 23rd we are praying that there are no delays with our numbers being released since we are cutting it close as it is! Please continue to pray for us and that things will continue to move smoothly.  We will update you whenever we get any new information.

Well after checking my voicemail about 100 times today I finally broke down and called Ludmilla (we all know how patient I am!) She said that she talked to our facilitator in Kaz said that the Ministry of Education released our dossier yesterday!! This is great news! She said that we will travel in approximately 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. She said that they would let us know our exact travel dates tomorrow. It is finally happening! Thank you all for your prayers and continue to pray that everything moves along smoothly. We can't wait to meet our baby!  I will update you as soon as we hear something about the dates! 

I talked to Ludmilla today and due to the holiday in Kazakhstan, she expects our dossier to be released on Sunday the 28th. Hopefully we will have some good news on Monday. We are praying that there will be no more delays and that we will be able to travel soon to meet our baby. Please continue to pray for us and for this process. We will update you as soon as we hear something.

I talked to Ludmilla again today and she told me that Oct 25,26,27 is a holiday for Kazakhstan and that they MOE will be closed on those days. This applies to us because our dossier was supposed to be released on the 25th. So now they are saying that our dossier will be released on either the 24th or the 29th. This will not change our travel date. She is still saying that if all goes as planned we will travel the week of the 11th. So now we are less than a month away! We are very excited to travel to meet our baby! We are praying that there wont be any more delays. We appreciate everyone's prayers and support and we ask that you keep it up! 

I talked to Ludmilla (our case manager) today and she was able to give me some info as to what the hold up was with our dossier. The ministry of education had told our facilitator in Kaz that the remaining dossiers would be released on the 13 well she assumed this meant all of the dossiers since she was not told otherwise. When she went to pick up the dossiers on the 12 they only released 2 of them saying that because our dossier was submitted after everyone elses they would travel first as this is only fair and that they would release our dossier for travel in the 25 of this month. If our dossier is released on this day as they say it will be, then we should be ready to travel sometime between the 10-17 of November. So we are only delayed approximately 2 weeks. I am trying so hard not to get my hopes up until we actually hear something on the 25 when they release our dossier. We are praying that there will be no more delays and that we will meet our baby soon. Please continue to pray for us.

Well guys we found out Friday night by email that we will not be traveling on the 27th as planned. Kazakhstan decided not to release our dossier for travel until the 26th. After they release our dossier we will have to wait on our LOI (letter of invitation) this is a document from the Kazakhstan government that  has the numbers on it needed to process your visa for travel. It is usually one to two weeks before this is ready. So lord willing we will travel in the middle of November sometime. We were very heartbroken by this news but we know that God has a perfect plan for this adoption and that he has not brought us this far to drop us now. It is in his hands and we know that he has the perfect baby for us and apparently that baby is not yet ready. Our prayer is that we will travel by mid November to meet our baby. We ask that you all continue to pray for us as well and we will update you as soon as we hear something.

 Well, we got our call today from our case manager! She said that Kazakhstan has approved our dossier and that we will be traveling the week of Oct 27!! There are five families waiting to travel with our agency, two of them are traveling the week of Oct 13 and the rest of us are traveling the week of Oct 27. The two who are going the week of Oct 13 turned in their paperwork before the rest of us, so they get to go first which is only fair. We are soo excited! We will get another e mail Oct 3 with our itenerary for our trip. ONLY 4 WEEKS UNTIL WE MEET OUR BABY!! We will keep you all updated as we find out more info. Please keep praying for us that everything will continue to move smoothly.

GOD IS GOOD!!!!

 Well we found out where we will be staying in Kazakhstan. It is the Hotel Dostar-Alem.  It looks really nice on line and we have talked to several families who have stayed there who loved it. It has a turkish spa, bowling alley, beauty salon and two restaurants in it. If you want to check it out online the website is http://www.dostar-alem.kz/eng/index.php . Love you all, Miranda

We got an email from our case manager today and the officials in Kazakhstan have given the ok for families to travel. This is great news! We still probably wont hear anything for a week or so. We are praying that we will get to travel soon. Our dossier was submitted after some of the  other families so they will get to go first of course. That is unless they choose to let us all travel together which is what we are praying for. We should find out within the next week or so where our dossier is in the process. We ask that you all please pray for us that we will be able to travel soon to meet our baby! 

Our journey started with the dream to become parents.We prayed about adoption and knew that if it was God's will he would make it happen. That is when everything started to fall into place for us and we knew without a doubt that this was God's will for our lives.We started our adoption process in November of 2006. After a few delays and lots of work we were finally ready to turn our dossier into Kazakhstan. We submitted our dossier to Kazakhstan in June and are now waiting for an invitation to travel. We were hoping to travel in August but no such luck. There have been some delays in Kazakhstan but according to our case manger these delays have been resolved and we should be recieving our invitation to travel soon. We are hoping to hear something this week. We are anxious to travel so that we can meet our baby. 

We would appreciate it if you all would pray for us and pray that we will be able to travel soon. We will keep you all updated with any new info.