Wherever you go, there you are...

So here we are. It's mid-July and we're still waiting as patiently as possible.

Last we we did take a little time and go see both sides of the family, Bill's dad in DC, and Cathe's parents in Brooklyn, MI. It was a lot of driving from Bartlett, TN, but well worth the trip. The photo to the left is us at the Smithsonian.

Latest update from our coordinator is that we're now targeting late September for our big trip to Kazakhstan. The process has slowed while everything is checked, double checked and given the final check before proceeding. We recently met a family who traveled to Kazahkstan, met their new son, then found out that he had not completely cleared the legal process due to a "minor oversight." The good news is that they did eventually adopt their son and bring him home. The bad news is that they had to return home, wait for the required time to expire, then travel again. We're hoping to avoid the same issues.

All that said, our coordinator will be working to get out Letter of Invitation (LOI) issued by the Minister of Education (MOE). Once we have the LOI from the MOE we can apply for our travel visas and start shopping for plane tickets. Getting to Kazakhstan from Memphis is relatively easy, at least to Almaty (the former capitol). Northwest has direct flights to Amsterdam where we would shift over to KLM for the leg to Almaty. From Almaty, we will take a domestic flight to the city listed in our LOI. Since Kazakhstan is four times the size of Texas, that can still be a pretty good trek. Once we have the LOI, we will post a map showing the specifics. Meanwhile, we have had a lot of fun exploring with Google Earth, anticipating where we could be going next.

Not knowing where we would be going, Bill did a little looking around the web and found that the Catholic church sponsors a few orphanages. The difference is that the church sponsored orphanages are designed to assist families through their difficult times rather than placing children. Monsignor Massimo Ungari wrote us a very nice note telling us about his orphanage just north of Almaty. You can read more about it at: http://www.focolarivergineeucarestia.it/ Once you reach the page, there's a button for English (if you don't read Italian). We hope to visit Monsignor Ungari if time permits. We also hope to sponsor one child a month ($70/month) and would be more than happy to pass along anything anyone else would like to send as well.

So, here we are, and hopefully soon there we will go....

.....And Still Waiting Some More

It's now June 22nd and we're still waiting patiently. Although our coordinator has not confirmed that our paperwork has moved, it should now be en-route to the MOE.

This is an exciting but frustrating time for us as we're waiting for confirmation that our paperwork is moving and are still trying to figure out where in Kazakhstan we'll be heading once we get the long awaited Letter of Invitation (LOI). Our coordinator has some contacts in Petropovlosk (Petropavl, KZ) who are checking the regional registry of orphans. Although some "prospective candidates" may be found, there is still no guarantee since Kazakh law prohibits pre-selection.

Time lines are getting tough though... Knowing how long the "in country" portion of the process takes, it is unlikely that Cathe will be able to stay for the entire process and still make it back in time for the start of school. On to plan B...

This evening we watched a show on the History Channel called "Building the Future" which showed the new pyramid building in Astana. About 30 seconds after the segment started, our neighbor across the street called to see if we were watching. What a neat structure! Kazakhstan is really trying to build some world-class buildings to update their cities. http://www.hughpearman.com/articles5/pyramid.html

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and encouragement. We'll update the blog as soon as we know anything.