1.31.06 - The Agencies

Out of all the agencies that work with Kazakhstan, we narrowed it down to two that we would be interested in working with. We had phone appointments with both today. We came up with about 18 questions this weekend that we wanted to know about. Both agencies (I'll refrain from naming them out of respect for the one we don't choose) seemed pretty equivalent. Both people we talked to were very nice, very knowledgeable, and very helpful. One agency is on the east coast (Eastern Time Zone) and so we called her at 7am this morning and chatted for about 45 minutes. The other agency was very flexible and we were able to call her at 6:30 this evening.

Basically both are well known for their work in Kaz. They both offer great in country services. One agency even provides cell phones. Another agency keeps a lawyer in country to help out as needed. Um... I'm trying to think of what the interesting points are. I guess ask and I shall respond. :-)

Know what though? Kaz is just south of Siberia! Cool isn't it?! Well... actually (no pun intended) it's very cold. In the northern regions, the average January temp (average!!) is -18 F. Holy criminey crickets!! And I thought MN was cold. Now granted, I've seen -25 here (not including the windchill- with the windchill it was like -40), but still. When I looked at maps that showed latitude lines, MN is about 45 degrees, and central Kaz is about 50 degrees which is equivalent to the southern part of Canada. I just thought it was pretty nifty that if all goes well, we'll be going practically to Siberia for a kid! :-)

Oh! I also figured out how to pronounce the name of the country. Both ladies pronounced it the same way. The last part is stan- just like all the other stans. But the first part is like Cause. And not the shortened version of because (which is more like a 'cuz'), but like "I'm fighting for this great cause." So it's Cause-ick-stan. Weird. I'm still struggling with the cause part. Seems to me it should either be Koz (like Cozumel) or Kaz (like in cat). But nope. Causeickstan. Hmph. I'll get used to it.

Back to the agency debate, we haven't decided. I mean I think we have, we just haven't deliberately chosen. It's one of those things where they're both good so all we have to go off of is our gut.

So here's a new wrench kinda thrown in. Which is a good wrench overall, but it doesn't benefit us really. Ok, so you all know I took this new job. The peak part of it is scheduled for the December time frame. When I took the job, I made a commitment to them. My goal for adopting is to have the kid after that time. Ideally that would be the spring of 2007 at the earliest. Well in talking to both agencies today, they said that the average time through their process (keep in mind every agency, home study group, and country is different) is 9-12 months from start to finish. EEEKS!!! Since we're "starting" that puts us at October-January which is the EXACT time I won't be ready. So the good news is the process is nice and fast. The bad news is that we'll have to slow down the front end stuff so that we can time it such that I'll be able to keep that commitment to work. Oh sure if it were an unplanned pregnancy we'd all have to deal with it- life moves on and I'm hardly irreplaceable. Nonetheless, I made a commitment and this isn't "unplanned" and I would not feel ethically good about what I was doing. And I want to feel good when I go to pick up my kid! :-)

So again what does that mean? Nothing much other than we're not in a hurry. If we were in a hurry Jim and I would have picked the agency and instead of typing to you, I'd be filling out the application. Instead we'll probably mull the agency decision over and go buy some great books that were recommended to us today. And figure out who we want to do our homestudy too. No matter how you slice that, it's still a 3-4 month process.

I did ask what we're some things that would make them turn down our application. There is nothing that caught my attention. i.e. If you tell the agency that you have no arrests and then they find out later (through finger printing and FBI checks) that when you were 16, you got busted drinking (oops, you forgot about that one!), then they'll automatically dismiss you for lying. But basically as long as the health is good, no troubles with the law, and we pass the homestudy, we're in. I'm pretty positive we're batting 2 for 3 right now. Unless of course we go to the doc for our health exams and find out we have some deadly cancer or something. (Had to throw that in for Jim's benefit!)

Blah, blah, blah... I think I'm rambling now. Must be getting tired.


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