Holy cow!! We received an e-mail from WPA today (Tues) stating they received our application! I snail mailed it Friday, nothing happens on Sunday, and Monday was Memorial Day. And WPA is in Georgia!! I don't think I overnighted it. I just told the postman, "Regular postage please." Wow!
Anyway, it was a very nice introductory e-mail. Probably no big deal for any of you reading, but it made us pretty excited.
Hi Jim and Jennifer,
Welcome to World Partners Adoption, we received your application and we will begin processing it immediately. We are looking forward to working with you and to helping you bring home a new addition to your family.
I am sending out your Kazakhstan Program Manual via Priority Mail; you should receive it in a few days. It will answer many of your current questions and undoubtedly create a few more! It will give you a clear idea of our policies and expectations and explain in detail what you need to be working on at each point in the process. It will also overwhelm you! It is a 3-ring binder packed with information about all aspects of your pending adoption. Our advice is simple; take things "step-by-step," reading each section as you approach that part of the process. Certainly we can't keep you from reading ahead, but if you do, it may confuse rather than help at this early point in time and our job is to keep your level of confusion and frustration down to a minimum!
Your coordinator, Mary, will be setting up an appointment to speak with you about the process and to go over all of your questions about the information you will be receiving. If she does not contact you soon after you receive the packet, please call her to set up this conference, as it is important to insure you have a complete understanding of the process.
This journey can seem overwhelming at many times and it is important to all of us at World Partners that you receive a high level of support from our agency throughout the entire process. Please work closely with Mary, as she will help to guide you and keep you focused on the tasks at hand. Cindy and myself are always here for you as well so don't ever hesitate to pick up the phone.
The more you read and the more questions you ask during this time the better prepared you will be for all aspects of adopting your child. When you receive the manual it will answer many of the questions you have and give you an understanding of how things will work from this point forward. Thank you for placing your trust in us, I am sure you will not be disappointed.
Best Regards,
Jim Harding
World Partners Adoption
The next exciting thing was knowing that we are now on their official "adoptive family" list (or whatever they call it) because a couple hours after that, Mary, our coordinator, e-mailed all the couples she is working with on a document change for the dossier. Blah, blah, blah. Again, probably not one of those details you guys care about, but to me, it just indicated I was "in." I made the e-mail distribution list.
Yesterday was a great day. We went to Mom and Dad Matasovsky's for a Memorial barbecue and I spent most of the time with my almost 6 mo old niece and Steph (sister-in-law). It was great to talk to a new mom. She had lots of thoughts and ideas and best of all- she listened to me ramble on and on! :-)
I think that's one of the hardest things about all of this is there is no one to talk to. I don't mean you guys because you all know (for future readers, the updates of this blog are only being sent to immediate family and very close friends at this point in time), but we don't want to "go public" until we pass the homestudy. That limits what I talk to who about. And Dad, while I can't even begin to tell you how much your quick e-mails and prayers mean to me, I know researching the difference between a ring sling and a mei tai (two different types of baby carriers) is not top on your list. :-)
So anyway, it was really nice to talk to Steph (a new mom) yesterday.
We're also starting to think of names, so if you've got a suggestion, throw it out there! Sure, why not? We'll listen to ideas and suggestions. I'm keeping a little journal with a list of all the names that catch our fancy. I'll warn you up front that we won't tell you what we choose until it's either a done deal or until we just can't hold it in because we found the most "perfect" name (the more realistic choice as Jim and I just can't seem to keep any exciting news to ourselves), but I'm definitely open to suggestions. I have realized already that I need to have about 22 baby girls and about 16 baby boys just to utilize all the names I really like so far. Given my finances, I can't adopt that many, and given my 31 years, I can't birth that many either so I'm left with narrowing down the options.
Picking a name this early might sound really silly (it does to me partly) and especially because the name we pick, might not go to our referral. What does that mean? Ok, say we choose the name Sally (which is not on our list). We start getting ready for Sally's arrival (assuming we pass the home study) and instead of saying, "our little girl" we actually start calling her Sally. Ok, so then we get the referral. We will get a picture of her, maybe a video. We'll get her medicals and work with an international adoption doctor here at the UofM to determine if she's healthy. So then we decide to accept the referral. Now we have a face to go with the name. Sally all of a sudden becomes someone specific. We call her Sally when we talk to each other, we look at pictures of Sally. Ok, so a month later we get to Kaz. "Sally" is gone. Kaz law states that if a Kaz citizen wants to adopt, he/she gets first preference. Meaning the baby house will do their best to hold a referral for us, but if a Kazakhstani walks in and sees our "Sally, " that person can legally adopt her. Now does that mean we fly back home with no baby? No. There are no instances of that happening in WPA. All that means is that we now get a different baby girl. That process is what's called "losing a referral." WPA places 120 babies a year from Kaz and they have only had 4 lost referrals EVER (and again, 0 instances of anyone leaving the country without a baby), but what does that do to my heart and my emotions if I now have a face to go with the name and she's not ours afterall? If I'm the less than 1% who loses a referral, do I name the next baby Sally? Or do I let the name Sally go with the face, and choose a new name for our new little girl? Or is the <1% not worth worrying about? But anyway, as to the choosing of the name... I'm simply tired of calling her "our girl" or "our little girl." It would be nice to have a name to call her. Otherwise we'll all get home and we'll still call her Girl. :-) So yeah, we're rocking and rolling on the process- do we get excited about the name and pick it now (now being in like 0-5 months) or wait for like 8-10 months to go by?
Listen to me!! I'm talking about all this as if the homestudy is a done deal!! :-) We could use as many prayers as you guys are willing to give on that part (and we'll definitely keep you updated on that), but on the other hand, I do have a sense of peace about all this. Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud, but I do kind of. I just have a feeling that this will be a rather smooth and timely process. "Timely" is still relative of course as I'm counting on a year.
I should probably stop typing while I'm ahead- although I think that was long ago. I really only signed on to type the "Holy cow, they got it already!" line. Funny how I guess I had more to say than just that.
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