Ramblings...

Its amazing how supportive everyone in our life has been about our decision to add to our family through adoption. In my mind I was always prepared for adoption. It just always made sense to me, even when I was in college. Somehow I always assumed that we would adopt at some stage of our life, though I did think it would be for our second child. But after some years of waiting and things not going as planned for many reasons, not all what people may think frankly, but we finally decided that was ridiculous. Why not our first!? IVF is not even an option I wanted to consider. Fertility was not the issue here and then for many other reasons, but that's not the point of this post. Simply put, we wanted to be parents and there are many children in the world who, for no fault of theirs, are left without parents and need a mommy and daddy. Simply put. So, the story began.

Many comment on how lucky the baby is going to be, some on how happy we will be and all on how our lives are about to change! Everyone is correct, Im not going to deny. The fact is this is a win-win for everyone involved. The baby, us, our families, people involved in the process. Yes, the baby is going to be lucky to be joining a wonderful extended family with so many wonderful cousins, a multi-racial/trans-racial family with cousins who probably will look like her/him and many who won't. (But then that's what makes the world a pretty place. If everyone looked the same imagine how boring it would be (and to be honest, like one of those science-fiction movies with everyone being a clone!)). And the awesome grandparents! A 1 min chat with Nyda will confirm to you how much she dotes on her Nani and Nana (maternal grandparents in hindi) by the no. of times she calls them. ;) And more importantly how lucky we are going to be, to welcome a bundle of joy into our lives and give our lives more meaning.

I can promise you, little one, we may fumble in the beginning, we may freak out when you cry and dont stop because everything is so new to you including being pulled out of anything familiar to you, including the language people speak around you right now, and being put into a whole different part of the world where every single thing and experience, smell and sensation will be different and new for you. But we will not give up. Ever. We will only love you more and more every day and support you and help you become the best of who you are.

I dont care if you grow up to be straight or gay, become an engineer or a photographer, live in the city or a small town. What we hope to teach you throughout your life is that all that does not define you. What defines you is the kind of human being you are. How you treat others, esp those less fortunate than us. How much of what you get, including love, you give back to the world. How you treat those who care about you and those who don't. We will try our best to make sure you have a solid foundation of good values, a good education and all learning opportunities that you want and work for, along with try and show you a lot of what this beautiful planet and life have to offer in terms of art, travel, history, architecture, literature, and so much more.
We also want you to grow up to be humble & modest and remember that money may come and go, but the relationships that are most important to us are what give us strength, keep us going and to always keep working on them and not take them for granted. To love with your whole heart and not hold back even if you're afraid of losing that person. Ever. Live and love with your whole heart. Always. No holds barred.

But till you're older and not a little person, I just promise to read you loads of fairy tales and make up magical stories for you, make wierd faces and funny tunes and entertain you till we're both exhausted. every single day along with all the other fun stuff. ;)

Can't wait, baby, can't wait!

Ah Well! Immigration.

So, after the happy morning of finding out we got the letter of approval this morning, just recvd the immigration package back from the CIC after 2 full weeks, saying there are 2 errors on the form. Being crazy busy that he is and with his work trip to India the next day, looks like Dee forgot to sign in 2 places in lieu of the child being sponsored. :(
So, yeah, am a bit miffed now. That should be about a 2-3 week delay now if we're lucky and if there are no further errors or diff ways they need it filled/docs they need. Looks like Susan Miller was right about bad effects of the monster moon on me this weekend +/= 5 days. :(

26th Sept 9:30am > Forms corrected and file re-sent by express post to Immigration again. Fingers crossed.
Liana did email this morning and confirmed that all is well at the Kaz consulate and they are ready to accept adoption dossiers and that all is on track. phew.

Letter of Approval!

Yesss! Its here! The Letter of approval from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services here in Canada. Big step done. We're officially approved to be parents! It took about 5.5 weeks. The timeline is upto 2 months usually so we're happy its here sooner. :)

Now let's get that baby of ours that we've been waiting for all our life and who is unknowingly waiting for us and we can be a family. :)

Waiting, now, for the letter from immigration canada confirming our application of sponsorship for the baby. Should be here within a week more hopefully (its been 2 weeks today since we sent in the app) and then Liana takes our dossier personally to the Kaz consulate here in Ottawa for approval, legalising and translation. And then we wait...

Waiting for Ministry Approval

So its been a few weeks since our file was submitted to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. We have since been advised by Diane that she spoke to someone at the ministry who wanted the "quotation" marks removed but otherwise the HS looked great. Diane quickly sent in the corrected papers the same day and the lady from the ministry advised her that she was recommending the approval to the director now and that we should get the approval letter within a week or so. This was last week so Im guessing the approval should be in the mail now!

Also, we got a bit delayed (or maybe not, after all since the approval letter is still awaited) and we were advised to file the sponsorship papers to Immigration Canada. The letter from CIC confirming that a file had been opened for the child's sponsorship is required with the rest of the paperwork which will be sent to the Kazakh consulate for legalisation and approval. We recvd the file no. by email within a week of sending the docs in so now we are just waiting for the official letter stating the same. Should be here by next week perhaps.

The new medical forms for Kaz adoptions is being filled by Dr Kap as we speak and so by next week the file should be ready to be sent to Liana so that she can bring it to the Kaz consulate beginning of October. And then...we wait...and hope...and pray.

In the meanwhile Deepak & I visited my family in California and attended a beautiful wedding in Napa Valley (Ric & Andrea's). Here are 2 pics from our trip. 

Feeding the ducks with my aunt and sister-in-law at their lakefront home near Sacramento

My gorgeous Indo-Chinese nephews: Guru, Vijay, Sanjay & Ajay. How could a Kazakh baby not fit in! :)

With Jim, Luma and Monica at R&A's beautiful Napa wedding

I have also been shortlisting gorgeous strollers. Stokke, Quinny Moodd, Baby Jogger City mini GT and the Mamas & Papas Sola having made the final shortlist. nothing but the best for our baby! :)