Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and continues to hold hope that the babies waiting for their families to go back to pick them up won't have to wait much longer. I was hoping that Porkchop would be home by now but he will come home, its just a matter of time. Mom and I spent Christmas day with J & J and the kids. That was so fun, watching them open their presents and playing with the toys. And then there's the always entertaining --adults trying to figure out how to 'transform' a Transformer. I couldnt figure it out, even with the instructions. J got O.P together though. It was great to see them and know that next year I will be right there with them again but with an addition. Seeing them again put it all into perspective..We talked a bit about their wait and the ups and downs of international adoption. It was very comforting. Loud and Clear-- He will come home, its only a matter of time. I got a couple new pictures (I am greatful for them) and he looks well but still a peanut. No weights or measurements on him though. Happy 6 month bday, baby.

To make a long story short, the hope is, now that the President has made a decision things will get moving. The MOE will be in charge of adoption under the direction of the Deputy Minister's monitoring. This transition will take about 10 days and their holidays fall about a week after ours here in the US. We are looking at the middle of January before letters will be signed. So if we count about 5 weeks after that.....it's the end of February or into March now for me. This, of course is provided I am one of the first ones with letters signed and I get through court quickly. We still dont have a time line and once they start signing letters I will know more. Thank you everyone for your continued support. I will keep you posted.

J (my agency director) sent out the following message:(I removed names)

I talked to T and she confirmed bits of information and rumors that we have heard. The information is from (the) Senator, from his conversations, including with Ambassador Z. The Ambassador's meeting with the President went well. He is fine with adoption. He supports having the Prime Minister's office monitor adoptions through the Deputy Minister within the Ministry of Education.The current problem is that there are two other agencies ostensibly with legal responsibility for adoption. One is the Dept of Child Protection and the other, above it, is the Ministry of Physical Culture, Sports and some other areas. The Dept of Child Protection is under this Ministry of Physical Culture. (I have no idea how the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports became part of adoption; I think it is because social issues were somehow part of that Ministry, and then in 2006 the Dept of Child Protection was created and given responsibility for adoption processes.)There has been a legal conundrum as a result. Because there have been some issues, neither Dept wants responsibility, at least not for any errors or irregularities. Hence, no letter signing. (By the way, the irregularities largely stemmed from within the MOE, with the former Adoption Dept head. So the MOE is doubly cautious about doing anything that might get them into trouble. Again.) The President or Prime Minister said it will take about ten days to straighten this out and fully assign the responsibility for signing the letters to the MOE. But then, there are also the holidays. The first ten days of Jan. are usually given to holidays, so it would be unrealistic to think that anything will actually get done. T says that letters will come in mid-January, according to what she learned last night and this morning.Deputy Prime Minister C will be overseeing this. We do believe that the government will get reorganized and things will get going in mid-January. This is a complicated problem. There are way too many departments involved, with legally and political implications. Having the MOE under the Prime Minister and solely responsible will hopefully make things smoother and more predictable. Families waiting for their children will unfortunately be stuck with waiting another three weeks -- I am so so sorry. As T said previously, it is such a mess. This is not a condition isolated to Kyrgyz, though, so don't feel alone. ALL the countries have big problems with their adoption administrations when adoption become more popular. They deal with this institutional fragmentation and also with the media issues that inevitably arise. Ambassador Z will be back in the States on the 20th and it will be, in my mind, a litmus test if the Embassy continues to accept new dossiers. If they do -- then that means she has confidence we will be moving forward in January.

Happy Holidays to all.. Wishing continued Hope to those of us waiting.

B