Saying Goodbye

Today we said goodbye to Kxxxx.  It is bittersweet.  This is the birthplace of our son.  And it truly is a beautiful country with beautiful people.  But it is also the country that has kept our son in an orphanage for four long years knowing that a family was waiting to love him and take care of him.

***for adoptions from "here" families must cross the border into Kazakhstan to have their child's orphan visa processed at the US Embassy in Almaty Kaz. 

Yesterday morning our agency coordinator, G, was to take the kids' passports to be certified.  This is required to allow the children to leave the country on their passports.  Mid afternoon we got a call that the office that certifies passports was closed.  Ramadan.  The office would "probably" be open that afternoon.  Argh.  We had to have those passports certified or we would not be able to leave, and not be able to make our US Embassy appointments next week.  And probably have to extend our trip.  No one was very happy with the situation.

We also were waiting for other documents that were required for our embassy appointments.  G was to bring the translated and notarized documents to us by Friday afternoon at 5:30.  5:30 came and went, 8:30 came and went.  10:30 came and we were beginning to fret.  We had to have those documents or we could not attend our embassy appointments. We could not cross the border to get to our embassy appointment without those documents.

Finally, at 12:30 am, we had the papers in hand.  We were leaving at 8 am. 

The border crossing would be a huge test.  Would these adoption decrees stand and would we be allowed to take our children?  US Embassy Bxxxx had an official escort at the border to help us if we had any issues. 

We arrived at 9:30.  The border crossing is intense.  Every single person must get out of the vehicle.  For us, that was 13 people.  Every single piece of luggage, bag, purse, box, etc must be taken off of the van and hand carried across the border to leave Kxxx and to enter Kaz, 200 yards away.  Luggage for 13 people for two weeks.  That is a lot of luggage and bags.  Thankfully there are locals who stand all day at the border and for a fee will carry your luggage for you from point A on the Kxxxx side to point B on the Kaz side. 

We walked in to the first check point and as soon as the first one of us reached the window the man came out and wanted us to hand him every American passport and every child's passport.  He took them into a side room and we were told to stand outside that door and wait.  Handing your passport to anyone in a foreign country and watching them leave the room is nervewracking in normal circumstances.  This was just scary.  And they took the kids' passports too.  It was a tense 15 minutes before the man came back, handed us our passports and told us we could go.  First major hurdle crossed: we were allowed to take the children OUT of Kgstan!!!!!!

We then had to walk through a crazy maze thing to get to customs and border control for the Kaz side.  We entered that room and found 10 lines leading to windows with border control agents inspecting passports and visas.  The four families split up into four different lines and waited our turns.  Family one got through just fine.  Family two was in the line next to us and the agent at that window was none too pleased with her documents.  And his friend, our agent, was also not pleased.  They started asking us questions.  In Russian of course.  We began yelling for our coordinator who was with another family.  She came over, had to yell and push her way to us, and I am pretty sure she was cussed out by every person she "cut" in line in front of to get to us.

After a short, tense conversation, she told us, "You vait here.  He will get supervisor."  So, we waited.  And watched the one last family get through their agent with no issues.

The supervisor must have spoken to our agent and he waved us back up to the window.  And the questioning started again.  He looked over every single document we had: birth certificates, passports, adoption decrees and scrutinized all of us from head to toe, the kids from head to toe and finally began stamping our passports to let us through.  It was very tense and seemed to take forever.  By the time we got through, the rest of our group had all of the luggage loaded into the van and were ready to go.  We were welcomed into Kaz with open arms from the other families in our group.  And we all finally breathed a big sigh of relief. 

Getting out of Kgstan with our kids was a dream come true.  A dream we have been dreaming for four long years.

The drive to Almaty was long and hot.  Again, no air conditioning.  The kids played, napped, fussed and ate and we stopped many many many times to go potty.  As we entered the city, Asa looked very sad.  I tried to console him and he looked like he was about to cry.  We now know that his very sad, almost crying face also means he is about to throw up.  Poor little guy, the heat just got to him.  I was very impressed with how fast all of the other moms were able to produce wipes and plastic bags to help us get him cleaned up.

We arrived at our hotel and were greeted with the news that they had no hot water or electricity, but were assured it would all be working within the hour.  "Fine, fine, give us our room keys."  The rooms were tiny, smaller than most dorm rooms I have been in and had two twin beds and no room for a roll in cot for a child to sleep on. And the cost was not the $50 per night that our agency had quoted.  No, they were $125 per night.  A few phone calls later and we were all loaded in taxis and headed to a much nicer hotel, with much bigger rooms that cost only $133 a night. 

We had a relaxing dinner tonight and treated the kids to their first ever Baskin Robbins ice cream.  Kaz has much more in the way of modern amenities, restaurants and shopping.  Merely surviving should not take as much energy as Kgstan.  Our hotel is within walking distance of the US embassy, so we will not need to use any drivers unless we go into the mountains to do some sightseeing.  We are just thrilled to be HERE.  We have a free day tomorrow and plan to sleep!

our last moments in Kgstan!

waiting nervously for the Kgstan official to bring our passports back!

yes, that is Asa sitting in the corner.  he was tired of waiting and found himself a nice

out of the way place to have a seat.

Done!   In the van, in Kaz!