Friday, March 19, 10 AM In room waiting for Gulnara to call from downstairs that she is ready for us to head to the baby house. Minutes before we go, I just need to comment on the calm we feel and have felt since finally completing everything needed to get us on the plane and over here to Kazakhstan. Kept thinking, while sitting still in our SUV for so many hours on route to Karaganda (remembering Kate’s comment that 2 people had died on the same road one day in December from the cold), that God didn’t bring us this far just to let us freeze in some stranger’s car. I have learned, and am learning, that faith means believing without seeing as we trust in the One and only believable and faithful God. Fortunately, even in those times (sad to say many times) we haven taken our eyes off of Him and felt overwhelmed with disappointment and uncertainty - HE is still faithful and good – no matter what the outcome. It is truly a “God thing” to be sitting here waiting, still with many uncertainties, feeling such a peace. And for that I am grateful for the 31 months of what we have been through knowing that God is so much bigger than what our own ideas and plans could ever imagine. Her name is Faith. Call her Faith because it will take more faith than you have known to bring her home. As weird as that sounds, I believe with all my heart that these are the words God spoke clearly to my heart in August 07 and again in January 08 after the door to Guatemala had closed. In just minutes we be will holding our Faith with a greater faith than we have ever known.
10:30AM Jonad knocks on our door and we’re off to City Mall a short walk away to wait on Gulnara who has run into another bump at the MOFA office. Our updated homestudy is not translated into Russian with the approval to adopt a child age 2-6 instead of up to age 4 (as originally stated). As we wait inside a pretty awesome mall, we learn much about Kazak culture from our 25yo translator who lives at home with his mom and sister. He dates a Russian girl, Ola, and neither families are pleased with the mixing of the Kazak and Russian cultures. Finally after 3PM, Gulnara has worked through the bump at the Foreign Affairs office and is on her way to the baby house where we are to walk and meet her.
3:30ish we arrive at the babyhouse which is across the street from the mall. Some of the children are dressed in costumes and heading to a small auditorium to perform. We can hear them singing and would love to watch but are told to sit and wait on Gulnara because we do not have a letter to be at the babyhouse.
4PM -9:05PM we were escorted into a small office with the assistant director. Unfortunately for us, the friendly director whom Gulnara had already developed a relationship with in her prior visits on our behalf to the baby house back in Dec. and Jan. is in the hospital. There seems to be a problem as our first official visit must be observed by someone from the office of adoption and that person was not there. This is a particular problem because Kazakhstan’s New Year Holiday (big deal here) starts tomorrow (Saturday) and will last for 5 days (through Wednesday). Interpretation: all government offices are closed until next Thursday, March 25 and thus no one will be available to observe us. So our 15 days of bonding will NOT start until we meet this child next Thursday. Our attorney, Gulnara, did not feel that this observer needed to be present for our first meeting since we now had the letter approving our start of visits - thus the 5 hours of deliberating among serveral other baby house administrators and their lawyer (with a rapid and very intense exchange of Russian) AND a series of 13 Kazakhstan police who were asked to come and escort us out of the building which had officially closed at 6PM. Gulnara believed we were correct in being there so we sat there as she instructed us to do.
9:05PM with enterage of babyhouse staff and police we peacefully exit the building and walk back to our apartment with Jonad. Not a great start for our bonding but this is par for the course of our quest! Oh what a day which actually “tops” the 8 hours sitting in a frozen SUV waiting at a road block.