Well as promised, here comes the rest of where the last post left off. It is now Tuesday morning and KJ is off to work and around 9:30 am she calls to announce that Libby (our adoption coordinator at MAPS) has called to say that we have cleared the Ministry of Education!

So 'what does that mean' you ask, well let me just say it is a huge step. We have finally passed through the more bureaucratic stages and our dossier is finally assigned to a baby house. So now we know where we are going to meet our daughter. KJ and I will be spending our most important summer ever in Astana, Kazakhstan. I will post some links of interest once I do a little more research about Astana, but what I know is that it is the newly created capital city. I should expect that from there we should have as great a chance as any to stay in touch with all of you as it is a modern city with many modern conveniences. It may lack the true cultural feeling we had hoped to experience on this journey, but we can always come back for that as a family.

As far as timing, Libby said that assuming that there are girls in our age range ready for adoption right now, the earliest travel date she envisions would be the second week of June. I caution you all to note that I did not just say that we are traveling the second week of June. In fact as a general precaution to any and all whose minds process primarily in known entities and black and white things, let me just say that international adoption is all about the grey. There is a great need to accept that things will just be as they are. KJ and I are fine with it, and therefore, trust that all of you will be as well. I see it as part of the magic of the process that will join KJ and me to our daughter.

There continues to be a lot to get done around here before we leave. As I mentioned in our last post, we are moving to Boothbay after we return from Kazakhstan and as of today have signed a contract for a house there. The closing date is set for 11 June, and I trust we will still be here to attend. KJ and I will go back out there this friday with a home inspector, and are excited to look at it again, this time from a standpont of it becoming our home as a family. I know I have also promised a few links to what our new life in Boothbay might look like and I will make good on that in the next week or so.

So what is like to know where my daughter is right now. Quite intense. I cried as I talked to KJ this morning, and I full out sobbed a bit later after a quick call to my mom to tell her the news. I don't know that I have ever truly sobbed. Tearing up, absolutely, nearly everyday. But sobbing, with sounds and just awash in tears, that was new. There was just such a confluence of emotional rivers that it overwhelmed my ability to process them and the result was just an uncontrollable outpouring - literally.

Sensing, as all gifted dogs do, that this was a time I needed him, Midou looked up with eyebrows raised and ears askew, then walked over to me and selflessly offered to let me rub his butt. What would we do without dogs! Take Care.