Kyra Has Left the Building

It is Thursday, March 1 in Kazakhstan and Kyra is officially out of the orphanage. She will take the 10-hour train ride (with our coordinator, Vera, as chaperone), pick up her Visa at the U.S. Consulate in Almaty, and then board a flight to Amsterdam. After a few hours, she'll be on another flight to LAX, where we will pick them up on Sunday. It's completely surreal at this point. We've waited for three years to have another child. Now that she's almost here, we've hit that euphoric state that comes from having a new baby (and one that's already potty trained, too!). The feelings are almost like falling in love again--the sky looks especially blue, the trees are an amazing shade of green, everything looks absolutely beautiful. Today, I just sat and stared at the ocean for 15 minutes. We can see it from our backyard and tend to take the view for granted. Today, it was just too stunning to ignore. I don't know how much time we'll have for blogging once Kyra gets here. If you don't hear from us for a while, then don't worry...just know that we are living in complete happiness with our two beautiful children.

My Water Just Broke...

Well, not really, of course...but it does feel that way. We just got the message that Kyra will be arriving on Sunday, March 4. She's ahead of schedule...just like Nicholas was when he arrived into our family. I have nothing to compare this to other than the arrival of our "homemade" son, and it's amazing how similar my emotions are to that event. I've been organizing and cleaning the entire house (spices have been alphabetized, clothes have been arranged by color). I've been comparing her arrival to the "sell by" dates on all of the groceries (Kyra will be here before the milk expires). And I've purchased every pink thing I can find (including pink cups for the kitchen). Yep, I'm acting just as "nutty" as I did when I was pregnant. This is so great! We've already welcomed this little girl into our hearts. We can't wait until we welcome her into our home.

We Have a Daughter

On February 6th, we entered Court No. 2 in Taraz, Kazahstan (which is pictured at left). Two hours later, we left with a daughter! Kyra is now an official member of the Schwartz family. Prior to court, we were told not to worry because the judge has never denied an adoption request. However, court hearings in any language can be intimidating. Because of the added stress and anxiety of a foreign court, we came up with really creative things to worry about: What if we get in a car accident and don't make it to court? (We didn't); What if the judge doesn't show up? (He was 90 minutes late); What if Kyra's birth mother does show up? (Unlikely since Kyra was abandoned on the streets of Taraz more than a year ago). The appropriate people--the judge, prosecutor, orphanage director, Guardian Council member, coordinator and translator--showed up and we spent about 30 minutes in the courtroom. The judge began by asking Michael to make a speech. Then the orphanage director and Guardian Council member made speeches on our behalf. Next, it was the prosecutor's turn. She had a few questions, but no objections. The judge asked us a few more questions and then went into a long speech in Kazakh. The only words we understood were "Kyra Catherine Schwartz," but as soon as we heard them, we knew he'd ruled in our favor. Now, there's a mandatory 15-day appeal period. On February 22, our coordinator will get the final court decree and Kyra's new birth certificate, which lists us as her parents. It should take another week to get her passport, so we're planning on her arrival around the end of the month.

We have spent three years trying to adopt a little girl, and we can't believe it's actually happened. She may not have come into the family the same way our "homemade" son did, but her arrival is no less miraculous. So many things have to come together to make an international adoption a success. We filled out a small truckload worth of documents, we were fingerprinted at least a dozen times, we were interviewed by social workers and psychiatrists, we paid thousands of dollars in fees...and that's all before we even left the U.S.! There were times when we really wondered if we'd survive this experience. It is a long, and definitely trying, process. We're happy to report it's been worth every second and every cent.

We're Ba-ack!

The two weeks we had at home went surprisingly fast, and we are back in Kazakhstan. It took 30 hours from the time we left our house until we arrived in Almaty. There's snow on the ground and the whole city looks grey. When I look out our hotel window, I can see for about two blocks and then everything disappears into a thick fog. We've spent the day at the InterContinental Hotel (the photo shows the hotel's lobby), which is wonderfully Americanized. We took hot showers, ate a great breakfast and are even watching American TV via satellite. And most of the staff speak English. Being in a country where you don't speak the language can be mentally exhausting. You're constantly trying to figure out what people are saying and basic things like asking for a glass of water can turn into a furious game of charades. We're enjoying this last little bit of pampering before we take the 10-hour train ride to Taraz. Yep, tonight we're going on the S**t train (which, of course, stands for "Soviet") and we'll arrive in Taraz tomorrow at 4:30am. The orphanages are closed to visitors on Sundays, so we won't be able to visit Kyra until Monday morning. Court is on Tuesday, and we'll leave for home on Wednesday. A quick trip, but this time we're focused on getting our girl home as soon as possible.