Happy 2009!

2008 has come and past and still our little boy is not home with us. It was one year in November since we started this adoption and we are so blessed to be matched with our son. 2009 will bring great things! This is the year that our son will be home with us for good! In the last couple of weeks we've heard new (and good) "rumors" and we're very hopeful that these "rumors". This information comes from the wonderful Executive Director of an adoption agency other than my own:

"[Kyrgyz] Ambassador Zamira [Sydykova] was able to get an audience with the President to talk about adoption. The end result was that he agreed to help resolve the problems. The nature of the problems are manifold and multitudinous, so it seems to take someone capably of moving mountains in Kyrgyz to successfully address them.

"A brief history...

"Last spring the MOE stopped processing adoptions to revamp their dossier requirements. Early summer, the head of adoption in the MOE, Almaz, was fired for providing letters approving adoptive parents without the required co-signature. (He was very efficient, but he got into big trouble.) Ever since, the MOE has presented problems with getting letters signed; in fact, they just have not signed any. It is probably a combination of fear, lack of initiative, ambivalence about international adoption, lack of advocates within the hierarchy of the MOE and thus lack of political will, and last but not least, confusion over who really is the regulatory entity over adoption.

"There are several overlapping entities that have some responsibility over adoption. The Prime Minister's office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Physical Culture. This last one is odd, but within the Ministry of Physical Culture is a Dept of Child Protection. The Dept of Child Protection was formed in 2006, possibly to oversee adoption. Since Almaz was fired, his position has not been filled, and the onus of letter signing fell upon a woman named Janille. Janille is cordial, supports adoption to some extent as she sees it as a necessity, but will not sign letters. It seemed for awhile that the oversight would shift to the Dept of Child Protection. Now, after Ambassador Zamira talked to the President, it seems clear that the power and glory will remain in the MOE, under the direction of the Prime Minister's office.

"I think we can reasonably guess that there has been a power struggle going on as well as confusion. In any event, it seems that Kyrgyz plans to model their adoption oversight on Kazakhstan, who modeled theirs on Russia. Which means the MOE is in charge. The promise given is that the President will direct the Prime Minister to shift responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the MOE.

"The wrinkle is that there needs to be legislation or a letter from the Parliament that confirms this and pretty much abolishes the role of the Dept of Child Protection with respect to adoption. This needs to happen because the role the Dept of Child Protection exists under the law, and they cannot overlook this -- it's their laws.

"Tatiana said that they need about ten days to clarify this with all parties concerned and codify it. Then, there are the holidays. The 1st of January is New Years Day and the 7th of January is Orthodox Christmas. No one works.

"We believe that by mid-January the MOE will begin issuing letters, presumably providing letters for all families with all agencies who have been waiting to bring their children home. Then they will be reviewing dossiers and providing letters for families who do not yet have referrals. They have lists from all the agencies as to who is who."

Next Friday early morning we leave for sunny Mexico for Heather's wedding. We are totally excited and in much need of a vacation! They will be getting married on the beach barefoot! How awesome is that?? I don't have any real New Year's resolutions, but I would like to lose 10 pounds before Mexico...think it's possible? I've got 6 days!!!

All of the kids went home yesterday and my house is so quiet, and I can't barely stand it. The plan was to meet my sister half way today, but there was some bad weather coming and we didn't want to drive in it. I had to work the basketball game so Ryan ended up driving them. I was so sad to see them leave and totally cried when I left for work knowing that when I came home they wouldn't be here. They got home really late last night and everyone was so tired. We spent New Year's at Telemark Resort in Cable, WI and did some fun outdoor activities. We got in a little late on Wednesday and we just cooked a good steak and lobster dinner, ate cake, and went swimming in the pool before the new year. On Thursday morning the boys went out snowboarding and the girls and I rented some sleds and hit some little hills. Joe ended up not liking snowboarding and bummed around with us. It was pretty cold, so we had to go in several times to warm up. I was worried about those little girls and their rosy red (almost frost bit!) faces. Ryan and I also went out, me on my XC skiis and he was snow shoeing. We had a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure the kids enjoyed it too! I wish I had pictures but my camera was totally not working! I charged it before we left and it's almost as if the charger sucked the life OUT of the battery. It's the weirdest thing!

Happy 2009!!!