Wednesday, October 3, 2007

It’s Official

After some last minute drama in the hours leading up to our hearing time, we appeared today before a judge of the Arkalyk village court who granted our petition to adopt Veronika and to change her name to Veronika Rose Guida. We’ll report all the details later on, the apartment is starting to fill up with well-wishers and Aunt Bacha has been working on a special celebration dinner all day.

Speaking of Bacha, we may not have mentioned that in addition to being a great cook and a nurse at the hospital she is also one of the town fortune tellers. We felt some additional confidence going into the hearing because right before we left to go to Court she called us into the living room and showed us that she’d read the piles of peanuts she’d spread over the table and they showed her a successful outcome for the hearing.

Thanks for all the good luck messages in the past few days, we’ll be back with a longer entry tomorrow.
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6 comments:

Unknown said...

Absolutely delighted for you! Great news indeed. Looking forward very much to meeting the latest Guida in due course!! ;-)

Rob & Linds
XXXXXXXXXXX

3.10.07
Jason and Rebecca said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! So happy for you guys and for Veronika!

Rebecca

3.10.07
Sonya said...

Congratulations to both of you and Veronika! That is wonderful. Cannot wait to hear all the details.

Sonya

3.10.07
Anonymous said...

We had complete faith....it's wonderful how well everything is coming together. You all look so happy and we share in your joy.
Can't wait to meet Veronika Rose.
Love you! Miki and Mark

4.10.07
Anonymous said...

Congratulations to everyone - Tom, Allyson, Veronika and Aidan! Can't wait to see you all home soon.

4.10.07
Anonymous said...

Congratulations!! I'm so happy Veronika has found her forever family.
my best to Arkalyk.
Maureen Petersen NY. LI. Adopted from Arkalyk 2006

4.10.07

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Timeline

11/08/07 Left Kazakhstan on route home to NYC
10/22/07 Left Arkalyk for Almaty
10/03/07 Court Day - Petition for Adoption Accepted!
9/15/07 First day in Arkalyk at orphanage, met Veronika
9/12/07 Departing NYC on route to Kazakhstan
9/04/07 LOI - arrived today!
8/24/07 Heard from Agency with information about children, region and some details about trip. (1 week to gather info while caseworker on vacation)
7/27/07 Began process of updating FBI clearance and medical forms
7/03/07 Dossier arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan at the MFA
6/27/07 Approved by Kaz Embassy in DC and shipped to
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Astana, Kazakhstan (MFA is the 1st ministry to review dossier)
6/22/07 Dossier shipped to Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington, DC
6/01/07 Dossier fully translated and awaiting to be sent to Kaz Embassy.
5/21/07 Agency submitted dossier for translation.
5/15/07 Dossier complete / sent to adoption agency
5/09/07 I-171H Approval letter forwarded by INS to US Embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan
5/01/07 Notarize, Authenticate, Apostille and copy of all documents
4/24/07 INS fingerprinting
4/08/07 Paper work hell...........working to gather all that is needed to complete dossier
3/12/07 Received notice of FBI clearance from US Department of Justice
3/11/07 Second home study visit
3/04/07 First home study visit
3/02/07 Had fingerprints taken for FBI clearance
2/28/07 I600A - Application filed with BCIS (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services ) for I-171H
2/21/07 Applied for home study review and began collecting documents for dossier
2/20/07 Signed with Adoption Agency - Adoption Ark