Guardianship Council

This afternoon at 4:00 we had our Guardianship Council appointment. We were there a bit early, but the translator was a bit late in showing up and didn’t get there until 4:10. We walked back and waited in line with about a dozen Kazakh people. The waiting area was basically a small and crowded hallway.

Finally we were ushered in. I turned around just in time to see our coordinator scurry out of the room and shut the door behind her, which was quite a surprise. I guess we figured she would be there too. It was us and our translator, along with one man and three women in a small office.

The man did most of the talking. At first he seemed rather stern, but then as time went on he smiled a bit more. We got asked the usual questions (we think), such as if we had a good home and sufficient income for another child, who would take care of the child, how our family felt about adoption, and why we chose Kazakhstan. We also got a lot of questions on why we wanted to adopt when we had three kids. I think they figured we should just have some more. In any case, our answers were good enough and we got approval. The interview lasted about 15 minutes. Everything we have been told is that this is the “easy” part, and that court will be more challenging. We should find out in about five weeks.

Dinner tonight was a celebration at Sakartvela. Lynda and Wayne joined us for food, wine, and fun. We will miss hanging out with them, but we’re so happy to be going home tomorrow! This will most likely be our last blog from Kazakhstan on this trip. We hope to see everyone soon!