Always look on the bright side of life

Hello! Terri here. While my voice is still gone (I am sure my husband is thankful) my fever is down and I am feeling better. Our computer is still not fixed but we should get it back today. I did want to take the short time I have to thank everyone for all the overwhelming support... all the emails, phone calls and offers to go above and beyond for us. It has brought tears to my eyes.

I wanted to let everyone know that we were refunded $400 dollars. The other $400 was needed to extend our visas so we only expected to get $400 back. We have our appointment for the Embassy at 3pm on Monday and should be able to fly back Tuesday.

I do want to clarify some things while I have the chance. It is not the fact that we had to stay 4 extra days that has been the issue. We knew that international adoption was not easy, that delays happen and that there is corruption. In fact, our original return flight was scheduled for the 23rd of April. What has been concerning is that there are actually corrupt people among the in country agency staff that intentionally made us stay longer than was necessary so they could make more money (we think that they get paid by the day rather than by the adoption). We believe that our agency's staff should be working FOR us and not AGAINST us and that is what Yuliya and Albina did, they worked against us. You see, we did not expect to leave the country earlier than the 23rd. But when we arrived in Almaty on the 10th, our coordinator in Almaty said that all the documents were ready--the adoption decree, the birth certificates, the boys' passport photos and the translated documents were all ready early and that all we needed was Albina to complete the visa application which should only take a day or two. Our coordinator said there was no reason we should not be able to leave before our own visas expired on the 18th. We also did everything we could to facilitate... when asked for the loan of $800 we willingly gave it because it was supposed to go directly to get the boys visas--we did not complain or assume it would not be returned. We later learned the $$ was used to get the remainder of the Wood's paperwork completed (I am glad they were helped by this). But because of this,they did not have any money left to get our boys visas and had to wait to be paid more money from the top (at the in country level). Again, more problems in country--while Yuliya and Albina's behavior is inexcusable it is explainable. The in country staff has not been paid on their regular schedule for months now (this fact comes directly from three different coordinators/translators).

I leave this information for you to decide. But when the good guys (our translators, coordinators and driver) are constantly apologizing for the behavior of a few, that tells you something. When our Almaty coordinator found out our boys' visas had not been done when they should have (and could have)--after she had done everything to make it happen--I thought she was going to cry. She, too, apologized for the behavior of the staff. Overall, this agency has some really great people working for them in country but it is wrecked by a few greedy bad seeds that make things worse for everyone.

As I have told Orson with respect to our blogging, we really have only been the reporters and he has been the one with the opportunity to shape the story. Our goal is not to make a judgment about this agency or the Kazakhstan adoption experience, but to share our experience so others can decide for themselves what is best for them.

But if you were to ask, our opinion is that the tail is wagging the dog... I hope the dog takes this opportunity to shake out the bad--for the benefit of future clients.