The Wright's Adoption Journey

Christmas At The Wright House!

2010-01-01T20:47:00.002-05:00

We had a fantastic Christmas! Logan had so much fun playing in the wrapping paper and stealing the bows off of the presents. Last year we always said, " Next year, there will be a little one with us!" We are so greatful fr him and everything God has done to make this happen. He is the best gift we could ever have!!

Happy New Year,

- Madalyn

Logan turns 1 !!!!

2009-10-04T19:38:00.002-04:00

Logan has turned one!!! He had a big 1st birthday party and enjoyed every bit of it!!

-Madalyn : )

Life is Good

2009-10-04T19:26:00.007-04:00

Ever since Logan came home life has been great! Logan has learned how to sit up by himself , crawl , and he can almost walk! Logan has done all of this in 4 months. His personality is starting to show a lot!! Every time we look at old pictures or talk about something that has happened in the past we always think that Logan has been here all along.I really love my baby brother, and I am thankful that God allowed me to have such a blessing.

-Madalyn : )

Logan meets Grandparents

2009-05-28T08:11:00.008-04:00

Logan got to meet and spend time with his grandparents. He is such a blessed boy to have so many people who love him so much.

Papaw Charlie is not quite sure how to handle the little guy.

Mamaw is ready to get some more sugar from her boy.

Logan gets to meet his Great Grandma Sales.

Logan and Papaw Paul having a little talk. Looks like they are both enjoying themselves.

Nona and her little one. She looks very proud of her new grandson.

Pictures from our first days together

2009-05-20T15:05:00.010-04:00

We have been doing good for the first few days together. Logan is such a good baby. He has done a great job of adjusting so far. He is sleeping very well. He also loves to eat; the problem is that I do not know how much to feed him. I think that he would keep eating if I kept feeding him. He goes to the doctor tomorrow to get checked out so maybe will know what to feed him and how much. (I have forgotten so much since Madalyn was little.)

He loves to sit in the "exersaucer" which was Madalyn's. He can sit it in for the longest time. I think that he likes it because he loves to be up on his feet whenever possible. Forget this sitting stuff. While on his feet, he also loves to jump. He gets so excited about it. He has fun on the floor as well. He is working on figuring out how to crawl. He has learned that by rolling over from side to side you can inch your way forward. As busy as he is, I am going to have my hands full when we does start crawling.

Well, that is all that I will post today. Enjoy the pictures.

Logan's trip home

2009-05-20T10:45:00.006-04:00

I know, I know. I am horrible about updating the blog. I went to pick up Logan in New York on Saturday at JFK. It was so wonderful to finally have him in my arms and to know that he was truly ours. (Although, I have to admit that by the time that I got home late Saturday night, my arms were very very tired.)

I left Atlanta on a 7:50am flight to JFK. It was a good flight up to New York. But let me tell you that airport is nothing like Atlanta airport. At least in Atlanta, it was easy to figure out how to get the other terminals. Not in JFK.... I asked were I need to go to get to Luftansia arrivals gate. I was told that I needed to go to Terminal 1 which was not connected to Terminal 3. I asked someone at the Delta counter how to get to there and was told that I could just go outside and go to the next building. (Well, it was not that easy. Right next door was not the correct terminal.) I finally was directed to something called Airtrain. (I thought all of those signs were for AIRTRAN.) Anyway, I got there finally and the wait began. I keep pacing and looking at the clock. His plane was scheduled to be here at 12:15. I have attached a picture of the board which shows the moment it showed that his plane was on the ground. At that moment, he became a USA citizen.
In my excitement, I just knew that they would be there any minute so I waited at the arrivals gate with all of the people who were waiting for their loved ones to appear. Well, as I said it was in my excitement that I did not think that they had to go through Customs, get their luggage and do all of the paperwork. It took awhile and I waited at the gate anxiously looking at everyone who came through the door. Finally, they appeared. Logan came to me pretty quickly and smiled and laughed at me. I think that he must have remembered me (or at least that is what I like to think.) Here is a picture taken with my blackberry from when I just got him. The picture is not the greatest but it was a big moment.

I put Logan in the little Baby Bjorn carrier strapped to my chest and grabbed his bags and we headed back to the "Airtrain" to get to our terminal. It was a little cumbersome trying to carry him and the bags. It was a stressful few hours. I did not have enough hands to do everything that needed to be done but we made it. He went to sleep in the carrier and we boarded the plane. Unfortunately, the plane was delayed and we had to sit on the plane for about an hour before we even took off. I apologized ahead of time to the people beside me by letting them know that I just got him and he might be a little fussy. He sleep for almost all of the flight until about an hour left then he just played. He was sooo good. I was so proud of him. We finally landed back in Atlanta around 8:30pm. It was a long evening. Brian and Madalyn were waiting for us when we came up the tall escalators at the airport and our time as a family officially began.

May 16th- Logan will be coming home !!!

2009-04-24T20:23:00.002-04:00

Logan will be coming home officially on Saturday, May 16th. I will be going to New York to pick him up.

Yeah..... finally, our baby boy with the big beautiful blue eyes is coming home.

The Wait is Over. Now the story of the night that the lights went out in Almaty.

2009-04-22T19:43:00.003-04:00

OK, OK, I know that I have left you all hanging. I am sorry about that. Here is what happened.

It was Wednesday night at 9pm. We were scheduled for our driver to pick us up at midnight with our plane planning to leave at 2 am. We had spent the day doing some sightseeing around Almaty. We were mostly packed up and just hanging out in the room waiting to go home. At around 9pm, the lights went out in our room. We go out into the hallway and the lights are on out there. We call down to the front desk and they inform us that the entire hotel is out. After looking out the window, we realized that most of the city appeared to be in the dark. Street lights were out so cars were honking their horns as they tried to travel through the intersections. We had no idea what could have caused such a drastic power outage. The other family traveling with us came out into the hall and we discussed our options. Our biggest concern was that there was not any power at the airport and we would not be able to go home. We all wanted to go home very badly at this point. After making a few calls, we were able to get in touch with our coordinator and he informed us that the airport had power. Yeah.....we all said a prayer of thanks. We can get home.

We had a couple of hurdles before we could get home. I forgot to mention that our rooms were on the 17th floor and the elevators were not working. So if we were going to leave, we had to get downstairs with all of our luggage. Between the three of us, we each had a backpack and a large suitcase. We had a total of three large suitcases filled to capacity, three backpacks, a large duffel bag, and the sacred bag of souvenirs.

Our next hurdle was how were we going to check out of the hotel. We had called down and asked them if they had a way to check us out. They said that we would need to wait until the power came back on. They told us it would only be a little while until the power came back on.

So, both us and the other family were sitting in the hallway where the lights were on. We had succeeded in packing up the remainder of our stuff with the use of the flashlights that I had brought. My father loves flashlights and he has always said how important it is to have a flashlight with you. I keep a little pin light in my purse at all times. My parents had given me a flashlight to pack in our luggage. I am so glad that we had it. It was used by us as well as the other family. Thanks Mom and Dad for the flashlights.

We were sitting in the hallway trying to determine how long the power could possibly be out and at what point that we should begin our journey down the stairs. We decided at 10 to begin the trek down the stairs. There were two set of stairs. Each family took a different set of stairs.

We began our journey each with our backpack on; Madalyn had the large duffle and sacred bag of souviners; Brian had both of the large suitcases; and I had the other large bag. We were doing pretty good as we went down floor after floor. We made it to the 10th floor when we encountered a waiter who had been delivering food to someone on that floor. He had pity on us and took the suitcase from me and eventually also took the duffle bag from Madalyn. He was so gracious to help us. Since he did that, Brian and I were able to each have a large suitcase. Slowly we made it down the stairs. When we got to the lobby, the waiter ran off to do his other job seemingly without a thought for the help that he gave us. I tracked him down and gave him some money for his assistance. As it turned out, we made it down before the other family.
One hurdle down.

The other concern was how were we going to check out. The power was still out when 11:30 came around. I had told Brian that I would get us out of the here just by flashing some of our crisp one hundred dollar bills. Our coordinator arrives and talks to the hotel staff. They calculated what our bill was and we were able to pay cash to check out. The other family was planning on using their credit card and with the power out that was not possible. I was able to give them the cash to check out as well.

So, despite our challenging tasks, we checked out and headed to the airport.

We found out later that there was a major incident at a power plant in a neighboring country who shares power with Kazakhstan which caused most of the city without power. The power was restored around 2am when we were safely abroad a plane to Frankfurt.

I hope that the story was worth the wait.

We are Home !!

2009-04-17T09:59:00.002-04:00

I wanted to quickly update the blog to let everyone know that we are back at home in Georgia. We are so glad to be home although we wish that Logan was here as well. He should be coming home in the middle of May. We have so much to do to get ready for Logan.

Whoa do we have some stories to tell about our journey. I will update you soon on our adventure. Brian described it as a mix between the Biggest Loser and the Amazing Race. For our avid followers, just wait until you hear. I will update you soon with the details of our journey when I have some time so stay tuned.

And then there were Four !! It is official.

2009-04-13T03:33:00.005-04:00

Today we went to court. Court went very easy. Our translator told us that if there had been issues then we would have known about them last week. We were asked some basic questions about our jobs and how long that we had been married. The judge also asked about how Madalyn felt about the baby. Then the Doctor, the Orphanage Director, and the lady from the Ministry of Education spoke about his health, and the fact that he was abandoned by his mother. There was a prosecutor there dressed in a military uniform. He did not say much except that he approved our application. The female judge left the court room for a few minutes and came back and read from a Blue Folder. She approved our petition and legally Yuri became Logan and the new member of the Wright family was "born" at approximately 9:50am Kazakhstan time on April 13, 2009.

Now we will begin our journey home.

Sorry for the delay.

2009-04-10T08:57:00.002-04:00

Sorry we haven't posted lately.Let me fill you in on all the news.

We went to the Ministry of Education on Wednesday.....a breeze.We are going to court on Monday then going to have a tea party with the doctors.(I have always wanted to have a REAL tea party).

-Madalyn-

What do we do all day ???

2009-04-04T10:21:00.009-04:00

I know that you are all wondering what we do all day and what does it look like there.

This is the entrance into the Baby House.

The first week we went to the baby house at 9:50 to 12 and then from 3:50 to 6 everyday and in between we came back to the room and ate a little something and usually took a nap. This past week we were only able to go to the baby house in the afternoon from 2:50 to 6 everyday.

So, it gave a little time in the morning to explore the area. One day we found a neat outdoor market down the street from the hotel a little ways. They have everything from fresh fish to pantyhose. They also have beautiful fruits and vegetables as well.The sellers have what equates to a small metal building or trailer off of a truck which they use to display their wares. I did find some cute baby clothes and Madalyn found a fashionable purse high quality too ;)

Pictures from the Market

While we are with Logan at the baby house, we are in the same room every day. We generally lay out some blankets on the ground and lay in the floor for three hours or so and play with him. We get to feed him once during that time as well as change a couple of diapers. I am going to attach some pictures so you can see what the room looks like.

Here is a picture of Logan's bottle. I told Brian that it looks like a cow's udder. It is not pretty but he seems to love it.

Goodnight from Kaz. I will upload more pictures tomorrow if the internet is up.

OOPS !!

2009-04-01T23:23:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

We just found out this morning that somehow the blog was set up to not allow any comments. Thanks Lanetta for the e-mail letting us know. I went in and fixed that this morning.

Stay tuned for more info ! Cynthia is working hard to get everything up to date :-)

-Brian-

Meeting our Son for the First Time

2009-04-01T10:21:00.006-04:00

We were driven to a neighborhood about 5 minutes away. Their neighborhood consist of a series of apartment buildings about 10 stories high. They appear to be much need of repair. The orphanage itself is behind a brightly painted fence. The orphanage is very clean and well kept.

Our first day at the orphanage was more than a little overwhelming. Both families were ushered into a room with a couch at one end and a large wardrobe/bookcase at the other end with giant stuffed animals. One wall was completely windows with long sheers covering them. We were told to sit down and get a pen and paper ready as well as a camera because they were going to introduct us to the children who were available to be adopted. So, we got prepared. They brought in the children one by one and we took pictures of them along with writing down their names (or at least what we could make out of a name). They also told us if they were a boy or a girl which was a good thing because there were a couple that I thought were boys which were actually girls.

Yuri was baby number 3. Here is what we saw when we saw him for the first time.

He is being held by one of the doctors. He was so alert as he looked around the room. His blue eyes and way that he was so observant is one of the things that drew us to him. He was the smallest child but in a mother's eyes... the cutest.

We did interact with the other children that were presented. They ranged from 7 months old to 18 months old. There was one other little boy and we tried to interact with him but he started crying and threw down his toy when Brian held him. We just did not have the connection to him that we had to Yuri.

They are correct.....God just makes things work out like it is supposed to. We even discovered that he even looks like Brian a little.

So our adventure with Yuri began.

Karaganda

2009-04-01T10:11:00.005-04:00

Our story continues......

Luckily, we and all of our luggage arrived without fail. We were greeted by Natasha, Tolik and Sasha. We traveled to our hotel from the airport. There was piles and piles of snow everywhere. I have never seen that much snow in my life. The trip to the hotel was not very long. Since it was late, we could not see much of the city only snow.

We were quickly checked into our hotels by Natasha and told to be ready to be picked up in the morning at 8:50am to be taken to the baby house. The process of checking into a hotel is much different here in Karaganda. We did not need to leave a credit card, deposit or anything; we only signed a piece of paper and we were good to go. Based on our last experience, we were not sure what the room would be like. We opened to door to a very nicely equipped room. It had a full size bed along with a twin bed so we all had plenty of room to sleep. It also had a couch, desk, tv and a very nice bathroom. Compared to our last hotel, we felt like we are staying at the Ritz.
I had to unpack everything and get settled before we called it a night. We had a very big day coming up.
We got up early and got dressed out in all of our dress clothes. It is important to make a good impression. We went downstairs and waited on our drivers.

Here is a picture of what is across the street from the hotel.

Next post will be about when we met our son for the first time.

Thoughts from Our Journey So Far !!

2009-03-30T10:28:00.003-04:00

I decided that I would put together our experiences for the past week as we traveled from home to Karaganda.

Flights- To Sleep or Not To Sleep
The flights were uneventful really. They were long and boring. We did not sleep very much. We hoped for some good movies but they were nothing exciting. At least they had good orange juice that seemed to appear just when we needed it. The first flight took us to Frankfurt, Germany. We had a short layover there. We even ate a McDonald’s at the airport. The menu was a little different from normal. They had ham and cheese croissants, country McGriddles (which was a sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle), McToast with Bacon (except it was not toast but rather some sort of pita bread) and there is no such thing as diet Coke.. it is Coca- Cola Light. We did meet our traveling companions in Frankfurt, the Duncans. They flew into Frankfurt from New York. They are traveling with their seven year old daughter.

Second flight was just about the same as the first. It was long and boring with at least one good movie ( Australia).That was pretty much the only thing that was exciting. The flight was very boring put it got us and our luggage there safely. We did see several snow covered mountains from the window of the plane. We guessed that it was Russia that we were seeing. Wherever it was, there was totally snow and ice on the ground.

Almaty
We landed in Almaty at around midnight. We were greeted by Kaz soldiers as we got off the plane. I should not say greeted as they do not speak or smile or anything. We made it into the concourse and ready to go through passport control. There was a great sign that said “Welcome to Almaty” so I decided to take a picture. Well, I guess that I was not supposed to take pictures. I quickly was told by a female soldier “No Pictures”. I quickly put up my camera. I didn’t want to land in a Kaz jail. We made it through passport control with no issues. We then picked up our baggage. It all made it….Yeah !!

We were not sure on how to find our driver, Adil but we were pleasantly surprised that he actually had a sign with our name on it. We all secretly wanted a sign to greet us. Since there were two families, they brought two small cars. Since we had so many bags, we had to put one suitcase in the back seat with Madalyn and myself.

It turns out that the day before we arrived was Kaz New Year so the city was still decorated very similar to how we decorate for Christmas with colored lights and so on. The city was very big and modern from what we could see at night. We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Kazakhstan. It was beautiful outside and the lobby was gorgeous. We thought that we would be staying in a great room with fancy accommodations. Well………………..we were sorely mistaken. They took us to a room which was had a hole in the door near the lock. The walls had cracks and crevices in it. We were only given one small full size bed for all three of us. The bathroom was small, old and dirty looking. I am not sure if it was actually dirty or just old. It was also very hot in the room but luckily we had a stand up fan that we could turn on to make us cooler. We tried to get a little sleep laying on top of the covers. I could not sleep due to excitement, worry, and lack of adequate accommodations. The highlight of this leg of the journey was that we were able to Skype with my mom. It was midnight her time but we just happened to find her online. It was good for both of us to hear each other’s voice. When we awoke to light in Almaty, we were greeted with beautiful snow capped mountains out our window. I have posted a picture for you to see what we saw. We took a walk around a nearby park as we waited for our driver to come back to take us to the airport for our final trip to Karaganda. We decided that we would try to eat some food. Brian and I had a steak which was served with some type of potato fritter. It was very good.

Then we were off to the airport. This time we did not have to go through passport control. The other family traveling with us got a little detained as they could not find the little white pieces of paper that they gave us when we arrived at passport control. For those of you who are planning to travel, that piece of paper is extremely important. Keep it in your passport. They found theirs and all was well.
The dreaded overweight charges that we were prepared to pay…..nothing at all. I am not sure if the flight was not full so they did not charge us or if they have made changes. Nevertheless, no overage charges. We waited in the holding area until they called our gate. Being the kind of person that I am, I of course, had to ask to make sure that we did not need to proceed to where it said our gate. Of course I didn’t want to be late (I am my Father’s child)I was told to wait.
Then we proceeded to our gate which took us to a little bus that took us to our plane. The plane ride was short and nothing compared to other fights that we had previously taken. The flight was quick.

Stay tuned for more later as I bring you up to date on Karaganda and meeting Logan for the first time.

Finally wireless is working at the hotel.

2009-03-26T02:54:00.005-04:00

Today is a good day. We have wireless at the hotel. We can now update the blog. Check back later for information on how days 1-3 have went; we have more important things to add to the blog..............pictures of Logan.

Now presenting our son,

Logan Yuri Wright

More pictures to come later but I wanted to get these out there. He is 7 months old. He is very small as he was a preemie at birth. We are still verifying all of the medical information. He is a sweet little boy who loves to laugh at his new family especially his big sister, Madalyn. She had him laughing by the first afternoon.

Lots to tell but we need to go now.

Love from Kaz,

Cynthia, Brian and Madalyn

Hello from Kaz !!

2009-03-25T02:14:00.003-04:00

We have finally gotten to the internet cafe so we can post something. We are still working at the access from the room so we do not have pictures to post yet.

We are doing great and travel has been good.

So, I bet you are wondering.........what about the baby ???

IT IS A BOY !!! His name is Logan Yuri Wright. We are still verifying some medical information on him but he is a happy cute little boy. We will post pictures later and much more details.

We made it to Almaty !!

2009-03-23T00:36:00.001-04:00

We just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that we made it Almaty. It was a safe flight. We are just resting in our hotel room at Hotel Kazakhstan. Out of our window is the most beautiful snow capped mountains. I wish we could send you the pictures but that is not working for us at the moment.

We will be flying to Karaganda this evening. More information to come.

Tomorrow is the day that we meet our new member of the family so keep us in your prayers.

Love from Kaz,

Cynthia, Brian and Madalyn

Ready to Go !!!

2009-03-21T09:53:00.003-04:00

We are packed and almost ready to go. I tried to make it all fit in three bags but it obviously did not work. Oh well, we will just pay the overage charges.

We still have a few more things to do before we leave this evening. Next time that we post, we will be overseas. I am not sure if we will be able to post along the way or not. We are very excited but also very nervous. It still does not seem real.

Please pray for safe and healthy travel for us.

-Brian, Cynthia and Madalyn-

MADALYN'S COUNTDOWN TO KAZ!!!!

2009-03-20T16:03:00.001-04:00

THERE IS ONLY

DAY UNTIL WE LEAVE FOR KAZ !!

MADALYN'S COUNTDOWN TO KAZ!!!!

2009-03-19T17:10:00.003-04:00

There are only 2 more days yeah!!! Today was my last day of school for a month!!

There are.....

day's 'til we leave for Kaz!!!!!!

MADALYN'S COUNTDOWN TO KAZ!!

2009-03-18T20:39:00.002-04:00

There are .......

days 'til we leave for Kaz !!!!!

MADALYN'S COUNTDOWN TO KAZ!!

2009-03-16T20:56:00.003-04:00

Time truly flies by....

There are ....

days 'til we leave for Kaz!!!

-Madalyn-

Hard to Imagine

2009-03-15T13:26:00.003-04:00

First of all, I would like to welcome all of our new followers to the blog. We will be updating the blog as often as possible while we are away depending upon the internet access. Thank you all for your prayers and support. It is nice to feel so loved and to know that we have lots of people back home who are thinking of us and wanting to know what is happening to us. Please cover us with your prayers while we are gone. Specifically, pray for favor and for smooth travels. Also, please pray that we will know the child that God has set aside to become the 4th member of the Wright Household (not counting Greta the cat of course).

Now, to give everyone an update. It is hard to imagine but by this time next week, we will be either in the air or in Germany. It is a little hard to keep track of the time difference. I think that we have finally determined that Karaganda is 11 hours ahead of us. So for example, it is 1pm here now and that would be midnight in Karaganda.

I have been packing and unpacking and repacking. I am determined to fit as much as possible into three suitcases and two duffel bags. We will see how it goes. We also all got cute backpacks to use as our carry ons. For those of you that know me, I am preparing for every possible situation. I even have a flashlight packed. My dad will be proud. Hey, don't laugh. I have seen too many episodes of Lost to be not prepared. Anyway, I still have a week to keep tweaking the luggage. If anyone can get it all into those bags, it will be me. I take pride in my packing skills.

Other news... we found out that we will be traveling with another family of three with a 7 year old daughter. So Madalyn will have another young person in country with her. We are very glad that we will have another family to share our journey.

I guess that is all for now.

-Cynthia-

MADALYN'S COUNTDOWN TO KAZ

2009-03-15T09:57:00.002-04:00

I am soooooo excited I can't even think.It is hard to believe that there are only six days until we leave!!!!!!

There are .........

days 'til we leave for Kaz!!

Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-14T14:03:00.004-04:00

Sorry!!! I forgot to add 8 days to my countdown.I will continue to post the updated countdowns!!!

There are .....
7
days 'til we leave for Kaz!!!

-Madalyn-

MADALYN'S COUNTDOWN TO KAZ!!!!!!

2009-03-11T21:48:00.011-04:00

Hi!!!! Right now we are starting my countdown to Kazakhstan!!!!!!! I am very excited!!!!

There is ...............

Days 'til we leave for Kaz!!!!

Is it Real Yet??

2009-03-10T20:55:00.008-04:00

Everyone is always asking "Is it real yet?". Well, today it got a whole lot more real. We received our letters of invitation to travel in March. We will leave Atlanta on Saturday, March 21st. We will arrive in Karaganda and the home of our future child on the 23rd. We are super excited. When I told Madalyn, she screamed with joy. We even had to go out to eat to celebrate.

We have been so blessed along the way thus far. God has granted us favor. Continue to pray for the next portion of our journey and for continued favor.

So, now the REAL countdown begins. We will be leaving 10 days from today. Yes, I said 10 days. Madalyn is ready to start her countdown so stay tune for

MADALYN'S COUNTDOWN TO KAZ!!!!!

You Need How Many $100 Bills????

2009-03-04T19:03:00.021-05:00

Brian and I went to the bank today to order our money. I guess that there are not many people who come into a bank and request fresh crisp unmarked new $100 bills. We got some interesting looks. The Customer Service Rep at the front of the bank looked up at us with a very questionable look. He quickly said that we needed to talk to a teller. The teller was very nice but when I asked for greater than ten thousand dollars in one hunderd dollar bills, the teller thought that I wanted 10's of thousands of $1 bills. Brian said that we would need a truck to carry all of that money. I tried to explain again. This time she thought that I needed tens of thousands of $100 bills. That would be over a million dollars. So we tried again.... I need around 100 or so $100 bills that equals around $10k. All of that said, she finally understood and said that they would order the brand new money.

Wow, the things that we have to go through. Hey at least, we will have some good stories to tell.

Since we are talking about money, Brian is laughing at me because I have bought a few clothes and things for the baby. Well.....maybe more than a few but he will need them. If they will not work for him, think about all of those children over in Kaz that can use the clothes and things. Besides we have a list of things to buy and that is more than enough stimulus for me to go shopping (and it does not take much to get me ready to shop).

With all of my purchases, I have packed one bag and who knows how many more that I have to go. There is so much to do and and so much to buy and so little time......I guess I need to go shopping.

Have Date Will Travel !

2009-02-25T19:03:00.002-05:00

First let me say that we have become a bit spoiled.....a few weeks ago we got so much good news at once, MUCH sooner that we had ever expected. Then we went a few days without any news and it was almost disappointing. But today we got more wonderful news.

Cynthia received an e-mail saying that the facilitator would like for us "to begin bonding" on March 24th, meaning we would either fly out of Atlanta on March 20th or 21st depending on the flights, arrive in Almaty on March 23rd and fly up to Karaganda later that evening. Our court date is approximately April 14th and we would return to the US around April 16th. They also warned that these dates could still change.... PLEASE cover us in your prayers that all goes as scheduled with NO complications.

We were also told in the letter that we should be having our pre-travel conference call next week. That being said, there is LOTS for us to do to prepare for this !

-Brian-

Here's The Latest News !

2009-02-18T19:52:00.002-05:00

We just wanted to bring everyone up to date. Today Cynthia was advised by our agency to make this blog private. We really don't want to exclude anyone that wants to visit. If you happen to know of anyone that we have mistakenly not invited, please ask them to shoot us an e-mail and we will add them.

Here is what has been happening since our last post. Last week we got our travel packet in the mail. This packet has a humongous list of items that we need to purchase for the trip. It also has information and photos on who we will be meeting and working with while we are in Kaz. Cynthia has been on a buying spree purchasing baby clothes. This is something that she really enjoys ! Of course there will probably be plenty of outfits that won't fit our child but we will be donating them to the baby house. The last couple of days, we have been getting together documents that need to be updated and getting our VISA applications ready to send off.

Stay tuned more news will be coming soon !

HELLO MOE !

2009-02-10T19:42:00.002-05:00

Today Cynthia and I received an e-mail message from our agency. The letter started by saying that our dossier is officially at the MOE (Ministry Of Education). They also said that they are sending us a travel packet with information as to what to bring etc. We will be having a pre- travel conference call the first week of March. We are also beginning the paperwork for our VISA.

Tomorrow, Cynthia and I are having lunch with a lady that adopted from Kaz about a year ago and used the same agency. I am really excited about this because I think this will answer alot of questions plus we will get to hear of her experiences while in Kaz.

I would like to ask that anyone reading this blog to remember Becki and Greg Stone in their prayers. They need a miracle regarding the status of their adoption. They have come too far on this journey for it to end here. Please pray over them and this situation.

-Brian-

Yay!! We Have a Date!!

2009-02-04T20:09:00.003-05:00

I am sooo excited that I have no clue what to put. After a little while I thought this would have never happened. Now that I know it is I can't help but to think..."Oh my goodness it is finally happening."

To be continued..

-Madalyn-

How Does March Sound to Everyone?

2009-02-04T19:59:00.003-05:00

As I write this post, I am not sure that I have actually comprehended it all yet. My last post talked of stages 1 through 3. Forget the stages. I was shocked.....absolutely shocked today to get an email from our agency. They are estimating our possible travel date to Karaganda as being March 20 with arrival on March 23rd. That is March...as in NEXT month. I am not ready for that yet. I thought that I had months to plan. I guess God had other plans.

More to come.......I have to go pack. We leave next month.

-Cynthia-

MFA, MOE, Oh Where Can We Be?

2009-01-27T19:57:00.008-05:00

We got an update from our agency today. We have been wondering what was going on since our dossier went to Kazakhstan at the first of January. Our agency let us know today that our file is at the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). This is the first of three stages that our file will travel through. After it comes out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it will go to the MOE (Ministry of Education). The final stage is that it goes back to the MFA for final approval. I know what everyone is thinking (because I am thinking it to) what happens to the file at these places? I can not honestly say that I know. All that I know is that are file is moving and we are getting closer to becoming a family of four (five if you count Greta, the cat).

We will be getting updates every two weeks from here out. We will keep you posted.

-Cynthia-

Thoughts From The Big Sis!

2009-01-18T17:18:00.003-05:00

I am very excited about being a big sister! At the same time I wonder what he/she will look like, or what their personality might be. When my friends ask me about the adoption I tell them where we are going (Karaganda,Kazakhstan).Unfortunately, I can't tell them the exact day and time (I wish I could),but what I can tell them is that we are hoping to leave around March or April.I am looking forward to being a big sis!!

-Madalyn-

Questions Answered

2009-01-16T19:27:00.004-05:00

A couple of days ago, I received a message from a new friend that is in the process of adopting from Kazakhstan also. She said in her message,"We need to know the Wright's story". So....I will try to answer some of those questions.

1.) Are you requesting a boy or a girl ? What age ?

We would really love to adopt a boy. Based on what we have been told and read, there are more boys available to adopt than girls....but when it comes down to it, we would be just as thrilled to come home with a beautiful little girl. As for his/her age, we are hoping to adopt a child six months old to two years old. Now... that being said, if the child we adopt has a brother or a sister we refuse to split them up. We have been approved for two children.

2.) How did you come to Kazakhstan with so many other countries out there ?

About a year and a half ago when we first began exploring adoption possibilities, we were really leaning towards adopting from Guatemala. We have some dear friends that were in the process of adopting from Guatemala during that time. This was right about the time when all of the uncertainty with Guatemalan adoptions began. Adoptions from that country came to a screeching halt. We were afraid that if we went forward adopting from there we might end up losing our money, never getting our child home and ending up broken hearted as a result. At that point we decided to explore other countries. It so happened that Cynthia works with a lady who had very recently adopted from Karaganda, Kazakhstan. We became very interested when we learned of her experience and how well the orphan children of that country are cared for. In March of 2008 we traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina and attended an adoption seminar given by our agency. When we came home from this trip we prayed and sought guidance in our decision. As a result we felt led to adopt from Kazakhstan and to go with this agency. It was at this point we made a personal commitment begin the process.

We hope this tells a little more of the Wright's story. If any of you have any questions to ask us please feel free to ask :-)

We also want to suggest checking out the Gobble family's adoption blog. We have recently met them on Facebook and we are both at about the same point in our journeys.

http://gobblefamilyadoption.blogspot.com

-Brian & Cynthia-

Inflation Hits Karaganda !

2009-01-09T20:51:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we received a letter from our agency. When I got it out of the mailbox, I was so excited! I was thinking and hoping this was some real news.... perhaps our "Letter Of Invitation". I thought this was awfully fast ! I rushed into the house to open it.... this is what I found....

It seems that inflation has made it to Karaganda. The letter stated that there has been an inflation increase of 15% in the Karaganda region. It also gave the extra dollar amount that we will need to carry with us while in country to cover expenses.

Oh well, at least it is news. Maybe the next thing we hear will be something like our dossier has made some sort of progress.

-Brian-

Merry Christmas !!

2008-12-25T21:01:00.004-05:00

As we celebrate the joys of Christmas this year, we can not help but think about what next year will bring. It has been a few years since we have had a little one around at Christmas and we can hardly wait. Our thoughts are also drawn to Kaz and wondering what our little one is doing now. Is he born yet? What does he look like? Does he have brown eyes or green? Does he cry a lot or is he a good baby? So many questions.....but for now we must wait and trust him to God's tender care.

Merry Christmas, little one. Mommy and Daddy love you and will meet you as soon as we can.

-Cynthia-

Where is Kazakhstan ?!?!?!

2008-12-24T17:04:00.006-05:00

When friends and family talk with us about our adoption one of the questions we hear the most is..."Where is Kazakhstan?" So, I decided to post a map so that everyone will have an idea of where we will be traveling.

The two main cities we will be traveling to are Almaty and Karaganda (also known as Qaraghandy). The orphanage we will be visiting is located in Karaganda.

I am currently searching for a web cam in the region to post here as well :)

-Brian-

Paperwork Goes To Kaz !

2008-12-22T20:35:00.003-05:00

December 22, 2008

Today we received wonderful news from our agency. Kathy, at Children At Heart Adoption Services e-mailed Cynthia saying that she had received our dossier back from the consulate in New York and it has been approved. Now, the dossier is on it's way to Kazakhstan ! It will take about a week for it to arrive. From this point on we will get updates on our status about every two weeks. We are expecting to be asked to travel in about three to six months!

Please be in prayer for us as we begin this phase of the adoption process.

-Brian-

One Step Closer

2008-12-17T20:02:00.004-05:00

December 8, 2008

What a way to kick off our adoption blog ! We received word from our agency (Children At Heart Adoption Services) that our dossier has been sent to the consulate in New York. From what we are told, our dossier will be there for about 2 weeks and then sent to Kazakhstan. Needless to say Cynthia, Madalyn, and myself are all very excited.

Stay tuned, more news coming soon !

-Brian-