Oh the possibilities

Late last week Lizzie and I received some interesting news from our social worker. In what seems like our daily email conversations with Emilee (social worker) she asked Lizzie and I if we would be interested in being a pilot family for their new program in Kyrgyzstan. This was quite a shock to both of us considering we have focused on learning as much as possible about Bulgaria over the past several months, including purchasing each other gifts on Etsy from the country. This possible change brings with it various difficulties and definitely joys. The obvious change is the location of the country. As many of you know, I am a West Wing fan and converted Lizzie as well, and my immediate response was to recall the episode where Sam mistakes Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan. While I found this to be an amusing correlation, I was woefully ignorant about the location of what is officially called the Kyrgyz Republic. As I imagine most of you do not know its global location, so I have provided a map.

I am also including the link for the country from wikipedia (against my better judgement as a teacher and scholar).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan

Other changes include the type of children available to Lizzie and I as well as the possible timeframe for completing the adoption and bring our child home. First of all, most countries that participate in international adoption generally have available children from about the age of 2-3 or older with physical and mental special needs. Whereas, with the program in the Kyrgyz Republic has infants who are relatively healthy, keeping in mind the mental and physical issues of institutionalization. The timeframe is significantly different as well. The Bulgaria program can take 2-3 years while in the Kyrgyzstan program we are looking at 12-24 months from the adoption application (we submitted our adoption application at the beginning of February) to our final trip to adopt our future child. This is a lot of information for one post, so as Lizzie and I learn more, and more importantly, make a decision, we will keep all of you informed through this blog.

Peace,
Eric