Friday 30 November 2007

We're getting there!!

Our agency have just contacted us to let us know that the MOE official has been as good as her word and has signed off on our documents, when she said 'before the end of the month' she REALLY meant it!

The last few weeks have been torture, we were prepared for the worst again but God has answered our prayers in a wonderful way!

Our documents will now travel on Monday out to Ust and the official there has already promised us that she will process our LOI immediately and get it back to Astana by Friday the 7th. Almat will then be sent his copy the same day which should arrive in the London Embassy by Monday the 10th.

This all means that we should be ready to make our flights on the 11th about 12hours ahead of schedule.

We still won't believe it until we are munching peanuts on the Air Astana flight to Almaty but we are definitely getting there!!

Praise God that after 3.5 months of limbo we are finally moving again.

Pray that our LOI will get to London in time for us to make our flight on the 11th.

We will keep you updated on our LOI progress throughout next week.

Thanks to all who are praying for us, keep at it!

Philip & Amanda

Wednesday 28 November 2007

Its been a while...

In our last post we mentioned that the MOE offical in Kazakhstan had promised to process our dossier by the end of the month, thats only two days away!!!

The only other news since we last posted is that earlier on this week the official repeated her intention to sign off on our dossier before the weekend!

We have had a few false dawns before so we are not getting our hopes up yet, we would appreciate your prayers that the MOE official is as good as her word and we can at last start moving forward.

Watch this space......

Philip & Amanda

Monday 19 November 2007

Little more news..

We finally got some positive news from the official in the MOE in Kazakhstan who is responsible for processing our dossier, apparently she has promised our representatives out there that she will process our dossier by the end of the month. For the last 3 weeks all we have heard is, 'be patient, it will happen soon', etc so its nice to finally hear a definite date.

Obviously our flights will need to be changed again and our new 'date' for leaving is the 11th December. Thank goodness for flexi-tickets!

We firmly believe that God is guiding us to the child He has for us, the timing is not to our liking but it will definetly be perfect!

We will post as soon as we get more news but the sequence of events which will hopefully be taking place soon will be as follows -

1. The MOE official in Astana will send our dossier to Ust.
2. The MOE official in Ust will then issue an LOI to travel to Ust and send it back to Astana.
3. The MOE official in Astana will then forward our LOI to the Kaz embassy in London.
4. We then fly out to London to get our VISA from the embassy.
5. Then we fly out the next day to Kazakhstan, woohoo!


Keep praying!

Philip & Amanda

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Still Waiting...

***Deep calming breath***

Ok, I can start....

We got word last week that there was yet another delay in proceedings, the official in the MOE in Astana is refusing to send our dossier to Ust for an unknown reason, at least this time however its nothing to do with the fact that we are from the UK and seems to be an internal problem.

Our representative in Kazakhstan is adamant that this is a very minor issue and will be dealt with quickly though having had so many knocks recently its difficult to be optimistic!

On a plus note she again emphasised how many children are available in this region, so much so in fact that the baby house is bursting at the seams and is unable to take any baby's from the maternity hospital! This makes it all the more frustrating that we are being delayed again for what is probably a very trivial reason.

We hope to have more news about our dossier/LOI at the end of the week and will post when that happens, if our dossier does finally get sent this week the MOE offical in Ust has promised to send our LOI out immediately so we should still be able to make our flights on the 24th Nov.

'It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord' Lam 3v26

Pray that our dossier will travel to Ust soon and that we can still make our flights on the 24th.
Pray that we will be guided to the right child for us and that she will be preserved until we can get there.

Philip & Amanda

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Ust Info

Still impatiently waiting for news about our LOI, we don't expect to hear anything for 10-14 days but that dosen't stop us checking our email every 10mins!!!

While we are waiting i'll post a little info and a few pics about the region we are heading too, Ust-Kamenogorsk (we can already spell it off by heart).

I got the following info from the official website, i'll also post a few photos from the baby house there before the end of the week.

Ust-Kamenogorsk city is the industrial, cultural and administrative center of the East-Kazakhstan region, city was founded in 1720 and is situated in the north-eastern part of the Republic of Kazakhstan, at the confluence of the Irtysh and Ulba rivers, the territory makes up 54,4 thousand hectares.

The average temperature in January ranges from – 17 to –26C˚ with an absolute minimum off – 55C˚, (brrrrrr). As of October 2005 the population of the city numbers 300 900 people.

Keep praying that we will get our LOI sooner than expected and can be out and back before the end of the year.

My sister Avril is still hoping for a Christmas Miracle :)


Philip & Amanda

Saturday 3 November 2007

New Flights

We've changed the dates for our flights AGAIN!!! We are now booked for travelling out on the 24th November. Its very fustrating at the moment, days are feeling like weeks and weeks feel like months.

However we know that the Lords timing is perfect and that we will be led to the perfect child for us.

We now have a two week wait where we are unlikely to hear anything but we will update as soon as we get more news.

Keep praying that our LOI will arrive quicker than expected.

Philip & Amanda