Busy Days

All of my days here in Karaganda are very busy.  In addition to visiting my daughter for 2 hours every morning and 2 hours every afternoon, there seems to be an endless amount of paperwork, as well as visits to offices and meetings, involved in the adoption process.  There are 3 levels to the adoption process that must be satisfied.  Firstly, I must satisfy Canadian adoption requirements as per the Ontario government.  This requires a review of the child proposal by my social worker, papers from me accepting the child, and a series of documents that are required by Ontario in order to issue a 'letter of no objection' to the adoption.  Secondly, there is the Kazakhstan adoption process, which of course requires a lot of legal paperwork, a two-week bonding period visiting the child which must be documented with photos and paperwork demonstrating that I have reviewed all the child's medical records, an interview with and approval by the Ministry of Education, a dossier of up-to-date documents from both Canada and Kazakhstan submitted to the court, court proceedings, a 15 day appeal period, and then an additional 3 weeks of paperwork including, among other things, obtaining a new birth certificate and passport for the child.  Finally, there are the requirements of Canadian immigration.  This requires paperwork to be sent to the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, who then send paperwork back for the medical exam; a medical exam by a doctor certified by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, who then sends a medical report to London, and then paperwork that is submitted by London to the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, who then are sent the child's new passport in order to issue a permanent residency visa.  (The child's application for Canadian citizenship follows all of this, after arrival in Canada).  About half of this work, up to the court proceedings, will have been accomplished in the 7 weeks I will have spent in Kazakhstan on my first trip.  I will then return to Canada for about 5 weeks while I wait for the appeal period, paperwork, birth certificate, passport, and permanent residency visa.  My second visit, in early March, will be about a week long, and will simply involve picking up the papers and my daughter and making the 38 hour journey home.