Today marks the four year anniversary of my adoption trip to Kazakhstan. I've posted pictures to commemorate Jiana's and my very first meeting on December 30, 2004. The hours leading up to our introduction were groggy, anxious ones for me, having not slept much on the red eye from London. I had so much invested in the process... months of anticipation and nightly prays that this child would be healthy, undamaged and motherhood would be all I had dreamed. Driving through rural Kazakhstan (1.5 hours outside Almaty) enroute to the baby house, I was numb to the gravity of the adventure... stiffling any ambivilence I had about the beautiful, but not smiling baby I had travelled thousands of miles for. It was an odd state of presence.... traveling into the unknown, with only the assurance that my life would soon be forever altered.
Upon arriving at the baby house, I was interrogated by an regional official about my motives for adoption (how old was I?, why was I still single?, etc). I apparently passed the test and a caretaker quickly brought Jiana in to me.
Anxiety dissappated within moments of meeting her and we start to bond as mother and daughter.
The adoption went smoothly. Jiana came to stay with me at the apartment on January 4th and we completed the adoption and were heading home by January 23. It was an atypically fast and efficient process (at the time, most families were spending 6 weeks in Kazakhstan).
Fast forward to today... Jiana is very mommy attached and we are madly in love with one another. Our personalities work well together and we share a wacky sense of humor. I couldn't imagine having any other daughter and every day I feel so blessed that things worked out so well. Traveling to Kazakhstan for her was the single best decision of my life. (Closely followed by my decision to marry Ron.) And as for the smiling, she hasn't stopped since we returned home.
My full blog can be found online at www.tangodiva.com. Search under Kazakhstan Baby Diary.
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