Happy Birthday Liam!!!

Today is our little guy’s first birthday! We sure do miss him (and Aidan). But it isn’t too long now before we get to bring them home—and then both boys will get the party they deserve. Everyone here at home can’t wait to meet our new sons. As much as we have missed the boys it has been nice being at home for a little bit. Yes, being sick sucked, but we have gotten to spend some really nice time with family and friends. The boys will never lack in love and attention with the great group of people that surround us. The past few evenings have found us with a busy social calendar as we have spent a great deal of time discussing our trip with others over dinner. I think the heavier American meals are getting to me and Terri as we both look forward to having the Kaz foods again—although I have really enjoyed having the opportunity to have stouts and porters again.

My sister and brother-in-law have really jumped all over being aunt and uncle. They sent us a package that darn near needed to be lifted with a crane to get it in the house. They packed an incredible amount of goods for the boys including books, toys, and clothing—quite a bit of which had Harley-Davidson logos on them—gee, whose influence could that be, Mike? Now I need to figure out how to get a Harley like my brother-in-law, Mike, or risk being trumped in the really cool department by the boys' uncle. It is going to be a hard battle to win as he is good looking, in shape, regularly kicks my ass in golf and has all these shiny medals for bravery in the line of duty. I think I will just tell the kids that their uncle is mentally unstable and leave it at that. Actually, I can’t think of a person who I am more proud to have as the uncle of our boys. And Kim, if you are reading this, you really overdid it with all the good stuff—but thank you, how you did all this with your crazy schedule, I will never know. It is all really cool, especially the engraved picture box with the boy’s names on it. There was also a nice card from my nieces welcoming the boys into the family.

We love you boys!!! We'll be back before you know it!

Happy Birthday Aidan!!!!!!!

Today is our little man’s second birthday and Liam’s isn’t far behind. We feel bad that we can’t celebrate it with him (nor Liam’s next Thursday) but Terri and I plan on giving the boys a belated celebration when we get home. Mama is going to have to buy a really big cake as we will have the boy’s birthdays to celebrate and my birthday will happen during our second trip. It is actually just my excuse to mooch off of the boy’s cake. Besides, the number of candles I need would pose a serious fire hazard! Again, Happy Birthday Aidan!

Terri and I are still suffering through illness. It is very frustrating, we want to get things ready here for the boys but we have been so run down. Terri still seems to have the worst of it, At least yesterday I was starting to feel well enough to get out and golf with a friend. Apparently one month of not playing golf equals one year of setback. I was going through sleeves of balls like Rambo went through belts of ammunition. But as long as you have one good shot you always come back. My good shot came in the form of a nice 45 ft. putt—and all the other horrendous shots just faded away. My buddy Chris had to listen to me go on and on about the boys and the whole adoption process. Not once did his head explode.

Yu find out how important friends really are when you spend a great deal of time separated from them—our social calendar is booking up quickly. It will be nice to see everyone who has been so helpful to us. We really do have some of the greatest friends that one could have.

Terri and I are going to hit the streets today. Maybe I can cheer her spirits by taking her to one of her favorite places… the mall. We are also looking for a few more items to furnish the boy’s bedroom so it is not all just goofing around.

We wanted to say hello to the Woods family who decided to stay in Ust for the entire process. We hope you guys are hanging in there and not getting the dreaded Space Madness. Order a plate of Karmen and a Baltika No. 9 for me.

Stay tuned. We promise to write more.

We miss our boys!

Well, I think we're finally recovering from our travel illnesses and starting to prepare for the boys arrival home. We are also planning our second trip and hope to be back in Ust on April 9th. We will be there 10 days to 2 weeks and finally get to bring our boys home.

In case you are having withdrawals like we are, here are some of the photos we were unable to add to our last few posts...

Liam on our last visit

Aidan on our last visit

Wow! Look what Mama made!

Can't you take me home now, Dada?

And, the new addition to the Levey family, furry Murray!

Stay tuned for more Rock the Kaz Blog posts!!

We just flew in…

And are our arms tired—along with the rest of us. What? I can’t tell a bad joke after 23 hours of travel? I will tell you this, everything in Kazakhstan now appears like a cakewalk compared to the trip home. Not that the trip was bad or turned in to Airport 75 (or 77), it was just long, grueling and fraught with the dangers of less intelligent individuals in positions that directly affect your schedule. We were picked up at our apartment at 2:00 AM to go to the airport (after an evening of very little sleep). We knew it wasn’t going to be our day when we spent thirty minutes at the KLM counter in Almaty, yes thirty minutes at the counter, not just in line. That was just to get our boarding passes to get on the plane (even though we already had paid reservations). Thirty minutes of clicking away on their computer, printing passes, tearing up passes, printing passes again only to be shredded again, calling in supervisors that did not make things go any faster—but at least they looked official—only to find out we were not sitting together on the plane. Nice. Fortunately we blew through customs quickly and was only questioned when our carry on went through x-ray with all these tiny little bottles showing up. I just said “votka” and got an understanding nod and we were on our way. Our flight was at 4:00 AM and spent the next seven hours outracing the sunrise. When we got to Amsterdam we were told at the transfer desk that the flight was overbooked and there were no seats for us (again, we had paid for these tickets in advance). Nice, again. We were told to stand in the excruciatingly long line at the gate to see if anything would come available. Someone who was patrolling the line must have felt our scowls piercing into her back and came over to check our flight documents. She ended up going to the counter and much to our surprise came back with not only two boarding passes but seats that were together. Disaster (well, inconvenience), narrowly averted. The NWA flight was uneventful and Terri and I enjoyed watching some movies, listening to music and I played a few video games. I really like the Airbus 330, it has decent seating space for an airliner so you do not quite have that feeling of being an airborne sardine.

We arrived in Detroit about an hour early. Had this not been the case we would have probably missed our next flight. When you first land in the US from and international origin you need to retrieve your luggage and then recheck it after you go through customs where they ask you if you have brought back meats, produce, seeds, enriched uranium, Kalashnikovs or whatever. Once we cleared customs a screening clerk directed us to line ‘B’. We stood there quite a while as precious minutes ticked away only to watch people in line ‘A’ blow through briskly. I watched in disbelief as these people were moving through while we just watched. We eventually flagged down another employee who had managed to avoid us for some time. We mentioned that while we enjoyed standing in line immensely we were curious if we were actually going to get the opportunity to catch our flight or if we should just plan on going to a hotel or something. The lady curtly looked at our tickets and matter-of-factly informed us we had been assigned to the wrong line and we should be in the “A” line to make sure we made our connection—duh! The original screening clerk must have lied on her resumé about being able to distinguish between different levels of time. I think when you have less than twenty minutes to get to your next flight that it should be a no-brainer that you into the ‘A’ line—but that’s just me. Fortunately, we got to our gate with very little time to spare. The flight home was uneventful (thankfully). The biggest mishap was stepping on Terri’s glasses that fell to the floor while she napped. When we landed in San Antonio, Terri and I agreed that the travel gods must have wanted to screw around with us for their amusement. We did decide that when we brought the boys home we were definitely going to make an overnight stop—not only for our sake but for their sake.

Terri’s parents picked us up from our odyssey and we would soon be at our good ol’ casa. Our dogs saw us and it was like we never left. They were so excited to see us—you gotta love dogs—unconditional love! By this time we were so sick and dehydrated, Terri had a 101ºF fever, chills and sore throat and I had developed a nice cold. We went straight to bed and crashed for hours. Later I got up to go get us dinner. Tonight, nothing other than a Whataburger would do. If you don’t live near a Whataburger I do sincerely feel bad for you. Needless to say, having this little piece of Americana…well…Texana was just what I needed to acclimate back to home. Then it was back to bed for Terri and for some strange reason I was not ready to go sleep so I sat down in my comfortable chair just in time to see the Spurs play. Ah, it is good to be home.

A quick note: Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. Terri and I have been sick and jet lagged and having an overall feeling of blah as well as missing our boys greatly. Tune in later this week as Terri and I will have birthday wishes for each our boys and show the progress we will (hopefully) make on getting their room together. Sadly, we will miss their birthdays but we will definitely make sure they get a nice party when we them home.

Welcome to the family!

It is official! We have two sons! We had an incredibly pain free court proceeding. The prosecutor did not ask us ANY questions and there were just a few from the judge. We were in and out in about 40 minutes. I think we waited outside longer than the proceedings lasted. Lena was absolutely fantastic in court. She made this so easy for us. The lady from the Ministry of Education was so happy for us too. She definitely wants what’s best for these children.

The downside of the day was that our morning visit was our last visit before traveling. Liam was not a happy boy today, which made us feel bad. You want to go out on a high note but I guess everyday can’t be a good day. Aidan was up and down this morning, but I got to see him singing in his playgroup when I went to get him. He played some, cried some, played some more and then cried some more. We tried to explain to the boys what was going to happen but I am sure it didn’t register. We gave the picture books to the caretakers to show the boys every day. Lubya, Liam’s caretaker was incredibly nice and worked through our language barrier to understand what we wanted to leave behind for Liam. She is really nice and friendly and adores the children.

We celebrated at the Italian restaurant with the Woods, their driver Simone, Lena (for a little bit), Anya and Bulat. I think we were the only people at the restaurant for most of the evening. It was a nice evening. The food was pretty good and the fact that there wasn’t anyone else in the restaurant made for leisurely conversation. And everyone was in good spirits—amazing what good court dates will do to a party!

Tomorrow it is back to Almaty followed by the long trip home on Friday. This will probably be the last post for a few days, until we can get home and reflect on our trip. There is a lot to do at home to get ready for the boys to come home—plenty of shopping and those dreaded words… some assembly required. And before you know it we will be back over here again.

So, for the most part the first trip worked out well with just a few minor snafus and only one day of really being mad. We have two wonderful boys and our trip was only slightly longer than expected, part of that due to mechanical problems with KLM. And at the end of it all we even got a smile out of Albina when she was looking at the photos of our boys and a congratulations after court.

Terri and I would like to thank everyone who helped make this journey a possibility: Gail, my mother-in-law for the daunting task of house sitting and watching our puppies (who aren’t really puppies anymore). Our family at the Clockwork Group who kept the place going without us (hhhmmmm, maybe we don’t have to be at the office that much anymore)—Jennie, Nicole, Doug, Brian, Patrice, Rudy, Bobby (our intern) and Gail (again). We thank our parents for their support of this endeavor—Gail (there she goes again) and Bill Golightly, and Virginia and Bill Gaines. I would like to thank my sister, Kim, and her husband, Mike, who have helped us with information we have needed about one and two year olds. Kim, you went from my incredibly shy baby sister to one of the finest moms I know. And I certainly can’t forget my nieces, Katie and Ashley, who have kept us in their prayers and look forward to teaching our boys the finer points of being adorable (and how to play soccer). Thanks to our dear friends who are already offering us to help us get ready for the boys’ arrival—Julie and Marvin, Pat and Patti, Doug and Jennie. (I know this is when the music comes on to get you to leave the stage, but there are a few more people.) Thanks to my friend, Chris, who taunts me with good weather back home and is ready to make a tee time at a moments notice. If we have left anyone out I am sorry. I am at the point now that it is hard enough to remember my own name. Last but certainly not least we thank everyone who followed our blog and posted comments. Half of our fun was gathering around the computer to see your latest notes. And I personally would like to thank Jack Bauer who during our trip; (DON’T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN 24!!!!!!!) saved a presidential candidate, broke many federal laws, kept a nuclear warhead from detonating in LA, tortured bad guys, offered deals to bad guys, kept deadly chemical agents from destroying America, was himself tortured, and kept another nuclear weapon from destroying LA, lost a wife, killed the woman who killed his wife, gained a girlfriend, and then lost said girlfriend. Thanks Jack.

P.S. Still no photo uploading, we will try to add some back in after we get home.

A court date!

Well, we got some great news today. Our court date is tomorrow afternoon at 3:30PM! It appears everyone worked to make our court date happen sooner than later. We should be back home on Friday, worn out but home. We will be sad to leave the boys and our new friends the Woods, but we’ve got to get some things taken care of at home so our boys can have a great new room to sleep and play in. And we probably should do our taxes so we do not incur the wrath of the IRS!

Our first visit found Aidan not having a good day and Liam having a fantastic day. I went to get Aidan who cried as he left his group this morning. Liam saw Terri come in from the back of the room, smiled and crawled at breakneck speeds to the edge of his play area and pulled himself up and smiled. Once we got Aidan to the room he whined a little more and then Terri coaxed him into yogurt and some playtime. Liam was in the exersaucer, just smiling the entire time. Mama played with flash cards with Aidan and showed him the family photo book, which he seemed to enjoy. I swung him upside down and then tossed him in the air to which he giggled enthusiastically. He decided he wanted to leave a little early today. When he realized he had no control over this he became quite upset and cried and tried to break free of our comforting hugs. But when Anya came to take him back he did calm down and give us hugs. Liam was just the happiest kid the entire time. He didn’t look sick today although he still had a cough. But he was just incredibly happy. He was giving mama some nice smiles—making mama feel better since she doesn’t think he smiles at her a lot. He was really cute when he tore out a page from the coloring book and just scooted around with it. He was so pleased with himself and his recent page carnage.

We had lunch with the Woods, who we must congratulate as their court date went well and are now officially the proud parents of Maksim. They are going to stay the entire time—hopefully they will not succumb to ”space madness”. (Ren and Stimpy yet again) We plan on having dinner at a Georgian (no, not Atlanta) restaurant tomorrow night after our court appearance. They supposedly have great shashlik (kabobs) there. After lunch we went to a photo shop and dropped off our flash card to get the photos of the two weeks of bonding printed. We will need these in court to show that we did spend the required two weeks with the children. The boy’s caregivers want copies of one of the pictures so we will need to have some more printed. We did give Anya a copy of one of the photos. And since I looked pretty good in it, well, how could I say no. Terri and the boys seemed to look good too.

Before we went back to the baby house we went over to the travel agent to secure our tickets to Almaty, then it was off to see the kids. The afternoon visit was much the same (as far as attitudes go) as the morning. Terri went to get Aidan hoping that a parent change would change his disposition. Sorry—thanks for playing the game! He obviously was going to hold on to this for a while. Liam was still happy. He was at the table when he saw me come in and just started smiling. He wanted to go mobile again in the exersaucer. Terri caught Aidan’s attention by actually making something with the Legos instead of Aidan’s favorite game of scattering them all over creation. Terri needs to make sure she stays away from the engineering field as some of her creations seemed quite unstable. But engineering skills aside, they had fun together. This time he appeared more reluctant to go at the end of our visit. Liam wanted to be in the middle of everything, attempting to terrorize Terri’s precarious Lego tower. We showed both boys the pictures of home, trying to get a head start on letting them know we will be back for them. Obviously, Liam is not going to understand this and Aidan may not completely get it either but it was comforting for Terri and I to show them the family that awaits them.

After our visit we went to KazPost to try to get some more stamps (a certain series that we really liked) only to find out that they were out. Anya was amused when I asked if I could get one of the International stickers that I see on the cars here—you know, the oval stickers with the national identity, in this case, KZ. We went to this auto parts store that was hardly bigger than a closet. Terri was laughing the entire time. I guess it was kinda amusing: a Kazakh, a Russian woman who looked really out of place in this environment and two American tourists. I bought a handful of these stickers and another type of sticker and I asked the clerk if I could get a carburetor for a ’68 Camaro. Fortunately for him he did not understand my bad joke. We next asked to go to the supermarket since our time in Ust was quickly coming to an end we needed a few more items to take back home. We picked up a hand basket and went to the vodka aisle. Supposedly you can bring back a liter of alcohol per person. Amusingly, the kids are allowed to bring one liter each with them when we come back with them. Terri and I picked up these small bottles of vodka to take back to friends. We selected local varieties with great looking labels. We have no clue if they are any good but if nothing else they are great souvenirs. And they are cheap. All vodka here is cheap. Stuff you pay $40-$50 at home you can get for just a few dollars. It is also interesting that they have the hard liquors in the supermarket—not something you find in Texas. We also loaded up on these bags of what I can only call croutons, but they aren’t used on salads. They are more of a snack item that is often eaten while drinking beer. So to recap so far; our hand basket has four bottles of vodka and about a billion mini bags of faux croutons. And right before we hit the checkout line Terri found these small packets of coffee, obviously for the hangover caused by the vodka. So Anya was laughing at us in the checkout line and the lady ringing us up looked at us like we were idiots. I told Anya I was going to let my friends know that the items we just bought were part of a traditional Russian meal. Then it was back to the apartment to practice our court speeches and pack for our return home. Everything is moving quickly now.

Note: For whatever reason, we have not been able to upload and photos for the past two days!!

Heat wave

Well, it’s a heat wave in Ust-Kamenogorsk with temperatures soaring into the upper 40s. All the pretty snow has given way to ugly, muddy, slushy puddles of brown with only patches of snow and ice in areas that get no sun. The only large areas of white are on the hills and small mountains. Sometimes, on our way to the baby house, we pass by a hill and see a herd of horses grazing—they look wild but Bulat says they are not. I’m not sure though because the land they are on isn’t fenced in.

Our morning visit was nice and Liam seems to be feeling and looking better. In fact, he was in a playpen when Steve walked in and he started bouncing and smiling as soon as he saw Steve. The caregivers were a little busy and they did not go get him right away and he started fussing because he wanted dada. He smiled a lot more today and enjoyed motoring around in the excersaucer part of the time. Aidan was energetic as we pulled him out of gymnastics type of class where they had tumbling mats and small jungle gym type items.

Our visit was cut short when Anya came in and told us it was time to go to file our court papers right them. So we had to pack up our things, send the boys back to their groups and drive to the other side of town to the courthouse. The building is a typical Soviet era style—sterile and official looking. We met Albina at the entrance and climbed several flights of stairs to a small office where we were asked to sit. Our coordinator gave a large packet of documents to a lady at the desk who may be one of the judge’s clerks. Together, they went over everything page by page, talking in Russia and never directly acknowledging us. Then we were told we could leave. And, that was that—quick and unceremonious—our paperwork was filed and we still wait for a court date and are still unable to book a return flight. We were told we’d be called this evening to let us know when our court date will be but it is now almost 10pm as I write this. So yet another day in the dark. And, we finished the last season of 24, what will we do?

We went to one of the three places here that have “pizza” in the name, where we do not have pizza. As we’ve mentioned before, the food here is really good and well prepared, but after almost 4 weeks of it I am craving pizza and burgers. Steve woke up feeling run down and a bit ill today, too, so we came back to the apartment for our break between visits.

3:00 came around and we went for the afternoon visit. I went to get Aidan and Steve went to get settled in with Liam. When I got to Aidan’s room he was almost ready to go—darn, I missed the garshok moment! He seemed very happy to see me and took my hand to walk to the baby room. Before we even made it inside we knew there was trouble we heard some really loud crying and I recognized it was Liam. We walked in and Steve was holding a very unhappy Liam—he would not be consoled by walking, bouncing, toys, the excersaurcer or anything else that he usually enjoys. He was in fully deployed scream mode. One of the caregivers who was attending to another unhappy baby suggested that Liam may need to be fed. I immediately asked if perhaps one of us could do it and she willingly obliged and Steve was recruited. He put Liam in one of the slots in the feeding table and guess what they gave Steve? A coffee mug with milk/formula! Steve held it up to Liam and he grabbed hold and sucked it down. Poor thing, Steve tried to give him a break but he just wanted to finish off the contents of the mug as quickly as possible. It seemed like it only took seconds and the mug was empty—and he was still crying. Finally, one of the caregivers saved the day by giving him a binky and it was like someone flipped his off switch. He was happy, smiling and mobile the rest of the visit. Aidan was witness to this and seemed a little sensitive to the fact that dada was focusing so much on Liam. We made sure to give plenty of attention to Aidan, too, and I spent a good part of the visit going over the photo book we made for him and pointing out mama and dada, the grandmas (babushka) and grandpas (dyedushka), our house (dom), the nieces, and, of course, the dogs (cabaka). He was looking at it all very intently like he may have a spark of understanding. Lena did tell us that Aidan’s caregivers said that he apparently is displaying a knowledge that he now has a mama and papa to his group and walks around with his chest pushed out and hands behind him as if he is very proud.

We heard that the Wood’s had court today and their translator told us it went well—they were asked some questions, broke for lunch and the judge made the final decision in the afternoon. We heard this all from Lena, their translator since we still have yet to run into them lately. We want to wish them a very heartfelt congratulations.

In other adoption news, we’d like to congratulation our friends, the Levey’s. They went to the Humane Society this weekend and brought home Murray a three-month old Retrieved/Poodle mix.

Sick and tired

Steve again. Well it looks like things have finally caught up with us. Terri awoke this morning not feeling very well. She is not sure if it is the pollution finally getting to her or if it is something she picked up at the baby house. I know it made for a more difficult visit as she was very run down. Liam still looks like he isn’t feeling well but didn’t seem deterred as he zoomed around the room in the excersaucer. We had to watch him very closely as he came close to turning over a couple of times. Most of the visit Aidan wanted to be picked up and played with—I tried to entertain him most of the time. Aidan is fixated on the music button on the excersaucer that, oddly enough, plays Jingle Bells. He hits the button repeatedly and wants me to pick him up and dance around. He also sings and waves his hands around, it is really cute but I never want to hear Jingle Bells ever again. Towards the end of the visit Liam was getting more and more cranky, hungry and sick… not a good combination.

Between our visits was hardly noteworthy as we just went to lunch and then to the apartment to rest. I must confess to being a little run down myself. So we slugged around until the second visit.

When I went to get Aidan I got to see a hilarious sight. All of his kids in playgroup were in a small room sitting on their little pots or garshok as it is called. If I had only had a camera for further parental blackmail! One child was sucking his thumb and practically falling asleep and others were just rocking back and forth. Apparently, the kids are brought in here at the predetermined time and plopped down on their little seats to sit until they go. I made a bad joke to Aidan about bringing him a book or magazine for him next time. Once he was done with his business his caretakers got him ready. Right before we were ready to leave for the playroom he started crying. His caretakers said he was in a bad mood. At least he calmed down before we got to the room. Liam looked better in the afternoon. Although he was wearing bright yellow in the afternoon so it could all be some subliminal illusion. Liam wanted to zoom around in the excersaucer again. He kept going over to the refrigerator to remove these magnet toys that Terri had put there. Aidan likes to swing upside down so we did this for a little while and had fun pointing out mama and dada in the mirror. He also called me papa a few times too. The caretakers use papa instead of dada, so I am sure the kid is going to be really confused. I know the boys are probably getting a little bored with the same routine and limited activities everyday. We will be happy when we can get them back to their new home.

After our visit we went to the coffee house. Terri and I both had ice cream to sooth our sore throats. After this we went back to the apartment and watched more 24. We thought we should just try to get some rest, drink some juice and hope we can ride this out. Tomorrow, we should find out our court date. Keep your fingers crossed.

One sick boy

Steve here. We arrived at the baby house this morning to find that Liam is not feeling well. He was in a good mood but he felt a little warm, had some small rash on his face and seemed a little labored in his breathing. This is the ultimate in helplessness for us as we can do absolutely nothing to make sure he gets better. He played normally but we are still a bit concerned as we thought yesterday that he may be coming down with something and today seems to confirm this. Aidan was in a good mood as he enjoyed his clandestine morning yogurt. He played with both mama and dada and we laughed at him when he was showing a little jealousy. Liam was sitting very near Terri’s lap and Aidan decided he wanted to sit in mama’s lap. He was trying with all his might to move Liam out of the way. Of course Liam isn’t much smaller than Aidan so it wasn’t working as planned. Aidan was also testing mama and dada by messing with some things in the room he shouldn’t be messing with. I know he will soon more fully test us. Sadly, these children will often rebel to see if you, too, are going to abandon the. Well, he’s stuck with us. We have heard of some really bad and sometimes violent behavior from other children. So far Aidan has had incredibly mild displays, he thinks it is more funny than anything else. Terri had gone to get Aidan this morning and thought she heard Lena mention something about him bragging about having parents. We aren’t sure what she meant by this as he doesn’t really have much of a vocabulary—I guess we will need to get a clarification on this when we see her again.

It turns out that the form they lost was still lost and had to be redone. Unfortunately, it was the three-page letter that had to be done in our own handwriting. Nice. At lunch, Terri re did the letter and gave it back to Anya asking her to please ask her higher ups not to lose it this time. She laughed as she could hear the syrupy sarcasm in our voices. After lunch we went to get a few more things as gifts and for the shadow box. This shadow box looks like it will now be a pretty impressive display with all the Russian and Kazakh materials we have started collecting. Terri also found a nice silver bracelet for herself. Why is it that gift shops always have that one item that has nothing to do with the place you are in? I have seen it in San Antonio and other places too. Why, amongst the Kaz pins and emblems, flags, beads, clothing and other trinkets were there two little Disney-esque Dalmatian figurines? It is not like they had a gimmick or a really bad pun like “I was spotted in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan”. There must be some sort of rule that every gift shop in the universe have at least one item of non-local appeal. This train of thought obviously left me drained so we came back to the apartment to rest up for our afternoon visit.

I cannot figure out the baby house fashion sense (or lack thereof). Aidan’s afternoon wardrobe included a pair of shorts over some long john bottoms. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the shorts? At least Liam looked more stylish than he has to date with a solid blue outfit. Terri and I have some good ammunition to use against the boys when they start dating. Photos of Liam in his lime green tights (wince) and Aidan in his pink coveralls (double wince—no—triple wince) will make for some really great parental blackmail!

After a good afternoon visit, we drove over to a place that had an Ust-Kamenogorsk sign in Kazakh so I could get a picture in front of it with my SPURS t-shirt on. I dodged across traffic to the center median so I could look like a stupid tourist. I felt well qualified. After successfully completing my mission we went to the coffee house. On our way we saw another Saturday wedding party going to the memorial where many people get married. They were in a really sweet stretch limousine, not just any limo but a combination of old roadster front with the rest being traditional. It looked like something that Hot Wheels should make if they haven’t already. Oh, and I almost forgot, remember the papers we had to redo at lunch? Well, by the end of the day the original ones had resurfaced. Haha! The joke’s on us!

Can you say "jerked around"?

Steve here (edited by Terri to maintain PG rating). Okay this isn’t very parent like, but today someone pushed my buttons and I am what you would call—a little pissed. Today we believe were set up for failure. Yesterday, we were to give our passports to the coordinator so we could be at the court bright and early at 9AM to file our papers. This morning Anya called us because the coordinator, Albina, said our customs declaration forms were missing—well of course they were, we were only asked for the passports! That is when the sinking feeling began. We, of course had these forms with us so I asked Anya if we would still be able to go file today. She said she did not know. Is that the ground getting lower beneath my feet? We went to the baby house and had a great visit with the kids. They were in good moods, but I was scolded and told not to let Aidan fall asleep because he won’t sleep at nap time and keeps all the other kids up. Fair enough. We kept the boy awake and played quite heartily. After the visit, we ran into Albina in the hall, who never actually acknowledges us while talking about us (heellloooo, I am right here in front of you). I asked Anya if Albina could enlighten us as to if we could still file our papers today. We only got an “I don’t know” even though it was still only 11:30. Man, we really are sinking now, are we in a swamp?

We went to lunch and had soup. Terri was actually not feeling very well so we hoped a little soup might perk her up. We came back to the apartment so she could rest, not knowing what the afternoon held.

My brief climb back up to solid ground was squashed in the afternoon. When we met the car, Albina was in the front seat—which gave us hope that we were headed to file paperwork. As Albina ignored our presence again, Anya meekly told us we would not be going to file papers today, maybe Monday. When we got to the baby house I had worked up a jaw grinding anger. I think Anya realized we were not happy and told us privately that Albina misplaced some of our papers and Anya was frustrated as she was always the last to know—well, second only to us.

I may not have been so angry except for the fact that the other translator, Lena, who has been assisting with the paperwork and prepping us for court, had mentioned to us yesterday she would do everything she could to help us along more quickly. She is one of the best people here, always trying to keep everyone up to date. Methinks maybe she should be in charge. So to recap; someone I have seen two or three times the entire trip has been unable to get our paperwork in order (the paperwork we have signed promptly and supplied readily all week). So instead of filing to get on the court docket early next week, we now have to wait until Monday to even get an idea of when we can go to court. I am definitely not feeling the love. Is it really too much to ask to have someone put forth a little effort or at least be up front about a situation? Maybe this is the system here but it drives us insane because it is something we have no control over. They’d be out of business in a heartbeat in the USA.

At least the afternoon visit cheered us a bit. My jaw unclenched once I saw Liam in such a cheerful mood for the afternoon. The boys were great and Aidan was having a lot of fun. He was giggling like crazy today. Aidan is a little ham in our group photos now, very different from the early days. The boys already act like brothers as they pull on the preferred toy at the same time (see photo). Liam was walking around with a little help, sticking his tongue out in complete concentration. The time went by so quickly this afternoon and soon we had to leave. On our way out, we were able to snap some photos of the other babies in Liam’s group.

 

We ended the day at the coffee house and had a few good laughs with Anya and Bulat. Bulat is so amusing even when I have no idea what he is talking about. Then it was home to try to figure out what the hell happened today. I think this is going to call for a beer…maybe two. Thanks for listening to my rant. You are making me feel better already.

Stimulating the Kaz economy

Steve here. Today the weather bounced back into the 40’s after yesterday’s snowfall. Days like today are the most dangerous as you are more likely to experience gravity’s pull on the slick melting ice.

This morning we were back at the baby house and all was good with Aidan and Liam. Aidan has started showing up in shorts instead of his usual overalls. His caretakers must think we make him do laps around the room because he comes back sweaty. This only happens on the days he falls asleep on us; when he produces enough heat to keep Ust-Kamenogorsk operating for a day. Terri has been having some real good moments with Aidan. Her feeding him yogurt is just a great sight to see—I think they are really starting to get a pretty good bond. Liam was in a good mood and Terri found out how to make him laugh from his caretakers, who say ‘teeckle, teeckle’ while rubbing their thumbs on his belly. We had a good morning. All the toys go across the floor with the fury of a gulf hurricane, but now Aidan helps put the toys away at the end of our playtime. I got Liam squealing by holding him up to nibble on his belly. Both boys were in fine form. Liam was in the walker, traveling at warp speed, disappearing from the camera frame before I had time to take a picture. Aidan was hooked on the music from the walker which is, oddly enough, Jingle Bells. He wanted this played over and over and over. He would shake his hands along to the music until eventually he fell asleep.

 

For lunch we went to Pizza Blues as Terri was having a craving for Beef Karmen and I wanted to have this pork dish that Jason Woods swears by. It was good, but HUGE—like chicken-fried steak back home. I did not finish it all. I did not want our driver and translator to think I was a little piggy. After lunch, Terri and I decided to dump some money into the local economy. We purchased numerous souvenir items to include: matroyshka dolls, a Russian flask, beads, Kazakh national and military pins and Kazakh stamps (not to mention the box of Kazahstan chocolate bars). Our plans for the boy’s shadowbox are coming along nicely. The stamps were really nice and I think we bought more stamps in one visit than most Kaz citizens buy in one year. Next we will look for a small Kazakhstan flag to go in the shadowbox. We really want our boys to not only know their heritage but to be proud of it as well. On the ride home there was a moment I thought was quite funny. We were pulling up to our apartment and there was a lady and a boy walking into our building. Anya suddenly said, “Gypsies!” I detected a slight hint of disbelief or disgust. She warned us to stay away from the gypsies and insisted that Bulat escort us to our apartment door. I know it is probably not politically correct but it seemed so surreal that it was funny. (I, in no way, have ever had an issue with a gypsy—of course, I have never met one or seen one outside of the stereotypes in vampire movies.)

Our afternoon visit was good. Aidan wanted more time with mama in the afternoon which was fine with me. He seemed to be having a really good time with her. Liam was in a good mood and was crawling around like crazy. These boys have changed so much since we first met them. You can tell their caretakers just adore them and dote on them. The kids from both Aidan and Liam’s group are so cute. It breaks your heart to not be able to take them all home. There are two boys in Aidan’s group and two girls in Liam’s group who are especially adorable. You can tell they have a lot of personality.

After our afternoon visit we went to replenish our supply of tenge that was exhausted from our shopping excursion. Then we went to the grocery store to restock on the essentials, which this time included a new type of cheese that we had enjoyed at the Black Bull. And then to the apartment. Tomorrow at 9AM we go to file our court petition! Light is coming from the end of the tunnel.

Women’s Day

Terri here. Today we woke up to snowfall that got heavier as the morning progressed. By the time we were supposed to go to the baby house, the streets were becoming slick and we slid around a bit. Today is a national holiday that basically translates to Women’s Day and is a hold over from Soviet times. It’s like mother’s day, but for all women. Anya and Bulat were very thoughtful and gave me a card, a Kazakhstan chocolate bar and a jar of homemade cherry jam—it was very sweet of them to think of me and include me in their holiday. They clearly know me well enough to know of my sweet tooth. By the way, the Kazakhstan chocolate is excellent! When Anya first told me about it and how her friends from Russia take boxes of it home with them when they visit, I was skeptical. You see, the packaging is less than impressive—but it is fantastic and delicious and I plan to bring home a box full of the bars to give as souvenirs (the ones I don't eat, of course).

We arrived at the baby house, the car slipping and sliding on the drive in. This time, we decided to change things up a bit and I went with Anya to go get Aidan and Steve went to the baby group for Liam. Steve really wanted me to see the kids in Aidan’s group… some of whom are very charming. Aidan was ready to go and came over to me, smiling, and took my hand and we walked together most of the way to the baby room. Steve was waiting with Liam and we went into the playroom and visited again with Sue and Anna. I think all the little ones were glad for the group situation because it automatically increased the number of available toys! Anna seems well bonded to Sue—very relaxed and verbalizes her delight at their interactions with screeches and squeals. Aidan and Liam are much more relaxed these days, too. Tomorrow will be Sue and Anna’s last day in Ust-Kamenogorsk as they will be flying out to Almaty for the final adoption processing at the U.S. Embassy. We are so happy for them!

When it was time to go, we were told that there would be no afternoon visit today because of the holiday. The women of the orphanage need time to celebrate, too. We were sad we wouldn’t get to see our boys a second time, but know that the folks who care for the children here are really devoted and deserve the break.

After we left, we decided on a quick and simple lunch at Pizza Blues which is not far from our apartment. Steve tried something different that translates to “King-Like Beef”—a casserole like dish with beef, potatoes, mushrooms and sour cream served in clay pot with lid. Steve must have liked it because he finished it. I had a Greek salad and little fried ravioli like things with dipping sauce. We noticed that there were a lot more kids at the café today and Anya said it was a holiday from school as well. It was really cute watching some of the boys running around and giving chocolate bars to the girls for Women’s Day—lots of giggling and whispering.

We opted to go straight to the apartment so Anya and Bulat could also enjoy the holiday and not have to spend it shuttling us around for errands, souvenirs and trinkets. This set the stage for a marathon of 24 to where we finally finished season 3. All in all, a quiet Women’s Day for us.

Therapy in the form of an evening out

Steve again. Our morning visit was a lot like the past couple of mornings. I walked Aidan down to the playroom and Terri already had Liam when I got there. The boys had a good time, they seem to be getting into a comfortable routine with us. Aidan fell asleep again—it is funny how quickly he can go from playing to sleeping. He sweats like a little piggy when he sleeps and we continue to get scolded for returning him to his group sweaty. We even tried wiping him down with tissues before he left.

After our morning visit we were told we needed to go back to the apartment because the translator had to go to drop off some papers at the court. I suspect that it was because a whole group of us foreigners finally convinced them to let us stay out a little later on a school night and actually go to dinner. So I guess there had to be a trade off.

When I went to get Aidan in the afternoon he was just getting up from a nap. He had sheet marks on his face and was very disoriented and even a bit grumpy. He takes after his mama after a nap! Not only that, but the caregivers must have gotten the hint with the sweat and Aidan was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts! When we arrived at the playroom I was surprised to see a full house. In addition to Terri and Liam there was another American, Susan (Arlington, VA) in the room with her new daughter Anna (she had just returned for her second trip). Candy, the South African lady we had met at lunch the other day, was in there talking as well. Aidan did not seem pleased with this development, having to share a room with others. Between his indignation and continual grogginess he remained quiet and shy. Go figure. Candy’s husband Steve came in briefly as well as two other Americans, Pam (Boston, MA) and her mother (also here for the second trip) and we all coordinated our evening out. Much to our amusement and slight annoyance we found out we would be allowed to stay out until 7PM. When everyone left the room we had a little time to entertain the boys. Aidan actually handed Liam one of the blocks at one point and we praised him for his sharing. Liam was in a good mood (see photo), and Aidan remained slow to fully wake up but he played with us. At the end of the visit we got lots of hugs from Aidan and lavished many goodbye kisses on Liam.

We left the baby house and attempted to go two different Chinese restaurants but found out both were having private parties or something like that. We were an amusing caravan of foreigners. Anya spent part of the trip picking on Bulat about his driving—you would think these two are married. Bulat was briefly pulled over by the police, not for his driving, but because he wasn’t wearing his seat belt. For a moment I thought we would be in a subtitled episode of Cops. After being released on just a warning we ended up going to a pub/restaurant called the Black Bull—a fact I knew without having the need for a translator because oddly enough the sign was in English. So there we were, seven Americans (The Woods were there, too) and two South Africans out for a much-needed late afternoon/early evening outing. Our drivers and translators left us once we ordered our food and were situated with a round of drinks and said they would come back later. We had a good time of small talk, talking about our children and anything else that came to mind. Most of the men polished off some Belgian beer and the women had Spanish red wine and Italian Chianti. The food was pretty good at the Black Bull much to my surprise as it was more of a bar than a restaurant. Terri became our impromptu interpreter for the evening when we needed more food/beverage. She did a pretty good job. We all had a blast, momentarily forgetting any of our problems. At 7PM the translators arrived and our party was broken up—I am sure we would all have stayed much longer otherwise. Then it was back to the apartment with at least a temporary break in our routine.

A good visit, and shopping

Steve here. Today started with rain that soon turned to snow. More is expected over the next two days. We had a good day with the boys. I think going to get Aidan has helped with his fussiness when he comes to the playroom. While he was getting ready another child came up to me and wanted me to pick him up. I held him until Aidan was bundled up and ready to go. During the first visit Terri brought Aidan banana yogurt again—loyalty bought with food! Terri also pointed out that she saw a large plate of chopped garlic sitting in milk in the baby room. Gee, I hope this isn’t a drink sensation for babies here. On a plus side, if there are any vampires nearby they will steer clear of the baby house. Both boys were in good spirits and we had a nice playtime. Liam was in fast crawl mode today. The boy can move. Towards the end of our first visit Aidan went from playing to sleeping in my arms in what seemed to be about two minutes! When he went back to his group he actually seemed a bit hesitant to leave us and we got extra hugs from him.

We went to the Russian café and sat next to the Woods who happened to be there as well—fancy meeting them there! As always, it was fun to chat with them about the kids and stuff back home. They gave us some helpful information on some places to go around town. After lunch we went to a place that had many little shopping stalls, kind of like a flea market set up but with new stuff. There were a variety of specialty shops including shoes, flowers, books, toys, clothing and souvenirs. We spent a little while strolling through here. Terri did a lot of souvenir and gift shopping. We got a chuckle out of Bulat at the shop that sold traditional Kazakh items. There were quite a few items we wanted to buy and we were pointing them out in the window and he would go around and talk to the clerk and bring the items over to us, doing it all over again for the next item we wanted. Anya was scolding him as he took the items outside the shop area as we were looking at the next item we wanted to buy. Bulat was our own personal shopper. We also picked up a few new toys to take in the afternoon, one that I would later start to regret—a toy keyboard with one sound setting… LOUD.

Our afternoon visit was much like the first. I went upstairs to get Aidan and brought him back down to the room where Terri already had Liam. We put down the new toys and Aidan had a fixation on the keyboard. I am sure the caregivers in the next room hated us. Liam isn’t afraid to jump in the middle of things as he crawled over and wanted to play with the same toy leading to Aidan’s protest. But all seemed to work out and both boys played nicely. We are noticing that Aidan requires less roughhousing to be entertained now than when we first met him. He will sit and play with toys a lot longer now. Liam alternates between crawling around, wanting to stand and being carried around. When it was time to go Aidan gave us multiple hugs and again seemed to not want to just bolt out of the room—progress maybe?

 

Then it was off to the coffee shop to relax for a bit. I joked around with Anya and Bulat by acting like I understood everything in a Russian language newspaper that was sitting nearby. Bulat is trying to learn some English so every now and then he throws out some phrases with more frequency that we do in Russian. Anya was teaching him the word tired which he heard as tide. He thought that tired was the same thing as laundry detergent. We got a good laugh.

After this entertainment we came home for our usual night of DVD’s and a little CNN International. Watching the London bureau of CNN got me thinking last night of how small my world has been to this point. I have lived in the southern United States my entire life. It has only been in recent years that I have had the time to travel to some other cities in the United States. We have been to the border towns of Mexico and have taken a cruise that briefly stopped in Belize and Cozumel. But this is the first time to really be able to experience cultures outside my reality. I have great respect for my friend Jerry who has always been a world traveler. He was a creative director who went all over the globe to work. While he now lives in San Antonio he also has an apartment near Madrid, Spain. His wife is a Spaniard so they go to Spain for holidays with her family. He always talks of how Terri and I must go overseas. I think his point has become clear to me now. It is hard to explain but things seem different now in some eye opening way—and I want more of it. I also want my sons to experience this a lot sooner than I have. I hope that we will be able to travel after they have become adjusted to their new lives and are a little older. Terri said that it all comes down to our perspective of family vacations and what we make of them. Maybe my introspection is amusing to those who go places but it is better to have the awareness now than to never have it at all. So look out London, Paris, Rome…

Putting it all in perspective

Steve again. Our visit to the baby house was shorter today. Apparently the doctors were doing checkups on all the children today. I went with Anya to bring Aidan back down to the playroom. While they were getting him ready I was watching all of the kids in his playgroup as they were watching me. Most of them had the biggest smiles. It breaks your heart that you can’t take them all home. Aidan came down to the playroom—this time without a crying incident. When we got there Liam was already with Terri. He was in a good mood and was making raspberries for his mama. I took Liam for a little while as Terri took out a small container of banana yogurt for Aidan (which we snuck in). He proceeded to sit in Terri’s lap and let the good times roll. He really seemed to enjoy the yogurt but I think mama enjoyed getting to feed him even more—mama and son together. Liam found me to be entertaining while this was going on as I played with him and generally made funny noises. We switched off for a while as I roughhoused with Aidan and Terri had Liam dancing. The boy was cutting some moves as mama held his hands. Sadly, our visit was way too short.

After our visit, we went with the Woods to a festival over at the children’s home (where the older orphans live). When we arrived we found a number of American families there. It had the makings of a street fair; the kids were performing skits and selling food and hand made items at little tables. And were these kids salesmen! Re-lent-less. We bought several items as it did support the home. I had to laugh when one of the kids (about ten years old) was trying to sell me a portrait of Lenin. I politely told him that I did not think that it would fit in the overhead bin of the airplane. And I had a suspicion that I would end up on some kind of government watch list (my government, that is). The kids had elaborate skits and dances. All the Americans were brought to the front to join in the dances! It was interesting at how much attention we all got as kids came up to talk to us, a girl wanted to get her picture with me and their video camera operator spent a lot of time filming us foreigners. We think this was some sort of festival to say goodbye to winter and welcome spring, as they burned a straw figure wearing a winter coat—we were told that this gets rid of all the bad things. We went inside to see some more performances that were about as well choreographed as some Las Vegas shows. The kids even make their costumes, really impressive. There was even a young man on his way to being a lounge singer. They were big on getting you up to dance during some of the performance. One babushka (elderly lady), who may have been around during Lenin’s time got up and really busted a move, quire hilarious.

 

I felt a sense of sadness being at the children’s house. We had heard that those kids that are not adopted are turned out onto the street with hardly anything once they reach sixteen. The statistics on these kids is staggering—less than 20% of these kids live to see their 25th birthday. It is just unreal. If there are others out there on the fence about adoption, do it. There are so many kids here that need a good home. Yes, it is a grueling process that is sometimes a pain in the ass, but you can give a child a way out… a better life. We ran in to the gentleman who was on our flight who was coming up to adopt one of the older girls. He was quite surprised to see us as we had told him we were going to another region, only to end up here.

Afterwards we went to Pizza Blues to have lunch with the Woods, another American, Laura who flew to Ust the same day we did, and a couple from South Africa, Candy and Steve. We had lunch a got to talk for a good couple of hours. It was a nice little therapy group as we all vented our frustrations with this process as well as talking about our kids. Laura actually had her daughter at the restaurant as she is on her second visit. She was a cute girl, a little shy around us but who wouldn’t be. It was really great to just sit around and talk with people who are going through the same things as we were. We all share a common bond.

We finished our day by going to the supermarket to restock on the essentials (Terri was out of chocolate, Steve was out of beer). We settled in at home to watch some more 24 and talk about our day.

Whiney and irritable… and that’s just us

Steve and Terri here. Today wasn’t our best day. There was nothing wrong with our visits to the boys but we are really feeling like our hands are tied with them in our interactions. Both visits had Aidan crying again when he came in, even on the second visit when I went down to his playgroup to get him. He walked back with me fine but decided to cry when we got to our area. What do you expect though when you have to go to the same 10’ x 10’ room with limited toys and activities. Liam was happy during both visits and is even making more sounds—today he made the raspberry noise! Part of our frustration is that we feel our role right now is babysitting two times a day. We aren’t allowed to give them snacks, nor can we help feed them, change them or dress them so our boys can’t really attach to us because we aren’t the people they need to depend on. We are even receiving ‘advice’ from the caregivers that we should let the boys be independent and not do too many things for them—that certainly is not going to help us form any attachments. So, mama and dada are just a wee bit on edge and feeling that real progress is going to be hard to come by until we get home. Of course, the boys are also at an age where they really can’t understand what is going on. Aidan gets told what is happening but I don’t think he really gets it yet. We have showed him the photo book of our home, family and pets and Anya walked him through it in Russian but it hasn’t sunk in yet—how can it, he’s not even 2.

We are also getting a bit of cabin fever. At the end of our second visit we wanted to go to a market called the Green Bazaar. We were basically told we couldn’t go today because it would take too much time. This is probably not the best thing to tell people who are already frustrated. We have also been told we shouldn’t go out in the evening for our safety. But we have read so many other blogs where people have gone to museums, malls, bazaars, hockey games and even had and evening out. Instead, we are rushed through lunch and encouraged to go back to the apartment.

We know this isn’t a vacation and that the purpose of our visit is to adopt but we also know this will likely be the only time we will visit the city and country of our sons’ birth. We want to see and learn as much as we can about it to be able to tell them all we can as they grow up. We are here to also experience the culture of our children and would like to at least catch a hockey game and go out for dinner. We’d like to try to do more with the Woods, the other American couple we know—more power to the masses. In fact, we were talking about visiting some festival today. They also would like to go see the local hockey team play so maybe we will all get there yet. Many of the other translators try to find ways to accommodate the couples they have, example: the Woods translator is going to try to get them to the hockey game, whereas when I mentioned it to our translator she really did not go out of her way to find a solution. She is very young, text messages her friends all day long and would rather be out with people her own age. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a very sweet girl, she just doesn’t seem to like her job. We are only her second family to work with and she probably sees things in only black and white solutions. I’m not asking her to break any laws, I just want to see and do some things. I want to make sure that our stay does not become the Ran and Stumpy Space Madness episode (sorry if this is an obscure reference to a lot of you, but my friend Marvin will get a laugh out of it).

On a plus side, Terri did get some wonderful souvenirs today and some gifts for family and friends. We hope to find a lot of Kazakhstan items (a flag, tenge, stamps, etc) so we can make a shadow box for the boys. We haven’t found everything we are looking for yet but we have plenty of time, plenty of time, space madness, space mad……...

And hey, thanks for listening…uh, reading.

Comments and questions

Terri here! I wanted to thank everyone again for all the wonderful comments. Also, some of you have asked questions in your comments but since the comments are meant to be anonymous, there is no email address for us to reply to you to. We are certainly happy to answer questions from those of you who are thinking about adopting, already in the process or just curious. Please feel free to email us directly with your questions at terri@rockthekazblog.com.

A busy day

Steve again. There is a warming trend here in Ust. Now we see the unattractive side of snow as the roads are a mess of oily slush and walking becomes more precarious. You can tell the weather is tough on the roads here. I have seen some potholes that could eat a Lada (Russian brand of car).

Our morning trip started with a quick cry session from Aidan followed by our usual playing and—surprise— he fell asleep on us again. While he was conscious, Terri engaged him and tried to teach him how to take toys out of the bag without flinging them across the room. Liam arrived, happy and in a good mood, this despite the fact he was wearing hideous bright lime green pants that would put anyone in a foul mood. He enjoyed his playtime with us but you could tell he was ready for lunch by the end of our visit.

After our visit, we went to the director’s office to be briefed on what the court experience will be like. The other American couple, the Woods, were there as well so we were briefed together. The lady from the Ministry of Education basically walked us through all the types of questions we will be asked and how we should prepare for them. It sounds pretty intimidating but the translator will be with us the entire time.

Afterwards, we had lunch with the Woods. We went to a place called Pizza Blues. I use the term pizza loosely since they use mayonnaise instead of tomato sauce—‘nuff said. Fortunately we were warned in advance so we could order non-pizza foods. Once we went through the minefield of ordering food, we got to know a little bit about each other and traded notes on our experiences so far. We also talked about the kids, go figure. It was nice to just hang out with some Americans for a little while. Terri also tried something new at lunch, too. It was like a fried ravioli is with a dipping sauce. I tried a couple and they were good. Unfortunately, we had to cut it a little short as our driver and translator had to leave to go deliver some of our papers to the coordinator.

The afternoon visit started about the same as the morning, a quick little cry from Aidan followed by some playtime. The director came in to see us and gave him a hug… which started the crying all over again. But soon he was playing again, that is, until he fell down and bounced the toy train off of his forehead. We were able to quickly distract him and he soon realized that his little bump was not life threatening. He has also learned the bear hug from me, which is a lot of fun. I squeeze him and make a growl noise and in turn he tries to imitate. It is funny, he grabs my shoulders and squeezes with all his might and gives a pretty impressive growl. Our translator said that Aidan’s caregiver wanted to know why he came back from his morning visit so sweaty. The little guy is like a nuclear reactor when he sleeps—talk about generating heat. So they asked if we could make him not sweat so much. I found this to be quite amusing.

Liam got to go mobile again. The excersaucer was in the room today and the boy was moving. This put him in a very happy mood—along with the fact he no longer had the lime green pants on. It was hard getting pictures of him as he would zoom across the frame. He was also having fun playing with a noise making remote control—a very happy baby, indeed. He really gets into the remote control toy—watching the little lights intently. We held him for a while a he made some pleasant mumbling noises. He is so different from the baby we first met.

We finished our day at the coffee house and spent the evening polishing off season two of 24. We also found out that the Spurs beat the Mavericks. A good day all around.

The bonding midpoint

Steve here. For the past two days we have completed paperwork that moves our adoption along. Yesterday we signed a commitment paper stating that we wanted to adopt these boys. Today we wrote a letter petitioning the court. Today also marks the halfway point of the bonding, although we will actually have an additional week of bonding while waiting for our court date.

The boys were amusing today. This morning Aidan started to cry out of a little jealousy when his brother was getting some attention. Terri thinks he is actually regressing a bit now—from toddler behavior to being more like a baby—as he knows he has someone who wants to take care of him. I think he really does want someone to take care of him. He played with the toys a bit and then sat with Terri until he fell asleep on her. So see, I am not the only one who puts him in a catatonic state! Liam crawled around and played to his heart’s content. When doing baby sky lifts I blew on his tummy and he just giggled. He is really starting to make more noise than when we first met him. Granted, it is grunting and mumbles but he is coming out of his shell.

Lunch was at our usual Russian café followed by a trip to the store for more internet cards and a longer phone cord so we can sit on the couch and surf. The shortest length of phone cord we could find was 20 meters! Great, now we can surf the web from the other side of the river, possibly even stretching to the China border. I also bought a Russian made, military style watch. I have a weakness for watches, and since time is something I have a lot of right now I might as well have options. Russian watches have a good reputation and they are a bit old school—winding instead of battery powered. For $20USD I couldn’t pass it up. Now I need to convince Terri that I need some of the other ones I saw as well.

The afternoon visit was good. Aidan had the brief crying gig down again but not as bad. One of his caregivers had given him a cookie so he sat in my arms leisurely eating his snack. We worked with him on saying ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ again—he did a very good job. The caregivers are impressed with Aidan’s high five abilities. Okay, so maybe the high five doesn’t have too many real world applications but it is fun nonetheless. Liam was very active too, crawling around, trying to stand up and wanting to be held. Baby sky lifts with tummy blows did not seem to impress him as much in the afternoon but we did get some smiles at peek-a-boo. Terri and I are anxious to get Liam home. There is only so much attachment he is going to have with us as long as there are others feeding, changing and taking care of him on a daily basis. When it was time to go, Terri somehow convinced Aidan to help put back all the toys on the bag. This was truly impressive because he goes through the toy bag like a tornado so it is nice to see he can help clear his disaster.

On our ride back to the apartment Anya told us that now when she goes to get Aidan to bring him to the playroom he is waiting for her by the door. So maybe he likes hanging out with us a little bit. Of course, when she comes back he is ready to go. I think he has a thing for the translator—already a ladies man.

Tomorrow we are going to try to have lunch with the other American couple adopting from the same baby house. They are about 11 days into their bonding period and we have passed them several times at the baby house. So in between passing each other in the halls we were able to set up lunch.

One last note. This experience has only been possibly because of everyone at home who is keeping things running there. My mother-in-law is house and dog sitting (no small task) and our folks at the office have done everything to make us feel comfortable about leaving the country for an extended period. Aidan, Liam, Terri and I thank them for making this journey possible.