Life in Aqtobe

A fun post today. Here are some photos of life in Aqtobe.















The steam from the basement of the apartments pushes the snow/frost up the apartment to nearly cover several windows and balconies.













Yes, here is a clothes line that is actually in use during the freezing winter months, and this is the only clothes line out in the city, this is just one of probably...........a million in just Aqtobe. I guess the clothes do dry, even though they may dry as icycles. The people then bring their clothes inside to dethaw in their balconies and it is said that they are very fresh and all bacteria are now gone. Check out the icycles on the sweater. Crazy!














Garbage and garbage removal. Check out the bobcat, there is a blanket over the engine, man is it cold.















Here are a couple photos of kids in Aqtobe. One of my favorite things about life here is seeing the little kids all bundled up like marshmallows being pulled by their parents on these little wooden sleds.

Apartment Here We Come!

Well, today I went to see our new digs, looks like as of this Sunday, I will be renting an apartment for our last week in Aqtobe; that sounds weird, ‘our last week in Aqtobe,’ this too will be Zahri’s last week here. Mixed emotions! My hope is that Monday I will have official custody of Z, and that afternoon I will bring her to our new one bedroom apartment. Thank you all SO very much for your opinions on bringing Zahri to my hotel / apartment versus continuing our normal daily routine at the orphanage. After much thought, I agree that this will be best for both of us. This time alone, with just Zahri and I, will give me that time to know her routine, to get to know her tummy, her signals, her sleep patterns or lack there of, her choices for food, etc. It will also give us time for her to connect to me as her sole security. I want for her to feel some comfort with me before we board the plane, and I think that a week alone will help her see that I am safe and that I will take care of her. So my plan is to do my last bits of shopping Friday and Saturday, and then on Sunday I will be moving and visiting the grocery store to load up on a week’s worth of groceries for both of us. It is so crazy, I have had nearly 5+ weeks of shopping and such here, and now that I know I have only 2 more days to shop for souvenirs and gifts, I am stressing at how to get it all done.

Yesterday Bayan (one of my favorite caregivers) and Bayan (my favorite translator) and I went over Zahri’s daily routine. They let me know when she eats, what she eats, when she sleeps, when they play, etc. And then I asked about Zahri’s tummy, is she regular, what should I be expecting? I know that this has been a hurdle for many families once they take their children from the baby house, so I wanted to know if Z had any issues as of late. The good news is that it sounds like she is pretty regular and that she is not a finicky eater at all, the bad news (and a major decision maker for me in deciding to take the apartment no matter what) was the knowledge that they had started to ‘potty train’ Zahri. I put ‘potty train’ in quotation marks because I was desperately hoping that they hadn’t started this practice yet with Z, but indeed they have. For those of you that don’t know how they potty train it is just about as warm and fuzzy as how they feed the babies. They don’t have time to hold each child on the potty until they go, they don’t help the boys practice shooting cheerios, they don’t read them books about going pee pee in the potty, nothing fun by any means. Needless to say that diapers are quite spendy so they must potty train asap. Anyhow, this was enough to solidify in my mind the need for me to have her with me as soon as we possibly could. So Monday at the apartment it is! Crazy!!!!

Today Sarah, Geert & Ganna officially became a family, as did Evy, Davy & Ilyan! Yahooo! This afternoon the babies were picked up at the orphanage and both families are now enjoying their time together in their apartments as a family. It is just amazing really, what a crazy feeling! Tomorrow we are all going over to Davy and Evy’s apartment for a celebratory Belgium meal consisting of beef stew & dark Beer. I can’t wait! I am bringing some local smoked cheese for the beer too. Mmmmm! Yesterday at the orphanage, Evy made Belgium Pancakes, which are what I remember as Crepes from my trip to Paris, and they were phenomenal. Evy had made the pancakes the night before and then we heated them up with my hot plate at the orphanage, put butter and brown sugar on them, rolled them up and mowed them down. They were fantastic! The first photo is of Geert, Sarah and Ganna and the second photo is Evy, Davy and Ilyan.







Here is Zahri yesterday, she was playing with the huge mouse in the playroom. We thought that we best pull him down since it is the year of the rat/mouse. It was a warm and sunny day, warm being like zero degrees, but warm to us nonetheless, so we opened the blinds and let the sun shine in.













Here is also a photo of the Mosque a couple days ago, we had a wonderful snow, and the photo turned out perfect. Several University students were walking hand in hand with their stiletto boots, fur coats & cute hats. The photo was a fun one to take, a great memory of my time here.

What would I want if I had been adopted?

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY TY 'BEAR'!!!!!!! I can’t believe that my oldest nephew, my first godson, is now 10!!! That is just crazy!! I love and miss you all and can’t wait to see you when we get home! (Ty is on the far left of the photo, and next to him are his brothers, my other beautiful nephews, Elijah and Izaak.)

Today is Day #10 of 15 of our Appeal Period!!!! Wahoo! Our Appeal Period ends this Saturday, so I should get the final ‘final’ approval from the court on Monday. So here is now my next decision to make, one that I am now contemplating and looking into. On Monday, if everything is signed off in the morning, I can then take Z from the orphanage in the afternoon and have her with me from here on out if I choose to. Here are my dilemmas: First, I am currently in a tiny hotel room that would not suit 2 girls, and even if I trade up to a normal hotel room, what are we to do for a week in a hotel room? That just wouldn’t be ideal at all, and because I don’t want to take her out much in this cold, we would grow very weary of our tight living situation. I just can’t see how that would be a very healthy transition for her. So, I have Gulnara, my coordinator, looking into finding an apartment for a week for me. If we are able to rent a clean, safe apartment for only a week (hard to find – I mean it is hard to find an apartment that will rent for only a week), and for a reasonable price, I might do this. At least with an apartment we have room to play, we have a bath tub, we could cook her porridge and heat her formula in a real kitchen, we can wash her bibs/burp cloths in a real washing machine, etc. Or, do I just continue visiting her as I have done for the next week and pick her up the day before we travel? My question is this; would a week together be beneficial to us, to get a routine down, to learn each other on a more ‘real’ basis, to not worry about her while she remains at the orphanage, etc? Or, would it realistically be better to not disrupt our routine? To only spend a week with a whole new routine, to then spend another week with a whole new routine in Almaty, to then fly home with yet another new routine, is that first week of a new routine really a good idea? Would a week of change away from her normal routine really be the best for her, for us? Would I be better rested, and Z be more at ease, if I were to pick her up the day before we fly out? Part of me thinks that the fewer times we change up her routine, the better. And then of course there is that other part of me that just wants her with me, with MY care, asap. Ohhhh what to do! I would love your thoughts!

Can I say that I adore this girl enough? Z just has so much darn personality! God really did do a great job of pairing us up! Zahri seems to have some definite independence in her, she might be a bit strong willed, she definitely has tons of light in her heart, she is amazingly smart and she has a dynamite personality! I absolutely delight in her giggle! I relate to her love for music and her need to just shake her bootie. I am continually amazed at how smart she is! Today, Bayana played Z’s favorite song on her cell phone, and Z went straight for Bayana’s phone (she loves the tv, camera, cell phones, etc.) Bayana then quietly moved her phone to the other side without Zahri seeing, and Zahri then walked herself around Bayana (in her walker), to see if the phone was indeed on the other side now. Smart!! As I mentioned yesterday, she knows where the puppies are. When I mention, “Where are the puppies? Should we get the puppies?” she looks straight to the top of the piano. When I put the small stacking cup in the large stacking cup she knows to shake it very lightly so it doesn’t fly out right away, and when it does fly out, she waits for me to put it right back in the yellow cup so she can do it all over again.












Since I met Z, I have been making many noises with my mouth, like clicking my tongue, vibrating my lips, kissing, puffing my cheeks, etc. About a week ago she started to imitate me and starting also vibrating her lips…………might I remind you that she is forever drooling, so this is quite a messy new trick, but fun. Well just a couple days ago, when I was vibrating my lips and making noises, she reached up with her fingers and moved them up and down on my lips. What a fun game! She discovered that when she did this, it made really fun sounds, so now this is becoming a really fun new trick. I will have to pull this one out on the airplane………a couple times I am sure.

Here is our favorite black and white puppy. Zahri loves this puppy! I want to frame this photo for her room, as sort of a memento of our time at the orphanage together.

Oh yeah, I am totally pumped! I asked Aina if she could please get me the name of the hospital that Zahri was born at, and Aina gave that to me today, so this week we are going to stop by the hospital for a photo. I also asked Gulnara today if they ever took a photo of Z when she was brought to the orphanage. After some thought she said that the only photo that would be on file is the photo they take for her file at the Department of Education, but they won’t give that to us. I then asked if we could try to at least get a photo copy. Neither she nor Aina really understood why I would ask for this, and I said, I am just trying to think of what I would want if I had been adopted, and I would love a photo of me as a very small baby. I would also love a photo of the hospital where I was born. I would love anything that my family could gather for me to help me visualize my life before adoption. Anyhow, Gulnara said that she would ask if she could please at least get a photo copy of that photo for me. Ohhhh I sure hope that she can, that would be so awesome! I am not sure that I had mentioned this yet either, but a couple weeks ago I had asked if I could please trade the orphanage for the sweater that Z was wearing the day I met her and again on our first day of bonding. One of her caregivers said that she would quietly let me do this, please just buy a new sweater similar to the one Z was wearing and we would trade. So I now have that sweater also for Zahri’s hope chest. Here is a photo of our first day of bonding, the pink sweater is the sweater that I now have for her. Yeah!!!









Well, I learned something new this week; I learned how the caregivers feed our babies. Ugh! Our group had some talks about what is best, and we can see the reasoning behind their feeding style, but it sure isn’t very nurturing. The caregivers sit on the small little wooden chairs that you might have seen in my photos of the playroom; these chairs are maybe a foot off the ground, so when an adult sits on the chair, their legs bend perfectly at 90 degrees. The caregivers then lay the babies on their thighs, with the child’s head close to the caregiver’s knees, and the start to feed the child while laying flat on their legs. Ugh! No attachment, no real nurturing, just getting the job done. I can tell you that if I had to feed 10 babies, 3 times a day, the way that we feed them, lying in our arms, my arm would seriously fall right off after just one day. So, I am sure they just do what they need to do; it just hurts my heart to think that Z hasn’t had much connection while being fed. Here in lies one of our talks in our group, is it good for the children to attach to their caregivers? I mean, so far Z has been in her birth mom’s tummy and learned her sounds and her emotions, she was then in the hospital being cared for by the nurses for a month, and then she was in group #2 for a couple months being cared for by the 6 caregivers in that room and now she is in group #3 with her 6 new caregivers. If the caregivers intentionally care for these children with attachment in mind, is that best for them? This is a tough question! I said that it sure would be nice for the same caregivers to take the children from 1 month to 2 years and then if they had not yet been adopted, they would move up to the older baby house. But when I think of that, is that the best? I just don’t know what is really the best, but at least I can say that ‘for the most part’ I really like the caregivers in Z’s baby room.

Growing Leaps & Bounds

I can’t say it enough; it is just amazing how much these babies change in just a month’s time. I look at all of the babies, and they are growing and learning at amazing leaps & bounds. Just over a month ago Zahri had no leg strength, she would just sit back and watch me build a tower of stacking cups, she couldn’t get enough of watching everyone else but didn’t interact with me much, she would hold a toy but wouldn’t much play with it, she would look up at me without emotion yet with a look of please help me but I am not sure if I should trust you. Now, she is interacting with all of her toys; she is hitting toys together intentionally to hear the noise, knocking over the stacked cup tower, playing with the tags on the side of her Itsy Bitsy Spider Book, hitting the buttons on the walker intentionally to hear the music and such. Zahri is nearly crawling to grab those things that she wants, basically running in the walker, jumping, sitting on my lap while I read her a book, dancing, interacting with me on a one on one. So much growth!

In the past 2 days, I have noticed 3 new things with Z. First, she now understands how to make herself go forwards, backwards and sideways in the walker. She can move herself to any object that she wants to get at. At first she would just play with the toys on the walker but wouldn’t use her legs at all, and then she would put her feet on the ground but not make herself mobile. Then she figured out how to move her feet thus move her around the room, and now she moves in all directions with purpose. It is so fun to see! Yesterday she was dancing in her walker, dancing to Bayana’s music on her phone and dancing to Geert’s piano playing. Today, she was zooming around nearly screaming in delight. She loves it when I stomp my hands on the floor while crawling towards her and say, “I am going to get you.” She usually screams and laughs in anticipation.

Second, today Zahri truly understood Peek-a-boo. She had sort of gotten in the past but never really played back with me, but today she was looking around the tiger to find me. She was so darn cute.














We have also been playing a lot with the 2 stuffed dogs in the playroom and a bit with the big Tiger too. I want for Z to get comfortable with the puppies, so we pet them & I bark and pant and whine. (Yes I do this, only for the sake of Z………..or maybe more so for the sake of Diesel and Rylee, my little pooches waiting back home, we need to get her ready for them.) At first she wouldn’t even get close to the dogs. She would back away from them. Then she would at least look at them and not back away. Then she started to pet and tap on the dogs and play with the black dog’s nose, and just today, I said, “Should we get the puppies?” and she looked right to the top of the piano where they sit. She knew what I was talking about. I talked about the puppies a couple times before getting them down off the piano and she looked up to the piano each time. She is so darn smart!

Here we are feeding our little ones breakfast; this day it was some grayish brownish cream of wheat, pretty nasty looking I must say, so Z and I had some bananas too.












INTERESTING BELGUIM TIDBIT: So last night we (both Belgium couples, me and Bayana) went out to eat at a Ukrainian Restaurant and then went out bowling. While we waited for our lane to open up at the bowling alley we ordered drinks, beer and Coke. Davy then poured Coke about 1/3 of the way up in his glass and then he added his Becks beer to the Coke. Yikes! Beer and Coke? Together? On Purpose? They told me that this is very popular in Belgium, kind of like our Tomato Juice and Beer perhaps, so I tried it too, and I must admit that it was pretty tasty. So interesting.

Today, after our morning visit, Davy, Evy and I went to Sulpak. Sulpak is a great indoor mall with 3 floors plus a fourth level with a cafeteria. This is one of the nicer malls in Aqtobe that we have found, and the prices are fairly reasonable (I mean, reasonable compared to the other crazy prices in Aqtobe, still not cheap by any means.) Just outside the indoor mall there is also a huge outdoor market, and YES, even in negative a billion degree weather, the outdoor market is still open. It was freezing, but it was kind of fun too. These merchants must be crazy to do this year round! You can find anything from kid’s toys, to hats, to clothes, to rolls of material, shoes, pots & pans, etc. out there. There are also 2 smaller indoor markets inside the outdoor market too. So, we would spend about an hour outside and then head into one of the smaller indoor markets to shop and de-thaw and then back out to the market, it was great fun! I highly recommend shopping here if you stay in Aqtobe.

My Daily Drive to the Orphanage

Here is a fun video clip of my daily drive to see Z at her orphanage. It is much more exciting when you are experiencing the drive in real life, but this will give you a good idea of just how crazy bumpy the road is that leads us to Z's baby house. At the end of the video, you will see a quick shot of the Ymit Baby House, this is the front of the building, the 3rd wing. The front of the building is actually office spaces for businesses, nobody quite knows 'what businesses,' that is on the down low I guess. The babies are in the back 2 wings.

The 'Alia Museum'

Okay, how cute is my baby's pompom hat!!! Ms. Marla, a wonderful friend of mine in MN, bought Z a super cute little pompom hat, but sadly this is not the exact hat that Marla bought. Marla's gift prompted us to ask the little old lady that made the hat to please get us another 15 hats for me to then donate to the orphanage, well, I kept one of those hats also, just in case I needed a good hat for Z in Kaz. Glad that I did because I need a hat from Aqtobe to Almaty, so today we tried it on, and it is so darn cute!!! Thanks Ms. Marla!

There is also a photo of Z and Irena, Irena is the other family's translator, Z likes her too.


Today, between our visits, we went to the indoor market to pick up some random items. I bought some cabbage and carrot salad, and it is so good!!!! I also picked up some marinated mushrooms and they too are super yummy! It is ‘illegal’ to take photos in the indoor market, from what I heard it is potentially because of ‘Black Market’ items, so I was not able to grab photos of this section of the market. There are many tables that have plates full of salads, mushrooms, shredded carrots, chicken, beans, etc. When you buy these salads, the lady scoops up some with a measuring cup and puts it in a plastic bag for you. I was very nervous to buy any food at the market up until now, but Evy and Davy were buying food like it was safe, so I thought what the hay. I am so glad that I did. The cabbage salad that I bought was only 200 tenge, which is less than $2.00 as were the mushrooms. Mmmmmm! Oh yeah, I nearly forgot my favorite purchase today, I bought smoked cheese. Oh my heavens this stuff is good, a bit salty, but really good! We tried it for the first time at the Asia Bar last weekend, it is just as it is named, smoked cheese and it is awesome to eat while drinking beer. Make a note to try this in Kaz!

At the Market, I also picked up 3 local music cds, 2 with Dombra music and one of a local Almaty singing group. Fun! Of course, I had to get more local chocolate, mmmm. One of the bars was Nestle and it was milk chocolate with raisins and cookie in it. Yep, I have already eaten it all and it was delicious! I got fresh sliced bread, juice & yogurt for Z, etc. We then had lunch in the basement of the Mall next to the Alia Market, there is a cafeteria here and not only is the food really good but you can get a soda, soup, salad and rice meal for about $5.00 This is the cheapest and best restaurant/ cafeteria we have found. We all also agreed that seeing the food choices and being able to point and say da or nyet is super helpful as well. Hehe

After lunch we went to a Museum dedicated to the Aqtobe Region’s local WWII Hero – Alia. Yes, Zahria’s middle name is Alia, so this museum was extra interesting for me. Our travel guide was great, her English was so-so, but she was a wonderfully nice lady that did a good job of explaining Alia’s life, and get this, our guide’s name was also Alia. Too funny. This is what I gathered of Alia’s short life: Early in Alia’s life her mother died, and when her father remarried, she was disowned. Her uncle ended up taking her in. After many moves in her young life, her uncle’s family grew so much so that he could no longer financially take care of some of his children, so with Alia’s agreement, she was sent to an orphanage in her late youth / early teens along with one of her sisters. There she grew very close to her orphanage family. After finishing her schooling, which I believe was at about the age of 16, she started to attend a University studying Aviation. After only 3 months at the University, Alia was accepted and started training as a sniper in the Army, preparing her for service in WWII. While serving in WWII, Alia wrote many letters to her father (uncle) and her sister, so it sounded that she had no hard feelings against her father (uncle) for her time spent at the orphanage. Alia lost her life at only 18 years old, she is considered to be a Hero in Kazakhstan due to her stellar involvement and service in WWII. At the end of our tour, Bayan let Alia (our guide) know that my daughter’s name was also Alia (at least her middle name) so she brought me out a free book on Alia’s life, written in Kazak, an a photo book of the Aqtobe Region’s WWII heroes. Alia gave these items to me as a gift. I was so impressed and grateful for this, not that we will ever really be able to read the book on Alia’s life, but what a wonderful momento. The first photo is of the front of the Museum, the writing says, "Alia Museum." This museum is also located on the main level of an apartment building, interesting hu.

A Change in Our Daily Schedule - Again

Okay, first and foremost, I want to thank my great friend Sandi, one of my 'S Group / Hot Florida Mom' friends, for the cutest dress ever! When I met Z, she was too little for this size 12 month plaid dress, but just today we tried it again, and walaaah it nearly fit. Must be all that good fruit juice I am feeding her. She looked so darn cute! Thank you so much for sending the dress to us before I left Sandi, it was so thoughtful and so appreciated, and even though we didn't get to wear it for Christmas as planned, we will get good wear out of it for the rest of winter! I did have to put some pajama pants under the tights though because the caregivers would have kicked my butt had I not, she would have just been too cold with only tights. They are pretty finicky here. :) hehehe

The 4th photos is of Z trying to steal her bottle, which is already empty I might add, from her diaper bag. Poor kid is hungry! :)

Our normal daily schedule:

Ceric picks me up around 9:45 and I arrive at the baby house around 9:55. I stay until just before noon and then return the hotel or go shopping. I then come back from about 4:00 and leave again at just before 6:00.

Well last week I was asked to please come to my afternoon visit just a bit earlier so I can feed Z. Happily I said. And now yesterday, I was asked to also come to our morning visits about 15 minutes earlier so I can also feed Z. No problem at all!

Well…..today I found out that the reason they want/need for me to come to feed Zahri is because she is too much to now handle in the group. Hahaha I guess that when it is time for feeding she cries, until they feed her,which makes them have to feed her first, she then now wants for them to hold her after feeding, or she cries again. They said that she is now just too spoiled (they use that word a lot) and it is difficult for them in the Baby Room. That is so funny to me. They also mentioned that she now steals the other baby’s toys. Why is this so funny to me? I am not sure, but I love it! She is coming into her own. She is realizing what it feels like to be a normal, happy, loved child. This is so good! I am happy to feed her, I would rather do that anyhow. My girl has the fight of flight thing figured out, she is going to get her food, and her toys, one way or another. She isn’t just going to sit back and lay down in her crib any longer! But then again, they said that she has always been a bit vocal about being hungry.

The word ‘spoiled’ is used a lot here, once the babies are bonding with their new families, they blossom and that tends to cause a bit of chaos in their baby rooms. The caregivers are not mad about this, I am sure that it is just more challenging for them as they are used to a certain routine, and certain behaviors from each child, and now, we give them love, one on one time, and they start craving that. The poor caregivers just can’t give that to them though, they are really only there to meet their most basic needs because that is all the time they realistically have.

Today one of the caregivers got a bit upset because one of the babies was having a tough time going potty, he screams, he cries so hard, it is traumatic for him, so his parents again asked what they might be able to do. An orphanage doctor came in and asked to see his file. It seems that this has been going on for some time, but of course their reasoning for him having a hard time going potty was because his parents are now feeding him juice and fruit purees. Um Whatever! Anyhow, my point is that the caregiver said that he is now so ‘spoiled’ that every time he goes potty he wants to be held and his screams are now louder because he has been spoiled. Wo! That is so crazy to me! Do you think it might hurt? Do you think that maybe it has always hurt, and he has always screamed, but maybe they didn’t have the time needed to put 2 and 2 together? Well, we are happy to SPOIL these babies.

Check out our newest You Tube! Z has become even more connected these past 2 days, she is really finding her own little personality. Today she started babbling, something she doesn’t tend to do often (she is a fairly quiet baby with a coo here and a giggle there but that is it), and she was babbling loud enough to get the attention of our entire group. It was so cute, probably even cuter than normal because she is usually so quiet. We all started talking with her in baby talk, and she just kept on going with her dadadadada and some other stuff, and then she would do the ‘s’ sound for quite some time, long enough to start spitting, as if to prepare for another big sentence of dada. It was great! Sorry the video is sideways not sure if I could have changed that before uploading, or afterwards for that matter, but you will get the idea of just how darn cute she is.

The Gift of Love

The Gift of Life!
I didn't give you the gift of life, but in my heart I know, The love I feel is deep and real, as if it had been so. For us to have each other is like a dream come true! No I didn't give you the gift of life, life gave me the gift of you! (Thank you Brad & Stacy for this amazing saying, I read your blog and nearly cried, the last sentence says so much.)

Sorry about no posts yesterday, I wanted to spend my night catching up on my fellow adoptive family’s blogs. Slowly families are starting to get word of their regions, not many LOIs across the board yet, but many that should be coming in the next couple weeks. I can’t wait to read along on all of your travels as well; it will be so fun to see all of the babies finding their forever families.




Well, yesterday between our visits, I visited the indoor market and the Mosque Mall and found a cheap little snowsuit for Z. I am only needing this snow suit to get us from Aqtobe to Almaty, so I didn’t want to spend too much moola. Besides, the quality of the clothing here is quite sucky for kid’s clothes. This snow suit only cost about $20, and that was the cheapest that I have seen (which is pretty cheap), but most of the suits range from $50-$150. My tip is to buy your suit (and all needed clothes) in the States, the quality far exceeds the quality here, and the prices are much better. You may ask, why do you only need a snow suit for 1 day? My sister picked us up a really sweet blue and lime green (no pink Ms. Suzanne thought you might be proud of us). It is a Columbia snow suit and was on sale in the U.S. Since Becky, and my mom, are meeting me in Almaty, little Ms. Z needed something to keep her toasty for our airplane ride. She was so tolerant when I put the suit on her, she wasn’t happy about it, but no fuss was made at all. Ohhhhhhhhhh how I hope this continues.



This is Z eating a teething biscuit, this girl is beyond messy and slobbery, always. She loved it!






This photo was not planned, really, we all just started feeding our babies their bottles at the same time, so when we realized how funny it was, we asked Evy to please take a photo. Hahaha Team!






And lastly a photo of Bayan and Zahri playing the piano, notice Mr. Frog sitting on the stand where the sheet music goes, can’t leave him on the blanket you know.





Yesterday was beautiful, it was quite chilly, but no wind and lots of sun. The trees were all covered with snow and ice, it was gorgeous. Can you believe that the little Chickadees don’t fly south? Those little birds are so cute and fat here.





And yes, even yesterday, with all of the ice and snow, people were still hanging out their laundry …………. To dry? Check out the enormous ice cycles on the building behind the clothesline. Wow! Most of the apartments here have a bar of sorts that folds down from the window jam and acts as their clothesline. Interesting I thought.

The Sun was out in Aqtobe

Today is Sunday, so we visit only in the mornings on Sunday. Nothing crazy new to report today. I did try my new trendy Kazak hat on Z, and nope, she didn’t really like it. After 2 photos I thought she might cry, as she looked quite concerned, so off the hat came. But man was she cute!




Here are Davy, Evy and little Ilyan getting creative with our play room toys. You do tend to start getting quite creative with the toys the longer you stay here, maybe a positive to the long stay here in Kaz. Who knew that the same 15 toys could really be have about 100 game uses. Here, the little Belgium family, was taking our stacking rings and using them to try to knock down the bear bowling pins. It was a fun game.

After today’s visit, we all went back to the business center for more pizza and local salad, ymmmm yummy. We then went shopping in the Business Center, but didn’t buy anything because things there are so expensive, this area of Aqtobe really caters to the business people, most here for oil or gas. We then walked down to a couple additional kids clothing stores and Simba, a kids toy store, also all very high priced but fun to visit. After shopping, we ventured back to a coffee shop by the business center called, ‘Black and Brown,’ but it was closed. Grrr We had been looking forward to going there for a week now, so we ventured back up to the 3rd floor of the Business Center and ordered coffee and cake there. It was great! I had cappuccino, a chocolate and caramel cake and a shot of Kahlua. Well, Davy had Cognac, so I could have Kahlua, right?









It is also now official, my mom and sister plan to purchase their plane tickets on Monday. The plan is for them to fly out of Minneapolis, MN on Saturday February 9th which brings them into Almaty on the 11th. I am told that I should be able to be in Almaty on the 11th or 12th, so we have decided that the best option is for me to meet them in Almaty. Because of timing with our schedules, and the cost of in-country flights, I decided that it would just make the most sense to meet in Almaty. I will need 3 business days in Almaty to visit the SOS Clinic for Z’s medical check up and HIV test, get her Visa and finalize any additional documents, so if I get into Almaty on the 12th, that will give us the 13th – 15th (Wednesday – Friday) to get things done. We then plan to fly out of Almaty and back to the U.S. on Sunday the 17th. Let’s hope and pray that things go smoothly until then and our schedules will stay as is. I just can’t wait to see them and for them to meet Z! I am so fortunate that I have such a close family! My mom, sister and I had always said that we would go on a trip overseas together, who knew that it would be to Kazakhstan to bring home my daughter! We joked that maybe we would visit a coffee shop in Amsterdam on the way home to order my mom a brownie. Hahaha I have heard that the brownies are pretty ‘special’ in Amsterdam, they are made with a special green leafy plant that makes you feel really relaxed and gives you the munchies. Hmmmmm

INTERESTING KAZ TIDBIT: During a light snow, or just on a nice enough day, you will see many families out in the yards at the apartments cleaning their floor rugs. There are even stands made of pipe made especially for hanging up your rugs to clean them, or you can just hang your carpets on the fence like this family is. The people hang their rugs, toss snow on them, and then beat them with a stick or a special rug cleaning tool that looks like a big spatula type thing, and then they roll them up in the snow and take them back inside. Interesting!


Here are also a couple additional photos of life just outside of the Ymit Baby House, these are buildings and sites that I pass by each day on my way to see Zahri. This is the gate that we enter to drive into the Baby House.









And here is a small convenience store just to the right side of the entrance gate. You see these small convenience centers everywhere, each neighborhood has at least one, many times you will see small little independent buildings such as this one.


Here is an apartment building that is just across the entrance road from the Baby House, a very bumpy one lane dirt road that separates several apartment buildings. This is the road that I take every day to see Z. I hope to soon take a video of my drive down this dirt road in Ceric’s van, it is quite bumpy. You will see that there is also a small convenience store in this apartment building too, this is also very normal.










And here are a couple of the bears that we share the play room carpet with. Memories anyone?

Gotta Get Creative

It is official, I dislike shopping for groceries in Aqtobe, no, let me rephrase that, I nearly hate shopping for groceries here. Ugh! Everybody is in such a hurry, the aisles are so narrow, people cut in front of you and budge their way in, and you feel that stress of hurry, hurry, hurry until you leave the actual grocery store. It really sucks!
















Okay, now back to more important things, like Z. I am learning that one can get very creative with the same 5 toys if this is all that they have to play with for nearly 2 months. Stacking blocks are fun to stack, yes, but they are also fun to clang together, you can roll them, eat them, put them on your head and watch them fall down, put them inside the stacking rings, play hide and seek putting the smaller cups under the bigger cups, toss the little cups from big cup to big cup, and today we discovered that it is also great fun to put two of the cups on your feet and clang those cups that are in your hands against those on your toes. Zahri kept laughing and laughing, she loved this new game, and it once again motivated her to bring her feet up in the air and work those muscles. Every day we learn a new game with what was an old toy. The blow up beach ball is another great example, who knew that a $5.00 beach ball could really be 20 toys in one? This is a really good thing about our twice daily visits to the playroom, it really does get you ready to be creative with your child and use toys in different ways. It makes you use your imagination, something that we tend to lose as we grow older. Another favorite of the kids is just tossing up a plastic bag; Evy likes to dance with the bag, tossing it in the air with her hands and feet and such, and the kids love it. We are also finding that the babies love slap stick humor, especially Ganna, she can’t get enough of Geert and Sarah falling on the floor. Her entire face laughs and she just giggles up a storm watching them fall to the floor and make silly noises. Z on the other hand is fairly stoic, she enjoys this too, but she holds in the laughter and smiles and instead just watches them make fools of themselves at the delight of the babies. Maybe I will conquer my fear of acting like a total idiot with having a child, but as for now, I am still not yet ready to fall to the floor and make crazy noises. Boring mom in that area still.

Zahri is also starting to be more curious about the 2 big stuffed puppies in the playroom. I try to put one of them by us every now and then so she can get comfortable with the look of a puppy. We play on the dogs, I do the sign language for dog and woof woof and pant for her. At first she would look at me with surprise every time I panted, but now she just continues petting the puppy. I am hoping that she won’t be scared of our 2 big dogs. I am sure they will give her many good kisses when she gets home. I am not yet sure if the kids ‘dogs’ or Z are more slobbery.











It is official, today is Day #1 of my Appeal Period. Yahoo! Only 14 more to go.

SUCCESS AT COURT!!!!

Tonight was awesome! Tonight, as a group of 6, we decided to go out and celebrate. Really celebrate our appeal periods. Sarah & Geert (and Ganna), Davy & Evy (and Ilyan), me (and Zahria) and Bayan. It was so fun. We went to the ‘BAP’ which reads ‘Bar’ in English at the Hotel Asia. There were 2 floors of pool tables (my great friend Sherree would have loved it!) and many tables for people like us to sit and drink Vodka and eat smoked string cheese. It was so fun! I needed tonight! When I walked into our afternoon visit, everyone asked, ‘How was it?’ ‘How was court?’ and I said, ‘It was great, in and out in 10 minutes, and I need a drink!’ It was true for goodness sakes, this was a stressful week, for all of us, and to go out with friends was what I needed. Thankfully they listened and agreed and we all decided to go out to the Hotel Asia for some Vodka. Now I sit here eating left over Fritos Chile Cheese chips from Laurie for supper and writing my blog entry. Probably not a good idea after a couple shots of Vodka and Orange Juice, but it is real and it was a fun night, so I write here on my single bed having had a bit too much of Vodka tonight (I am a middle child for goodness sakes so I can say this as true and know that my friends and family will laugh and still love me for the crazy me that I am.)








This last photo is how we were all seeing each other after just 2 hours and only a couple shots of Vodka. :)



At the end of my court hearing today, which was a total of maybe 15 minutes, I got the a-okay to adopt Z. She is mine considering that our 15 day appeal period goes without a hitch. I feel really good tonight. I love these people here. They are truly good people. We are all first time parents and it is such a wonderful thing to share this experience with such good people. Ganna will get Sarah and Geert! Ilyan will get Davy and Evy! I will get Zahria = Perfect! I must admit that hearing Geert and Davy talk about their babies tonight, I envied these two married couples. These men love these babies! They love without condition and I really admire that! Really admire that! I will have this too, Zahri and I will have this! I promise baby, we will have this! You are my absolute priority now!

Court went well, it was maybe 15 minutes at most. My judge was actually a woman, so I loved that! In Kazakhstan, this was an unheard of, and I totally appreciated it! Go Women! My prosecutor was a man, he was serious, asked a couple general questions and then shook my hand at the end as to say Congratulations, which I truly appreciated! I really thought that they would ask, “Why are you so young? Why aren’t you married?” But he did not, she did not, they treated me like any other adoptive family, which I was just not prepared for. I know that I am a stretch here, being young and single and all. I know that I go against their culture, so to agree that I was a good mom for Zahria (Zukhra) was a tough call in the way of culture. If you are an unwed mother here in Kazakhstan it is a really tough life I hear, the culture just isn’t yet accepting of this. It can be very trying to find a husband if you are a single mom, and it can be really trying to be a single mom in their culture in general, so I really applaud the court system for understanding that life in other cultures is beyond this thought / this idea. Man am I so fortunate to live in the United States in this year of 2008 where woman can be independent young mothers, without being married, and still be beautiful! I know that it is still a stretch here, but at least there is a choice, I can choose to parent as a single mom, and a man can choose me as a single parent to still be amazing, beautiful, independent and yet so worthy of the love of marriage and family. This will be me! This will be us!

The first photo is of the court house and the second is a photo of my court room, the 3 women in the photo (with their fur coats :) are Gulnara my coordinator on the left, the orphanage head doctor in the middle, and the lady from the Department of Education that helped me in the selection process.















When I met the Director of Education before I selected my child, she asked me why I was so young, didn’t I want to birth my own child. I answered honestly, as I cannot lie, I said that adoption has always been in my heart. It just has. At this point in my life I didn’t feel that push to ‘birth a child.’ My push was to adopt. I am not sure how to explain this, but I have always known that Zahria was out there waiting for me, she is my child, she was meant to be my first! I know this! My heart knows this! I know this sounds crazy to some, some people have no idea how I could be so heart set on adoption, how I could long for a child that was not in my tummy, but I just knew, I just knew that she was mine! This is my daughter, and she is absolutely beautiful! I know that someday she may need to find her roots, and I will always support this, without hesitation, I will support that she may need to see where she came from and who she got her smile from. But for now, for the next many years, she is mine, my child (and she will always be my child of course), whom I will raise with my wonderful, pure values, to love all those that are good, to understand that we all are unique and good, and that she can be unique and amazing and challenging and exactly who she is, and I will love her always. I appreciate her birth mother. She was a very strong woman! She made choices that I will never know, some that maybe I will never have to understand. It just amazes me that I am a young single woman in the United States adopting a little girl that was born to a young single woman in Kazakhstan and our lives can be so different and yet so the same, we both love this little girl named Zukhra/Zahria so much that we promise to do what is absolutely best for her. Her birth mother promised to carry her, protect her, keep her healthy in her womb & give birth to her and I promise to take care of her, love her and bring her up as a wonderful loving human being. I promise to love her always, to raise her like she too was in my womb and to love her so completely that she never questions what true love is. She is my daughter! My first!

This is the most amazing, and challenging, part of adopting in Kazakhstan, you really get to know your child’s culture. Living here for nearly 2 months, truly being immersed in her culture, I will feel that I have a good sense of where she came from, who her people are and I will then be able to communicate with her what I experienced while living in her region. Her people are good people. Quiet. You need to really get in before you are respected and appreciated. Until then you are just another person on the streets, not worthy of respect or appreciation. They may cut right in front of you in the line at the grocery store, they may look at you and whisper, they may look at the exterior of you and not what is on the inside. But once you get in, you are in, you are family, you are loved forever. Until you leave your bubble of what you have known for your life, and meet new people, to understand a new culture, you cannot truly appreciate, appreciate a new people, you just cannot understand what it is to be raised in an entirely different culture. Life is so different here. People are so different. Not worse, not better, just so different. And I have grown to like it here. People are not fake. You are not an immediate friend. You are not presumed to be good. You are just you. And you need to prove that you are good, and until then, you are just a person.

Gymast Perhaps?

Okay, I promise not to push her, but I am thinking that maybe Z will be a gymnast.......what do you think? :) And I didn't prompt her to do this, she was just laying there playing with her stellar fur boots.

Zahria gets faster and faster by the day, it won’t be long before she is crawling. It started out as an army crawl, no legs were used, and then she was scooting around with her arms and legs, and now she is full speed ahead motivated to move toward something. She almost has the crawl down, but she needs to learn to keep her butt in the air for just a bit longer. Who ever would have thought that I would say that. Haha

Okay, look really close at the photo where Zahri's face is on the beach ball, you can see through the ball that she is slobbering all over it. :) That is my girl!






















Z has two caregivers that really seem to adore and love her and she in return loves them back, it is so nice to see. When they come to get her, she is smiles. It is nice to leave and know that she is in loving hands. I know that they cannot give her the one and one that she gets when she is with me, but I do know that she is being cared for by ladies that adore her. When I left this afternoon, one shouted out the baby room window, ‘Good Luck at Court.’ In Russian of course.

So, while we were just driving home from my afternoon visit I noticed 3 school aged boys ice skating on the sidewalks. I am not kidding you either!!! They had their normal ice skates on and everything, and it seemed to be working out just fine for them. Too funny!

INTERESTING KAZ TIDBIT: When you are at a stoplight and it is about to turn red, the green light first blinks a couple times to warn you, then it turns to yellow and then red. I found that interesting.

ANOTHER INTERESTING TIDBIT: A couple weeks ago we were coming to pick up Margo at the older baby house and just before we entered the grounds, behind an apartment complex, there were 2 men skinning a sheep. Seriously, I about freaked out, but I kept my cool, did a double take, and yes in fact they had it tied by its’ hind legs to a clothes line and were skinning it. YUCK! How in the world could they be doing this right out there in the open? But then I thought, we do this with deer. When I grew up my dad was/is a hunter and he would bring home the deer and elk and hang them by their hind legs in our garage. Well, they don’t have many garages here, so right out in the open it is. I guess it is what you are used to, what you grew up with, because Ceric and Aina didn’t even look twice or comment. It just makes my stomach turn thinking about it again, but really it is just life.

YET ANOTHER WHILE I AM AT IT: There are many stray dogs and cats here. Here, because there are so many apartments, there are also a lot of dumpsters, dumpsters that are overflowing with garbage. At these dumpsters you will always find stray animals. At first I was so sad about it, but again, dogs were historically wild animals, so I think they make it just fine here. I haven’t seen that they bother people at all……oh but there was one time that I now do recall……it was at the skating rink by the stadium, a dog had gotten a hold of a young man’s hat, he was probably 20 something, and he was chasing the dog all around trying to make him drop it. Finally he scared the dog by pouncing right down on the ground in front of the dog, yes, he was totally on the ground, his entire body, and the dog dropped the hat and jumped back in fear. It worked. It was quite funny really, the dog was just playing.

Slobbery Pooh Beach Ball Day

Today Gulnara, my coordinator, verified that all is good for my court hearing on Friday. All needed documents are signed and prepared. This has been an unusually emotional week, and I cannot wait to breathe again once I get the judge’s final decision on Friday. I will be in court at 11:00 am. Remember to breathe until then Christy!

Z is more amazing each day! I adore this child! Today we took a lot of really cute photos while we were playing with the blow up Pooh beach ball, she loves this thing. Davy deflated it a bit and she loved being able to hold on to it and toss it around……..I must add that she loved to try to bit and thus slobbered all over it too. Good thing for Pamper wipes!





















Between visits today Bayana met all of us at the basement of the Business Center for some amazing Pizza! This place rocks! It is a very moody, dark restaurant with stellar pizza, really, it tastes just like home………if not better!








And then we all went to the Museum for the Aqtobe Region; the Museum is considered to be in the old section of Aqtobe, and this region still has an unusually Soviet feel. The building that is now the Museum was the oldest biggest Hotel in Aqtobe. We had a wonderful guide who did the entire presentation in English. Rock on! I don’t think that I would have enjoyed it quite as much had she spoken Russian. Hehe This lady was a wonderful story teller. She told us of the history of Kazakhstan, showed us some of the local protected animals and plants, & talked with us about Kazak traditions. She mentioned that there were many good things about being part of the former Soviet Union, but one of the negative aspects was that each country was not able to research their own personal heritage and culture. Kazakhstan is now really researching and celebrating their culture as they had lost that for so many years under Soviet rule. Kazaks believe strongly in color, so when they are creating rugs, tapestries, coverings for their homes, etc. they do so with color in mind. Red = Life, Green = Food, Brown = Earth, Yellow = Fire and white is most important of all, white = milk. White is so important because it is the color of the mother’s milk that gives life and health to the baby. The Aqtobe region is well known for their oil and gas fields. She also made mention of how stupid their people are, her words exactly, she said that they sell the hides of animals for $5 each to Turkey. Turkey then turns the hides into beautiful fur coats and sells them back to the Kazak people for $500. haha

Another amuzing & interesting tidbit of our tour was when our tour guide told us that Japan is the most brilliant country in the world. She insisted that Japan is just an island with no natural resources such as oil & gas, they didn't have any sheep, goats, horses or camels to hunt, eat, use their bones for weapons, jewelry and such, help them haul and build, etc. and yet they have really made something of their country; they are indeed the smartest people in the world. Very interesting thought.














The Kazak people also follow the Chinese Oriental Calendar. When we go shopping there are mice everywhere, so I knew something was up, and yes 2008 is the year of the mouse. Because this is the year of Zahri’s adoption, I picked up the cutest little cream mouse. I also purchased a kid’s book on the Oriental Calendar, and the year of the Mouse reads:

This year the Mouse proved
More resourceful than the Camel.
It stored enough this summer
For people and livestock to be full.

Last year, Zahri’s birth, was the year of the boar, and the year of the Boar reads:

The last year in the cycle
Is called the year of Boar.
It brings abundance,
So we’ll be prosperous ever more.

Last year was indeed prosperous as my daughter was brought into this great world!

Success at Court X4

I am happy to report that 4 out of our 5 couples here have made it through court and into the 15 day appeal period with great success! Just me to go! So far, so good, it looks like all of the ducks are in a row now for Z and I too, so hopefully Friday goes well! Today during visits I wrote up my 3 minute speech that I am to give to the judge, it is all about facts, no fluff. Who am I, am I educated, do I own a home, how long at my job, annual salary, why adopting, am I in good health, why did I select Zahri, etc.

If all goes as planned, my mom and sister will be heading to Aqtobe on February 9th, arriving here on the 11th. I am so excited to see them and share Z with them! It sounds like we may only have a day, maybe 2, here in Aqtobe and then we are off to Almaty for a couple additional days. I am hoping to be back in Minnesota by the 18th of February, but as we all know, flexibility is the key.

So, what am I doing right now? Well, glad that you asked. I just washed up some burp cloths and bibs in my tiny pedestal sink and hung them to dry on my make shift clothes line that is strung from my armoire to the window, a total of maybe 4 feet. The left side of the string is tied to the knob of the top cabinet of my armoire, so when I hang something a bit too heavy, the cabinet door swings open and causes a bit of chaos, Hehe I am also making butter noodles on my hot plate that sits on my lone Dining Chair, drinking a glass of Kazak wine, and listening to the BBC. I must be honest and say that I am so much more educated now on foreign affairs and the U.S. race for president. I never quite realized just how ‘stuck in my own little bubble’ I have been. You live your life going to and from work, making supper, doing laundry, cleaning your home, paying your bills, and that is about your life………oh sorry, forgot one really important item in my old day to day, watching HGTV, can’t forget that. It is hard to really take in what is happening in the world around you when you are so consumed with your day to day.

It is Official - Z Doesn't Like Brittany Spears

At this afternoon's visit, it was just Z, me and Bayana; the two Belguim couples were at court this afternoon(fingers and toes crossed that all went well.) Since Zahri is such a little dancer, Bayana played Brittany Spears' new song on her cell phone, and nothing, not even a little wiggle out of Z. Looks like Z doesn't care much for Brittany or her recent antics. Then, Bayana played another song, and Zahri gave up a little boogie. :) She is just so darn cute! Whenever we laugh at her, she stops dancing, so it took all that I had to hold it in. She is definitely a girl after her mom's heart, her mom loves to boogie too!



Court is still set for Friday. Life is still good. Still camping out in my Dormitory. Amazed that I am 1/2 way around the world immersed in Zahri's culture learning about her people, region and customs.

INTERESTING KAZ TIDBIT: I have been wondering how in the world the cars start in the mornings here. It is so desperately cold here, and they don't have garages and don't plug in their cars either. There is just no way that they can start on their own in the morning. And today, I found out their tricks.......every night they take the batteries out of their cars and take them inside where it is warm, then come morning they re-install their batteries and off they go! Obviously they don't own a VW Tourag as I do, you can't even find the battery in these cars. :)

One Tough Little Cookie

So here she is, at her best, my little Z who refuses to give up very easily. :) I hope you enjoy this tiny little clip as it took me one hour to upload on my dial up connection, that is after a 20 minute failed attempt to upload. Zahri is playing with Davy in this clip, and Davy is trying to take her stacking ring, but she just won't have it. And no, Davy is not one of the other babies, Davy is a 30 some year old man trying to take her toy. :)

Tour of the Mosque

Z continues to grow each day. She is a tough little girl. Today Davy tried stealing her interlocking play rings (let me remind you that Davy is not one of the other babies, he is a 31 year old grown man from Belguim – hehe) and Z held on for dear life, she had only 2 little fingers grasping her beloved toys and she held on until he gave up. I continue to be so proud! I also took a cute video of Davy trying to steal her stacking rings and she hangs on so tight that he starts to pull her along the floor, really it wasn’t mean, it was so cute! She was serious, those toys were hers!















Zahri is growing more and more in love with Bayan everyday. Bayan is so great with the babies and the other families, she gets down on our play blankets and interacts with the kids in such a real and loving manner and the babies respond. Z just adores anyone that speaks Russian, when she starts to hear someone talking in Russian she pauses and looks for them, you can tell that she is fond of her native language. Thus when Bayan speaks in Russian to the other translator in the room, Zahri pays close attention. Check out these sweet photos of Z and Bayan, they are some of the best photos yet. It is so nice to take photos of Z interacting with others, and it is nice to get photos of Z and I interacting as well, something that is tough to do when you are a one woman family.











Oh yeah, I am drinking Vodka and O’Juice right now and eating a piece of fresh Banana Cake that Laurie left me, and might I add that I am doing this while computing on my single bed. Hehe

Between visits today, Bayan, Davy, Evy and I went to the Mosque and were treated with a personal tour. When we entered the Mosque we were asked to take off our shoes before walking on any of the carpets, and then we (the 3 girls) needed to please take a scarf and cover our hair before entering the temple. The Kazak people are Muslim, so this is one of the 3 Mosques in Aqtobe and the only Mosque that is connected to a Mall in the world. This Mosque was built in 1999 and when under construction one very important building requirement was forgotten. Traditionally, all men and women are supposed to enter through separate doors and then worship on separate floors, but a mistake was made and this was ‘forgotten’ so men and women enter this Mosque through the same door but do essentially have separate worship areas. We were told that it is not that men are more important than women, just that when both men and women worship alongside each other, men have a harder time concentrating on the worship thus it is traditional for the men to worship on the main floor and the women have a separate room upstairs. Children are also allowed to worship here. True practicing Muslims are to take time to pray 5 times a day, thus you will hear a prayer broadcast from the Mosque 5 times each day. I can hear the broadcast from my Hotel room which is about 2-3 blocks away, it is a wonderful sound. The gentleman that showed us around the Mosque made sure that we understood that Muslims do not believe in terrorism, despite what has been said, he has read and re-read the Koran and done much research and nowhere does it ever say that killing people is okay. This is a group of disturbed people that do these things, not a religion. On another note, it was so cute, when Bayan, Davy, Evy and I went up the stairs to see where the women worship, Davy was stopped by a young man, no older than 12, that told him that he was not allowed upstairs, this is an area for women only. Bayan explained that we are only there to tour not to worship and he let Davy up to see. Then while we were up in the worship area, this same boy pointed out that you read the Koran, written in Arabic, from right to left not left to right as we typically read text. He was pointing to words in his Koran, and I believe that it was Evy or Bayan that said, “Oh, can we see your book?” And he shut the book and explained that we are not allowed to read the book. It was so great, this young boy was studying his religion and was very intent on following his religious customs by the book. Every Friday they have worship and about 2000 people show to worship at this Mosque alone, so many get there 2 hours early to get their place. There are no pews, no chairs, only carpet on the floor that has individual prayer areas that outline where each worshiper is to kneel. Another interesting tidbit we learned was that the head of the worship room in every Mosque faces Mecca, the holy city.

When we left our tour at the Mosque, Evy said, “You are so lucky, had we come to see the Mosque on our own, we would have just looked around and not been given the tour as we were today. You are so lucky that you have the translators that you do!!” It is true, not all in-country teams are equal. I know in another post I talked about this and someone (sorry can’t remember who this was) commented that they thought it was normal place to have a driver take you to supper and pick you up after words, have your translator take you to see the sights and go shopping, etc. I am not sure of other regions, but in Aqtobe this is not commonplace. Other in-country teams are told that they are to take the families to and from the baby house for scheduled visits and that is it. The translators are told that their job is to just sit at the baby house in the play room to be sure that the families are there and are bonding with their children; they do not need to take them out to see the sights, give them advice on places to eat better yet go with them to the restaurants, etc. I would have to imagine that those teams that tend to go above and beyond do so because they are being ‘taken care of’ by the adoption agencies in the States, not because they are just kind hearted people that know it is a nice thing to do despite their wages and relationships with the agencies. Some drivers have second jobs, so taking their families to supper or shopping, etc is not even an option for them. Some translators are taking care of multiple families from multiple agencies so they don’t have time to go the extra mile with individual families. I am not meaning to demean any other agency or the in-country teams here; I just write my posts to help educate those who have not yet traveled, I want to post the information that I couldn’t find on blogs before I traveled. These are only my experiences here, so please don’t take all that I post as fact that applies to all regions, all agencies, all in-country team set-ups and all family’s experiences.

Laurie's Court & her Apartment

Today was a big day, today was Laurie’s turn to go to court, and it sounds like everything went very well. Laurie’s appointment to meet with the judge was at 10:00 this morning and within about 10 minutes her court hearing was over. That is it? Just 10 minutes, a quick speech and the judge stood up to leave. Crazy! Our French couple were in court for about an hour and a half, so Laurie’s news of a smooth court proceeding was so wonderful to hear about. I guess that the prosecutor wasn’t at the hearing, so to be sure that all is done properly & legally, Laurie has to go back to court Friday morning (tomorrow) at 8:30 am to finish up everything. From what we hear, we should get a final word from the judge either the day of our court hearing or the next business day letting us know if he/she is approving our adoptions; after the final approval our 15 day appeal period starts, and this time frame includes weekdays and weekends, so once this time is up and there are no appeals, we are officially considered to be the parents of our little ones! Congratulations Laurie and Kyson! This also means that tomorrow Laurie leaves to head back home to Bloomington Illinois and no longer do I have my shopping and supper buddy to hang with. Ugh!

Here are some photos from Laurie’s Apartment, she had great luck here and would definitely recommend her place to upcoming Aqtobe Families. I talked about her apartment a little bit in a previous post, but just a refresher: This apt. is attached to Hotel Dastan so the location to shopping, eating, groceries, etc. is great! Her heat was great, maybe a bit too hot even, although you can just open windows. She felt very safe. It is in a secured building. First floor apartment so very few stairs to lug luggage & groceries up. 3 bedrooms. Still bring your flashlight for the entry area, sometimes there is a light on and other times not. Her apt. had new appliances including a fridge/freezer, washing machine (no dryers in Kaz, at least I haven’t heard of any yet in rental apts), newer gas stove and a microwave and toaster! Nice place once you get inside. Last night Laurie made us baked Chicken, Boiled Potatoes & Corn …………mmmm yummy! And check out the caterpillar wallpaper in the second bedroom........hahaha........how cute is that!

















Lastly, here are some great pictures of Z and I chillin today. I just love the photo of her in her walking walker thingie where her hat is a bit droopy and nearly covers her eye, so cute!

A Twinkle in Her Eyes

This is Zahri and Ilyan; Ilyan is the son of Davy and Evy our Belguim friends. Isn't he just a peanut!

I am writing this blog post on January 10th hoping that I soon will be able to actually post it to my blog. It has been so frustrating not being able to post; thank you to all of you that were able to email me personally to see that we were okay, and I am sorry to those of you that didn’t have my email but were worried that I wasn’t obsessing over my daily entries thus was I okay? All is great here! I am loving Zahri more and more each day and she too thinks that I am amazing. Hahaha Two days ago I bought Z some new booties, of course they just had to have fur on them as she is a Kazak beauty and fur comes with the culture, and she loves these new booties. I am finding that Z loves texture, so she will spend much time just feeling the traction on the bottom of her booties and playing with the thread that attaches the sole of the bootie to the top part.

TIP – Bring Board & Soft Books that have texture in them. There are books with fur, scales on fish, shoelaces, etc. the kids would love those! I of course only brought one with texture on the front, it is the ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ and Z loves to just pet the front cover as it is fuzzy. I have looked for texture books everywhere here and no luck, they just don’t have them here. I even asked Aina, my translator, and she said that she doesn’t know of anywhere that has them either. Ugh!

When I got to the baby house this morning, there was Russian family in the play room loving on their daughter. They are adopting a little Russian girl, she was such a beauty, probably no older than 6 months. When I arrived, they soon left and then Z was brought it to play. Up to this point, I haven’t met or seen any other adoptive families (outside our play group) in the orphanage, so this prompted me to ask Aina about local adoptions. She let me know that the locals here in Kazakhstan can adopt an infant, this is why the babies are only available for international adoptions after the age of 6 months, the local government prefers to see their children adopted locally if possible. It sounds like more girls are adopted locally as well, however, Bayana had mentioned that little boys are often adopted as well, just not as much. I guess that it is tradition here in Kazakhstan for the youngest boy to always live with his parents, he never moves out, not even when he is married, his role is to take care of his parents. Needless to say, boys are very valued here for this reason. Then I had a freak out moment, and I asked Aina if a local couple now visited the orphanage, could they choose to adopt Zahri? I guess I never thought about this, I knew that once I started bonding with Z, she wouldn’t be introduced to other international adopting families, but what about local families? Aina reassured me that once we started bonding, she was no longer available for adoption to any family. Fewweee! I mean, at this point, she does have that happy twinkle in her eye, she is more mobile, she is cooing, she is cleaner and her nose is better, her vision has really strengthened and not to mention all of those adorable clothes, hats and boots that I have her dressed in now, she is a doll. What if I just bonded with her, gave her the love she needed to blossom, and then ‘Walla’ another family saw what an amazing child she was and they wanted to snatch her up? I would have absolutely been heartbroken. That isn’t even a good enough word, devastated? Still not even the word to describe just how empty and lost I would have felt, but no worries, this is not the case. This little beauty is set to be my daughter thank heavens!

Okay, back to those new booties, with the help of the support and the traction on the bottom of the booties, Z learned yesterday that she can move herself around the playroom in the rolling walker. Yahoo! This is a new trick! I used to push her around and she just played with the attached toys on the tray of the walker, but now she is mobile! And today she was moving herself forward in the walker. She is so smart! Yes, that is my daughter! I taught her all that I know, that is why she is brilliant you know.

Today when Zahri’s caregiver came to get her, she was so lovey with Z, which is fairly normal with this specific caregiver and one other, and she said, “She gets more and more beautiful each day now that she found her mom!” What a great compliment! It is true too, her eyes are so much happier, her skin is softer, her clothes are cleaner, she is interacting more & she is starting to coo and find her voice more. She is just a beauty! Her caregiver was beaming when telling this to Aina, it was so wonderful to hear. She also told a story of this past week when we were not able to visit, she mentioned that Z started crying after breakfast because I was not there. This tends to happen every time I am not able to visit due to holidays and such, but this time Z quit crying for just a bit, until one of the caregivers from another baby room came in and this caregiver had glasses just like me. Zahri’s caregiver swears that she thought that other lady was me, and when she didn’t take Z, Z started crying again. Although this is heart breaking to me, it warms my heart too, just to know that she is recognizing me and our time together is a wonderful thing.

TIPS – If you haven’t yet bought a coat for your time here, and you plan to travel in the winter months, buy a long coat (one that covers your thighs and butt), and buy one with a hood. I am so thankful that I bought a warm coat with a great hood, but I wish that I would have bought a longer coat; yesterday my thighs and butt nearly froze off, I do have some to spare so it wasn’t all that terrible of a thing, but I don’t want my whole butt to fall off. Hehe

TIPS – Laurie has had great luck with her apartment. She is on the main floor of an apt building that is attached to the Hotel Dastan, so she is able to walk over to the Hotel for lunch and breakfast no problem. The parking lot between the Hotel and Apt. is well lit and there is a security house that is manned 24/7, so it is a great location. I had asked Bayana why they tend to recommend their clients stay in Hotels versus Apts and she said that the water and heat are just so unpredictable in the apartments and their families often have times when they may be w/out water or heat for a bit of time. She mentioned that a building could be without water for days while the pipes are worked on. Yikes! I guess that life in an apartment is much more reliable in the winter months, as there is no construction happening on the water lines (the ground is frozen so construction stops for a couple months just like in the States), but come Spring, Summer and Fall you just never know what you will get. Just a thought! If you are traveling in the Winter, an apartment might be a great bet! Although, I like my little dormitory hotel room just fine.

INTERESTING KAZ TIDBIT – Girls here live with their families until they are married, which is hopefully by the time they are 25. If you have not been married by 25 your family gets very concerned and your likelihood of finding a man decreases drastically. Although it is not legal here to have multiple wives, it is a custom of their religion so their religion views it as acceptable. There are men that have 2 and 3 wives, and it sounds like they are trying to change the law now to make it legal to marry several wives. The Church does recognize the marriage of a 2nd and 3rd wife, just the law does not, so you can still get married in the church (Mosque) 2 and 3 times to additional women. But women cannot marry 2 and 3 men. Imagine that! Sheesh! Double standard I do say! Arranged marriages were also much more common up until about 8 years ago, and now they are not so common.

This is my daughter, the typical slobbery, spitting up of much juice girl that I hope to offically be mine in the next couple weeks.

Spam Blog?

Sorry that I haven't posted in a couple days, which, as you know is totally unlike me. I was tagged as a possible Spam Blog. What does that mean??? I am not sure either, but I had received a note on my blog a couple days back that they were concerned that my blog was in violation of my terms and agreement and that it was under investigation as a spam blog. Hmmmm don't they realize that this is my lifeline? :) Anyhow, I sent in a request for them to review my blog and I received an email back that my blog could be under review for 4 days. Ugh!

In a quick post, here are some fun photos from the past couple days. I love the photo of Z looking into the flower mirror, this was probably the first time that she has looked in a mirror and she was quite confused. It was fun! She actually figured out that the same person in the mirror, me, was also right behind her. She kept looking in the mirror and then looking back at me, I am sure that she was quite perplexed. The second photo is the epitome of Z, Ms. Drool! I think that she is so stuffed up that she tends to just breathe out of her mouth, leaving her mouth constantly open; needless to say, she is a drooling queen! The third photo is of Z and a little caterpillar that moves in circles and sings, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," the babies love this toy! It was actually the first toy that motivated Z and Kyson to prop themselves up for a long period of time and move toward the caterpillar and reach out to try to grab it. We all just wished that the darn caterpillar knew more than one song. And the last two, my favorites, are of Z in her diaper. She loves to be nearly naked! I am sure that this is a rare occurrence for her, so she was so happy just hanging out in her diapers. :) All of her fingers and toes are there! I have been here for nearly 3 weeks and this was the first time that I got to see her in just a diaper, strange hu. You accept their referral, bond, fall in love and you never even know if they are missing toes or have hidden concerns on their little bodies. It must be love!
















Here is a cute one of Z in Kyson's snowsuit. I just love it when you see little babies all bundled up! And because Z is all cheeks, it is even that much more cute! And the second photo is of Z and a large furry puppy that is in the play room, we have been loving, petting and kissing on this puppy to hopefully get her more comfortable with Rylee & Deisel when we come home. :)














Lastly, here is our wonderful, very diverse :), group of adoptive families.

Minorities

This is a photo of the Ymit Baby House, this has been Zahria's home for the past 8 months. Z's Baby Room is on the main floor in the far right wing, there are 3 wings in the babyhouse but the third wing is hard to capture in the photos. PS - That is Ceric's mini-van outside the Baby House. :)

Today totally got away from me, too many snuggles, and I didn’t end up taking many photos. Sorry to all of you that look forward to new Z photos daily. Today Zahri was a complete doll, as always! Today we took her height & head measurements again as well as her weight, and she is the biggest of all 4 babies in our bonding group. Rock on, my girl is pretty darn healthy! Looks like Zahri is now nearly 17 Lbs & 28.8” tall. Both her head circumference and her height are near the 90th percentile on American growth charts, but her weight is pretty low. You just want to start feeding them full of fruits and veggies, juice, baby food, teething treats, etc. but then you hold back because you know that it is just too much for their little tummies to take all at once. Today 2 different people held Z, and after a short time she looked at me and started whimpering, I just love it! This is such a healthy sign of attachment right now. She doesn’t wail, she doesn’t whimper right away, but she is partial to mom! She likes her caregivers too and doesn’t whimper when they come to pick her up, so that is positive to see as well. Here is a photo, the one and only today, of Z and Kyson (Laurie's little man.)

Congratulations to John Jacque and Marie, today was court day and it sounds like all went well and that little Lila will soon be home with her parents in France.

Laurie should have court this coming Thursday and she hopes to the fly back home to Illinois on Friday, Laurie is doing 2 trips. Both Davy & Evy and Geert and Sarah (our Belgium couples) should have court this coming Friday and both couples will be staying for one trip just like me. Here are photos of 3 of our 4 families, tomorrow morning I will try to get a photos of John Jacque, Marie and Lila. :)





Today was Day #14 of our Bonding, so tomorrow is officially the end of our mandatory 15 days of bonding. It sounds like I will then have court on the 18th of January. From what I hear, I will either hear just after court or the next day if all went well at court and the judge will grant the adoption. If I am okayed to be Zahria’s mommy, there is a mandatory 15 day appeal period following our court hearing; in this time, anyone in Z’s birth family can protest the adoption. I feel fairly confident that once the judge okays Zahria’s adoption, that all will be okay and that we will soon be a family. I know that my coordinator is now contacting Z’s birth mother to get her relinquishment letter, this is an additional step required by the courts here in Aqtobe (the children are of course relinquished once before coming to the baby house as well.) I am not sure that this is the same procedure in all regions, it sounded like it is an extra step that very few regions are implementing. If we receive the relinquishment letter, I am not so worried about any appeals from family following court.

I remember reading many posts before traveling about the people here in Kazakhstan; I read that the people here are very direct and abrupt. If you are not fluent in Russian you may think that people are angry when speaking when in fact this is just the normal tone used. It is true, people do seem angry a lot when communicating with each other & people do cut in line here, you could be standing in line at the grocery store and someone will just come in and go in front of you. Twice we were waiting to exchange money and people cut right in front of us. It is quite crazy and frustrating; however, today, while waiting in the unheated entryway of my hotel (it is a small area just before the official entry of the hotel) and 3 people came in to the hotel. All 3 people opened the outside door and then started into the hotel, as I waited in the small area, and all 3 people looked back and noticed that the door to the outside of the hotel was not shutting, so they came back and physically shut the door so I wouldn’t freeze. I was so amazed at that kindness. You wonder if people here are kind, as you can’t speak their language so you really aren’t sure, and this showed me that there is absolutely a kindness here.

On a similar note, you are never quite sure how people will take you when they hear you speaking English either. It seems that most people are aggravated by us, you hear them talk and whisper and look as you are in the stores; but are they interested or are they frustrated by us? I just wish that I knew Russian! I am getting better, I am really trying, but it is so interesting to understand first hand how it feels to be the absolute minority. It really makes me appreciate those living in the U.S. (or even visiting the U.S.) that don’t fluently speak English. You are suspicious of everyone. Are they trying to cheat you out of money when you get your change? Are the prices higher because they can tell that you don’t know their language? (Many items are not priced, so you wonder if your price is the same as the price quoted to others.)

I swear to you that people know that we are American just by looking at us here. I would think we could semi pass as Russian, but we do not. There are so many times that people look at us and say, ‘Hello, Where are you from?” in English. It is crazy. Today at the market an elementary aged kid looked at Laurie and I and said, “Hi!” So I said, “Well hello there.” And he replied back, “My name is ________________.” I chuckled inside knowing this is the first sentence you learn in class when learning another language, so I replied back with, “Good to meet you, my name is Christy.” He was so happy with himself. How did he know that we were American? I tell you it is strange. I had another young man, elementary aged as well, taunt me at the Mosque Mall. He was with a Jr. High or early High School aged boy, and when they learned that I could not speak Russian, he kept coming back and talking to me and laughing. I felt like an idiot after awhile. This little kid was taunting me and I couldn’t say back nicely, ‘You know son, that is really not polite and you should be nicer to people’ or something like that. I would have liked to really surprise him with a nice Russian statement back to throw him off and make him double think what he was doing. It was quite embarrassing. And then there are those people that are so excited that we are American so they can practice their English on us. Today 2 college girls heard us ordering Pampers and they said, ‘Where are you from?” Come to find out they are studying at the University and were so excited to talk with us, in fact we are meeting with them next Monday to go to the University with them. They then helped us find those boogie sucker outer things at the mall (try to explain needing this when you don’t speak the language), and one of the girls, tried to pay for our 2 items. She was so kind! I think they were just so excited to practice their English on us and help us out. They are studying to be translators.

In the end, what I have learned, is that sign language (not even formal sign language) just the charades kind is such a nice tool. Hehe We tend to use our hands a lot to explain what we are trying to convey, and often we are successful. I then take out my Russian / English translation book and add that to our sign language and we get by just fine. hehe

Playing with Bubbles

Due to a broken water pipe in the orphanage, the main level of the building is fairly chilly, so they had Z all bundled up when they brought her up for visits today. I re-bundled her back up for her treks back down to her Baby Room after our visits; it absolutely amazes me just how patient and easy going these babies are. Z didn’t throw any fuss when I swaddled her up; I can also take away her bottle or nook and she is okay, if I need to undress her to change her diaper or rub medicine on her belly and then need to re-dress her, she is so patient. She loves being naked, all the babies do. Will this continue? Once we get home will her true onry colors show, or will she continue to be easy going? Man, I sure hope she does!













Today we played with bubbles, which is always fun. Z seemed a little more interested in the bubbles, which was fun to see. She is starting to interact a bit more versus watch and lose interest right away. She even spent some good time today looking at her books while I read, this is new for her. When we first started to read books, she would look around and get antsy while I tried to read a book. Maybe she was just more interested today and maybe she is starting to 'get it' more??? Hmmmmm














During our morning visit, one of the caregivers came in and asked for Zahria to please go with her. When I asked Aina, my other translator, what was going on, she mentioned that all kids were getting their HIV tests today. Ugh! You only hope that they are careful with their needles. When Z came back, she had a bandage just wrapped around her little hand. Poor little bean! Honestly though, she seemed quite okay with the whole thing; she was interested in her bandage a bit, but didn’t seem to be bothered by the ouwie. (How in the world do you spell that word?) I think they just learn to deal……….because they have to, their caregivers don’t have the extra time or energy to make a big deal of anything. It is hurry and do for shots, feeding, changing, etc. No time for fuss.










Last night 4 of the 5 families here (Laurie was sick so she couldn't make it) went to an Armanian Restaurant called YPAPTY or OURTARTOU to us English speakers. :) It was great fun! Here are a couple photos of our group, the fireworks show before the dancers came out, and the flamin' bar. Before the dancers came out, they had local singers perform on stage which was fun. It was quite interesting trying to order food with one French couple, 2 Belguim couples and me the lone American. All 3 other couples speak English as well, but our waitress only spoke Russian. :) Yikes! None of us speak Russian. :) Luckily we found a guy there that spoke English and helped us make our decisions and place our order. Stress! I again ordered the Pork Shashlik, a form of barbeque, but it was a bit different from the Shashlik that I had at the Ukranian Restaurant.........remember this is an Armanian Restaurant. I went with the Shashlik because I was too stressed out to try something new, it was just too stressful for us all to figure out what to order so I stuck with what I thought would be safe and good.......and it was. :)














TIP – Research your agency’s in-country staff before signing!!! I remember my great friend Suzanne telling me this piece of advice, research your agency backwards. Suzanne was advised to start her research on agencies backwards, starting with researching the in-country team and then moving to researching the agency itself once hearing of good in-country teams. I am so glad that I did this……..at least I kind of did! I found a couple agencies that I liked and then I researched their in-country staff’s standings in Kaz as a whole. It really is amazing how differently one’s in-country experience can be with a good team behind you! I can only say that LMI really did a fantastic / phenomenal job when hiring my in-country team in Aqtobe! They are the best, and other families also notice this! Again, my team is Ceric (driver), Gulnara (coordinator), Bayana & Aina & Marina (translators.) The littlest things make such a huge difference, case in point:

• When I arrived in Almaty, my Almaty translator, Marina, met me at the airport and stayed with me for 7 hours while we waited for my delayed flight. Marina was only supposed to meet me around 5:30 a.m. to help me buy my ticket to fly on to Aqtobe, and then once my flight left at 7:45 a.m. she would leave; but as luck had it, my flight was in late and my connecting flight was then delayed about 7 hours……….and Marina stayed with me the entire time! She helped me purchase my ticket, exchange money, took me to get a bit to eat at a nearby hotel and then watched my luggage while I slept on a couch in the coffee shop. Marina also hooked me up with my own cell phone to use in case of emergencies while in country and to call my translators if I need them, plus she gave me all of the in-country staff’s phone numbers right in Almaty, right at the beginning of my trip. Marina who is in Almaty, still calls me every now and then to see how things are going in Aqtobe. Just a note – other agencies do not do these same things!!!!
• My driver, Ceric, is an amazing, kind & funny guy; Ceric absolutely goes above and beyond. There are many times that he picks up Laurie and I at the baby house and drops us off at the Mall or picks us up at a restaurant instead of just picking me up at my hotel as is normal. Last night he brought me, Sarah, Geert, Davy & Evy all to the restaurant and didn’t ask for any money. Ceric is only hired to bring me to and from my daily bonding visits, by no means does he need to drive me anywhere else. You see, none of these other families are even Ceric’s families, they have their own driver, he doesn’t have to help them/us out at all, but he does because he goes above and beyond. We tipped him of course, after he refused many times, he finally accepted. I must also say that Ceric has a clean newer van with heat, he never smokes in his car, and it is a very comfortable atmosphere; this is not true of other drivers. Ceric also only picks up me and Margo, so he is not overbooked with families; again this is not the same for all agencies and their in-country drivers.
• My translators, Aina & Bayana are top notch! Seriously, Bayana has helped answer so many questions for me and the other families. Last night I called Bayana at 11:00 pm (her idea) and she sent her taxi driver to the restaurant to pick us all up. When I first arrived in Aqtobe, Aina and Ceric froze their butts off helping me get my baggage, etc. When I arrived at the Hotel, Aina came in with me to help me get things set up and Ceric helped carry in my bags. Some just get dropped off and are ‘on their own.’ You may also just assume that if you get a translator they can speak fairly good English, and this is not always the case! This is so so so important! If they are translating your documents, answering your questions, translating for you at court, and they don’t speak great English, what kind of representation do you really have? My translators are great! I have total faith in their English skills, and they are so helpful! They too go above & beyond! Bayana is great about telling us where are great places to eat and shop, which is so helpful; she also went shopping with Laurie and I to help us buy diapers, the ‘right’ baby lotion, cold medicine, baby clothes, etc. This is not always the case. I am Bayana / Aina’s only family here in Aqtobe right now, so they are not overstretched and they can truly help me out and make me their priority!
• My in-country staff only works with LMI families and a small Hawaiian agency, so they are very familiar with how LMI runs things and they are not overstretched in their time & resources. Other in-country teams are subcontracted by several agencies leaving them overstretched.
• My coordinator, Gulnara, is said to be the ‘bulldog’ coordinator as she gets it done! The day before I arrived in Aqtobe, Gulnara was in a fairly bad car accident, her car was totaled and she had a bad head injury, but her equally capable sister stepped in and helped coordinate my paperwork. My translator Aina is also helping getting my paperwork typed up, notarized and delivered. For New Years, Gulnara stopped in to the orphanage to say hi, ask how my bonding is going, and give me a very wonderful gift. That is above & beyond! I hear that not all coordinators have equal luck in the courts here.

Just good food for thought!

Sorry, No Z photos again today!

I am so sad right now, on the verge of tears sad. Ceric & Bayana picked me up at our normal 9:45 pick up date, we arrived at the baby house, I got all of Z’s toys and blanket out and then the head doctor came in to talk w/ Bayana. It seems that one of the pipes broke and it is being fixed today. The lower level of the baby house is very cold and they wanted to bring the children up to the meeting room to warm up while the pipe is fixed today. (I did ask if I could just bring Z to my hotel where it was warm, and that was a 'no.' Do they think that I am going to flee Aqtobe with her? My heavens, I don't speak enough Russian to even get a cab or plane ticket.) This means no visit for two days in a row, and if that isn’t hard enough, Z’s caregiver didn’t know of the change so she brought Z up to see me. While I loved on Zahri for just a bit, her caregiver was telling Bayana that all day yesterday, starting just after breakfast, Zahri cried, she thought it was because Z was missing our time together and realized that I wasn’t coming for her. Could this be true? This was my fear in yesterday; this was my fear in leaving her for the month while I went back to the states. Does she already know that I come to see her after breakfast and again after lunch? Does she already look forward to seeing me and playing with me? Does she cry for me and our time together? The thing is that Zahri isn’t a crying baby, she rarely cries at all, so if she cried all day yesterday, that tells me that maybe she does know and maybe she does look forward to our time together already. Today when her caregiver brought her in to me, Z had outstretched arms ready for me to come get her, and she was smiling. And then, not 2 minutes later, I had to give her back to her caregiver, it was like a mean joke. That poor little soul, I ache for her today. I am sorry that you are sad Z.

Today, I am all the more certain that I cannot leave, she needs this time with me and she looks forward to it. Today was officially Bonding Day #12.

I cannot stay couped up in my room today, I would only get more and more sad, so I think that I will walk over to the mall to just walk around and possibly get a pastry and tea.

Today sucks!

I am the Winner! :)

Happy 2008! Hahaha I beat you to the New Year this year! I am the winner!

Well, I wish that I had a super fantastic story to tell you about how I whooped it up in Kazakhstan and brought in the New Year with much Vodka & Dancing, but I fear that I do not have such a story. I am not sure that getting silly in a crowded bar when you can’t speak the language (thus ordering drinks is hard, saying excuse me is hard, etc.) was such a good idea. Here was my day/night, Laurie and I did some shopping at the indoor market again today; I purchased a pair of sweat pants for Z, the pants to one outfit that I brought from home were too short so I had to get her comfy, and Laurie purchased some gift for friends and family back home. We then ventured back to my hotel, which we just learned is connected to her apartment building (no inside access though, but super close and a well lit walk at night) and we had fajitas for supper. I also ordered a glass of white wine. Come about 9:00 we got our bill and I was astonished to find that my glass of what I must say, was very crappy wine, was more than our meals. Wo!

TIP – Wine is too expensive to drink here, stick with Vodka.

My glass of wine was about $11 and our meals were about $6 each. Yikes hu! And then…………….we went home and went to bed. Loser! You can say it! My lack of sleep is catching up to me now, and I was absolutely pooped by 10:00; I guess that glass of wine really helped to put me to sleep. I am sure that it was at midnight that I heard a bazillion fireworks go off, and I couldn’t even muster up the motivation to get out of bed to look out the window, I was so tired! The good news is that I am starting to get at least 4-6 hours of sleep a night, last night I got a full night of sleep, and it was great! It only took 2 weeks here before getting any sleep. Yikes! Get ready those of you that are to travel, bring good sleeping pills, the prescription kind will do great!

No visits with Z today, so I think that I will head over to the grocery market to get some stuff for the hotel room. Yesterday we were only able to see our babies from 10-12, today we don’t get to see them at all and tomorrow we only get to see them from 10-12 too. Sad! I just worry for her when I can’t come, is she getting any love or a chance to play? But tomorrow night the 5 families that are currently here are going out to go out to eat together. Our French couple, I believe it is John Jock and Marie ?, have made us reservations at a traditional Kazak restaurant with ethnic dancers, dinner and drinks for about $50 a person. I am really looking forward to going, it should be quite fun! I will try to get many photos.

Well, as Sandi put it, I am very content in my new digs, just camping out. :) Today, after a very courageous trek to the store, I decided to make Mac & Cheese for supper. So I got out my hot plate, put it on the only uncovered surface in my room, the lone Dining Chair, and set out to boil my noodles; luckily, no fires on the Dining Cushion. I then strained my noodles, putting my cooking pot on the toilet as I strained my noodles in the bathroom sink, and then I started adding my powdered cheese and went to get the milk (that i just purchased at the store.) I opened up the milk, and to my surprise, it was quite a bit thicker than the milk that I had purchased with Aina. Ummmmmmm, yep, looks like I bought a cream or something and not a milk. Who knew, the writing on the package was written in Russian. :) That would be Mac & Cheese made with water and powdered cheese for supper. :)

So far so good on no tummy aches! This is so very different for me, the queen of tummy aches back home. I am not eating anything too crazy, no street vendor food or anything; however, I have eaten at a couple cafeterias with local food, a Ukrainian Restaurant, baked goods at the indoor market, local milk, tons of food at the hotel, etc. and still no problems. Rock on! And while I am on the topic of the street vendors, it is true, even in -30c weather, the outdoor markets and vendors are still open. Crazy hu! The merchants are totally bundled up but I can’t even imagine how cold it must be. I asked Bayana how on earth they could stand to be outside in this weather all day, expecting her to say that they have heaters or they take shifts or something, and she replied, “VODKA.” Hahaha I am sure that is absolutely true!

Besides walking on sheets of glare ice in my stillettos, I have to be sure to also watch for the open man holes throuhgout the city; this man hole was just outside of an Elementary School Building, no kidding.




And here are some photos of the Mosque (where the Muslims worship) and the Mall that is attached to the Mosque.