The Story of My Daughter

December 2008 Update

2008-12-16T21:33:00.004-06:00

Wow, how time flies! Today I was just thinking back, this coming Sunday, December 21st, marks the one year anniversary of the day that I met my daughter. Wow, how life can change in just one short year. :) So many blessings! Our God is so Good!

I remember being taken to the Ymit Baby House in Aqtobe Kazakshtan. We entered the front doors and I was immediately taken into a small office right off the entry. The office was maybe 7x8', stark white walls, one small old desk, a filing cabinet and a small sofa like chair to sit on. When they brought in Zahria, they put her in my lap. Immediately she looked to her caregiver, then at me, and with a quivering lip started to cry for her caregiver. I was touched immediately, it was positive to see that she had some kind of attachment to her caregiver and some concern about me. After maybe a minute or two, Z was cautiously interacting with the little frog toy that I brought for her. We still have that same frog in our car. :) I was able to hold her for only a couple minutes and then they took her back to her Baby Room. I asked some additional questions of the Head Nurse and learned that her birth name was Zukhra, so close to the name Zahria I had connected with but hadn't committed to. I also learned that Z's birthday was March 3rd. That is my birthday! So many signs. Okay, so later I learned that her birthday is really March 30th, a small translation error, but still a connection nonetheless. That day I committed to start the bonding process. I left that little white office wondering what in the world had I committed to. I had such little information. What if.....? What if......? and what if.....? So many what ifs, but something in me told me that I was meant to bond with this little girl. Bonding was a slow process, filled with many emotions, but never did I have a moment where I questioned if this little girl was to be my daughter......she just was!

Fast forward to today, nearly a year later, and Zahria is a ball of personality! This girl has the best sense of humor out there!!! She runs around like nobody's business and dances up a storm, we call it 'Rocking Out!' Zahria is speaking in small sentences now too, some of her favorites are:

Oh No, What Happened?
Polka Dot
Mommy's House
Rock On Dude
Okey Dokey (LOVE this one!)

She is brilliant I tell you! This girl puts things together in her little mind that there is no explanation for. She is so smart!!!

All that I can say is that I am incredibly blessed! My daughter is my daughter 100%

June 2008' Update on Z

2008-06-17T12:50:00.000-05:00

I just have to post an update, since this is a public blog now. I know that it is fun to see how babies grow, learn, attach, etc. when researching adoption.

I can honestly, with my entire heart, tell you that Zahria is my daughter. She is my complete heart. She is attaching tremendously. She is brilliant, not just because I am her mom and a tad biased, but because it is the truth. I have been teaching her sign language, as a way for her to better express her desires, and she is catching on like wildfire. So far, Z knows: more, all gone, eat, hat, swing, bubbles, cat, dog, monkey, car, turtle, bird, ++++ She is just amazing!!! Zahri is now walking, mind you she couldn't crawl when I met her a mere 6 months ago. She is eating like a champ, nearly sleeping through the night (minus a couple bad dreams here and there), says 'momma and puppy', off the bottle and on to whole milk (lactose free), she loves music, is a freak about water / loves it, loves her puppies and kitty, ++++ I can't say enough amazing things about my daughter.

The following photos were taken by Nancy at Jane Bailey Photography. If you are from the Twin Cities / St. Cloud, MN area, Nancy does phenominal work!!!!! Check her out at www.janebailey.com

New Blog is Up

2008-03-13T18:28:00.003-05:00

Hi all, just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I sent out emailed invites to our new family blog today. If you didn't receive an invite, please email me, or post a comment with your email address, and if I know you :), I will send you an invite. By no means is the blog ready but I had fun news to share. :)

That's a Wrap

2008-03-06T21:38:00.006-06:00

Day 1 of Bonding

Today :)

This will be my final entry on our adoption journey blog; it is now time to start a new blog dedicated to our budding little family. Thank you all SO very much for following along on our journey, your comments and support have been nothing short of amazing. I have met so many amazing amazing people on this journey, something that I had never expected to happen. Who knew that adoption would bring together so many wonderful people and that the Internet, and this addiction we call blogging, would foster so many true friendships. What a bonus! :)

A special thank you to my favorite Ms. Suzanne in California, my first true friend I met on this amazing journey. You are a friend for life! I can't wait to meet your little 'soon to be' daughter from Kryg! :) Just a little over a year ago we were drinking wine in front of our fireplaces, emailing each other about agencies, websites, great books to read, our dreams, our fears, and just talking about our days and now I am home with my most perfect Z and you are soon to be traveling to Kryg to meet your little girl. Life is crazy amazing!

I also wanted to give a special shout out to Sandi, Kristi, Eileen, Susan, Shannon & Alysa. You are all amazing people and I am so excited to continue our friendships past our initial adoptions!

Thank you also to my cousin Stacy for following my journey and for printing off every entry for my grandma to read, I know that this helped ease my grandma's fears of having me overseas, on my own, adopting a little one. Thank you also for our wonderful blanket and for the collages of our time in Kaz, both collages are now framed and hanging in Z's nursery - they are perfect!

It goes without saying, a BIG thank you must go out to my entire family, thank you for all of your support throughout my journey. I know that I somehow tend to stretch the comfort in the family, but you all are amazing at your unconditional support. I am SO lucky to be blessed with the best family ever. I mean who else gets to have both their mom and their sister join them in Kaz? ME ME OVER HERE - ME! :) We all agree that Z is the most amazing little girl, she has such a wonderful spirit, and just meeting her you know 100% that she was absolutely meant to be in our family!

And to my friends here at home, a HUGE HUGE thank you for all of your support at home! My greatest friends Angie, Sherree and Marla, you 3 rock! Thank you for taking care of our business, paying my bills, getting my mail, feeding my dogs / kids, helping with gifts, packing my bags, skyping me while in Kaz, planning our shower, loving my little Z......... To the 2 greatest sisters in the Midwest, Jill and Liz, thank you for following our journey with such genuine interest and love, I loved getting your comments and Z loved meeting you last week! You 2 are amazing people, genuinely! I love you all.

My new blog address is www.blessedwithz.blogspot.com this blog will also be an invite only site, so if you were already invited to this blog, you will be receiving an invite soon to our new family blog. If for some reason you don't recieve an invite in the next 2 weeks, please email me for an invite. :)

THE BEGINNING

Let's Try This Again :)

2008-03-05T22:22:00.008-06:00

Okay, so this time I will be sure to press save before trying to publish my post. :)

It is Wednesday, March 5th and I am now 32. Wo! I am old! I started this journey to adopt Z one year and 2 days ago, on my 31st birthday, that is the day that I mailed out my application to LMI. And look how life has changed in just one short year. I now have the most perfect little munchkin lying upstairs in my home in her crib. How much more lucky could I be. (No question mark there.)

Well the last couple weeks have been filled with getting settled, recovering from slight jet lag, figuring out sleep schedules, dreaded doctor's visits (more on that to come), insurance coverage information, daycare dilemnas, many kisses and great hugs.......... It has been great! Z is so adaptable! Seriously, she amazes me more and more each day! I keep wondering when the little monster will pop out and it still hasn't surfaced. :)

Our day at the doctor was horrific. I nievely thought that it was just an initial consultation, no shots I assumed. Ummmmm nope, not just one shot, but 4 and 4 viles of blood drawn too. You know when a baby is born and their screaming so hard that they can't scream and their face is just beat red? Well that was Z. By the end of her 4th vile of blood that was drawn she was drenched in sweat, as was I since I was cheek to cheek with her. It was a sad day! But, for the 5th time, we have now confirmed that Zahri in fact is HIV negative! How many times do we need to do that darn test? :) Anyhow, her pediatrician only said that she is slightly Anemic so we need to give her a multi-vitamin with extra Iron, which I was already doing. Good Mommy!

Zahri is a rockstar in her car seat, in fact she often just falls asleep. She went right into her highchair no problem. She loves bath time now, in fact last night she was splashing up a storm with her feet and hitting her stacking cups in the water to make big splashes. She is crawling up a storm and pulling herself up on everything too, in fact, it is much more difficult to get her down for her nap now that she knows she can just pull herself up and look at me and give me her cheesy, I am so proud of myself, grin. Currently Z is sleeping in my room, we have a travel crib (same as a regular crib just a wee bit smaller) next to the bed. The first couple weeks she slept right in the bed with me which was great, that way when she woke up, she knew that I was still there to comfort her. Now, I can still be right there for her, but she isn't necessarily in the bed with me (that is until about 4:00 am when she wakes up for her bottle and I keep her in the bed. hehe) At nap time I still lay on my bed while she goes to sleep in her crib, but in the next month I hope to transition her to her own room. We will have to see how that goes. ;)

She is warming up to the puppies. At first she wasn't so sure of them, so I didn't push. My dogs are mainly outside dogs, they have a very posh kennel in my heated and insulated garage that then walks out to a nice concrete kennel with a wood deck just for them, so no worries people, the dogs have it made here. Anyhow, I bring them in almost nightly and Z gets to see them. Slowly she warmed up to getting closer to them, and now she giggles and gets all excited when she sees them. 2 nights ago she let Diesel give her many kisses.

She loves mommy's headband. How funny is this? She didn't even try to take it off. haha

Auntie Becky and Uncle Dan bought her the sweetest Pottery Barn Easter Basket, our Fave store, and they also bought her this sweetest little Cabbage Patch Doll. Did you know that the Cabbage Patch Kids are all adopted too? And this doll was born on March 26th per her adoption certificate, and Z was born on the 30th; how crazy is that? To top it off her CPD is also Kazak! :)

Thank you SO very much Eileen and Pat for Zahri's cutest little hedgehog ever! I adore this little guy, he is so bright and textured, and his nose is perfect to suck on........that is if you are 11 months old and teething. :)

Slacker Blogger Mom Here :)

2008-03-04T22:29:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I just spent 1/2 an hour typing up a good post and then it didn't save. Grrrr! It is now 11:00 and I am so pooped that i must hit the hay without retyping. Grrr! Both Z and I have the cold so I have little extra energy. :) I promise to post soon with some great photos! We are awesome!

Blog Now Open To All Readers

2008-02-23T22:38:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to quick post that if you want to pass on our journey/blog to other adoptive families, or if you would like to add a link on your blog to our blog, please feel free, I have un-password protected our blog now that we are back safe and sound. Is un-password protected a real word/phrase? :)

I plan to post one last post soon and then we will be starting a new 'family' blog.

Congratulations Karla and Ben, as of today, they should be in Aqtobe to meet their child!

Sleeping in a Cardboard Box

2008-02-22T19:22:00.007-06:00

Nearly a week late on my post, but better than leaving you hanging. :)

Our plane ride went very well all things considered. I realized on the plane that it truly does take a village to raise a baby. :) I am not sure what I would have done without my mom and sister on our trip home. Truly, it is way more stressful than you even think it will be. We left Almaty at 8:20 a.m. on Sunday, that meant we had to leave our apt. at 6:00 a.m. which meant we had to be up at 5:00 a.m. and when you get to sleep around midnight - 1:00 a.m. 5:00 a.m. comes fast. Did you get all of that? haha When we arrived at the airport, a gentleman helped load all of our luggage on to a cart and brought it inside for us. I thought that I was being more than generous when I gave him 1000 tenge, this is about $9.00 He then told me that it was 2000 tenge. What? That is ridiculous! Isn't that supposed to be a tip job? I guess that I know what job I will do if I ever live in Kaz. 5 minutes of work and he made nearly $20. Crazy!

On both flights, us 4 girls scored bulkhead seats! Total Score! Originally when we got on the flight from Almaty I was upset because the lady at the desk that spent nearly 20 minutes 'getting' us bulkhead seats, didn't really get us bulkhead seats. Not even Z and I had bulkhead seats, and to top it off, my mom and sister were way in the back of the plane and Z and I were up front in a normal aisle seat. Grrrr! But 2 wonderful flight attendants to the rescue, and once the plane filled, she had set us up in great bulkhead seats. So nice!

They brought the bassinet to us but didn't hang it on the wall; Z is just under the recommended weight limit at 18 lbs, so instead we just set the bassinet on the floor. When I saw how small it was, and knew how tall Z is, I laughed. There was no way she was going to fit in there nontheless sleep or be content in there. But, much to our surprise, when we put her in the bassinet to play, she was great! This kid is unbelievable! It really makes me think that maybe they have small independant cribs at the baby house. That is the only explanation for her content in this tiny little crib. She did end up sleeping in the bassinet during part of the flight too.. On the second flight, she even slept in the bassinet attached to the wall of the plane. Yikes! There wasn't any floor room on this flight to just put her bassinet on the floor so we tried out the traditional wall mount bassinet, and it was good. It was kind of funny though, on this flight, the bassinet was soft, so they put a carboard box in the bassinet to give it shape and then they filled it with pillows. My girl had to sleep in a cardboard box.

We also learned that Z is a flirt. She loves boys, from afar of course. She was smiling and peek-a-booing with several men on both flights. It was great! We heard several times that she was just beautiful and that we had a remarkable baby. She was a total doll on both flights, barely a cry out of her. (She did cry, but it was so little that we can say that it didn't count.) On the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, there was a large, very tattooed gentleman that sat next to us in the bulkhead seats. When he saw that he was to share a row with 3 women and a small baby, he sighed outloud. By the end of the flight, he and Z were smiling and flirting with each other too. It was great!

Sad news, our flight from Almaty to Amsterdam was nearly 2 hours late, so we were not able to meet up with Kristi at the Amsterdam airport. So close but no meeting. That was disappointing to say the least.

Tip - If you are bringing Russian Vodka home for your man (or a friend or family member) pack it in your checked luggage. We had zero problem carrying 3 .5 liter bottles on the plane from Almaty to Amsterdam, not even a ? in Almaty, but in Amsterdam they wouldn't allow it. If it were up to me, I would have thrown away all of our bottles but my sister was determined to get this Vodka back to the States. Now, my sister is not a drinker at all, I have probably only seen her tipsy twice (not even drunk) but she had paid a lot of money for this stuff, so we just had to find a way. In the end, we emptied Z's backpack of stuff, wrapped mom's coat around the vodka and checked the backpack at the security gate. Z's backpack items just went into a plastic shopping back which we then carried on to the plane and all was good. I am happy to say that all of our Premium Russian Vodka safely made it back to our boys. Feweee!

Z had fun listening to the kid's cartoons on the airplane, how cute is this!

When we arrived in Minneapolis, we took Z through the immigration line (after standing in the wrong line for 15 minutes) and within a matter of 5 minutes and maybe 5 questions, we were given the good to go. Z is now a U.S. citizen! How awesome is that! At this point we only have a Kazakhstan Passport for her and a U.S. Visa, but her U.S. passport is underway! As soon as our little girl breathed that Minnesota air, she officially became a U.S. citizen.

Then it was off to baggage claim where we found all of our luggage along with our Vodka backpack. Score! Then through another security line with our luggage, and bam, we might have meat in Z's baby food so off to the scanning line. Just an fyi - no baby food with meat people. After having to put all of our luggage through the scanner, we found out the my mom brought a huge back of nuts back into the U.S. Yikes! Luckily they didn't see this, but it was a good laugh after the fact. You can bring these items out of the U.S. but not back in, even if you initially brought them with you and are bringing those same nuts back in the States, it is a no no.

After going through the immigration, customs and security hoops, we were greated by my sister's family just awaiting our arrival. Ty, Izaak and Elijah (my nephews, mom's grandsons and Becky's children) Dan (Becky's husband). It was great! They had big heart balloons and gifts for Z. What a great gift.

More on our Almaty Adventure

2008-02-21T08:24:00.008-06:00

Hi all, so sorry for the delays in posts, I am learning that being a mom takes a bit of time. :) Time well spent of course. I wanted to include some addtional photos of our 'girl time' in Almaty. Mom (Grandma), Aunt Becky, Zahri and I have great memories from our time there, although our time was minimal, and jet lag was setting in, we have many great memories that will stay with us for a lifetime.

Our visit to the U.S. Embassy was wonderful, the gentleman that helped us (by giving us our immigration paperwork and conducting our little interview) was so wonderful. You could tell that this man understood the magnitude of the situation and the joy that our family was experiencing. The Embassy is on the 17th floor of a building in downtown Almaty and I was told that there are only elevators, no public staircase. That made me nervous; I guess there is a secret small staircase, but even my translator, who visits the embassy often, didn't know where it was.

In Almaty we shopped at the Tsum Market 3 times, it was a lot of fun! There were really reasonably priced souveneirs and tons to choose from; this mall was much more reasonable than the shopping in Aqtobe. We also went to a jewelry store just across the walkway from the Tsum Mall, and I bought a beautiful aquamarine and silver ring. Both Z and I were born in March, so our birthstones are aquamarine, so I thought it would be fun to get a ring to pass down to her when she is 16 or 18. :) We did learn that the diamonds are real at the front of the store, but nearing the back they are actually cubic zarcons, which was a sad realism after my mom bought $400 in jewelry and found out that the diamonds are not even real. Ugh! It was still a nice purchase, as the Gold is a bit different (Russian Gold) but she probably would have passed on the $200 bracelet had she known about the diamonds.

As mentioned before, our apartment was very cozy and super clean and updated. Here are some photos, the inside photos just don't do it any justice, but I had to hurry and take snaps at 6:00 am as we were leaving for the airport.

This is the great little coffee shop that we visited several times, it is called Biscuit.

We also weren't so adventurous when it came to eating out, I think that we ate Italian like 3 times. hehe

Check out the ice on the street. Holy Cow!

Here is a photo of Marina (my rockin' coordinator in Almaty), Zahri and I.

Here are mom, Becky, Zahri and I at the Chinese Calendar monuments just across the street from our apartment. It was so cool, there was an indoor underground ice sculpture building and then the Chinese / Kazak Calendar monuments were in a park just beside the ice sculpture building. The ice sculpture place wasn't yet open so we didn't get to see it. :(

My sister made Z the sweetest travel blanket, it matches her snowsuit that Aunt Becky also bought for us. Both are the cutest ever..........and they aren't even pink. :) The blanket is even embroidered with Z's name, it is the best and came in super handy in the chilly weather. This is a photo of Auntie Becky showing us the blanket for the first time!

Although Almaty was a pretty nice city with many current shopping centers and very nice buildings and restaurants, there still were some older, pretty run down looking, soviet style apartment buildings. I found this huge apartment building in downtown Almaty interesting.

Here is a photo of Z and I, Z is in the Kozy carrier which I love, in front of a monument of a Kazak man with his Dombra. I really should know more about this statue, but I don't, so here it is. haha

More to come on our plane ride home and life at our home!! :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2008-02-16T10:13:00.002-06:00

So much to post, but have way too much packing to do. Love the LMI team here! They rock and got us out of Almaty as scheduled! Leaving on a jet plane, us 4 girls, tomorrow morning at 8:00. Yahoooo! Once the plane hits the Minnesota soil, Z will officially be a U.S. citizen. :)

I have many additional photos and a couple more Kaz experiences to post, but I wanted to keep everyone updated that we are in fact on OUR WAY HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great News!

2008-02-15T09:14:00.006-06:00

So much great news to share today!

After a little stress and much hope and faith in my team here in Kazakhstan, it is official, we are coming home this Sunday the 17th! Yahooo! How weird is that to say!! After nearly exactly 2 months here (left for Kaz Dec 19 and leaving on Feb 17), we are heading home as a family, us 4 girls! Because the chief judge didn’t count Saturday as the last day of my appeal period, and instead said that it would be Monday, that put us 2 days behind in paperwork. My passport application left Aqtobe for Astana on Wednesday last week, and didn’t get back to Aqtobe until this Wednesday, a week in transport. Yikes! I was stressing! That meant that Wednesday morning Gulnara needed to run my paperwork to get stamped and notarized that day and get it on the plane to fly back to Astana that night; which in turn meant that Thursday our LMI Astana coordinator needed to get the passport application back to the necessary people to have it signed off on and get it on the plane Thursday night to fly it to Almaty; which in turn meant that Marina needed to pick up the paperwork late Thursday night at the airport in order to set up our U.S. Embassy appointment Friday morning for Friday afternoon. Of course, being that it is winter, this all hinged on a bunch of team work from LMI’s Kazakhstan coordinators (in all 3 regions) and the weather, if any flight was delayed at all, or any coordinator ran late on the schedule, this would push back our U.S. Embassy appointment until next week. This would mean more money for an apartment, food, and grandma and Aunt Becky would then need to pay to change their airline tickets. Ugh! But all is good, and we are all set to fly home this Sunday! U.S. here we come!

Great news #2 – As you may know, Kristi in Guadalajara, is flying out Saturday to meet her beautiful daughter in Semey. I had emailed her to congratulate her on her travels, and let her know that I was disappointed that we would be missing each other in Almaty by just one day; Kristi flies into Almaty Monday and we fly out Sunday. Kristi works for the U.S. Embassy in Guadalajara and we have many crazy similarities: both named Kristi / Christy, same age, both single, both middle children, both have an older sister named Becky and we are both from the Midwest. Crazy hu! Anyhow, here comes the fantastic news, we will both be in Amsterdam at the same time on Sunday so we are meeting up at 1:00 in the airport to officially meet. Out of 365 days in the year, God has put us in the same place at the same time to have our chance meeting as friends. Life is great!

Wednesday was a tough day, we had our doctor’s appointment at the SOS Clinic. Why they chose to take blood for the HIV test first I do not understand! Why wouldn’t you schedule the owie appointment as the last doctor the child sees?????? They pricked Zahri’s little finger and squeezed it while she screamed, they filled an entire little tiny vile. I would say that the vile is the size of ½ of a pen’s ink tube, it is about that size in diameter and about ½ the length. It was so terrible, poor little bean! When we got out of that appointment she kept looking at her little finger with the band aid. Ugh! The next 2 doctors we saw there were easy, one just weighed Z and took her height, and the other looked in her ears, throat and such. Again, why wasn’t the HIV test done last??????? Grrrr!

Today the four of us girls visited the Tsum Mall again and spent about 3 hours shopping on our own, it was a great time! We actually found so many fun gifts for our friends and family back home! Z, of course, was a complete trooper, she slept for about an hour in her Kozy Carrier. I love that carrier! She is still snuggled up to me but it frees up my hands and tired muscles = perfect! After shopping we went to an Italian Restaurant on the corner, just about a block from the Mall, I believe that it is called Mama Mia. They have an English Menu and amazing food and service, we were so thankful for the great recommendation by our rockin’ driver Sam. Sam speaks great English too, which was a total bonus; in talking with Sam, we found out that Sam speaks 7 languages. Wow! We love the team here in Almaty too! Marina is the head coordinator for LMI in Kazakhstan, so she takes care of all of our paperwork, setting us up in our stellar apartment, scheduling, etc. Kate, is our translator, and we absolutely adore her too! Kate is totally spunky and a ton of fun! Both Kate and Marina are in the mid-later 20s. The entire team here, during our brief one week stay, has been more than accommodating, they are always saying, ‘You call us anytime, if you need anything we are here.” At the SOS clinic Kate even put on mine and my mom’s boot slippers for us, it felt weird, but how nice of her! She also makes sure that she carries my mom’s shopping bags. Wow! She wouldn’t let us walk 2 blocks with Z to get groceries (no parking near that store I guess), as our interim driver had suggested, instead she had him drive us to another grocery store with curbside parking. The little things make such a difference! I was pretty specific in asking for a nicer apartment here in Almaty, since mom and Beck were traveling ½ way around the world for only a week stay & we had initially wanted to stay at a hotel but the prices for rooms that accommodated 3 adults and 1 child were ridiculous, and Marina did a ton of searching for us. When Kate showed mom and Beck the apartment, as they got here before I did on Monday, she made sure to say that if they didn’t like this apartment she and Marina would make sure to find us better accommodations, no worries! Wow hu! They are really great here too!

On to the best stuff: Zahri!

I shared with Marina that Zahri keeps saying ‘da da da da,’ and it was making me feel guilty. Haha j/k And Marina calmed my fears and told me that da da in Russian means ‘give me,’ so I feel much better now knowing that Z isn’t already asking for a dad. Give your mom some time girlfriend!

Zahri loves bananas, she can eat an entire banana no problem!

Here is Z taking a bath in our Almaty apartment. How cute are these photos! Thank you Aunt Becky for taking such great photos and for really washing Z’s hair for the first time. I must add that after the bath, Z was all bundled up in a towel, and we were cuddled………..when I felt something warm on my leg, yep she peed on me!

Today Aunt Beck and Z played a new game called ‘Kickin.’ Aunt Becky holds Z up in the air and says kick, kick, kick and Z goes crazy kickin’ her little legs. This is the best photo ever! I am learning that I need 3 people to raise this little girl. Uh oh! It is such a great help to have the extra hands and entertainment when mixing her bottles, changing her diapers, making her porridge, etc.

Z now officially has 7 teeth! You just have to smile when she smiles, she is so damn cute! Sorry everyone, but I got the best little girl in Kaz, it is official!

We are in Almaty Safe & Sound

2008-02-13T09:36:00.006-06:00

Grandma, Aunt Becky, Zahri & I are officially in Almaty safe and sound! I am sorry that I haven’t blogged as of yet, but it has been quite hectic since arriving. Marina, our Almaty coordinator, really hooked us up here in Almaty. Our apartment is about 2 blocks from the Kazakhstan Hotel, the tallest building in Almaty, which is a really nice location. And the apartment itself is a 2 bedroom, with a living room and is totally spectacular. Inside is filled with true hardwood floors, beautiful furnishings, an updated Kitchen with new appliances, including a microwave. There is also a washing machine here. Some total perks are the non-smelling lavatory room (with a toilet that doesn’t constantly run), outlets that are connected to the wall, a doorbell (sounds strange but I missed Bayana several times at my last apartment because I couldn’t hear her knock through the 2 doors), clean beds with fluffy blankets and real pillows, sink stoppers in all sinks and the shower and a clean tub. We are so comfortable here, and it turned out to be quite a bit more reasonable than staying at a hotel. The outside of the building is a typical Soviet style old concrete building, the hallways seem spooky and cold because they are all concrete and old metal railings, but once you get inside the apartment you are totally at home!

Z was a rock star on the trip, she is such a trooper. As long as I am there, she is okay. On the plane, she didn’t even cry. She got antsy and a bit winy, but never a cry or a scream. My fear was having that screaming child that you couldn’t calm, that nerved out all of your poor neighboring passengers, but I again was blessed. It was so wonderful, at the Aqtobe airport, Bayan totally took care of checking in my luggage, getting me a bag of chips and tea, and staying with us until we boarded. Bayan even asked the man ahead of me in line to please carry my carry on onto the plane for me, and he kindly helped out, both getting on to the plane and getting off the plane in Almaty. Many times, between getting on the plane in Aqtobe and arriving at my apartment, we were helped by people letting us go first, cut in line, carrying our bags, etc. It was so nice! In the Aqtobe airport, I was so thankful that we were befriended by other passengers, in fact several people smiled at Z and I. We were blowing bubbles in the airport, singing songs, and such and other people really responded in kind which was so nice. You just don’t know here how you will be taken sometimes.

Backtrack a bit; here are a couple photos of Z playing with herself in the mirror at our first apartment in Aqtobe. It was so darn cute! She also found a 5 Liter water jug to play with, cute photos!

Zahri already adores Grandma and Auntie Becky!!! She puts out her arms for them to hold her, she has wined when they left the room, she peek-a-boos with them, she really loves their company! You should see all of the gifts they brought Z, she is in heaven! Auntie Becky brought the sweetest powder blue and green snow suit and hat, and she made the most wonderful blanket that matches her snowsuit and it has her name embroidered on it! I love it! Needless to say it has come in super handy outside already. Auntie Becky, well actually Uncle Dan, bought her a sweet bib and burp cloth with her name embroidered on them too; these will only be used for special occasions when orange spit up shouldn’t be involved. Grandma brought several texture books (that Grandpa picked out for us), a bright yellow duck toy and the best stuffed puppy that you can either heat up his belly or freeze it to help sooth your baby. And then John picked us up the most perfect Halo Sleep Sack, and because our room in the apartment is pretty chilly, it has been perfect for Z to sleep in. Thank you Ms. Marla for packing up all of Zahri’s clothes, burp cloths, bibs, gifts for the caregivers, onsie shopping for us, etc. We are so happy to have everything here with us!

Zahri is doing just awesome! She is such a trooper! The car ride in Almaty was quite interesting, holy cow, be careful and hold on is my advice! Yikes! Much crazier than driving in Aqtobe that is for sure. The majority of the drivers here are men, very few women drive, and about 1/3 of the cars here have the steering wheels on the right side of the car; Kate, one of my Almaty translators (whom we love so much, she is so fun and spunky), said that the cars they buy from Japan with the steering wheel on the right are about ½ the price. Hmmm interesting, but in about 10 years Kaz will ban all cars shipped in that are not set up for left side drivers. Big change!

Mom and Becky are such troopers too. I know that they are so pooped, traveling ½ way around the world takes a lot out of a person, and the jet lag sinks in and your body is so crazy. They are totally loving on Z, helping me dress, undress, feed, and hold, love on her, etc. Man are babies a lot of work! Haha Just getting them dressed in their winter gear is a monumental task. The extra hands and love are so nice right now, and Z is really eating them up!

Today, we were all going to go out to breakfast and I needed to put Z down for a quick nap, usually she only sleeps for about 20 minutes. When I came back out of her room, mom and Beck were cuddled up in the blanket on the Living Room floor sound asleep. So cute hu! They were pooped! Needless to say, we didn’t eat anything today until about 1:00. Ugh! Of course Z was taken care of, but us big girls were a bit starving. At breakfast a couple ladies commented on how beautiful Zahri was, I was quite proud! She is beautiful!

Tonight Zahri is having quite a trying night of sleep, I have noticed in the past couple nights that she is a crazy sleeper and tends to sweat and have what seems to unsettling sleep, but tonight I think she is having real night terrors. Tonight she has woken up twice already (in 4 hours) screaming and crying, I speed in to hold her and comfort her, and within about 3 minutes she is calm and back to sleep. The first time I came in she was up on her hands staring at the wall crying and the second time she was still lying there sleeping crying really hard. The second time I picked her up and reassured her that I was there, I am not leaving, I am your mommy now and will never leave you and twice she pushed herself back from my chest to look at me to be sure I was me (at least that is what I think her intentions were.) My heart breaks just wondering what is going on in that little mind of hers. Today was a big day, as was yesterday, we did a bit of shopping at the Zoom Mall and then went grocery shopping (remember how I mentioned how terribly stressful grocery shopping is, yes it is still horrible here in Almaty.) With all of the people, new sights, and such, I wonder if it stirred up fears in her little changing world.

Here is Z’s piggy bank. I love it! She was born last year, in the year of the pig, so I thought it would be fun to buy a piggy bank in Kazakhstan for her tenge. Cute hu!

This is the best toy in world, you must pick (pardon the pun) one up! This is not only a handy dandy boogie sucker, but it is also a wonderful chew toy (when clean of course), a toy that blows cool air on a hot baby (again when clean of course), a fun toy to hit on the floor, an easy toy for a baby to squeeze, a great size for little hands, and one of the most popular choices for Z to play with. It travels well too and doesn’t take up much space. Several uses here! A must buy!

Lastly, I wanted to share a photo of the clothes that I brought for me for my 2 month stay here in Kazakhstan. Crazy! If you know me personally, this should be quite comical. Yes, this means that I wore the same things every couple days. Who says that a girl needs a walk-in closet all to herself filled with just her winter clothes? Ummmmmmm ME! Hehe The 2 fingers I am holding up are to show you that this small pile of clothes is for an entire 2 month stay here in Kaz

Mom and Becky are in Amsterdam

2008-02-10T11:34:00.000-06:00

Today I logged on to check my gmail, quick because I am packing up our stuff for tomorrow's journey to Almaty, and there were 2 emails from my mom and sister. The first photo is of the 2 of them in Minneapolis, before taking off.

This second photo is Mom and Beck in Amsterdam; they didn't end up taking advantage of any of the 'coffee shops' in Amsterdam as we told my Dad they would. :) No magic brownies for mom! :) Sounds like the flight was great! The were able to see the ocean and channels just before arriving, so that was fun. Remember, my mom has never been over the ocean, so this was BIG time! My sister went to London in High School, but this was her first venture over the ocean since then. So fun and all for Z!

I believe that I already posted, but there are now 2 new couples here in Aqtobe from the States. :) Both have selected their little boys and are currently in their bonding period. This week, both couples came to my apartment and brought supper and chatted, it was so nice to meet them. And wouldn't you know it, we didn't take any photos of our group. I actually am okay with this though, as showering for me right now is a bit tricky and make up is an absolute, don't have time for yet. :) Hopefully I didn't smell too bad! Haha!

Here are Eric, Kami and Lincoln. Lincoln is just 2 weeks younger than Zahri. It sounds like he is a champ! He can already crawl and sit up and has quite a personality I hear. He is from Baby Room #4, so he shares a room with Laurie's little man Kyson!

And here are Joel, Gen and Gabriel (Gabe.) Gabe was Z's roomate! Rock on hu! He too is in Baby Room #3, so he is lucky, I really liked our caregivers there. Today I heard that Gabe was also getting his groove on a bit, it must be something about Baby Room #3 that makes their babies dance. :) I have already asked if Z can hook up with one of these 2 boys later in life. No pressure! haha

As for Z, she is still awesome! I didn't have any time today to upload our new photos and resize them for today's blog, but I will later this week. We are finding that she LOVES the mirror, she thinks that it is the funniest thing ever. Today she played in her walker in front of the mirror for quite some time, she couldn't figure out why that other person's hand (her reflection) kept doing the same thing she was doing. She kept trying to beat it to the mirror and then looked so puzzled when it was a tie. haha She also found on of my empty 5L water jugs and thought it was a great toy, who knew! It is like the cardboard boxes we played in for hours when we were young, they were the best! Before bed tonight we also took another bath, but this time it was more of a true bath than before. Zahri was still a bit leary, but she played with her toys a bit this time and let me actually wash her hair. It was so great! You could tell that she felt great when she got out. I lathered her up in Baby Oil again, and she smelled great! Is it smelled or smelt? :) Smelled looks funny! Now that I think of it, I think that Smelt is that nasty fish that people gather in MN to eat once a year at the Legion gatherings. Hmmmm

COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS

2008-02-09T12:03:00.002-06:00

2 More days and Grandma and Auntie Becky will be here with us in Kazakhstan!!! In just 9 hours they fly out of Minneapolis, MN! I can't wait!!! Today, Grandma is flying in from Colorado, so Becky and the Boys will pick her up at the airport (hopefully just about now they are doing that) and then they are off to celebrate my nephew Ty's 10th Birthday at the Mall of America! A day filled with amusement rides at Camp Snoopy and eating at the Rainforest Cafe. I really wish that I could have been there to celebrate with you too Ty!

Z is snoozing. She has had very short naps and a really emotional last day and a half, so hopefully she gets a good snooze in tonight. :) She seems to be a good night sleeper so far. Ooop she is crying, gotta go.

Zahri's First Bath

2008-02-08T11:36:00.000-06:00

Today we took our first bath, or should I say that I put about 1” of water in the very front of the tub and Zahri sat in it? It was nice because I brought in her stacking cups and linking rings, toys that she has played with for nearly 2 months now, and they really helped her calm. At first I had her stand in the water, which she wasn’t so sure of but she did, and then I sat her down. Yep, a little squeal for a bit, then she looked right up to me like ‘help me mom,’ and then she calmed in the frozen position. After a couple minutes she started to relax a bit, and I was able to at least slowly put water on her back and her hair, by no means was it a ‘I’m totally getting her clean bath,’ but it was a start. Afterwards I snuggled her in the towel and then put baby oil on her, thanks Linda for your wonderful Arbonne treats for Z. Once she was in her pjs she was so darn happy; I can only imagine how great in felt to be semi-clean. I hadn’t tried a bath until today, I didn’t want to overload her on too many new things. I really wanted to come right home and get her in the tub, but I resisted. Look how darn cute she is!

Regarding naps, I had asked if 3 naps a day is normal on my last post, thanks for your responses. Seriously, who knows! I do think that they probably slept more than what is normal to allow the caregivers some reprieve throughout the day, but I am telling you that after 2 hours of playing she is pooped and needs a nap, however, I am learning that when she naps, it is usually only for a half an hour or 45 minutes, no 2 hour naps for Z. She gets very needy (normal) and starts lying on the floor and sucking her thumb. When she sleeps, she always sucks her thumb. It is so cute, when she isn’t quite ready to sleep, we lay on the bed and she talks up a storm. She also makes so many noises with her mouth, ones that I haven’t heard before, I love it! I learned 2 things in the past 2 days regarding naps:

1. If I lightly touch her forehead and face and neck she gets drunk eyes and falls right to sleep. Sweet!
2. Yesterday I was putting her down to nap, and she had 2 toys in her hands. After awhile of playing with them, I took both toys away so she could concentrate on sleeping. She then grabbed for her burp cloth near by to play, so I took that after just a bit. The she found her socks and played with those, again I had to take those too. Then it was my watch on my wrist (which I took off), then she crawled up to the headboard to feel that, then she pulled the blankets back to feel the mattress, then she found her toes, and then she started with her mouth noises. I couldn’t take away her toes or her mouth (haha); I guess this is how creative you get with what little you have to play with while you are in the orphanage. It was so darn funny! Each time I took something away she didn’t squeal, she just found something else to play with.

Really, I don’t just put my child in her walker and let her be all day. I promise! Really! It is just the best time to get descent photos of her since my hands are not full of her. Here are a couple cute ones of her scooting around! I am so glad that I invested in this cheap walker for the week that we are here. It only cost 3000 tenge at the outdoor market (Sulpak – best place to buy cheap walkers). 3000 tenge = about $25 since the dollar is so terrible here. Ugh! We get only 118 tenge right now for $1.00 and that is super low. Even when I first got here we got around 120 tenge for a $1.00; I guess a couple years back your money went very far here but with the decline in the value of the dollar and with all of the new oil and gas rigs around here, it is quite expensive. You think, oh I will buy a fur coat, tall stiletto boots and a tall Russian fur hat, they must be cheap since the demand is so high and everyone wears them. This is not the case.

Angel?

2008-02-06T11:57:00.000-06:00

(Is this a bit obsessive on the amount of blankets I have on the bed for bumpers? As you read on you will understand more about the safety measures I now need to take to keep this girl safe.

If you enlarge this photo (the 3rd photo) you will see a little toe(s) in the top left corner, this is a great trick of Z's, she now is trying to suck her toes. Hahaha, I still think that she may be a gymnist.

I think that my baby is an angel. I am not kidding you! What child goes down for all her naps with smiles and sleeps completely through her first night with a new mom? I put Z to bed last night around 10:00 and she slept until 6:00 this morning with only one small wine (the crying kind, not the kind that mom loves that comes from a tall glass bottle) around midnight. I have learned that she is a crazy sleeper though, I ended up moving her into my bed to sleep since I just knew that she was going to take a dive off the sofa chair bed (okay, so she did take a dive off the sofa chair bed, mom freaked out to say the least, and moved her to the bed, a much safer choice..........don't tell my agency or the judge here though or they may take her back. I promise I was watching her but she was too darn fast.) All night long she tossed and turned and nearly was sleeping sideways at times, needless to say I didn’t sleep sound, but I actually got a couple good hours in so that was better than I was expecting.

Okay, so here is our daily schedule:

6:00 Wake up and Eat Breakfast (Formula)
6:30 – 7:30 Play & Go Potty
7:30 – 9:00 Nap time
9:00 – 10:30 Wash Faces, Eat Porridge and Drink Juice
10:30 – 11:30 Play
11:30 – 12:30 Nap time
12:30 – 1:30 Eat Mashed Potatoes or Vegetables
1:30 – 4:00 Play
4:00 – 5:00 Nap time
5:00 – 6:00 Eat Porridge with a sugar free cookie
6:00 – 8:00 Play
8:00 – 8:30 Formula
8:30 Bedtime
11:30 Formula Again?
12:00 – 6:00 Sleep

Do you see how many nap times this girl has? Is this normal? I thought that there would be no way that she would actually sleep every ‘scheduled’ nap time, but she does (at least so far.) I thought that maybe they say sleep on the schedule given to me by Z’s caregivers but really that is code for, ‘put the kids in their cribs and let them lay there.’ It isn’t though, she really does sleep, without a shot of whiskey or other sleeping aids. Haha (but that was another fear that I had at the baby house. I worried that they possibly ‘helped’ the kids sleep, but she is good with her naps.)

Well, I just heated up her mashed potatoes (see 12:30 – 1:30 on the schedule – good mom Christy) and I put a bit of finely shredded carrots and chicken in there as well as some Keifer. Keifer is a kind of sour tasting milk they have here and the babies enjoy…….I guess. I actually have given it to her twice already and she seemed to love it, so Keifer it is, at least for this week. I will need to start her on normal formula this week too since we don’t have this Keifer stuff in the States.

The caregivers said that she wasn’t a very picky baby and didn’t have any known food allergies, so far so good on not being picky.

IN 5 DAYS WE GET SO SEE GRANDMA AND AUNT BECKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO PUMPED!!!! Z IS TOO OF COURSE!!!!

I brought a couple board books with me, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” were two of them. She loves those books because I sing the songs to her. So today, I popped in Rudolph the movie, and she loved the music! She didn’t intently watch the movie, but she liked the music. As for me, I cry every time I see that darn movie. I hate that Rudolph is so sad and that nobody wants to play with him. I boycott the movie actually, hadn’t seen it in years.

Ohhh such funny 'getting Z to nap' stories from later today, but I best get to bed, I will save those for another day.

Our First Day at the Apartment :)

2008-02-05T11:44:00.000-06:00

Here we are officially leaving the orphanage as a little family.

Just stepping outside on the front steps of the baby house, Zahri was blinking her eyes and scrunching her cheeks trying to figure out the cold.

Here we are in the car leaving the baby house, you can see how nervous Z is by her blank expression.

Looking out the window at all of the sights. I am so cuious what she was thinking and feeling. What a huge day for this little girl.

Walking up the the stairs to our apartment, our first home!

Z playing with her new one eyed walker; I did end up taking that other eye sticker off too, to creepy.

This is Z before her nap playing with her new teddy bear. This is the teddy bear that I have slept with for months. I only had this one at the orphanage for a day or two and then brought it back to the hotel with me because the fur on the bear collected all of the nasty stuff on the orphanage carpet, not good.

This is Z fighting sleep, hahaha, she got so fun when I was trying to get her down for her nap. Full of laughs and coos and smiles!

Zahri's first nap with mommy.

I sit here quietly typing away on my computer while my little one sleeps on her sofa chair bed, I made the bed by turning both arm chairs to face each other and put a blanket on them to form a little bed. She is so darn cute! It took awhile to get her down, but she wasn’t fussy, actually she was as playful as she has ever been. I tried some of my dog training techniques on her, from the Dog Whisperer (can’t remember his name right now) or maybe they were more of that British Nanny’s tricks, in any case, they didn’t work this time. I was very quiet, I didn’t talk or coo or laugh at her. When she kept getting up to play, I would gently, without talking, lay her back down. It was quite interesting, every time that I laid her back down, she would just lie there for about 20 seconds and just suck her thumb, as if she knew the drill. She didn’t fight it at all, but in the end she was so excited about playing that it took her a bit to actually fall asleep. I hadn’t yet been with her when she took a nap, so it was a first for us. I learned, at least this time, that she is quite giggly and talks a bunch to herself while she lays there. She was making a ton of mouth noises, like clicking her tongue and such, things that I hadn’t heard her do before. I am sure that this is (was) how she entertains(ed) herself while fighting off sleep at the orphanage.

So, it is 6:00 pm now. Z is fast asleep and I am drinking tea. So far, she has been asleep for about ½ an hour, just long enough for me to do the dishes, put a load of laundry in, pick up our coats and make some tea. Perfect! I am about falling asleep too; when Zahri was fighting off sleep I booted up our lullaby cd that John bought for us, and it continues to play as I type. It is a good one, thanks baby! Crazy, I can call John baby on my blog now! I couldn’t speak of him much up until this point as I was too worried about the adoption, I didn’t want to throw out any red flags, but now I can say it as it is because Z is officially my daughter. For those who don’t know John, he is my man.

Fast forward 4 hours later and I am now at my computer again and Z is back to sleep hopefully for the night, or at least a couple hours. I kept her up an additional 1 ½ hours past her scheduled bedtime since we were an hour and a half late on the entire day. When it was time for bed, we cleaned up our toys, I laid her down twice and she was out. I think that she missed her first nap today and her second nap with me was only half an hour, so I think that she is pooped. She seems more happy here than at our bonding visits at the orphanage. Today really makes me so thankful for the past month and a half of bonding because Z is so much more at ease now than she would have been had we done the hand off in a hotel without any bonding. Both times we got in the car today she whimpered a bit, but maybe just for 5-10 seconds and then we cuddled and she was quiet. It was so interesting to watch her in the car, to just wonder what she must be thinking and feeling. My heart really went out to her. When I took her from the orphanage and she felt the cold air outside, she froze. She just looked up and kept batting her eyes and squishing up her cheeks, she wasn’t sure of it at all, but in true Z fashion, she didn’t complain.

She is restless right now, and because she is so mobile, I am incredibly worried about her crawling or rolling right off the sofa chair arms, so I will sleep in the Living Room with her I think, or possibly move her to the bedroom with me. ??? I was just in the Kitchen grabbing something to eat, supper at 10 pm, and I heard a weird sound coming from the Living Room (yes, when I am out of the Living Room I check on her about every minute, no kidding, I do), when I peaked in I could hear that it was Z making sucking noises in her sleep, so cute!

And for those of you adoptive parents, I best add that so far so good on the potty. Big Smile here! I have heard of many babies not going for 4+ days and it is a nightmare for both parents and babies, but so far so good for us tonight. Yahoo! I was also worried that because they had already started ‘potty training’ her she may be reluctant to go in her diapers, um, not a problem there either! Sigh of huge relief there. Hopefully all continues on well in this department. For some of you this may have been too much for you to read, but in the adoption world, this is a large concern so I wanted to share that we are good………so far. Sure wish that I had a Diaper Genie here though. Again, maybe another luxury item in the States, but one that I would say is an essential that I just can’t give up.

Mom, do you remember when I babysat the neighbor’s little white dog on LaMesa? Reggie was his name; can you even believe that I just remembered that? Seriously traumatic. I am having terrible flashbacks as I sit here tonight with Z. Ugh! I will probably obsessively check on her every hour to be sure that she is breathing.

2 new families came to Aqtobe today and experienced their selection process; I am sure that it has been an incredibly emotional couple days for both couples. While I was picking Zahri up from the orphanage, I got to meet both couples and talk with them for about 10 minutes which was great! We plan to get together for supper yet this week to chat about everything. Both couples traveled to select boys, but that is all that I know so far.

No Z Just Yet :(

2008-02-04T09:47:00.000-06:00

No Zahria at our apartment yet. I got word this morning that the chief judge didn’t count this Saturday as the last day of our Appeal Period since it was on the weekend (???? weird, since last weekend’s days counted, but what do you do), so today was the last day of the Appeal Period instead. Sorry mom and dad, looks like you had a drink for no good reason other than that it was Saturday. Haha You best have another drink tonight! So, tomorrow I get Z. I visited Zahri this afternoon at the orphanage and apologized for not seeing her this morning; Bayan called me to see if I wanted to visit, but they would have come to get me in like 10 minutes, and I wasn’t prepared to go. I hadn’t showered or anything and I was in the middle of cleaning the floors and such. Check out the handy mop I made.
Haha, it is a broom that I just found, wrapped in a towel that is being held on by clips that were being used as clothes pins. Smart hu! Tomorrow it is! That gave me tonight to make up some mashed potatoes for a couple lunches for Z this week. I plan to add a little chicken (in the oven baking now) and carrots, to them to jazz them up a bit. My oven is totally a gas oven. No, no, no, not like our gas stoves, not only do I have to manually light the burners but I even have to light the oven to get it heating. Scary hu! Other than that we have porridge, formula, fruit juice, carrot juice, jarred baby food, teething biscuits, gold fish crackers, animal crackers, etc. I think we are good. We will see hu!

I am not yet sure if Z and I will share the bed, I made a blanket bumper just in case, I don’t want her to roll off. Or maybe she will sleep on the two sofa chairs that I put together to form a little bed. Hmmmm, no crib here so we have to get creative. I must say that this past month and a half of living lean has really helped me see just how little you truly need to get by, now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I am going to give up ALL of the finer things due to this journey (I still need facials & toilet paper, the essentials, haha, as if toilet paper is an essential.........gotta have facials still at least, hehe) but I am learning that I can live without a lot. I always thought that I would marry fairly young, mid 20s and our first home would be a little fixer that we would need to put pans under the leak from the roof to catch the rain (inside the house), like we used to as kids when I grew up, but that just didn’t happen. I guess that I get to live part of that life now! (Too funny, while writing this blog post, I just read my mom's comment on yesterday'spost that talked about my parents first home 30+ years ago and how my apartment reminded her of their first home. That is crazy that I was just writing about my home as a child and how we put pans under the leaks from the roof when it rained and my mom was thinking the same thing.) Uh - Oh, the lights keep dimming and getting brighter in my apt. Eeek! I did see where a couple tall candles were, but they aren't in holders or anything. Oh yeah, I have the rockin' flashlight that John sent with me, and I just put it in my backpack since I am now in an apartment, so I should be fine if I lose power. :) haha probably won't but gotta be prepared.

Here is our apartment play area, just like at the orphanage. :)

Here are a couple additional photos of our apartment building from the front, our room is on the third floor if you check out the set of 5 stacked apartments. I caught a couple fun photos of both men and women with their tall fur hats! I love it! There is also a photo here of the neighborhood park, this park is pretty normal for a kid’s park in Aqtobe. And last there is a photo of our little neighborhood convenience store, this is something that I love about Aqtobe, they make it so convenient for everyone to just pop in for bread, meat, pop, chocolate, canned goods, etc.

Since Z wasn’t able to come to the apartment today, I decided to put her frozen jump suit in her walker and stroll it around the apartment. Okay, I didn’t really do that, but look how funny this photo is!
I learned that hanging your clothes in the freezing cold porch, better yet outside on clothes lines, DOES NOT in fact dry your clothes, it just freezes them. I know that sounds obvious, but when you see everyone hanging out their clothes you question if there might be some way they are drying. I mean, why else would everyone hang their clothes out in this weather? You think, maybe the air is dryer here and they do dry, maybe they dry with icicles, but maybe they still dry???? Don’t laugh at me; you would have wondered the same thing had you come here first. Haha Anyhow, I talked to Bayan about this today, and she said that they don’t dry, I am right; they just freeze them to seal in the freshness and freeze any bacteria. Hmmmmmmm maybe that makes sense. She had told me about the bacteria thing a couple days back, but she never verified that the clothes do not dry, I still thought that they must dry somehow. Yah, Yah, you laugh but you are the ones that thought the dog in my trash photos was the bobcat that I talked about, when in fact the bobcat was the piece of machinery taking away the trash, not the dog that was in fact a dog, not a bobcat. Come on girls, I am in Kazakhstan, there aren't any bobcats (the animals) here. That was way too funny to read on my comments........from 2 people.

I must warn you, the following map rocks! Davy, Evy’s husband, is my John here, well; you will see what I mean. Look at this map, it is a map of Aqtobe, with all of the great sites to see and places to shop platted out for you! If you are coming to Aqtobe for your adoption, or just for sight seeing (haha j/k) enlarge and print this map out; boy do I wish that I had had this map when I arrived here in Aqtobe. I have a legend for this map too, I think that I will add this to my main page of the blog for future families to access easily. For those of you that don’t know my John, this is exactly what he would have done had he been able to make the trip with me.

Our New Pad - Our First Place :)

2008-02-03T11:35:00.001-06:00

It is official, I have now moved for the 3rd time in a month and a half. Haha If you are looking for a good reference on both Hotel and Apartment life here in Aqtobe, I will be the one to chat with as I have first hand experience in 2 Hotels and 1 apartment now. (Plus I have been in 2 additional apartments here in Aqtobe, so I can say that I have a good feel for living options here.)

I must say that so far so good. Moving into this apartment is a really nice change. Tonight I made supper in my own kitchen, I did some laundry in a washing machine & hung my laundry in the 3-season porch like a true Kazak. I am now watching fun Russian MTV videos and sitting at a true desk, on a real chair, typing on my computer. Yahoo!

Here is the outside of my apartment building, a pretty normal concrete Soviet era apartment building. Check out the front door to my stairway, they must have been serious when installing these doors, they are steel and super heavy duty. The entry doors are secured by a code to get in, but often they are left open so you don’t have to use your code. No elevators here, and I am on the 3rd floor. Really it isn’t bad at all, but getting my heafty luggage up was a chore for Ceric, Bayana and I. Good thing I have them!

This is the door, or should I say doors, there are two, to my apartment. The outside door again is a super heavy duty steel door with a bolt about 2 inches long, no body is getting in this door, but if they do, just in case, there is a second door that they now need to get through too. I guess I would say that I am safe and sound inside my apartment here. I am sure that my mom and dad are happy to hear that!

Is it just me, or is this outlet not up to code? Haha

Code? What code?

Outlet covers to protect children? What? Nope, not here, not in this apartment. Instead I get exposed wires and extension cords to run the washing machine (that drains into the bathtub.) haha At least I have a washing machine I say, it rocks!

After scouring this place, and sweeping the floors, yes this was my broom, I decided to shred some carrots. I want to put carrots in mashed potatoes, like Evy and Davy did, such smart parents, so I went to the local indoor market to buy some carrots. Holy Shit! Look at the size of these things! I think that the carrots are on steroids, and yes, most of them that I have seen look like this. Must be something in the soil here, could it be oil? Yuck, bad thought!

Well, I can’t say that I am ready, but I am sure trying to be ready. I am a little scared I must admit. I sure hope that our transition is fairly smooth. Poor little bean has so many changes ahead of her, but this is one thing that I loved about the Kazakhstan adoption program, we have now bonded for a month and a half so Zahri has learned that I am a constant for her and I believe that she trusts me to some degree already. I am trying to keep things as normal for her as possible. I have all of her favorite toys with me here, her stacking cups, Itsy Bitsy Spider Book, Frog toy, linking teething rings, etc. And I purchased a cheap walker and a blow up beach ball for our time here, she loved both of these toys at the baby house, so I thought that would be fun for her.

Sorry, I didn’t take any photos of Z today, bad mommy, but here are some fun group photos that Davy and Evy just gave me. I must say that Zahri's mohawk is starting to fill in nicely. :)

IT IS OFFICIAL, I AM ZAHRI'S MOM!

2008-02-02T10:23:00.000-06:00

Today was Day #15 of our Appeal Period, so tonight at 6:00 our appeal period ended, and I am now officially Zahri's mother! Yahooooo! I can't even believe it. I think that I am in shock.

It doesn't feel real at all. It feels as if I have just been visiting this beautiful little girl each day and that is that. It doesn't truly feel that I am even 1/2 way around the world. It is all way too surreal. When does it sink in? I mean even the being so far from home, it really doesn't feel real still, and I have been here for a month and a half. You just expect it to be SO different, and it is quite different, but people are still people, they look fairly similar, and they live in houses like we do, and they have families like we do, and the eat similar foods, and they have similar styles in clothing and they laugh at the same things. I am not sure what I expected. It just affirms that this is a really small world and that we are all such similar people, only seperated by water, land and language.

As for Zahri, the most important part in this entire life journey, she is my daughter! I can say it! She is my daughter! Weird hu! I have a daughter! And Z has a Mommy! We now have each other! :) That little girl 1/2 way around the world that I dreamt of for so long, that I wrote of at the beginning of my blog, I have found her and she is even more perfect than I first dreamed. I mean, you let faith take its' course and you fully rely on your agency and the gifts of God. You do your best to step back and just do as you are asked. You give up much control in this journey, which is so darn difficult at so many times throughout the process, but you learn that you must. And here I am, only 11 months after submitting my application to my agency, in Aqtobe, Kazakhstan with the most beautiful daughter. It just isn't real. I can't even imagine what it must feel like on this very day for those adoptive families that have been through years of fertility treatments prior to choosing adoption. To have what you have always dreamed of is surreal really. I can only imagine that giving birth to your child would be the same, surreal. I can't imagine that it really feels real for a couple months. What a monumental change in life! For both me and for Z.

To just take in what she will be feeling in the next couple months both hurts my heart and gives me a million goosebumps of happiness. Her little world is about to change so much! I know that Monday will be emotional for me, to take her from the orphanage, this will be a day of so many mixed emotions. This is all that she knows. This has been her entire life, her home, for nearly all 10 months of it. And then on the following Monday, the 11th, to take her from Aqtobe will be filled with a billion more mixed emotions. Today I looked at her, and I talked with her about how her little world will be changing, completely, in just 2 days. And she just continued to play. :)

The only sadness in this whole journey is losing the luxury of sleep. :) hahaha Okay, so it is a fair trade. Maybe tomorrow I will have a funeral for sleep. I have a feeling that from here on out, at least for the next 20-25 years (as I hope to add another child or two to our family), I will not have the luxury of sleeping in until 9:00.....or 10:00.....or noon. Oh my heavens, what have I done? hahaha just kidding of course.

My daughter is Zahria Alia! Or Zahri! Or Z! Or Z Bean! Or Zukie! I like to sing to her, "Zukhra, Zahria, Alia." Her birth name is Zukhra (pronounced a bit like Zukara), so I sing her names to her, so she can relate what she has known as her name with her given name. :) She now knows her birth name, given name and Z. :)

Up Close & Personal

2008-02-01T09:15:00.000-06:00

I love these photos! Look at those long eyelashes, chubby cheeks and pursed lips. Oh yeah, and the drool.

Continuing on with our new game of Peek-a-Boo, I threw the blanket over Zahri's head, and said, "Where is Zahri? Where did she go?" and then I popped my head under the blanket with her, like the forts/tents we used to make as kids, and she laughs and laughs. She loves it!

Just another sweet photo. Bayana put Z's feet up on the sides of the walker and pulled her around, she of course had a great time!

Here is the hospital where Z was born. The hospital itself probably takes up a couple blocks and has several different buildings for specific matters, but the brick building shown here is the maternity building.

Okay, just a cute photo of Z's new winter boots. Check out the fur and the little rinestone broch on the front of the boot. The girl has to have stylin' boots, right! No stilletos yet though, not until she is 4 or 5. hahaha Okay 12. j/k

So, today I did some last minute shopping. It is amazing that I have been here for neary a month and a half, and I am hurrying like a crazy woman to get more shopping in. I went again to Sulpak, the 3 story huge mall and outdoor market with everything under the sun, and I couldn't find a darn thing. Actually, there is so much stuff that I can't shop. Isn't that strange. And shopping here is really difficult, and honestly not a ton of fun. You can't speak the language so you feel bad. They follow you around and watch your every move. You tell them nicely that you only speak English and they continue on in Russian trying to sell you things. They pull out their entire stock trying to get you to buy just something, and then you feel terrible that they just went through so much work and you didn't want to even see what they pulled out for you. Ugh! But in the end I did purchase a cheap walker for Z at the apartment, I fear that without this one crucial item, we will be in a heap of trouble. :) I will need to make supper, cook her porridge, give my arms a break, etc. And she will need to zoom around and feel that freedom, she just loves that darn walker. I am sure that she doesn't get to really be mobile much, so she just eats it up. I also, all by myself, got a bunch of photos developed at a one hour photo shop. I had to get some photos off of a cd and others off my memory card in my camera and it worked! Yahooo! Proud!

Yesterday we had a great lunch at Davy and Evy's apartment, a stellar pad I must add, and it was so nice. Evy cooked a really yummy pork stew and made Belgium French Fries, it was great, just like home............ or better becuase it was a home cooked meal. It was too funny, Evy came back into the Dining Room with her pot of stew and asked if anyone would like a bit more, and many of us said yes, including Bayana. Somehow the type of meat came up, and Bayana had thought that it was beef, even after eating it, and when she found out that it was pork she slightly freaked (not huge but it was a big surprise to her.) Bayana has never had pork, she can't have pork, I believe it is against the Muslim religion. hahaha Here are a couple photos from our lunch:

Life in Aqtobe

2008-01-31T09:59:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-01-30T09:41:00.000-06:00

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?

2008-01-28T09:35:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-27T10:01:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-25T04:17:00.000-06:00

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'

2008-01-24T10:05:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-22T08:54:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-22T02:26:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-19T08:52:00.000-06:00

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!!!!

2008-01-19T01:22:00.000-06:00

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?

2008-01-18T02:30:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-18T01:42:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-18T01:40:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-18T01:29:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-12T10:20:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-10T03:08:00.000-06:00

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?

2008-01-07T05:39:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-04T11:11:00.001-06:00

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

2008-01-03T09:18:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-01-01T23:45:00.000-06:00

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! :)

2008-01-01T08:16:00.000-06:00

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.

Happy New Year from Aqtobe

2007-12-31T06:34:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year! Today is one of Kazakhstan’s most celebrated holidays so the city is buzzing with people shopping in preparation for this evening’s festivities. From what I hear there will be much life in the city and many fireworks at midnight……..can’t say that I will be up that long, too old!

This morning I was able to see Z from 10-noon but was not able to see her this afternoon. Tomorrow is a total day off, so I will not be able to see her tomorrow either. Big Frown! Our morning was filled with some play, a bit of cuddling and a new little treat. This morning I brought Zahri in a pacifier looking treat holder; how is that for a description. This thing is shaped like a pacifier but where the nipple should be, there is instead a net where you put a treat for your teething babies. I put a piece of ripe banana in there this morning, and in Z’s not-picky-at-all-I-just-want-to-eat style, she ate it right up. She loved it!! Here is a photo of her with her banana filled pacifier looking net treat. hehe

The caregiver from Baby Room #2 also stopped up for just a bit to chat with us, and she let Bayana know that when Z was in her group, she used to cry a lot and always wanted to eat. Zahri, Cry? Z never really cries. I can only think that maybe she was teething, or hmmmmm possibly she was flippin’ hungry? I would cry too! I say this with a little laugh as she is such a wonderfully content baby that it surprised me to hear that she cried a lot. The being hungry comment didn’t surprise me at all, she is a growing girl for goodness sakes.

Well, it is official, I have switched hotels and am now slumbering at the Hotel Dastan. My translator said that she never knew of this single bed dormitory style room, so for all upcoming single travelers that prefer to stay in a hotel, but don’t want to pay hotel prices, this is a great fit! I think that I am paying about $50 a night! Rock on! I was paying $110 a night, so this is saving me huge. The location here is much better as well, I am now near the Mosque Mall and within walking distance to the indoor Market & several restaurants. I am sure I will be just fine here. My room is clean, I have internet, a TV and a fridge. As for the smoky smell that I was worried about, I must have been smelling something else when I viewed the room, the room is not smoky at all. Feweee! I even have an outside sitting deck, just in case I want to hang my laundry out to dry. Bonus! Hehe

Last night I was told something very interesting that I want to share, but please don’t take this as the Bible since I haven’t yet double checked the stats. I met a group of people that work with the Oil Fields, imagine that (the Amsterdam is the place where the higher ups with the Oil Fields tend to stay and hang out) and I was told that the ratio between men and women here is 5 women to every 1 man. I asked why this was??? And I was told that it is due to WWII. This gentleman had said that during WWII some approximately 1.2 million men left and nearly 875,000 never returned. In each city in Kazakhstan you will find a statue of sorts with a forever burning flame (a true flame that always burns) in remembrance of those killed in WWII, so I know there is a lot of truth in what I was told. I was also told that this imbalance between men and women has lead to the men being very dominant over the women, possibly the women have learned that there is little choice of men so they become submissive to the men they have? This would kill me! Hehe Now this is only my own thought, nothing of research or statistics, but might it be possible that this is why the women here are always dressed to the nines? This is how you find a man, to look the best and be the most attractive? I guess it is no different anywhere in the world, but it just surprises me so how these women are so darn cute and trendy and always dressed up, even in these insane temperatures and conditions. Just a thought. Hmmmmm to ponder it. Seriously, the women here are amazingly beautiful!!!!!!!!

Great Day - Big Post

2007-12-30T07:31:00.000-06:00

Today has been a very good day, thus a big post! Tons of great photos from today thanks to Evy, she and her husband Davy are adopting little Illian (I posted of photo of their family of 3 on today’s post too), they are one of the two Belgium couples here adopting. Sundays we are only allowed to see our babies from 10-12:00 but it was a happy 2 hours. Zahri was in a great mood, and she was a bit more lovey today too! Z tends to want to go go go, but today she combined her need to go with a little quiet loving for mom, and it was so nice! We sang a couple songs, played the piano, rocked with a bottle of juice (still she has not been picky with flavors – today we had a combination fruit juice and she loved that too) and then we played ball with the other babies. These babies love the blow up beach ball, so we sat in a circle and kicked and hit the ball back and forth; the kids had a ball (pardon the pun.) The caregivers have asked me to bring in some medicine for Z’s cold, so we need to go on a hunt for something to make her feel better; the last thing I want for them to do is give her that cough medicine again, the medicine that nearly made her drunk………no kidding, I hated it!

I must also tell on us again………Laurie and I went shopping for baby lotion for her, so we ended up picking some up at the baby store where Laurie purchased some toys, bottle, and a nook. Yesterday Laurie mentioned that Kyson was breaking out on his face, could he be allergic to the lotion possibly? Yes, I had been using this same lotion on Zahri as I gave my lotion to the caregivers to use on Z while I was away. Today Laurie’s translator looked at the lotion for us and come to find out we had purchased the wrong type of lotion……………it was in fact for nursing moms to use for stretch marks on their breasts. Ooooops! Let’s chalk that one up to a new mom too? Or maybe our lack of being able to read Russian? It did have a pink lid so we assumed baby store + pink lid lotion = baby lotion.

TIP: Never assume that a pink lid on baby lotion = baby lotion. hehe

Well, I think that I have decided to stay the entire trip, that is unless something crazy happens around court time to push the time past a 2 month stay. Bayana took me to see a single bed room at the Hotel Dastan today, thanks Laurie for the heads up on the single rooms, and it looks like I can stay here for about $50 a night – this is less than ½ of what I am currently paying for my posh room at the Amsterdam Hotel. Bayana had called the Amsterdam Hotel yesterday for me to see if we might be able to get a reduced rate if I stayed for one trip, and they wouldn’t be able to run that by the manager until after the new year, but from what Bayana says, it is rare for them to do any discounts, at least not a good enough discount to make staying financially comparable to doing the two trips. Laurie had mentioned that the Dastan had single dormitory style rooms for around $50, but Bayana did not know of such rooms so she called for me this morning and an hour later we stopped by to view the room. The room is simple with a single bed, TV, little fridge (something I really still wanted to have), armoire, and a small ¾ bathroom. It will do just fine I think and it saves me a butt load of money! Score! Plus the Hotel Dastan is in a great location, it is next to much shopping, restaurants and Laurie’s apartment is just around the corner. Maybe for New Years, tomorrow night, we will go out them since we now do not need to worry about drivers taking us each to different locations! I will be your local tour guide of all hotels and apartments. I will take photos of the Dastan now, plus Margo is staying at the Hotel Asia so I can get some exterior photos of this hotel as well as photos of Laurie’s apartment. Hopefully this will be helpful to future Aqtobe families! The menu at the Dastan is less expensive too, so this will help as well! The room was a little smoky, so that is the only thing that kind of worries me, I can’t do smoke. Bayana is set on getting me an ‘Adoption Discount’ too, so we will see if this is possible. This is all for you little Zahri! Now that I have my internet card with cheap internet access($1-$2 per hour versus the $5 an hour I was paying through the hotel), my hot plate (which I will leave here for future Aqtobe Hotel bound families) and a cheap, safe, clean place to stay things should be good! I will absolutely miss my posh Hotel and my robe, fresh towels, built in blow dryer, clean sheets and piece of gum that I get after each meal, but I think the trade offs are worth it.

This afternoon Laurie, I and Bayana went to the indoor market by the stadium and it was neat! If you are looking for more reasonable shopping, this mall is a better bet. Here they have everything from medicine, to diapers, to clothes, purses, coats, toys, food and there is a large area with slabs of meat on butcher tables and fresh frozen whole fish as well. Yuck! The smell in that area was terrible! Raw meat sitting out on tables? Who would have thought, so of course I want to take a picture, and do take that picture, and not 30 seconds later I was greeted by a security guy. Ummmmm I can’t understand him. Yikes! I get Bayana, my translator and he tells on me for taking a photo so she said that I didn’t know any better and he left it at that. Do they think that we will steal their idea of a market? Or was it their brilliant plan of selling slabs of meat that I might steal and bring to the U.S. to duplicate and make millions? Why no photos???? Bayana couldn’t really answer this either, she knew of the rule and thought it was silly too. Ooops! We then had lunch at another indoor mall just next to the indoor market; this was a cafeteria style place in the basement of the mall.

TIP: Always check out the basements of buildings, it seems that this is where all of the good stores and restaurants are.

Here are photos of Mr. Frost / Freeze, the Outdoor Skating Rink by the Football Stadium and two photos of the indoor market; one photo is showing the 2 levels of shops and the other is the meat and frozen fish tables (hard to see, but I got in trouble and couldn't take a second photo. :)

Anyhow, we got a really yummy veggie soup, potato type salad, rice and sweet and sour beef dish + juice for only about $6.00! This is the best deal in Aqtobe! Then Bayana had to leave so she told us to please bring our dishes up to the front to wash them. We were going to do it! And then she started laughing, and kept laughing for quite some time, she was of course kidding. Shheeeesh!

When we finished lunch we walked back to the Mosque Mall and went to the souvenir shop again in the basement and we found the best things ever………….they had kids books in Russian and English, and they are books about Kazakhstan & Kazakhstan life, I am so pumped! I bought all 4 books that they had! Score huge! Do visit this little store; it is right by the carpet / dining table store.

KAZ LIFE: They love our American music here, especially 50 cent, Justin Timberlake, Brittany Spears, J-Lo – really anything hip-hop!

There also doesn’t seem to much of a middle class here, there is the Oil money that is driving up the prices of everything from food to housing making it very tough for the local residents to live. Bayana says that many older kids still live with their parents because housing isn’t affordable. Truly the prices here are crazy – most things we can buy back in the states for less! I am really not sure how people make it here as the wages are low bust cost of living is high. How do those girls then buy these fur coats and leather stilettos is my question?

I best get to packing up my room for the big move to my dormitory at the Hotel Dastan!

To Stay or Not to Stay?

2007-12-29T08:19:00.000-06:00

Z seems to be feeling better and better each day, but I fear that she won’t completely kick this bug until she leaves the baby house. Z is at that stage where if she is down on her tummy, she wants to roll over, and if she rolls over she wants to then stand up, and if she is standing up she then wants to peak around to see everyone, and then she wants to down to get something, and then up again………rarely is she content with just lying there and being lazy………geez do you think that she has done that enough in her little life already.

I am feeling a bit emotional today, very undecided on whether to stay one trip or come home and do the two trips. There are so many pros and cons each way. I hate to leave Z, I don’t want to break this bond or any trust that is being formed, and I don’t want to be jet lagged while bringing her home either. On the other hand, it is more expensive to stay (which is something that I inevitably have to consider) and I know that I will desperately miss home………soon. As great as bonding is, and as wonderful as my hotel is, just being around other people that understand you is a wondrous thing. It is a crazy feeling to be a total minority and to be at the mercy of your interpreter. I am absolutely free to do whatever I would like, shopping, going to the bakery / coffee shop, site seeing, etc. but when you are here alone you just aren’t as adventurous, especially as a woman. I do have Laurie, which is nice, but we are with different agencies, have different drivers and are living in different parts of the city, so it isn’t like having a husband here with me. What to do? The biggest part is my sadness for leaving Zahria here. She is now used to being played with at least once, if not twice (on most days), times a day; for her to then go to nothing for 2-4 weeks will kill me. She needs stimulation! Her little brain is growing like crazy right now and she needs more than eating, changing and sleeping. Her little laugh needs to continue to pop out more and more and his will not happen if she is in her little Room #3.

On another note, yet kind of the same, it is too funny to get into Ceric’s car (when our interpreters are not with us) and between the three of us, Ceric (Russian), me (English) and Margo (Spanish) try to communicate. We are all laughing and doing quite a bit of sign language, it ends up being a messed up game of charades each time the 3 of us try to communicate. Tonight Ceric was trying to tell me about his daughter that is at the Academy in Almaty and how she has a black belt in Taekwondo, and he would do sign language for Taekwondo, then said Academy Almaty, then said Negro. Oops! That was one of his Spanish words that he knows and he was using it in English, oops! He realized his mistake and started to laugh looking for the English word for black. Good thing I know some Spanish, so I caught it and said, “Oh she has a black belt?” Then I showed Margo my belt and she said belt in Spanish, and we all laughed. We can communicate, see! It is just so darn hard and takes so much energy to get one sentence comprehended that you almost say screw it and become a mute while here. Earlier today Ceric was making Sheep noises looking for a word, so I said Sheep? Nyet. No. Ummmm okay, what else could it be? Then he made the sheep noise again and signed like a goatie on his chin, Ahhhh I said, Goat? Da. Yes! He is a riot! When we leave his car we say, paka – meaning bye (not sure of the real Russian spelling but this is how it sounds) and he responds with See Ya. Haha, you expect him to respond in Russian and he pops out the English version, it is great!

Mom is an Idiot!

2007-12-28T10:12:00.001-06:00

The past couple days our translators have been decorating our visitation room with party favors to celebrate the new year, it is looking very festive and the babies are having much fun staring at all the shinies in the room. Today we had an unexpected gift when many of the daytime caregivers visited our play room, soon we were having a little dance party with the kids and their caregivers, it was great fun! We were able to take many photos of the babies with their caregivers, wonderful memories!

The New Year is a huge holiday here in Kazakhstan! They celebrate as a family with an evergreen tree, fireworks, food and gifts; truly it sounds a lot like our Christmas gatherings. They even have a Mr. Freeze or Frost that comes to deliver gifts to the children even…….hmmmm sounds awfully close to Christmas.

Every day I adore Zahri more; I know that I say this often, but it is true, she just blossoms more and more everyday. Today she gave up many laughs, she just loves to be tickled and thrown in the air. I can tell now that she is starting to attach to me, which is a wonderful delight. After this afternoon’s visit, I had one of the translators hold her while I put on my boots and she looked down at me and started to whimper a bit, soon she was crying for me to hold her again, it was such a great feeling. She prefers me! After only 7 days of bonding (we are ½ way there to our mandatory 14 days of bonding – yahoo) this little girl is starting to attach to me and that is the most wonderful feeling! Z continues to adore her bottle and her nook, today she had Banana juice & so far so good, she doesn’t seem too picky. Okay……….here is where I tell you what an idiot her mom is…………..I started to feed her a bottle this morning, and she kept sitting up and looking around, she never does this, she usually devours her bottle and is intent on just looking at mom, but she didn’t seem to have any interest in her juice. Hmmmmm so I tried again, as she kept laying back, I knew that she did want to drink so I would try again. Soon my translator Aina came over and laughed, she grabbed my bottle and took out the travel stopper that was preventing any juice from coming out. Oooops, mom is an idiot! Poor little Z was trying to get that juice and mom hadn’t taken off the travel stopper. Oops! Once that was off, she was her normal juice drinking machine and all was good. Hehehe Zahri continues to love the boys in the room too, which is such a relief since she really hasn’t been around many men in her little life. I also gave her a teething biscuit today and she loved it! Within minutes her little face and fingers were filled with dissolving cookie, I am sure that it felt great on her little teething gums! But my favorite thing of all is how she reaches for me when she wants to get up, which is often, she puts out her little hands reaching for my fingers to help her to her feet and I just love it! She is so darn smart already! And Grandma, Z loves ‘You are My Sunshine,’ I told her that this was Grandma’s favorite song!

I also confirmed that Z has all 10 of her toes today, yes today was the first day that I was able to see all of her toes and they are there and perfect!

I am still unsure if I will stay for one trip or leave after about 4 weeks and come back for my ‘Gotcha Trip’ about a month later. Should I decide to stay, I will be in Kazakhstan nearly two months, which is a darn long time. Should I decide to make 2 trips, I would be here a month, back in the U.S. about a month and back to get Zahri for my last 2 week trip. I just can’t imagine leaving this little bean!

No bad experiences with food yet. Laurie and I have now gone out 3 times and have had great luck each time. Our first meal was at the Hotel Dastan where we ordered Potato Skins for an appetizer and then Fajitas for Lunch, these were super yummy. Next we had the Shashlik at the Hungarian Restaurant, and today we tried Pizza at a great restaurant in the basement of the Business Center and it was awesome! I know these don’t seem all that adventurous, but in a new country ½ way around the world you just never know what they think of as pizza, and it was so yummy! Really it was very similar to our pizza but it had more of an authentic flavor, and the cheese was a little different and of course they added dill to the top, dill is on everything here, and I mean everything……….even my chicken noodle soup had dill. We are planning to go to an Armenian Restaurant as a group on January 2nd and from what I hear it is all about MEAT in this culture’s cooking, so we will see about that. Bayana also showed me where a good restaurant is that has wonderful Kabobs, a popular meal here in Kaz, so I would like to try this as well. Here is a photo of the Chicken Fajita at the Hotel Dastan, super yummy!

Washing clothes in the bathroom sink was fun, tonight was laundry night and I felt like a girl on the prarie washing her clothes in a wash tub and hanging them to dry on a makeshift laundry line in my bathroom. I thought about hanging them out the window, as everybody else does here, but I wasn’t sure that it would look very inviting outside the entrance of the hotel.???!!!... I still can’t figure out how their laundry doesn’t freeze.

TIP – Do not forget to bring a really nice size blanket for the floor at the play room, the carpet is pretty yucky. I brought a little afghan and it has worked well, but many families just brought their comforters from their beds in the apartment and this is perfect! It is really nice having a big comfy blanket to play on and those tend to take up a lot of luggage space. Many of the apartments have 2 or 3 bedrooms, so if you know what size apartment you will get, you can probably count on stealing a comforter from one of the beds and making it into a floor blanket at the baby house.

Day 6 of Bonding

2007-12-27T09:27:00.000-06:00

Our bonding was great today, as usual. I must say that I am so happy with the caregivers in Baby Room #3. Yesterday I gave the caregivers a bottle of lotion and even today Z’s skin looked better, her little face is so darn dry, it almost looks like it would hurt. It doesn’t help that she tends to suck on her bottom lip and drool is everywhere……….all of the time, so to help her quit that nasty habit of sucking her lip, we have introduced her to a nook……….and she loves it! It is so cute, when I take the nook away, she looks all around for it, just as she does when I take her bottle away. The caregivers are also taking pretty good care of keeping Z’s nose clean of those nasty boogs and she seems to always be in a clean outfit with a clean little face. We have one baby in our group that has been in the same outfit for 5 days now, needless to say that his mommy is quite unhappy about this, he is not in our baby room so his caregivers are different. I did also bring Zahri a new outfit today, and it was a perfect fit! I think it is a 6 month outfit, it will not be long before she is into 9 month outfits. And yes, it is pink! You can see it in the afternoon photos from today, she has on her pink Osh Kosh jumper and the brown hat, which I also brought for her. She looks so darn cute. We also learned today that she LOVES the frozen teething rings; I brought a little giraffe rattle and his body is a liquid teething ring, so Laurie took it to her apt. last night and froze it for us, it was an absolute hit!

Here is little Z studying the pictures of her cousins, Ty, Izaak, Elijah and Kolter.

At this Baby house they ask that the parents bring 4 diapers each day, and today I learned that they want the diapers to be Pampers. Ooops, I bought 2 bags of Huggies, so next time I promised to get them Pampers. Diapers are easy to buy here, so do not bother packing them. I was also told to bring 4 outfits for her, be sure that they are super warm outfits or the caregivers will give them right back to you with a scolding that they are not meant for winter…….yep, got scolded yesterday for this, thus the cozy Osh Kosh getup Z is wearing today, this was approved. Hehe Baby clothes are very expensive here, so bring several outfits from home, it is worth packing baby clothes! Other items that I would bring for your baby on the first trip if coming to Aqtobe:

*Liquid Teething Ring (if adopting under 2 years)
*4+ Warm Outfits (they layer so pack 4 warm outfits and 4 lighter ones for underneath – you can either get these outfits back when you leave or donate them to the orphanage.)
*Baby Lotion (2 bottles – one for the caregivers & one for you)
*Bottle with several nipples (possibly a tipee / bottle combo)
*A couple types of nooks / binkies (if you agree with them – some babies will not take them)
*Burp Cloths (good for teething, drooling babies too)
*Those suction nose boogie getter things (that would have been super nice to have!)
*Several fitted little hats for the baby
*You can easily buy baby food & juice here to supplement their feedings

Ceric, my driver, also picks up Margo each day before coming to get me and we take her to the older baby house where she meets with her 3 year old daughter, Nadya. Margo is a single mom from Spain in her late 40s, and I believe that Nadya is her first. I love Margo, she is so darn excited about this little girl! It is nice because I do know just a bit of Spanish, at least enough to communicate some with Margo, and she is hysterical about this little girl! It is nice because I have been able to see where the Hotel Asia is and I am able to see the older kid’s baby house too!

Other than that, yesterday my translator set up changed just a bit, in the mornings I will have Aina and now in the afternoons I get Bayana. I adore them both! I must admit that for just knowing Bayana for 2 days now I can say that I love her! Smile! Today she took me to buy a hot plate (cooked Mac & Cheez tonight in my Hotel room), she hooked me up with an internet card from “Kaz Telecom” (the building that we visited was in front of the Mosque Mall just across the street, I hear there are several Kaz Telecoms throughout Aqtobe though) and now my internet bills will be hugely less. I was paying $5 hour to use the hotels dial up and now, depending on the time of day that I use it, I pay between $1-$2 an hour! Score! So I purchased a card for 5000 tenge (about $42) so that should last me a bit. Bayana also told us where some really good restaurants are, and she recommended that we try an Uzbek & Armenian Restaurant. Fun! She said that once we try the Uzbek Rice we will be hooked. She also let us know, us meaning all the parents currently bonding with our babies, that she has 3 taxi drivers that will pick us up if we want to go out to supper or our on the town. That was great to know! We never go out after our 4-6:00 bonding time because we don’t have a way to get back home; my hotel is fairly far away from Laurie’s apartment, so we tend to shop between visits so our drivers just pick us up in different spots. Since we only have a morning visit on Dec 31 and no visits on Jan 1, maybe we can go out somewhere fun that night for New Years!!! It is probably the biggest holiday they have here and it is very celebrated! Bayana told me that it is tradition to spend New Years with your Family, they open Champagne, eat special meals, and do fireworks as a family! Fun! This year however, since she is 21, she has decided to go out with her friends. Yesterday I posted a photo of Bayana and Z, so if you look up you will see who she is.

Here is my 'make shift' kitchen in my Hotel Room. :)

Glad she is Mine!

2007-12-26T08:35:00.000-06:00

How does a girl go from 8+ hours of sleep each night to an average of possibly 2? I have no idea either, but I am still functioning so I will just go with it! Last night I didn’t get a full hour of sleep, in fact I am not sure that I ever fell asleep. When will this change? Makes a girl really consider doing this adoption in one trip versus two; I will be useless if I have to go ½ way around the world twice in 2 weeks.

Our day: Zahri is starting to really recognize who I am when caregivers bring her up to the playroom, it is great! Today I did try out some of your suggested songs with Z too, she loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I squeeze her close and sing in her ear and she just chills. Thanks for the suggestions Beck, Matt & Suzzanne!! I have also found that I can nearly put Z in a trance by blowing on her neck, immediately she pauses from whatever she is doing and just sits there with her eyes ½ closed, she loves the cold air on her neck. I am sure she is a bit toasty with the 7 layers on. We also have our ‘up’ game figured out, when she is lying on the blanket and is ready to get up, she puts out her arms and grabs on to my fingers and I help her up to her feet, I really can’t believe that she is already that strong. I tell you the first day that we bonded, I am not sure that she even knew that she had any legs, seriously they were jello and now she wants to stand and dance all the time. It is quite amazing what just a couple days, and only a couple hours each day, can do for a baby! She is the only one in our group of 4 babies at 9 months that initiates standing and is trying to get up on all fours. Go Girl! I have also found another favorite of Z’s, I am not yet sure if she is bound to be a t.v. head or if she may be a tad bit vain, but she loves to look through the photos of us on my camera. After we look through a couple of our pictures, I put down the camera, and she peaks around me looking for the camera. She loves looking at those pictures, it is so cute!

You know what is great? Today I looked around and I thought, I wouldn’t want to have chosen any other child in this room, I am so glad that Zahria is mine! And the great part of that is, I think that all 5 sets of parents would say the exact same thing! It is weird how that happens; I had heard that this is the normal feeling, but I worried that I would feel differently somehow. Thank heavens all worked as it was supposed to & Z is mine! Z is in group #3, here is the door to her sleeping / hanging out quarters. :) I also added in a photo of our playroom, the stairway heading up to the playroom and the waiting room, this is the room that you first see when you enter the baby house.

Between visits today Laurie and I ventured out shopping again and we stopped into a Ukrainian Restaurant for lunch. We decided to share the “Shashlik” which is a combination of barbequed (not like our bbq – no sauce) Chicken, Pork and Lamb. I must say that it was quite tasty. Good luck so far on all of my food selections, no tummy aches yet, and I have a really sensitive tummy! I have drank their milk too and no problems. Lucky? The Ukrainian Restaurant that we visited is right by the Mosque and the indoor Mall for future Aqtobe families, and they do have an English Menu. Score!

My team here in Aqtobe has been great! Marina is my translator / head coordinator in Almaty and she initially met me in Almaty at the Airport to help me buy my tickets for my Aqtobe flight. My flight was a couple hours late and then my connecting flight was delayed about 7 hours and she stuck with me, sitting on the airport floor due to lack of space, for the entire time. And now, even though I am in Aqtobe, she still calls every couple days to ask how things are. Aina is my translator here, and she is just great too! For past Aqtobe families, Aina has her son that is now 2 and a little 6 month old daughter, yep a girl! Her son just started Kindergarten; this is what they call daycare. Aina said that her job is to keep her families happy, and they do a good job of that! Ceric is my driver, and for those that know Ceric, he is wonderful. Ceric is that person that you just know is a good soul, he makes little jokes here and there, both in broken English and Russian. Good man! And today, I started working with a second translator too; Bayana will now be with me on my afternoon visits to the orphanage and Aina with me in the morning. Bayana is in her early 20s and full of life, I loved her energy today. She talked with all of the other families in the play room and was down on the floor with the babies, it was great to see.

Things that I love about Aqtobe:

*The little kids are so bundled up they look like little marshmallows!
*The parents pull their little kids (bundled like marshmallows) around on those old time wooden toboggans.
*People hang their laundry out to dry (?) in -30c weather.

Our First Christmas Together

2007-12-25T09:54:00.000-06:00

Today was actually our ‘Christmas’ visit, our first Christmas together and Z’s first Christmas ever. Yeah! And since I had already brought out all of her toys, I had to improvise on the present. I had some pink tissue paper, duct tape and a cute little pink outfit that I wrapped up for her…….yes, I did tape the present with duct tape. Hahaha A girl has to do what a girl has to do, but she didn’t care a bit. I think that Z liked the tissue paper the better than the new little outfit, go figure!

**Thank you future cousin Cheyenne for the awesome jumping Zeebra, John helped us open it today and sent us a photo here in Kazakhstan!!

This morning Zahri had her doctor’s appointment so we didn’t get to visit in the morning, but we had a great afternoon visit! Today I was able to bring her a bottle for the first time, and instead of feeding her boring porridge with a big man spoon, I got to bottle feed her diluted carrot / apple juice, and she absolutely devoured it! It was so awesome! The entire time she looked at me and held on to my finger tight. I used one of the Dr. Brown’s bottles and the Y shaped nipples, which seemed to work perfect! I remember reading that because babies are used to being fed fast & their sucking skills aren’t top notch, it is important to use a nipple with a larger hole or one that is Y shaped. I could tell that she was so thankful for that bottle. We also did a lot of singing today, we sang Rudolph, Jingle Bells, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Itsy Bitsy Spider and a couple more, boy has it been a long time since I sang baby songs. If you have any recommendations please post and refresh my aging memory. I am finding that she loves to be sung to, sometimes she dances & sometimes she cuddles in and calms down, but she loves music! I wish that I had burned a couple cds with kid songs before I left, we did burn lullabies, but the caregivers might kick my butt if I put Zahri to sleep before I bring her back for her supper.

So far, I have learned that Zahri loves to be sung to, she loves being tossed in the air and she loves when I make noises with my mouth (ie. Clicking my tongue, puffing my cheeks and using her feet to push the air out of my cheeks, etc.)

I found out yesterday that Z is just over 15.1 lbs now and she is 28.4” tall, not too shabby.

Top 10 Toys to Bring:

#10 Stacking Rings
#9 Stacking Cups
#8 Tissue Paper
#7 Plastic Bags
#6 Jingle Bell Booties
#5 Spinwheel
#4 Keys
#3 Simple Teething Rings
#2 Blow up Beach Ball
#1 BUBBLES (they all love bubbles!)

**I am including a photo of Laurie from Illinois and her son Kyson, isn’t he a darn cutie too!

Merry Christmas From Kazakhstan!

2007-12-24T16:16:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas from Kazakhstan! It feels so strange because I forgot that it was even Christmas Eve yesterday until leaving the baby house, the Belgium couple wished us a Happy Christmas, and I then realized ‘wow, it is Christmas Eve today.’ I don’t have a calendar on my wall here (maybe I will make one today) so it is very easy to lose track of the days. I am writing this post at 2:00 a.m. on what would be my Christmas Day, yes, I am having a tough time sleeping………still. Smile! Actually not too bad this night, I was so pooped I missed supper and went straight to bed around 7:00 pm and slept until about 1:00 am this morning. Getting better! So now I find myself munching on Cinnamon Teddy Grahams as my pre-breakfast snack.

Earlier I posted that I wasn’t sure that anything that the International Doctor was to say would sway me in my decisions to adopt this little Z, and after yesterday’s review with the Doctor at the Baby House, I have decided to hold off no longer on introducing you all to Miss: ZAHRIA ALIA or as we will call her Zahri or Z. In Russian Zarya (their spelling) stands for sunrise & is the ‘goddess of beauty’ in Slavic mythology, Alia is Kazak for ‘Chosen One.’ As my great friend Suzanne mentioned, it was kismet that her birth name was Zukhra as the transition from her birth to her given name will be quite painless for her. I have chosen not to keep her birth name as part of her given as it is fairly difficult to pronounce, but I will have it handy for her to always reference back to.

Yesterday I learned that Zahria arrived at the orphanage at 27 days old and this is where she has lived ever since. She resides in room/group #3 and from what I understand there are 2 day & 2 evening caregivers in each room/group who care for the children. I will have to now ask how many babies are in each group. Yesterday Aina told us that there are 8 groups at this orphanage, they start from youngest babies to oldest (about 2 years is the oldest I believe) and then there are groups with the sick children (chicken pox and such) as well as a group with the children that are only here for short term / their parents are coming back for them we are told. We are not able to visit their sleeping rooms, but we do get to bring our babies down to their rooms after some visits, so we do know what the waiting areas look like and who their caregivers are. Z seems to be very connected to her caregivers, when they pop into the play area, she is very in tune to where they are watching them the entire time.

I must say that yesterday, Christmas Eve, was filled with mixed, or shall I say many, emotions for me. When they brought Z in, she seemed under the weather – to say the least, she had very little energy and had a difficult time even focusing. It was unnerving to say the least. Actually many of the children were this same way yesterday. We were told that a couple of the children are being given cough medicine, so I have to believe that there is some form of alcohol or something in there that has them a bit lethargic. I did not like it! I am finding that after just 3 short visits, I am conflicted on what is and what isn’t. What is normal for a child in this setting, what is real about her diagnosis from her orphanage doctor, what is healthy & what isn’t, what is justified to worry about & what isn’t, what will improve when we get home with love and care, and what will need extra attention……. And so on. I must say that Zahria is much less delayed than I had thought she would be, but she does have several little concerns (some put in my mind by the Russian doctors that may or may not be valid in the U.S.) that have me constantly questioning the what is and what is not. Luckily, there is nothing major for me to worry about, she is seemingly healthy but that darn cough and those boogs that fill her little nose are so saddening to me. I just want to pick her up now and bring her right home to make it all better. I want to give her milk from a bottle, vitamins, rock and sing to her, give her a nice warm bath with yummy Lavender wash & lather her little dry body up with lotion……but I cannot, I can only listen to the direction of the orphanage and caregivers and live within their parameters for now. I must say that you can tell that their caregivers truly adore these babies; they stop into the play room to peak, play and help feed the babies and the babies do react with affection to the caregivers as well.

Another mixed emotion for yesterday was my first feeding with Z. Talk about emotional; I was nearly gagging for her and my heart was just sick the entire time. I keep having to remind myself that this is all they know and that they are okay, but man, it is just not normal for a 9 month old baby to eat porridge from a bowl (a full adult size bowl of porridge) with a large man size spoon. The trick is to lay them in your arms, as if you were going to feed them a bottle, and start shoveling it in. There is no other way to say it. Remember, Zahri has a cold (or something respiratory related) and I could tell that this was not comfortable for her, I did slow it down a bit for her, but then she got antsy as she was used to her routine. Starting today, Christmas Day, I will be able to bring her in additional baby foods and juices, so I am really looking forward to that. I plan to make her up a bottle of part juice/part water with a little pedialyte mixture in there. I also will bring her in some bananas or carrot baby food today, I am so glad that we get to feed them ourselves, and that the orphanage allows for us to bring in our own food and juice. We are also asked to bring in 4 diapers a day for our baby, and tomorrow I will also bring in one of the outfits that I purchased for her, she will start wearing her new outfits tomorrow. I wish that I would have thought to bring extra tights and those little legging pants as they like to layer these babies and I didn’t think that far ahead.

Tip for Aqtobe Parents: Do bring at least 4 outfits for your baby, baby clothes are very expensive here and you can find much better deals in the states. I would also recommend that you bring layers for each outfit, meaning bring two pairs of pants, a onsie, and a shirt, and possibly a sweatshirt or second shirt as well – this is the get up for just one outfit in the winter months. I am told that you are able to bring these clothes back home with you, they do not stay here at the orphanage when you leave.

For the past 2 days they have asked me not to take off Z’s hats as she has a cold, (um-ok), and yesterday they did not want her playing on the floor at all as she has a cold, (again um-ok.) That is a really tall request seeings how this baby just wants to roll and stretch her legs. Ugh! Stressful Morning!

It is amazing how just a couple days of exercising her legs has improved their strength. The first day we met, I don’t think that she knew she had those legs, and now she reaches for my fingers and we pull her up to a standing position. Smile! Yesterday when I way laying on the ground, she was standing on my tummy, and I started to bounce her up and down holding on to her upper body, and she was keeping her legs stiff and actually starting to use them to help us bounce – a small but big step! It is true, daily you see changes in these babies and it is such a testimony to what just a little love and one on one will do for a child.

On a different note, Laurie, the other single mom from Illinois, and I did venture out together yesterday. Between our visits to the orphanage, we went shopping at the Mall connected to the Mosque. We did find that great souvenir shop on the bottom floor of the mall, I can’t remember who gave me that tip, but it was in my memory and we found it! Thank you!

Tip for Aqtobe Families: In the mall you need to find the stairway and head down to the bottom floor of the mall, it will feel like you are going the wrong way as it seems that nothing is down there, but soon you will see the carpet selling place and the place that sells antiques, in that same area there is a great little store that sells authentic Kazak trinkets and holiday clothing. For now, I have purchased a little handmade purse, 2 Kazak figurines with the big fur hats, and a little Kazak boy & girl couple. I am sure that I will venture back there before I leave.

Another Tip: Things are not cheap here! I have yet to figure out how people earn such a small amount of money and are able spend this kind of money.?????

Last Tip: If you don’t have a full on fur coat, the real kind, a 12” high fur hat, the real kind – some even with a little fur animal tail on the hat, and stiletto knee high leather boots (yes in the snow and ice) you will not fit in here. It is just crazy! The women here are dressed to the nine and stunning! I admire them for being so brave and putting fashion before comfort or practicality.

Yes, Jet Lag is Real!

2007-12-23T11:25:00.000-06:00

Jet Lag? Well, I thought that I was good to go on the ‘no’ jet lag issue, due to my one night stay in Amsterdam, but this is obviously not the case. I slept only 1 hour the first night here, 3 hours the next 2 nights, and last night I got a whoppin’ 5 hours of sleep thanks to Tylenol PM. Ugh! Today, December 23rd, I was pooped after our visit and lunch so I decided to take a nap, expecting my normal hour or two, and woke up 6 hours later. Ugh - I am so screwed tonight. :)

**My computer finally let me upload more photos of my hotel, so look all the way to the bottom for photos of my room, the hallway, stairway, pool and Sauna sign; truly this is one of the nicest buildings that I have seen in town! Not the norm, and I feel right at home here! I am talking with the other single mom and it sounds like she is pretty homesick, she is stayig in an apartment and said that it is okay too, doesn't sound as cozy as it is here but it is less expensive which is a bonus. Personally,I would rather pay a bit more to have some human interaction and creature comforts. Neither of us have left our hotel/apartment yet to venture out, we plan to get together tomorrow between our visits to go out on the town, it is tough being here alone with all this moola, you don't feel as safe to venture out.

Today is Sunday, and we are able to see our little ones only once on Sundays, no complaining on my end though, at least I got to go once. Today all of the babies seemed a bit crabby and all they wanted to do was be held and suck their thumbs, they must also know that Sunday is technically a ‘rest day.’ I think I may have posted this, but just in case we have 2 couples from Belgium, 1 from France, another mom from the States and me – I am the newbie!

Z is a rolling machine, if I put her on her tummy, in less than 5 seconds she is on her back and then on her tummy again. You can tell that she really wants to crawl too. She is really trying to figure out how to get up on all fours, which is a tough feat when you have a prized toy in one hand. This can be a very dangerous task, today she took her first spill, she was trying to get up on all fours (w/ that toy in one hand) and one arm gave out and her mouth hit the floor, pretty hard too. Immediately she cried, not whaled, just a sweet cry (hopefully that is all she has in her ) and for the first time I was able to comfort her. Within about 2 minutes she was all better and just snuggled into my neck! I believe that she is also working on another tooth as she is the slobber queen and continually is sucking on her lower lip. I gave her a nook today, and she was in heaven, I am sure that she sucks on her lip to sooth herself as she doesn’t have anything else to really suck on. Poor kid, I am sure those teeth hurt. I have read that sucking is good for a child’s language skills, and since these babies are already drinking out of cups, yes normal cups – not bottles or even sippies, I want for her to be able to have the nook. I also believe that I will be continuing to feed her from a bottle for some time, if she will still take it, that is just a normal soothing activity for a baby. A cup? Man people! Smile. You should see the size of the spoons they eat with too, my heavens, they are the same size that adult men eat with. I don’t even eat with spoons this size. Good thing I brought some infant spoons of my own, if she will take it, this is what I will use to feed her. I did find out yesterday that as of tomorrow I will be able to start feeding and changing Z during my visits, so I visited the local market (grocery store) yesterday with Aina and bought some diapers, wipes, baby food & juice. I am going for anything with lots of vitamins; bananas, carrots, vegetables and chicken, etc. I also brought along a multi-vitamin for babies, it comes in a liquid form so I can put it in her juice or her porridge. Always thinking! Today Z was sucking her thumb, man was that ever cute! (random thought there) I also brought in some slip on booties with a little bear on one foot and a little bunny on the other, they have rattles in them. I want for her to start using her legs more to strengthen those muscles and this was a perfect idea to help her get motivated. When she was lying on her back and bringing her feet up in the sky and then using her arms to try to reach the little bunny. What a trick! It did motivate her to move those legs.

Tomorrow we meet with the director of just this baby house (I believe that is her title?) to get more particulars on Z’s health and her history at the baby house. I am really looking forward to learning more; I also want to see if they know what her birth name means, most names here have a meaning and I am hopeful to learn this tomorrow. I am still not 100% on her given name yet, her birth name is quite hard to pronounce, so even as a middle name it could be tricky. Hmmm.

Tidbits:

*The name that her birth mother or orphanage gave her is called her ‘birth name,’ and the name that I give her is called her ‘given name.’
*No brown water yet.
*They hang their laundry outside to dry in -30c weather. Crazy!
*The cars here are normal, you will see Saturn, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, etc. Some very nice!
*My Hotel has all of the normal alcohols: Kahlua, Rums, of course a bazillion Vodkas, wines, Heineken, Corona, Budweiser, etc.
*The weather has not been near as cold as it was that first day at the airport. Thank heavens. It still is about zero degrees, but it truly isn’t too bad. Bring a hat & mittens though.
*It is not polite to ask about a child’s ‘real parents.’ Please, if you are curious, and it is appropriate, ask about the ‘birth parents’ because both her birth and her adoptive parents are ‘real parents,’ both sets are real and important.

So far things that I am glad that I brought:

*Travel Alarm Clock
*Leatherman (used many times already – especially the scissors)
*Computer & Camera / Video Camera – no brainer
*Funnel (To put the water from the big jugs into small personal water bottles)
*Teething Toys
*3 ring Binder from LMI with information on Medical Info / Terminology
*Skype Headset – A MUST!!!! (I have spoken with my sister, mom and John in person already and it was such a treat!)
*Pad of paper and a pen (used a ton for several things)
*Permanent Marker (to mark on your ziploc bags full of money - you can then make notes as to when you gave what money to whom right on the bag too.)

Bonding

2007-12-22T08:27:00.000-06:00

**First – If you have personally emailed me I am having email issues, I can’t receive emails right now but I can send. Grrrr, so I apologize for not getting back to you. I can however go online and read your comments on my blog, thank you so much for commenting it makes life hear all the more enjoyable. **And a shout out to my friends in MN, where the heck are your comments??????? Slackers! Just kidding, you know that I love you, but I would truly love to see you post. Smile! Hint Hint!
**So I remember logging into family's blogs and wondering why they had to write such long entries, and now I understand. :) There is a lot to say!

Today was ‘officially’ Bonding Day #1 and, with some pleading from my translator, I was able to see little Z twice today. I am going to be honest and say that I can’t imagine that the international doctor could say all that much that would sway me from ‘officially’ becoming this little girl’s mommy. She is beautiful, and of course today, she was a complete angel. Already, at just under 9 months, she is rolling over both ways and getting up on all fours! Needless to say, I was totally impressed! She also has 4 teeth, her top front 2 and her bottom front 2. Totally cute! She giggled once tonight and smiled several times for me. She loves when I lay on my back and we do the 1,2,3 and I bring her up over my head, this is how I got the giggle. She is also a wonderful cuddler and I must admit that I am also quite impressed at her ability to hang on to what is hers. I brought in a couple toys, and one of the other little girls (she is 17 months) came over and tried to take the toy, but little Z held on for dear life, at least as long as she could before it was strong armed away from her. No worries, I stepped in as did the other mommy and she got her toy back. Nobody pushes my kid around. Hehe just kidding…..kind of! Big Smile!

This is what I know so far: She was born at 36 weeks and she weighed 5.3lbs, not so shabby. I do also know that she was born in a hospital, which was wonderful to hear, at least I know that the birth was as stress free as possible. I believe that we have both her birth mom and dad’s names too! I say ‘I believe’ because her birth mom gave this information at the hospital, so I am hopeful that it is accurate. It is also Kazak tradition to have a first name, the father’s first name as a middle and then the last name, so her birth father’s name was listed as part of her name. Smile!

Regarding the ‘selection’ process, as I knew, it was a bit tough. The day started at 9:00 am when my translator Aina and I went to the Department of Education. In Aqtobe you meet with the Department of Education and they take you, along with your translator, to the baby house(s) to meet the Orphanage Director and guide you through the selection process. In our initial meeting, the lady at the Dept. of Education asked me a couple questions (that to be quite honest I wasn’t quite prepared to answer):

*Why was I adopting?
*What is my story?
*What do I do for a living?
*Why am I adopting so young?
*Why don’t I want to deliver a baby?
*How much money do I make?

We then took off to the older baby house (it is a pink and blue building for those traveling in the future – I thought something was fishy when we pulled up in front of a pink building as I knew the baby house was white and blue, so I asked my translator why this building and she let me know that the Director was here), I believe that this building is where the children from 3-5 years old are. I met with the Director of the Orphanage(s) and then I was told that I would meet one child there. Needless to say, I was not happy about this. My paperwork indicated a girl, healthy as possible, preferably Kazak, from 6-15 months………and this was a little 4 year old Caucasian girl. I understand that they need to find homes for all of their children, older, younger, special needs, girls, boys, Russian, Kazak, etc. thus they want to open up your mind a bit and show you at least one child out of your preference, but she was quite a bit older than I had requested. My heart really hurt for her as she was so cute and it seemed that she knew the drill. She came right over, sat on my lap, played with my bracelet, I let her wear it, we read a book and when she was told it was time to go she gave me my bracelet right back. Why would they intentionally put a child through this? If I had requested a child up to 3 years of age, I could see them introducing me to a little 4 year old girl, but it was quite a long shot for me. Sad! We then went to the Ymit Baby House (the white and blue building) this is where the babies to age 2 or 3 live. First they brought in Z and she was totally bundled up, head to toe in pink, all I could see was her chubby little cheeks. When the caregiver brought her in and gave her to me, she waited about 10 seconds and then her little lip started quivering and she looked for her caregiver, then the crying started, just a little bit though. She was attached! Perfect! I held her for maybe 3-5 minutes while they told me a bit about her health and then I was introduced to a second little girl; this little one was just over a year and pretty cute too, but I just didn’t connect with her like I did with Z. Seriously you get to meet the kids for only a couple minutes at max. After asking additional questions about Z’s health, her birth, birth mother, etc. they brought in her file and shared some additional information with me. From there I asked to start bonding with this child, she was in fact just what I was hoping for! She is a little Kazak girl, just under 9 months, showed healthy signs of attachment, no ‘truly’ scary health issues. (I will talk about the ‘health issues’ in a later post as it was interesting what was shared with me about her health. I do however recommend to all that haven’t traveled yet to study up on the Russian medical terminology before you travel, it will make your selection process much less stressful. Some of the terms they used and ‘conditions’ that they say she has sound really big but in reality, they are quite common diagnosis in an orphanage setting and in the Russian culture. No worries really.)

Yesterday I started some of my paperwork and Monday I meet with the head of the baby house to get more information on Z’s health and birth history. I will then send off photos, video and her health records to my International Doctor in Minnesota.

A couple tidbits:
*I love the LMI staff here in Aqtobe and in Almaty so far – very impressed!
*My Hotel and the Grocery Store takes Visa, so I could have paid for my entire hotel stay via a credit card if I had wanted. They also took Visa at the Almaty Airport.
*I heard that I could have also possibly brought traveler’s checks for some things, so do ask your coordinator before you order money! I hear that it is easy to work with traveler’s checks in Astana and Almaty and some additional regions too.
*You can smoke nearly anywhere here. Yuck! Very common, so get used to it when you are eating.
*Pay a little more to stay at a nice comfortable place, it will make your trip so much more enjoyable. To have some conveniences of home, a clean bed, a working toilet, etc. is a total bonus when you are this far from home………..especially if you are traveling single!

2007-12-21T03:58:00.001-06:00

Of highest importance, and why you are all probably logging on to my blog today (or at least this is why I would log in to your blogs – hehe), I did visit the baby house(s) today and believe that I have found my little one. The entire process was a blur really, as I only had one hour of sleep last night – too jazzed to sleep I guess (and for all of you that know me you can appreciate how bizarre this is). Tomorrow I start my bonding and I will be able to take some photos, but I am not yet sure if I will post until I have my a-okay from our International Doctor in Minneapolis. The turn around time is 24 hours on the review of her medicals, and I don’t foresee any huge concerns, but I don’t think that I will post a ton of information until I know that all checks out with her health. I have reservations on sharing too much, maybe the middle child in me, in fear that something may come up in the process to throw us off course. For now, I will share a bit more about my region and hopefully in the next couple days I can post more about my little one.

She is mighty cute though! Big Kissable Cheeks! Dressed head to toe in pink! A little Kazak girl born March 30, 2007. ( I will post more tomorrow on the ‘selection’ process as well. Again, I am glad to have brought my Grandma’s Rosary with me.)

Here are several photos of my hotel, the Ritz Carlton of Aqtobe, or as Sandi put it, it is ‘fancy schmancy!’ Today I decided to venture out of my room a bit and found the pool, Sauna & a Bar / Restaurant area. Last night I found the main restaurant too, and I must say that the food was fairly tasty.

Daily Food Report: Yesterday was a day of ‘catching up on sleep’ so I forgot to eat really. Come supper time I ventured downstairs, knowing that there was a restaurant somewhere, and low and behold, I found it right by the lobby. The next hurdle was to ask, in English, if they had an English menu; needless to say I felt totally rude. Learn Russian all of you! I wish I had a good 20 words in my arsenal already, just so that I didn’t feel so bad not knowing / using their language. They did have an English Menu, thank heavens, that I have since asked to get a copy of in my room to study. I want to read over what things are and what the prices are before taking another 30 minutes to decide on my next meal. I guess that $1.00 is 118 tenge, figure that one out quick. Anyhow, I met a very nice Dutch man at supper that shared my love of the English language. We shared a table and talked about his past week in a ‘camp’ in far western Kazakhstan, he sells some converter or boiler system thingie for the gas rigs. It was actually very interesting; this area has much gas and some oil as well. It sounds like the Chinese have really taken care of Kazakhstan, due to their interest in the natural resources here. China actually installed the internet system throughout Kazakhstan, kind of a nice friendly gift from neighbor to neighbor wouldn’t you say. I wonder if they have ulterior motives??? Hmmmm sounds a bit fishy! Hance was my fellow Holland(er)’s name, and if you thought that my travels were trying he did the same trek from Amsterdam to Almaty and then to Aqtobe and on top of that took a 7 hour train ride to his ‘camp’ where he didn’t even have water to shower ………..for a week! Yuck! When I asked Hance how his flight was from Almaty to Aqtobe, he said it was ‘Fookin’ Crazy.’ I about peed my pants, this is a normal adjective in Holland I believe as I heard it all over the ‘Amsterdam’ airport too, but in America it is a pretty bad word so to hear it flow so freely was quite hysterical.

Anyhow, for supper last night, I ended up selecting a water without gas (normal bottled water), minestrone soup (similar and pretty tasty) and a Lamb Loin with vegetables (as Hance did, I figured if he ordered it I would be okay – copy cat!). Everything was quite tasty, no complaints whatsoever and better than the granola bar that I would have had.

Today I enjoyed some tea with milk, yogurt, and a piece of bread with cheese and lunch meat for breakfast. Not too bad. Lunch meat for breakfast? Weird but okay really.

And for Lunch I had a bowl of French Onion soup, quite similar to what we enjoy in the States, again pretty tasty. I learned not to order the fried shrimp as my lunch partner had, another English speaking gentleman working on the oil rigs, the shrimp are whole with the eyes and everything. Yikes! Seriously to find another person that speaks English is such a treat, makes me feel right at home. This man lived in Texas for about 10 years and then became an Oil Rig Brat, his father also worked with / on the rigs, thus he has lived in South Africa, Saudi Arabia and is now in Iran.

Man I really wish that my toilet would be quiet! It is so darn loud, and has been for about an hour. It sounds like a washing machine almost. Shut up in there would you!