Laurie's Court & her Apartment

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

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

















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

A Twinkle in Her Eyes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spam Blog?

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

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
















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














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

Minorities

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

Playing with Bubbles

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













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














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










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














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

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

Just good food for thought!

Sorry, No Z photos again today!

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

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

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

Today sucks!

I am the Winner! :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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