It is official!

We are legally a family! Well, almost.

Court was a breeze. We were in and out in about 25 minutes, and all parties were in favor of the adoption. The baby house director and a city social worker spoke on our behalf. The prosecutor agreed with the adoption. And then it was over, and we were being congratulated. So we headed over to the baby house to break the good news to Eva! She was happy to see us, then puked on my dress shirt. We took our very first post-court family picture.

Technically the judge's decision isn't effective for 15 more days. This is the waiting period, to make sure we don't change our mind about the adoption. And since we won't, we are considering ourselves a family already. I'm glad that court is over! We didn't figure there would be many objections, but it's still a little nerve-wracking, and any time I have to speak publically it makes me jittery.

We took Eva today to have her passport photo made. She wore the cutest dress, and she sat up in the photographer's chair and looked so cute. When she noticed all eyes on her, she started clapping and blowing raspberries. We never could get a good shot, but the photographer got something passable for a passport. Every picture was cute.

Tomorrow is our last full day here in Petro. We will see Eva tomorrow for our regular visit, and then a short visit on Sunday, then we're off to Almaty. One last thing I won't miss: mayonnaise.

T minus 1 day to court!

Tomorrow is court. We have Keith's speech prepared, our dress clothes are washed and ready, and I'm going to shave my legs tonight. I can't think of any further preparations to make. So tonight we are watching more episodes of 24, and hopefully going to bed a little early. Another couple who have grown to be our friends is leaving tomorrow. They had court today, and they received a positive result to adopt their son. He is Eva's friend; they are in the same group and their cribs are together, so they really like each other. We plan to stay in touch with them. It will be sad to say good-bye, but we are happy that they get to head home to their other children.

We've spent the past couple of days playing outside with Eva. A new playground was just built at the baby house, and they put in baby swings. Eva absolutely loves to swing. She screams and cries when we try to take her out of the swing. She enjoys the outdoors all together. Today when we arrived to visit her, they put her in a kerchief to play outside. Much cooler than a hat, and so cute! We had to take pictures of her in the kerchief. What a cutie.

Yesterday the head director at the baby house gave us a tour. We saw all the different age groups and rooms, including the doctors and kitchen. I was pretty impressed. I haven't seen a lot of orphanages in my experience, but this one is so clean, and it's well-equipped with toys and medical equipment. It's an old building, but they've done amazing things with it. No orphanage can match the love of a family, but at least the children are well-cared for. We video-taped most of the tour; my camera work was bumpy at best, since I tried to tape while we walked around, but it will be a good resource if she is interested one day.

Our time here grows short. We are leaving Petro on Sunday, and when we get to Almaty, we're still not sure when we'll be home. Friday at the very latest, so we're down to one more week here. I am most looking forward to: seeing the boys, air conditioning, a hair dryer, lettuce, white meat chicken. I will most miss: seeing Eva, spending time with Keith, spicy carrot salad, sleeping 10+ hours a night, watching movies and reading. Life here is pretty much free of responsibility; we put in our 3 hours a day at the baby house, and the rest of the day is up to us. To waste as we will.

Tomorrow we become mama and papa in the eyes of Kazakhstan! Barring no unforeseen complications.

The following events occur on June 27, 2006.

We've completed our period of bonding, and yesterday we applied for court. The application documents were fascinating. Mostly they were papers asking to change her name, asking to name us as her parents on her Kaz birth certificate. Her birth name is so long. I think her middle name is probably 20 characters. It's nice to have that information, in case she wants it one day. I don't think she'll retain any memory of her life here in Kazakhstan, but I want to be prepared when she starts asking questions. That's her right, and our responsibility. No doubt that she'll be an American girl, but also no denying her heritage, and the first year of her life in the baby house.

So we visited with her again today. She is anticipating our visit at noon, just after her naptime, and she is waking up earlier and earlier from her morning nap. So she starts getting cranky around the end of our visit. She sometimes falls asleep on my shoulder, but we try to keep her awake, because just after we leave is snack time. And the last time I saw the snack, it was cookies, and she deserves the cookies after the beets and onions for lunch.

Tomorrow we are taking her to get her picture made for her passport. It will be her first time out of the baby house in 10 months. There are no car seat laws here, so we will hold her in the car. I wonder how she will feel on her first car trip since she was a newborn. She will travel on a Kazak passport, since she will have dual citizenship until her 18th birthday. I must remember to take her a smashing shirt tomorrow for her picture.

We bought her a couple of things at the market. I got her two pairs of sandals, a hat, and a head kerchief. The hat was about $1, and it is so cute on her. She is used to wearing hats, since they are always bundled up, so she leaves them on. Such a change from the boys. I will definitely be able to dress this one up, and, as Betsy says, accessorize.

We confirmed that our court is Friday the 30th, at 11 AM. That is midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning back in Nashville, so if you're awake at that time, say a little prayer for us. Court is mostly a formality, but in the time we've been here, there's been a family leave without their baby girl after court. So, we're a little nervous. Hopefully everything checks out. We're pretty clean, no dirt here, except for that one little episode at a club in Bentonville about 6 years ago . . . surely that is long forgotten, but one can never be too careful.

No picture today; I've tried four times to upload it, and now I give up. We borrowed the first season of 24 from a family here, and we're 2 discs in. That is taking priority right now. I'll try again tomorrow.

Groundhog Day

The past few days have been second verse, same as the first. Our routine is set, and we don't really deviate from it. Sleep in until last possible moment, shower and throw hair up (too sweaty to bother fixing), then off to the Baby House at noon. Play with cute baby until 3 PM, then back to hotel for lunch, nap and possible reading. Dinner around 7 PM, then possibly watch a movie in the room, or watch the same news stories on EuroNews or BBC over and over again (only channels we get in English). Try to upload pictures. Then bed anywhere between 10 PM and midnight. Every day pretty much the same story. It's been raining for the past three days, so the weather has cooled some. For that, we are thankful.

About three days ago I hurt my back somehow, no idea how, but I've been in awful pain since then. I'm living on Tylenol and Advil. Some of the other Americans suggested that I try the hotel masseuse. I resisted for a few days, because I've had one other massage in my life, and I hated it. It was some weird guy who was all New Agey and kept ringing a gong throughout the massage. But I finally relented, due to the pain, and booked a massage yesterday with the lady masseuse. She worked on my back for about 45 minutes, and it cost $12. Not a bad deal! But I still am not a massage person. It either tickled or hurt the entire time. There were times I thought she was trying to kill me. I think it helped my back a little bit, but waking up this morning I am just as sore as ever.

Today is our last official day of bonding with Eva. Tomorrow we can apply for court. We are anticipating a court date of 6/30, this upcoming Friday. I'd love to have it even sooner, but probably not possible. There are three American families all applying tomorrow for court. The crowd here will be thinning out in about a week, ourselves hopefully included!

Bonding Day 10

Together she and I are 335 months old!

We kept the birthday celebration low-key, and by low-key I mean we did absolutely nothing and the day passed with no celebration or fanfare whatsoever. We visited the baby, and we watched Chronicles of Narnia, and I had an ice cream cone, so that kind of counts as a fun birthday. Eva was in a good mood today, and the weather was nice, so we spent about 2 hours outside with her. No coat today, thank goodness, but she still had to wear her winter hat.

We found out today that we're going to the travel agent tomorrow to get tickets from Petro to Almaty on July 2. Hopefully we can get a flight out of Almaty around that same time, and get home by the 4th of July. We'll probably miss her birthday, but flights out of here are only two or three times a week, and if we miss the flight on the 2nd, we may be stuck for another week. The World Cup may keep us from being able to move up our Almaty flights. I guess I've decided not to stay. I'll head home with Keith, and back to work for a couple of weeks before I fly back to Petro to pick up Eva. I wasn't counting on going right back to work after the trip, but time to shift gears in my head again, try to get back into the insurance game. Prime Mates, prepare yourself!

Keith went to a Petro salon today and got his hair cut. She did a good job on him, cut it nice and short like he likes it, for $2.50. Good deal!

I hear the boys are doing great with Meme and Poppy. They're going to be so bored with Keith and me when we get back and don't take them to the park every single day, and the Bounce Factory, and McDonalds. Poor children, don't get too used to the high life.

Happy Father's Day!

Keith and I spent this weekend hanging out with Eva at the baby house, then seeing some of the city. Igor took us to the river outside of Petro (see picture), then to the lake, which is like the local beach. It is already packed. I guess when you have only 2 months of summer, you take advantage of it! Today we met another couple and walked around, doing some shopping, then had dinner at Gupse's, the pizzeria. We had a nice day, minus the heat and millions of mosquito bites!

Eva was in a good mood today! She woke up from her nap such a happy girl, then we fed her lunch. She had, among other things, beets. How she managed down a plate full of beets, I have no idea. Then they brought us two bottles of beet juice for her, to keep her hydrated in this heat. We think it was the water they cooked the beets in - she drank it down with no complaints. We took her outside again for a walk. She loves the outdoors.

Her birthday is coming up soon. We're trying to decide what we should do to celebrate. Maybe just take her some gifts, and maybe some sweets if they allow it. July 3rd she will be turning 1!

Bonding Day 5: Fun in the Snow

OWEN, we took this picture for you because you wanted to see more pictures of Daddy! He made a sign with your name on it, and Ari's name. And see the Big Bird toy we bought for Eva? Also, I am putting up a picture of Mommy, Daddy and Eva for you. We took Eva outside to the playground. She really had fun. She will love playing with you guys at the park when we bring her home!

Today was Day 5 of bonding. We finally got permission to take her outside for a walk in the stroller, but only if she wore a warm hat and coat. Look how bundled up she is, and it was literally 95 degrees today! I can't believe how many layers they keep on these kids. I took the pink dress and socks for her, but that wasn't nearly enough clothes. I had to add the pants, the jacket, and the hat before she was dressed warmly enough for the outside weather. Regardless of the heat, she loved it outside. I'm not sure she's ever been out before. She was closing her eyes to the wind and taking it all in.

Petro has the strangest trees. I'm not sure what kind they are, but they release these seeds that look like little pieces of cotton. They were everywhere when we first arrived here, but Igor told us that they will get much worse. Well, apparently it's true. They are now filling the air. It's hard to walk around outside without breathing them in. In this picture of Keith and Eva outside, it looks like it's snowing. Those are the seeds. Luckily they aren't triggering any allergies in us. Some of the couples here are really quite sick from the dreaded seeds.

So today was a good day of visiting. She was in a pretty good mood. Yesterday she was an all-out crank. She didn't feel good, having just received a flu shot, and she wasn't interested in Keith at all. She warmed up to him more today. I tell you, it's only been 5 days, but she's turning into a little princess already. If I tell her no, she lays on her stomach and screams. If we try to put her down when she wants to be held, she screams when her feet touch the floor. Didn't take her long to get us figured out! She is getting more vocal, making noises and yelling. At first she was really quiet. Not so much anymore.

In case I haven't explained the process before, let me briefly recap. We spend 15 days bonding with the baby at the Baby House. We started on Monday, and today is our fifth day of bonding. After the bonding period, we file our paperwork for a court date. We will go to court within 7 days of the end of the bonding period. Once we get a favorable (hopefully) decision from the judge, it doesn't take effect until 15 days after the court date. This is the second waiting period, and is designed to allow adoptive parents to back out, or family to come forward, etc. After the 15 days is up, the judge's decision becomes effective. The child applies for her passport and visa. Then everyone heads to Almaty for registration with the US Embassy there, and a check at the SOS Clinic, to be sure the child is healhty enough to enter the US. Then it's onto the airplane, and the child becomes an American citizen when her foot touches US soil. If I leave after court, I'll be home around 3 weeks before I come back and pick her up. If I stay, I'll be here an extra 3 - 4 weeks without Keith before I can bring her home. I probably won't stay, but we haven't worked out the money and logistics of that part yet.

This has been a very interesting procedure, from start to finish. I've had days where I thought that no one should ever adopt again, ever. I've had days where I can't believe how blessed we are to have been given this amazing little girl. Talk about a roller coaster. But I'm so glad we found her. Enjoy the pictures, because they take FOREVER to upload!

Introducing Eva Louise Irina Foster

Owen and Ari, look at sister pulling Daddy's glasses off! She loves glasses.

Visitation Day 3

Today was a great visit with the baby. We’re allowed to visit her once a day for 2 hours, but our translator is usually able to stretch it to 2.5 or 3 hours. We arrive at noon, just as she is waking from her morning nap and getting ready to eat lunch. The last few days they’ve allowed us to feed her when we arrive. I do not like this task. She doesn’t like lunch. It looks like it would be nutritious, but atrocious. She gags it and spits it out, and I can’t say I blame her. Basically it starts with a bowl of soup. The soup is always vegetable-based. The first day we fed her, it was onions and carrots and tomatoes. Today it was beets, turnips and carrots. There is so much of it, at least a cup and a half. Getting her to eat this is about a joke, since she is so little; most of it just runs back out of her mouth. Then we move on to the meat puree and mashed potatoes. There is another cup of each of these. So much food for a little stomach! Lunch is finished off with fruit juice in a ceramic teacup. It’s not pure juice; it’s the water from boiling dried fruit. She gulps it out of a teacup like nobody’s business.

The workers shovel the food in, holding the bowl directly under her chin and not stopping for a second. There are only one or two caregivers to feed six to eight babies, so time is very important. She hates it at lunchtime, but I’m told she eats better at dinner, which is oatmeal, or eggs, something better than the soup! So when we arrive and they ask if I want to feed her, I try to decline. I hate the way they force us to force her to eat. But normally they go ahead and give us the bowls, probably because they appreciate the help. Today she was not having any of it. I managed to get a couple of bites in her, and then I gave up and let her drink all the fruit juice. I’m sure I upset the caregivers, who expect the kids to eat all that food every day. But I couldn’t do it. She was gagging; she hated it, poor girl. So feeding, it is an experience.

I snuck a sippy cup in today with watered-down juice. She has no sucking reflex at all; she’s been on solids since her first tooth, and she drinks from a regular cup, not a bottle or sippy. We’re working on her tongue and sucking ability. It took her a while to figure out the cup, but once she did, she was all over it. She learns really quickly. We’ve been working with her on clapping, and now she does it and gives us a funny look, like she can’t figure out why she’s doing it, but it makes these big people cheer, so whatever.

You should see her look at Keith. She studies his face for minutes at a time, rubbing his face, feeling his eyes, checking out his whiskers. She loves his glasses, too. She must think he is a pretty strange creature, the way she checks him out.

We got the remainder of her medical file translated and off to Vanderbilt today. We’re waiting to hear back from them. I’m not a doctor, but I didn’t see anything too scary. I’m anxiously awaiting their response, and if all is well, I’ll spend another two hours uploading pictures onto this website so that everyone can meet this baby. I wish I could upload more than just pictures, though. Photos don’t really do her justice. Yeah, she’s pretty cute in pictures. But the best parts of her are her big teeth, her tiny nose and the way she wrinkles it, her smoker’s voice, her huge mouth, her receding hairline, just how funny she is in general. And tiny, she is tiny! She is wearing 6-12 month outfits. Everything I bought before we came here was size 18-24 months. I brought one package of 12-month onesies with us; I’m going to try those on her tomorrow to gauge her size. But small, she is definitely small. Another first for us, a small baby!

Today at the baby house, another family from New York visited with their new little girl while we were there. They brought along their two older boys, ages 5 and 3. Little girl was wide-eyed, just staring at the big kids. She wanted to get in the mix with them pretty bad. This bodes well for her future as little sister to the crazy boys at home. Hopefully she’ll feel right at home being dog-piled by Owen and Ari. It’s funny to think of Ari, my baby, as a big brother. I miss those two boys like mad!

First hurdle cleared

We heard back from the international adoption clinic at Vanderbilt. They reviewed the brief medical history we sent them, and looked at several pictures of the baby. They don't see any issues with her health or development. They don't see any signs of fetal alcohol syndrome. She is on the growth charts, which is a feat in itself for a child from a baby house. She is right on track developmentally, even for being in the baby house and born 6 weeks early. They gave us the green light on her current health. So, first hurdle cleared.

The second step is to send them her entire medical history file. It is currently being translated by a special medical translator. Once we have it in English, we'll send it on for Vanderbilt's professional opinion. Then we can make our final decision. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure that it matters what they say. She's pretty much ours already.

I am taking some froofy clothes today to dress her up and take her picture. She will be irritated, I already know, because the camera bugs her. She pretty much rolls her eyes at me when I keep flashing it in her face. But really, what else do moms do?

She is super-ticklish, I forgot to mention that. And she's not a fan of Peek-A-Boo. I think they must not play that in Kazakhstan. She looks at us as if we are straight off the crazy boat when we try to play that with her.

In other news, I now have a special relationship with the ice cream girl. She doesn't speak English, and I don't speak Russian, but we both speak chocolate. So I've been having a 12-cent ice cream cone every day. Really, I'm just doing it for the price. A 12-cent ice cream cone! Luckily we're walking all over the city, to work off those calories.

I uploaded a few pictures to Flickr of the city. There are monuments everywhere here, to Lenin or World War II or some historic Kazak warriors. The upkeep on them isn't great, but they are pretty cool looking. So check those out.

Petro Day 1 - by Keith

Another old entry from the written files, this one penned by Keith himself...

Well, we flew across the earth today. The fun began once our English speaking friend left us at the airport in Almaty. We went to check our bags and they said we were 22 kilos over their weight limit, little turds. We flew from Nashville to Chicago to London to Almaty and all is fine, and now we are 22 kilos over. There was nothing we could part with, so we gave them about $60 and magically 22 kilos was fine. Then we sat and waited for our flight, at least we thought we were. We tried to listen for our flight number in Russian, funny how difficult that is without speaking Russian. At some point we decided maybe we should wave around our tickets and see if that impressed anyone. Sure enough our flight number had been called, so they rush us on to a bus where everyone is waiting. I think that bus drove about 10 feet to the plane (which I guess was only funny to me) and everyone got off and climbed the stairs to get on the flight.

I don’t remember much about the flight due to our giving up sleep since we’ve been here. I seem to recall waking up and seeing a tray of food and then waking again and handing the uneaten tray of food back. After about and hour and a half we landed and Robyn thought we were all going to die, which is pretty common. I had no idea that she was so frightened of landing. After all, she flies fairly often. Oh well, we lived.

We packed into a hot van and began our drive to Petropavl. This is when we found out that our 4- or 5-hour drive was a 7-hour drive and in fact turned out to be a 9-hour drive.

We did see some interesting sights, though. The town we landed in was Astana, so we saw some of the area while we were driving through. This is the new capital of Kazakhstan (moved from Almaty) and everything is brand new. Being a recently independent country (since 1991) apparently the President decided they needed a new modern city. Robyn said it looked like a Hollywood set. All the streets and buildings were either recently built or still being built. It was quite amazing to see. More cranes than you could count putting tall building together. Our translator told us a funny story about one of them. He said that it caught fire recently and the ladders on the fire trucks could not reach the top, so it burned down all the way to where they could reach.

The first third of our drive was smooth sailing. The translator said that there is a resort that the President frequents in this area, so all roads are smooth. After that point, not so much, it slowly became worse and worse. There were two bench seats in the back so Robyn and I could lie down and sleep. It was so bumpy at one point I am pretty sure that we bounced high enough to switch seats. It was intense. We did get to stop at a little strip of cafes and eat and use the restroom. And by restroom I mean outhouse. At least that is what they called it. I went inside expecting to see sort of target, if you know what I mean, but there was none. I couldn’t tell if the hole was full or what. The stench was so bad, though it didn’t appear that anyone cared, so I didn’t either (for the record I am speaking of #1 only). Robyn got within about 15 feet and opted out. We went into one of the cafes and ate some kind of chicken and noodles with “special sauce.” Then back to the road.

Most of the drive was wide open spaces. All you could see was flat empty land, a drastic change from all the mountains that are Almaty. Still, it was beautiful just to see it.

We are finally here if Petropavl and so far we like it. They people seem to dress more relaxed, and by relaxed, I mean naked like Americans. No shorts though. I so wish I was a woman so that I could where a skirt and one of those barely-there shirts because man is it hot. As a whole I think there is much more Russian influence here, which makes sense because we are less than an hour from the border of Russia. The people are more European-looking as opposed to Almaty where the majority of people looked Asian.

That is about all the rambling that I have for now. I think I will have Robyn post this separately so that everyone can skip it and just read her post as she is much more interesting.

Petro Day 1

Here's an old entry from the written files that I am just now uploading...

We made it to Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan. We flew from the south of Kazakhstan, by the Chinese border, to north Kazakhstan, just 40 minutes south of Russia. Talk about a major difference. Almaty was in the mountains, a huge old city of 3 million. Petro is in the north, flat land, a city of 250,000. I like Petro much better. There is a hotel here, called the Skiff, where there are many American families adopting. They all eat together, shop together. We met them tonight and had dinner. It was pretty fun. I am looking forward to staying here.

Before we can visit the Baby House, we need permission from the government. Our previous permission was granted for the Almaty region; now we need permission for the Petro region. We should have the necessary documents to visit the Baby House on Monday.

So we’ll spend the weekend resting, visiting the bazaar, checking out the city. It is super hot here, and no buildings have air conditioning, including our apartment. We’ll be staying here through Monday, then on to the Skiff with the other Americans.

We finally got the phone card to work, and now we can communicate with the boys. Owen doesn’t really care to talk on the phone, so even when I call, he sometimes won’t talk to me. Stinker. At least I can get a “hello” and “bye-bye Mama” from Ari.

We need to get out and take some pictures of Petro. It’s a cool city. I did post some pictures of Almaty in Flickr, so you can always check over there for new pictures.

Now I need to find an internet café to upload this. We don’t have internet in our apartment yet, although we should have in-room access at the Skiff.

So far today I beat Keith at Connect Four 10 times. I also read a book, and we watched some volleyball tournament on television. We also like to play rummy. At last, I have him trapped and he has to play games with me!

No camel or horse meat today. I bought a kilo of cherries from a lady at the grocery and I am looking forward to eating those tonight. We bought ice cream cones on the street today, and they cost 13 tenge each, which figures to about 12 cents American. Cheap ice cream! I’m loving that. Also, they don’t sell Diet Coke here, just Coke Light. I think the difference is that Coke Light has 1 calorie, and there is a slight taste difference. I like Coke Light just fine. The food is different, for sure. I’m trying to be adventurous, but I admit that yesterday, I just ordered French fries. I needed something that tasted familiar! And French fries apparently are universal.

She's trying to quit.

In my time here, I've read the following books:
Confessions of a Shopaholic (too tired to go find the book)
Dress Your Family in Denim and Courderoy (David Sedaris)
Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris)
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
Little Earthquakes (Jennifer Weiner)

I think I should've brought more reading material! I talked Keith into 3 games of Yahtzee today. Three!

We visited the baby again today. She was an absolute doll. She has these crazy two front teeth, and she smiles with her whole mouth and looks like she wants to eat somebody. She was very tired at the end of our visit, and hungry, and she threw herself on the floor and gave a good dramatic cry. I loved it. She is doing well adjusting to Keith (probably the first man she's ever seen), but when she's tired, it's me she wants. Her voice is hilarious; she sounds raspy like she's been smoking for 10 years. Reminds me, work colleagues, of a certain lady we once knew - "HI GIRLS!" So getting the baby to laugh is well worth it, if for her smoker's voice alone.

We were just able to send our information to Vanderbilt a few minutes ago. Hopefully they will respond to us ASAP regarding their opinion on her medical file. It took 2 hours to upload five pictures. Yes, you heard right. So I'm ready to shut this machine down and get some sleep. We've moved into the hotel, and we ate dinner tonight with 4 other American couples. Very good for the ears and soul to hear the English.

More tomorrow, and a picture of the baby if we decide to commit.

Monday in Petro

We are still trying to update from the internet cafe, which isn't a cafe at all, but just a room with six computers and no air conditioning. At least the connection isn't as slow today.

Keith and I went to the baby house this morning. There was only one available girl who fit our requirements. We spent the morning with her. We took down the information required by the Vanderbilt clinic (height, weight, head circumference, birth mother information, you get the picture), and as soon as we find a way to upload pictures, we will send the information to them for their opinion on her medical condition. Physically she appeared just fine to us, in our humble opinions as parents of two babies. At 11 months she is crawling and pulling up onto furniture, just starting to cruise. She has four teeth and a headful of hair. She has a little touch of Asian in her. Her birthday is July 3.

Hopefully we will find a way to communicate with Vanderbilt soon. We need to send them pictures, and once our translator gets us the medicals in English, we will send those as well. I promise to upload a picture if we make a decision soon.

Keith and I braved dinner on our own tonight, and ordered shashlik in the park. Shashlik is meat on a stick, like a kebab. It was super good. The weather cooled off today after a huge storm blew through (in 5 minutes), so we ate outside and really enjoyed it. Keith orders, with some basic Russian and holding up two fingers. He said he should learn to say in Russian, "Whatever is best," and then let them just bring us something. I'm okay with that, as long as it's not horse. I don't think tonight's dinner was horse, but we're going to look it up in our Russian dictionary to be sure. The only other eating adventure we've had was when I unwrapped the new package of butter to make toast, and found that it was dark brown. A little investigating, and we found out it is chocolate butter (by investigating, I mean I tasted it). Never seen that before, and we're glad it's just chocolate.

Tomorrow we are visiting the baby house again to spend another couple of hours with the little girl. It's hard to think of her as ours, but hard not to. Her name is Irina, like my great-grandmother (at least, the Russian version). Hopefully more news tomorrow.

Goodbye from the wasteland.

Petro, the journey

Finally, we made it to an internet cafe. We've been trying to hook up the internet access in our apartment, but we are only staying there through Monday, so we haven't tried that hard. On Monday we are moving to a hotel.

I had two nice blog entries typed up and saved on our laptop, but you can't bring your own computer to the internet cafe, so I'm going to recap briefly, then post the lengthy entries later (one entry penned by Keith, if you can believe it!).

We left Almaty on Thursday evening. We took a very bumpy 90-minute plane ride to the country's capital, Astana. We were met at the airport by our translator, Igor, who is very cool. We then drove on a very bumpy road for about 9 hours, and around 4 AM we reached Petropavl. We went from the south by China to the north by Russia. I love this city, much better than the huge city of Almaty that we were in.

We spent this weekend looking around town, meeting other American families in the park, and sweating. There is nowhere with air conditioning, so we broke down and bought the world's most expensive fan for our apartment. Also, I have a million bug bites. But we are enjoying ourselves.

We're staying in an apartment through the weekend becuase the Hotel Skiff is full. The Skiff is where most American couples stay who are in this city to adopt. There is a couple leaving today, so we will most likely take their room. All the Americans meet in the hotel restaurant for breakfast and dinner. We've met several couples so far. One from Michigan who adopted two sisters ages 9 and 4, one from California adopting one little girl age 6, one couple from Indiana adopting a sibling set ages 13 and 10, and a couple from Mobile, AL adoping a baby boy age 18 months. We hope to add ourselves to that list shortly!

We should be able to visit the Baby House on Monday. We are really looking forward to this. Keep us in your prayers!

On Monday I will post any news, and some pictures of the city.

Almaty Day 2

Day 2 in Almaty was no better. There are no children here for us. We drove about an hour and a half outside the city to see the only available girl in the region. We did not accept her because of her health condition. She is about 18 months old, but is not sitting up on her own, and barely holds her head up. She is 15 pounds. This is not a developmental delay just from living in a baby house. She was very, very premature and the baby house did not have the resources to help her. She needs more help than we can offer. It was very sad to meet her, because she smiled and grunted at Keith. She did not want me to hold her, but lunged over for him, and held his fingers and made noises at him. I’m sure the decision was more difficult for him when we said we could not adopt her. After we said no to her, we were told that our documents would be returned to us and that this coordinator (the in-country one) could not help us any further. So much for choosing a child in-country; the one was saw was very sick, and no others were shown to us.

After we got home from the baby house, Keith and I were very confused, and disappointed. I was ready to come home. It’s extremely difficult to plan for over a year to come and meet your daughter, and when you get here, after the waiting, the paperwork, the money, to be told that there are no children here for you? Unbelievably cruel.

Our coordinator came over to the apartment (the one we brought with us) and saw that I was an absolute emotional wreck; he sat down and made some more calls. He was in touch with another coordinator in a different region, and apparently there are more opportunities for children there. So, very long afternoon story made short, Keith and I are taking a short in-country flight today to another region, then a 5-hour bus ride, and then we will meet more children.

(I think.)

(I hope.)

So far it’s been one bad day and one awful day. Not exactly what I had in mind. It doesn’t help that we haven’t been able to figure out the phone lines, and we haven’t talked to the boys since we’ve been here.

After all that, we went with some coordinators to a Kazakhstani restaurant. There were musicians playing traditional instruments, dancers in traditional dress, it was very entertaining. We ordered a traditional meal, called Five Fingers. It is a huge dish of noodles, with horse, lamb and camel meat, and then topped with onions and potatoes. I managed to taste the horse and lamb, but I had to draw the line at camel. Keith was not deterred, and ate everything in front of him. The meat didn’t taste bad; in fact, the horse tasted just like roast beef. It was just the thought that it was horse, and camel, you know? We had a really great time at dinner. By the time we left, everyone was up front doing this weird bouncy (vodka-induced, I’m sure) dance, and we joined them for one song (Keith excluded – the man will eat camel, but won’t dance). We fell into bed around midnight, and finally slept a little bit. The jet lag and strange pillow and bed have taken their toll, and we’ve been sleeping only about four hours each night.

This journey is so far unpredictable at best. We are hopeful that the trip today will result in a meeting with a healthy girl. We’re assured there are three healthy girls there. This gives me hope. Yesterday I really felt like our two choices were either a healthy boy or a sick girl, and neither of those was our reason for coming. A healthy boy was plan B, and we could have that here in Almaty without leaving the city. But we decided to keep pushing and see what our coordinator came up with.

So I’m off to pack up our things and get ready for the flight. We’ll make one more trip over to the Ramstore to upload this message, and hopefully find a new charger for my cell phone. Mine is burned up, I guess from the converter we used to plug it in. Seeing that text messages are the only means of communication we have right now, we need that cell phone!

Don’t feel sad for us (I spent myself doing just that yesterday, and it didn’t really help, honestly). We will find a child here somewhere. We didn’t come all this way to give up after two bad days. Thanks for your best wishes and prayers. That will sustain us.

Almaty Day 1: The Good and The Bad

I realize that the London entry left you hanging with no pictures. Our laptop battery went completely dead in Starbucks, and we had to hop a plane shortly thereafter, so I was unable to hook up again. I’ll add those photos when we get a stable internet connection.

We arrived in Almaty early this morning, about 4 AM local time. There were two other adopting couples on the plane, and we spoke to them briefly. We followed behind them in the Customs line. I was nervous to go through with all the adoption money, but it was actually quite easy - a stamp on the visa form and a wave on through. We didn’t have to declare anything, either, which was a courtesy extended and not the norm. The Almaty airport is new and modern, and much less intimidating than I thought!

Our luggage made it safe and sound, and our translator and coordinator were waiting for us outside the airport. Our driver arrived shortly, and they took us to a grocery store to get some basic items. We bought some bread, salami, yogurt, cherry juice and plum juice, eggs, frozen tortellini type pasta, hot tea, cereal, plums, apples, milk and cheese. The milk we bought was 2.5%, the very lowest fat available. The standard milk is 6% fat! Our translator (Anastasia – she is absolutely fabulous) picked out our cheese. We think there was a miscommunication because she told us it was dog cheese. We think she meant goat. We bought it anyway, and put it in our eggs this morning. It has a very sharp flavor. The juice is wonderful. We drank all of the plum juice with breakfast.

So after some brief shopping we came to our apartment to get unloaded and try to sleep. The apartment is very nice. It is newly remodeled, and no one has stayed here since the remodel. It has air conditioning and a washing machine, two very important items! We were able to grab a couple hours of sleep this morning before our coordinator came over. We were awakened by some dogs barking like crazy, and Keith said, “They’re unhappy – probably getting milked for the dog cheese.”

Here’s where the story gets rough.

The coordinator arrived with his in-country person. We all came upstairs to our apartment and sat around the living room. He told us that he does many adoptions with this woman in this country, and it is a very smooth process. He said he went this morning and looked through the databases, and found a very good, very cute, Caucasian healthy child for us (“Looks like you, Robyn,” he said). This child is a boy. He is about 2 years old. He pulled out pictures for us to see, and hee’s right, the boy is very cute. Long blonde hair, big blue eyes, looks about Ari’s size, absolutely adorable. I immediately started crying, mostly because I was so, so disappointed. Not that we didn’t want the boy, of course we did. But we came here for a daughter. So when I started crying, our coordinator said he would leave and let Keith and I discuss the boy. I said there was nothing to discuss, we came here for a girl. Keith said it’s not that we wouldn’t like the boy, we know we would. But this coordinator knew long before we came to this country that we were coming for a girl. We gave him an absolute (and teary) “no” answer and he left the room to make some calls.

When he returned, we went to lunch and had a very large and very tasty Russian meal (no horse meat yet). Then we took a short drive around the city by taxi, while he showed us some sights. He dropped us back off at the apartment to get some sleep, which we promptly did. He called back a few hours later to tell us that he needed some time to work on a couple of scenarios, and will call us tomorrow.

So that’s where we stand, totally hanging with no idea if we will be bringing home Eva, or a baby boy, or any baby at all. Not a good feeling, and one that leaves me prone to sudden outbreaks of tears, but a feeling that is recurring in this adoption.

The bright side is, the apartment is wonderful, the city is beautiful, and the weather is absolutely perfect. We are on the 8th floor, and have a great view of the mountains. We are also right across the street from the Ramstore, which is the large mall and shopping area that so many adopting parents frequent on their trips here to Almaty.

Keith and I are praying very hard that tomorrow will bring better news, and that tomorrow will bring Eva.

We don’t have internet connectivity at our apartment yet, but are using an Internet café for now. I can upload more pictures as soon as we get our own connection.

Dear Owen and Ari,
Today we went to a big mall, and there was an ice skating rink! We thought about how you guys like to ice skate in the living room with your socks. There was also a big kangaroo painted on the outside of the building, and a painting of a boy having a birthday party! We think he was 7 years old, because there is a big 7 painted beside him. I will try to send some pictures so that you can see everything. We haven’t found Eva yet, but are still trying to find her. I hope that maybe tomorrow will be the big day! We heard that you went to the zoo! Was the crocodile house finished yet? Have so much fun with Nini and Mam. We love you very much! Mom and Dad

London

I had to say it as our plane touched down, even though I knew Keith would roll his eyes. “London, baby, YEAH!” Because, come on, we’re in London, baby!

Our flight out of Chicago went very smoothly. We flew British Airways, and they bumped us a class to business. Not first class (who, by the way, had true to life fold-out beds, divine), but it was an extra 7 inches better than economy. We had personal screens for watching movies or television shows (6 movies to choose from, I watched Junebug and Keith watched King Kong.), a personal pillow and blanket, and a packet of socks, an eye mask for sleeping, a toothbrush and toothpaste. We were served complimentary wine (which, yuck) and a meal that was actually delicious. I quite fancied it (see, I learned that in London).

Our flight got in 40 minutes early, and then we took a 3-hour ride in to our hotel. We literally took the tube, a bus, and a taxi to get in to the city. The tube line we needed was closed down for the weekend, and it was awful. Keith was super carsick. I was just hot and tired - awake 24 hours at this point, and dragging 300 pounds (literally) was exhausting. Once we made it to the hotel, it was a quick clean-up and out to see the town.

Because someone (me) left their Travel Card in the hotel, we walked the city on foot on Saturday night. We started out on Oxford and walked into Soho, then Chinatown, then on to Trafalgar Square. We passed a long list of historic English buildings (documented in photos) and ended up at Buckingham Palace. We finished the evening with curry and shepherd’s pie at a pub, then back to the hotel for 12 hours of dead-to-the world sleep. Laura and the boys called around bedtime, and they seem to be holding up okay for now.

Sunday we slept in, and then headed to the tube for a quick ride to the market. We ate lunch at the market, and browsed the amazing clothes, bags and shoes (no purchases). We walked to the Columbia flower market, then back to the tube for a ride to the Tower of London. We had a guided tour, and learned all about its history. We saw the Crown Jewels (very cool), the coronation gown of Elizabeth 2 (also cool), and walked around the walls of the Tower. Afterwards we tubed over to the London Eye, rested for a while on the grass, walked across London Bridge, then tubed back to Soho for dinner (an Irish pub this time, with sausages and colcannon for Keith, and salmon for me). We took one more tube ride to St. Paul’s Cathedral, walked to Somerset House, then tubed back to the hotel.

Have I bored you yet with all this sight-seeing? Wait until you see all the pictures.

Tomorrow we’re leaving the hotel around 10 AM, and back to Heathrow for a 1 PM flight to Kazakhstan. We both have jangly nerves, even the stoic husband. We’ve enjoyed London immensely. And tubing, what a great idea! I love the public transportation.

I sure miss the kids, but I’m not breaking down yet. It’s been a nice little holiday to traipse around the city without worrying about the boys. Owen would sure love riding the tube, but I can’t imagine putting them through the walking and sight-seeing we’ve done.

It may take us a day to get connected to the Internet in Kazakhstan, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us tomorrow (or it could be that we’re looking for a connection that doesn’t cost $30, like it does here at the hotel, ouch). As soon as we’re hooked up, I’ll be back. (Betsy, I have the book – haven’t opened it yet, am saving for Almaty.)

Things I learned about London:

1. Always stay at a hotel near a tube station.
   
2. Bring a lot of money, because London is expensive. One pound equals two dollars, but everything is priced just like the US (a pub meal is 8.95 pounds for a burger and fries, but convert that into dollars and you’re eating a $20 hamburger).
   
3. The people are really into fashion, but weird fashion. They wear a lot of layers, ripped up, nothing matches, and yet they manage to always look fabulous.
   
4. Heathrow may be called a London airport, but it’s like an hour away. So, yuck.
   
5. Don’t order ice tea in London.
   
6. Keith not only gets carsick and airsick, he also gets tube-sick (not really about London, but had to be noted).

Pictures are slow to upload, but click on the Flickr button on the left hand side of the page to scroll through our photos.

Dear Owen and Ari,
Are you having fun with Nini and Mam? We are taking one more airplane ride and then we will get to meet Eva. We can’t wait to show her your picture! Remember, we took the snake toy with the beads for her to play with. And Owen, remember when you picked out the baby books to send to her? As soon as we meet her, we can show you a picture of your sister. Then after a little while we will bring her home to you. Mommy and Daddy sure miss you guys a lot. Have fun with Nini and Mam, and we love you big as the whole world.

Notes from Keith:
Keith approves this message with this exception: I do not get carsick, airsick, and tubesick. Carsick is a given, but only when not driving. I got sick on the plane do to the trifecta of a Big Mac, plane lasagna, and cheap wine, not so much the ride. Believe it or not dragging 200lbs of luggage up and down steps and onto hot trains and busses does not make you less sick. Alright, maybe I was planesick, but I never recovered enough to confirm tubesickness.

Leaving on a jet plane

Well, 14 months of paperwork and waiting have culminated in this: Keith and me leaving, finally, to find our daughter in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Our flight itinerary is below. We've worked in a few extra days to spend in London because, let's face it, when will we be back this way again? We should arrive in Almaty at 3:45 AM on Tuesday, June 6, and it's off to the Baby Houses to meet the children. Almaty is 11 hours ahead of Nashville time, so think of us on Monday around 4:45PM, as we touch down on the soil of Kazakhstan.

Leave Nashville 02 JUN 3:59PM; arrive Chicago O'Hare 5:32PM
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 1:33 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-80 ALL SERIES

Leave Chicago 02 JUN 9:15PM; arrive London 11:00AM 03 JUN
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 7:45 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING 777-200/300

Leave London 05 JUN 1:35PM; arrive Almaty 3:45AM 06 JUN
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 9:10 DURATION
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A320-100/200