March 30 & 31

Sorry, I don't know what happened here with the pictures, but you guys are used to it. Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know that Caleb and I are doing well solo. We went to the Kazakhstan version of chucky cheese yesterday. Caleb did great except everytime I left his side he screamed "Mama" at the top of his lungs. Totally not like him, I guess he is just nervous he is going to be left alone in Kaz. Today we hooked up with another family who just started their visitation yesterday. They are staying in our hotel and have a two year old girl. The couple is about our age and brought the grandparents along to watch the two year old. So, we all went on a walk today, Caleb was excited to see a "kid". Hopefully they will play well together. My time with Julia is precious and as much as I miss home, I would not miss being here with her for anything. She was so excited when I came to the baby room today, it just filled my heart with joy! Oh, and health status report, my tooth is getting better, Caleb now has a cold.

March 29, one down for a little while

Well, as of this afternoon, Caleb and I are now solo in Kazakhstan. Ethan left at 3p today (Sunday) and is to travel for 36 hours before landing in Atlanta. Granted, there is 15 hours of layovers, but it still a LONG way home! It was hard to see him leave to say the least. He took Caleb out for dinner last night and explained to him that he had to go to work and would be gone for a little while. Caleb of course asked if diggers would be involved and Ethan said yes, there would be diggers at work. When I got home from my visit with Julia today, Caleb immediately asked for “Dada”, I told him to remember that dada went to work..Caleb said “riding diggers”. Cute. Please pray that Caleb will be settled once he realizes Ethan really is gone for a couple of weeks and not just the afternoon. I know this is hard on a two year old as he has limited understanding. We had a nice afternoon, running in the gym, playing basketball, eating ice cream, oh and eating dinner at the restaurant here. I am so thankful that we are in a nice, safe hotel!
Speaking of hotels, yesterday we moved to a new hotel room as our suite was booked by another family. This room is about the size of a bedroom. There is a small refrigerator and a closet. Thankfully, Caleb’s tent fits. The good thing about the room is that it is about a half the price of the suite. So, if we can make this work for the remainder of the stay, then we will save a lot of money. It may be doable, as the weather is definitely warming up. The only problem is evenings, since Caleb goes to bed so early. We’ll see.
Our little girl is just so much fun. I realized that one of her favorite activities is dancing. I was alone today at our visit as the interpreter and Ethan were at the airport. I turned on some music and started to dance, she LOVED it. She pulled up on a chair and danced along with me with a huge smile. So fun! Today we completed our 14 days of “mandatory” bonding. I think the Kazakhs really got this right. It is amazing to see how much more comfortable she is with us now after spending 2 hours a day for 14 days. This procedure seems to make the transition for baby and parents go much smoother. I just wish we had court tomorrow and home Tuesday since we had a successful bonding! Oh well. We’ll wait it out another 6 weeks and continue to jump through the hoops. Whatever it takes to get our little girl home is what we will do.
Oh, and Ethan and I went out on a great Anniversary date last night to an “eastern” restaurant. We had good food and there was good company with our travel partners! I posted some pictures of the evening. There was food and dancing!
P.S. For those of you who may be concerned, I am not alone over here. Our travel partners are here as well as a really nice couple we met at the grocery store has taken me under their wings. He is a family physician, so he said I could call anytime if Caleb or I got sick…So, God is watching out for Caleb and me.

Ethan and Julia right before he left today

Yes, red markers on his lips, just like mama

March 26 & 27 On second thought....

Well, there has now been a change of plans (as there always seem to be in international adoption), yesterday I was granted permission to stay the entire trip. When I wrote the blog entry on March 25, I had not received a response back from an e mail I sent 3/18 requesting to stay, so I just assumed that no response was a “no” to our request. But, thankfully yesterday I got a positive reply. Therefore, I will stay the entire 8+ weeks in country and bring Julia home around the middle of May. Ethan will return as planned for court around 4/9 and stay through 4/27 and then he and Caleb will fly home together (yes, Ethan got the short end of the stick there) and I will stay and bring Julia home. It is complicated, but at this point we feel it is best to keep at least one parent with “our” kids at all time. So, the thought of staying another six weeks is a bit overwhelming to me, but it is the right decision, we have no doubt about it. The only reason I have been anxious at all about it is that I have a tooth that has really been hurting the last couple of days, it was one I really should have seen the dentist about before I left, but I did not. So, I was asking my interpreter today if I had to get dental work done, what would happen. She said there are very good dentist here in Petro and she would take me to the “best”. She told me a root canal would only cost me about $200, and if I wanted “new” instruments, I would just have to pay a little more. I think I would splurge for the new needles, but my mind is at ease. I may have the total Kaz experience, hair cut, horse meat and a trip to the dentist!
Julia becomes more and more animated every day. She babbles all the time, makes great eye contact and laughs at us. It is wonderful to see her blossom. Today was a big day because we got to take her outside. It is about 45 degrees today so we brought the obligatory snow suit. They dressed her in it along with three sweaters and two pairs of pants and a hat. Poor little thing fell asleep shortly after going outside, she was so warm and could barely move. Same as her big brother, he fell asleep the first day we took him outside too. The difference here is they take the kids outside in the summer, so I am sure she went outside last summer. Hopefully, as the weather warms we will continue to be able to take her for a walk outside. The fresh air is good for them.
Caleb is his normal happy self. Loving the 24/7 attention from mom and dad. Talking NON STOP, and learning table manners. Ethan is leaving on Sunday and we move to a smaller hotel room tomorrow. We (Ethan and I) are going to go out to celebrate our 9th anniversary tomorrow night, since we will spend the day on April 1 on opposite side of the earth. Who knew? Thanks to all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. We feel lifted up!





Short end of the stick....:)

Ice cream is so good, there's the camera, time to cheese!

March 25

He loves his kitty, but will not smile without doing the cheese thing, seriously we get the camera out, he shuts his eyes and says cheese!

Just to let everyone know who has asked, we found out court was scheduled for Monday April the 13th. Therefore, at this point we as a family of three (not Julia) will leave Petro together on April the 15th and fly into Chattanooga on April 16th. We have requested for the third time that Mary be allowed to stay the entire trip, through early May, but up to this point it does not look like that will happen. Therefore unless s something changes (which it always could) that is the plan. Then we will fly back around the first week of May pick her up and take her to Almaty where we will spend approximately one week getting her visa, passport etc and then fly home. Hopefully we will make it home with her by mid May.
Time with Julia was fun today. Her cold is better and she was talking up a storm, saying “na, na, na”. She is a sweet little girl, with some spunk. I look forward to getting her home, though it still seems so long away! Caleb is doing great. The repairmen came into the room today to repair the curtain rod and he tried to show the men his diggers. He is definitely not a shy little guy. His latest thing is to ask us to “toast” at meal times. We asked him yesterday, “Caleb, what do you want to toast to?” He answered with “Kitties”. So, we are toasting to kitties! I can’t think of anything more appropriate to toast to!

March 24 The Hunger Strike is Over!

Notice the Electric Tea Kettle, the brown water is standard around here in Kaz..we boil it so it is ok













Caleb in his tent...watching Curious George

We are happy to report that as of yesterday, Caleb has begun to eat again. Yes, it was kind of touch and go there for a while. Everything we put in front of him was "broke", "dirty" or he just plain "don't like it". If it had not been for chocolate power bars during that week and a half, I don't know what the poor little guy would have done. But, we are proud to say that he started eating again yesterday and it has continued. He has been done to the basketball court with us three times today and unhappily went on a walk with me this morning while Ethan worked. He really does not like walking, I know I have said that, but today I made him walk two blocks. He survived and is a better little guy for it. Oh, and tonight at dinner we were telling Caleb that Ethan builds houses, he then said that he "Wants to help". So, we said "Sure, when you get back home, you can help", he responded with "Oh man, awesome!". Ethan and I laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes. He is becoming such a big boy overnight. And, I suppose it is a good thing with Julia on the way. Unfortunately, she is still snotty, so she was a little less active today. Again, she fell asleep around half way through the visit and slept for about thirty minuetes. I love to rock her to sleep, poor little baby has likely not had many times when she was rocked to sleep and held while she took a nap. Every baby deserves that and I intend to make up for those months.

What else, oh, we had a great American dinner with rotiserrie chicken, peas and instant mashed potatoes. We were kind of stumped as to how to heat up chicken and peas. Thankfully, Ethan came up with a brilliant idea to heat it up in a plastic ziploc bag in our electric tea kettle (our only means to cook with). This worked pretty well, except the chicken bag busted so our chicken was floating in boiling water, but that's ok, we cleaned the kettle well and hopefully our instant coffee does not taste like chicken in the morning. I could kick myself for insisting on buying generic ziploc bags...should have splurged for the real thing.

March 23 Pictures

To the right is the "view" out of our hotel balcony









Not always a happy girl

Eating Gerber Graduates

March 23

 

There is nothing much new to report. Our time with Julia was great today. She played, ate Gerber graduates and fell asleep in my arms. Her cold is almost completely gone. We have now completed eight days of bonding. We will find out our court date on 3/30. Likely it will be between 4/8 and 4/15.

Otherwise, we woke up with about four inches of fresh white snow. This really made Ethan's day. Granted, there is about one foot of snow already on the ground, but it was iced over. This new snow was beautiful! The days are getting somewhat warmer here; I would say it is in the thirties for the high. We went on a walk this morning to the local mall. Again, it is hard with Caleb because his stroller is not really made for snow, yet he does not like to walk in the snow. So, we carry about 30 pounds on our hips when we go anywhere these days. We had a nice lunch in the mall with pizza, and Caleb played on the indoor playground. Tonight our travel partners are going to come over and we are going to eat pie and play cards…again. Oh, what I would not do for a board game. I would pay $100 for monopoly right now! Enjoy the pictures.

Oh, and just some clarification on yesterday's pics. The log cabin was the art museum we went to on Saturday, and the playground was outside of the babyhouse.

March 22 Pictures