Things are coming together

(Sorry no extra pics. Some of the pics from Friday's post were from this weekend. After 2650 pictures taken in Kazakhstan, we decided to give our cameras a break. We'll post more after this week.)

We’ve made it through our first weekend home with Izaak. The house is starting to get put back together, clothes are being washed, dogs have been brushed and mail has been sorted. We’re managing to get some sleep through taking turns with naps, but we are still feeling a bit jetlagged. Izaak is continuing to amaze us at how well he has adjusted to his new life in NC with new parents. We’re trying to figure out a schedule, but for the next week we’ll let him call the shots. Once we get him down for his naps, he sleeps well and he sleeps well through the first part of the night, but things get a bit tricky between 2am-7am. We’ve been taking turns with who gets up. I took Friday and Sunday night and Mike had Saturday. We both encountered a 3am, minimum of 1 hour waking spell. Guess we’ll just have to account for this when we go to bed and take our naps. But we certainly are not complaining. He’s sleeping in his crib and so far we’ve been able to get him back to sleep even when he still has a cold.

Eating continues to go well in the high chair, though finding a cereal he likes has been a challenge. He spit up for the first time during Saturday’s lunch, boy what a mess! I tried feeding him fresh banana, but he didn’t care much for it. He’s also done well when we put him in his high chair while we eat. He ends up playing with his finger foods and a few pieces get in his mouth, but what a relief that he sits at the table without a fuss so we can stuff our bellies. Now I just have to get comfortable feeding him different foods. So far he’s liked all the baby foods we’ve fed him. We’ve got to put some weight on this kid!

The toys have probably been the most overwhelming things for Izaak. We have a few big toys that just make his eyes bug out. Unfortunately these toys were too much fun, so we’ve had to move them from his bedroom to the living room. We’d get him settled for bed, he’d catch a look at the toy and it was like a shot of caffeine - wide awake! My yoga ball has also turned into a favorite toy since he’s learned to push it while he walks. I will say he’s quite creative about getting around. He found the humidifier box and figured out that he could stand behind and push it across the carpet. It became his own personal walker. When he’d had enough of that it became a drum and then a toy to wrestle with. Oh, the things this kid will play with.

Interactions with the dogs continue to go well. Oddly enough, he is becoming more curious about them as they are becoming less curious about him. I think they are getting tired of us telling them to “lay down” or “back up” or “no.” Izaak gets the biggest smile on his face when he sees the dogs now. He even tries to pet them a little (with close supervision). For the most part we have resorted to leaving the dogs in our rec room when Izaak is awake and letting them in the house when he’s asleep. It’s an adjustment for them, but they seem to be handling it okay. We’re hoping to get gates up to block off the livingroom so we won’t have to be so guarded.

We visited with some of our neighbors yesterday. David and Wanda and their kids really had a blast with our little guy who was not shy at all. He crawled all over their livingroom, got lots of hugs, kisses and bouncies. We welcomed the break. As they played, we ate homemade blackberry cobbler and fresh lemonade. He was tuckered after his visit and went down easily for his afternoon nap.

Izaak visited the doctor today. He just hasn’t been able to shake his cold. He was all smiles until we wouldn’t let him have the doctor’s stethoscope. And then of course he was completely squirmy when it came to the exam. The doctor said that he may have a sinus infection because of the length of time he’s had the cold. We started antibiotics today so hopefully the little guy will start feeling better soon. They moved up our well-check visit to tomorrow. We’re excited about this visit because we can ask all of our questions, especially about feeding, sleeping and teething. I think he’s getting ready to pop out another tooth because he just seems so miserable sometimes. I’m anxious to find the best ways to relieve this for him. It’s so sad to see him so uncomfortable.

We also ventured to the bank, Target and Lowe’s today. Izaak did extremely well. I strapped on the carrier and all went as it has been. We’ll bring the stroller on our next outing. We’ve taken him out in the stroller in our neighborhood and he loves it. He is also doing well in the car. Actually he’s almost like a zombie and then he falls asleep. This worked to our advantage when we got home and were able to put him right in his crib for his afternoon nap.

So, we are getting adjusted to our new life with a baby. Boy, how have things changed! No more sleeping in, our neighborhood is actually nice at 6am. I look forward to the night that I get to sleep and Mike takes over. When Izaak’s naps, we nap because we still continue to struggle a little with jetlag. The TV has barely been on and everything takes a little longer. My favorite part of the day is when Izaak wakes in the morning. We bring him to our bed, feed him his bottle and roll around for as long as he’ll tolerate it. There’s nothing but the 3 of us, laughing, cuddling, bonding. It’s wonderful!

I know many of you are anxious to meet Izaak. We’re going to spend the next couple of weeks getting settled in, get Izaak on a schedule and get our lives back to normal. After that, we’ll be making the rounds so that everyone can meet the little boy who has changed our lives forever! Many people have asked if we’ll keep updating the website. We plan to post updates at least once a week with our goal day to be on Sundays. So, keep reading as our hearts grow for this precious child who came to us at the exact perfect time. ~ A

Jetlag

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Izaak didn’t sleep well last night. We put him to down in his crib around 11pm, he woke at 3:30am, 4:30am and finally 5:30am. Mike and I took turns getting up, but I knew I wouldn’t get him back to sleep since he was wide eyed and squirmy after his bottle, so I stayed up with him. He seemed uncomfortable, so I rolled him on a big yoga/exercise ball. He really enjoyed this and within 10 minutes we had figured out what all the fuss was about – yep, poopy time. All was well after a diaper change. We played with some of his toys, all new and fascinating to him. I wanted to see how my plants were doing so we took a stroll around the yard. The plants look great, but unfortunately the weeds look just as healthy. Got a lot of work ahead of me! Casey got a good sniff of Izaak during our walk. She is so curious about him. She even got a little lick on his foot and hand, which didn’t seem to bother him. Mike got up about 3 hours later, just in time to take over. I was getting extremely tired, so I went down for a nap.

Mike had the responsibility of feeding Izaak his morning cereal. I knew this would be his first time at it, but hoped the high chair would help. I didn’t give him any direction, just went straight to bed. This is a recount from my mom. She said that they got the chair out, hooked on the tray, loaded it with toys and put Izaak in. He wasn’t thrilled at first but the toys seemed to help. Mike realized that the toys might be a bit much so he instructed my mom to “move all the toys” and left one in Izaak’s hand. Dad wrapped him in his big red bib and commenced feeding him cereal with egg yolk and baby food. Izaak hasn’t been getting baby food during the morning feeding, but Mike didn’t know better so Izaak got a little bit of everything. Didn’t seem to matter because it all went down without too much fuss. Now, I would have loved to seen this feeding. Mike stood up behind him and shoveled it in baby house style. He soon realized this wasn’t necessary once he got some apples in Izaak started opening his mouth. After the meal was done to make sure I didn’t flip out from the mess, Mike called in the dogs to clean the floor. To his surprise there was no mess! Good job honey!

Mike headed to bed for his jetlag nap for the day. Now it was my turn for playtime and putting Izaak down for his afternoon nap. I decided this was a good time to call in Grandma. She happily hopped in and took over during playtime, even tried to put him down for his nap, but it was a no go. I came in to attempt naptime and still no luck, so in Grandma came again. She must have done a great job of wearing her grandson out because he slept for 4 hours! I took advantage of this time to eat some lunch and start unpacking. I at least got things out of the suitcases, but have a lot of laundry and sorting to do.

We woke Izaak for dinner. It was my turn at the high chair. I have to say, feeding him in the high chair is SOOOO much easier and cleaner than trying to hold and feed the squirmy bugger. We spent most of the night introducing the dogs to Izaak. Abby really hasn’t been interested in him. She just seems bothered that he’s here. She reacted much the same way when we got Casey. She started warming up to him once he tugged her ear and fell on her a few times. He even got a few kisses and Abby can be quite stingy with her kisses. Casey was a bit more playful. She is just amazed by him and wants to cover him with kisses and roll all over him. We just have to keep a close eye on all of them when they are in the same space.

I guess Izaak had jetlag too because he fell asleep in my mom’s arms at 7pm. We had wanted to feed him one more time before putting him down but he was just too tired, so we put him to bed early. I took another nap just in case he decided to wake up in the middle of the night. Mike gave him his last bottle at 9:30pm and we called it an evening.

So, it’s been a full month since we left home to pick up our son. What an amazing month!!! I spoke with my friend Shelly last night who was amazed at how quickly we have figured things out as parents. I have to say that I’m quite proud of both of us. I know we have a lot to learn and it will change daily, but for now we are all doing well. We still have a lot to do and a lot to catch up on. Babyproofing the house, unpacking, looking through a month’s worth of bills and trying to get back to a normal life. We’re still amazed that Izaak is home. Our time in Kazakhstan went by so fast! Our journey to get our son has come to an end. Now we begin our journey as parents. ~ A

33 Hours Later – We’re Home!

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Time started going by quickly as we the last 2 hours till pick-up came. Izaak was wound up and very difficult to get to sleep. I think he know something was up, but little did in know that in less that 48 hours, he would be a US citizen in his new home with his new life. We finally put him down at 9:30pm, which left less than an hour for us to clean the apartment, take our showers and finish packing those last minute items.

Kirill showed up right on time. We walked down the five flights of steps for the last time, threw the bags in the car and off to the airport. Izaak was very tired and very fussy in the 20-minute car ride. It was such a blur. Once at the airport we had to go through security. The attendant started questioning one of the bags, which completely threw Angela off. After we got to ticket/baggage check, Angela realized that she managed to leave her purse at the security check!!! We freaked out. I ran back and got it without too much issue.

Yet again, we tried to get the elusive “bulkhead seating” at the Lufthansa check-in, but they still gave us the runaround. One counter person said, “sure, no problem. All set.” The next person came over and said, “Sorry, you should have reserved it sooner.” - which is what we’ve tried to do for the last 4 weeks! We did manage to get bulk head seats for the 2nd leg of the trip.

There were 6 adoptive families on the flight from Almaty to Frankfurt. Most of us were sitting in the same area. Things got loud right away when a newborn started really screaming. The mother was on her own (sounded Italian) and was really having a hard time. We felt bad for her, but there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. Izaak did ok for a while, but was clearly cranky from being off schedule. He took turns sleeping all over mom and dad. We played as best we could in the confined space and managed to pass the time. Our flight made a quick stop in Astana to pickup more people (this added 2 hours to the flight – yuck). We didn’t have to get off the plane, which was nice. It wasn’t until we started the decent in to Frankfurt that Izaak really started to flip out. We’re not sure what the problem was, but he was just down right uncomfortable. The couple from Michigan sitting next to us gave us some Cheerios for Izaak to chew on. This seemed to be a helpful distraction, but he had more interest playing with them than eating them. At some point, we hit the ground and dragged our overtired bodies off the plane. The first stop we made was the Frankfurt Airport McDonalds for some breakfast. Angela had quite the food fight with Izaak trying to feed him in the busy airport. She got some food down, but we decided to go with bottles for the rest of the trip.

9:00am rolled around and we headed for the gate. We decided to give Izaak a diaper change, but there were no changing stations in the bathroom. So, we put a blanket down and got him naked right there in the airport - poor little guy. He seemed to be doing much better now and we were able to board our DC flight before anyone else. This was kind of cool - to be able to walk to the front of the line when they call out, “Now boarding families traveling with small children.”

Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendant prepared the bassinette for us. It hangs on the wall (bulkhead) directly in front of our seats. Pretty neat setup. Izaak was already sacked out, so once things were set, we dropped him in and he slept for an hour or two. It was great for Angela and I to be able to eat lunch together. We still took turns napping so one of us could keep an eye on Izaak. The bassinette has a big strap on it, so it would have taken him quite some time to get out if he tried. For whatever reason, it seemed like we couldn’t take our eyes off him. We both kept peaking in on him, adjusting the blanket, etc. People kept asking us about Izaak or just look over at us and smile. Angela got teary-eyed as the reality continued to set in – that we were able to travel and be home in time for Izaak to turn 11 months old, that we can tell people about our son and not just our plans, etc. Izaak is definitely a playboy. He gives all the ladies on the plane googly eyes and big smiesl and gets a bunch of attention in return.

The rest of the flight went well. It was a strange feeling coming in to Washington DC. We knew that as soon as we touched down, Izaak became a US citizen. Even managed to snap a photo, minutes after we landed. Because we got in to Washington DC a few minutes late, we rushed through Customs as quickly as possible – delivering the “sealed” envelope to the immigration officer. At what we thought was the last checkpoint, the Customs officer asked us to take a detour and go through another check point. We walked into a room with several luggage-scanning machines, a few officers, and a handful of very foreign people that looked like they had been waiting there for days. Turned out to be pretty straightforward. We handed the officer our packet of info, he looked at our passports and told us we were all set. Easy enough! We walked out the exit and proceeded to our connecting flight.

What should have been a 2hr layover quickly inflated to 5hrs. as our flight was delayed. The DC airport, especially Terminal A, was a complete mess. Many other flights were experiencing delays, pilots missing, wrong gates, late planes and general confusion. At one point, someone got on the PA and said, “Please ignore the information on the electronic boards, it’s not accurate. We’ll let you know when and where you’re going… Thank you.”

We setup camp on the ground in a corner and let Izaak run around a bit. The wait was agonizing. We traveled halfway around the world with out any delays. We finally get to the US, 1 hour from home and it’s mess. How disappointing. We played, we ate, and we conversed with strangers – anything to pass the time as we got more and more sleep deprived. Although, it was nice to tell the story of how we got Izaak.

Sleep deprivation really started to kick in as we decided to walk the last hour of our wait. We were both feeling dizzy, delusion, simply exhausted. Izaak had fallen asleep at this point so we were happy that at least one of us was getting so shuteye. 6:15pm finally rolled around (3 hours after we were originally supposed to board. We were so relieved when they actually started boarding. Yeah! We’re going home! Izaak slept during the whole flight and we joined him. The flight was loud though. It’s amazing that the smallest flight we are on and the one we are the most tired, ends up having the loudest people on it.

We landed in NC. Again, reality started hitting – we’re home, Izaak is home. We were greeted in baggage claim by Angela’s mom, dad and stepmom. They were all full of tears as we came down the escalator with Izaak in the carrier. They couldn’t take their eyes off of their grandson. A few tears and pictures later we waited for our luggage. This became another long wait, which was no surprise as RDU absolutely stinks when it comes to luggage. The grandparents didn’t seem to mind as they kept oohing and aaahing. Mike’s sister and nieces came to meet our little guy. The girls were so amazed by him. Lauren, our youngest niece, wanted to touch him and look at him. She kept calling his name, it was really cute. After about an hour, we headed home with all our luggage.

Izaak did well in his car seat and completely sacked out, so when we got home, we took advantage and ran to squeeze our dogs. They were so happy to see us. We completely forgot how fuzzy and snuggly they were. We brought our luggage in as Angela’s mom snuck Izaak away to play in his room. They played with the Leap Frog learning table. He absolutely loved it. We headed to Mike’s parents for a late-night dinner. Little did we know they had set up decorations, food, cake and presents for Izaak’s big arrival. We felt so bad because we arrived over 3 hours late, we were extremely tired and they were all so excited. Our nieces, Mike’s mom and sister took over with Izaak. Toys, clothes and 3 little girls occupied him while we ate a much needed dinner. We also had an ice cream cake that said “Welcome Home Izaak.” It really was a sweet moment – thanks Melissa! Unfortunately we completely forgot our cameras, but just imagine 3 little girls dressed in pink circling around Izaak and handing him toys to play with. Lauren was just amazed by him and patted his head several times with a big smile on her face. Izaak ate it up like at true little boy should. We finally called it quits at 10:30pm, headed home and got Izaak settled for bed. After a bottle and rocking we put him in his crib for his first night in his room.

So, after 48 hours since our last night’s sleep and 33 hours in transit with only a few naps on the plane we’re ready to crawl into our bed for a good night’s sleep. Hope all goes well tonight and Izaak sleeps well so we can also get some much deserved rest. Wishful thinking, I’m sure! ~ M & A

Heading Home!!! - Day 27 (with Izaak)

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After 30 days in Kazakhstan, we will be leaving to catch the plane home in a few hours. We are pretty much packed, just need to take a quick shower and we’ll be as ready as we can be for the 26+-hour trip home with our son.

We woke this morning with a full nights rest. Izaak didn’t make a peep. Mike even let me sleep in a little longer while he fed, diapered, clothed and played with Izaak. I think he’s getting the hang of this. We had planned to go out for sightseeing at 9am, but Izaak pooped out on us at 8:45am. He hasn’t taken a morning nap since we took custody of him, so it surprised us. When he laid his head on the floor and started rubbing with his hands, we knew he needed a nap. Since we knew we’d have full day, we put him down and got the rest of our packing done.

After waking and a 2nd breakfast, we headed out. Traffic is horrible in Almaty so we decided to walk. We walked from our apartment to the museum. It’s a great museum with nature, history and current exhibits. There was a fantastic exhibit on Kazakh culture, traditional clothing, a yurt and pottery. I wish we could’ve taken pictures, but cameras were not allowed as we got fussed at by one of the caretakers. We then headed to the Ramstore. It’s like a mall with restaurants, clothing stores, a giant store that is the equivalent to Walmart and an ice-skating rink. We had lunch, which turned into an eating frenzy for Mike. There was Dunkin Donuts AND Baskin Robbins. He couldn’t resist and had a donut and ice cream. He swears that the bellyache he had later had nothing to do with the overload of sweets.

We decided to make one more stop on the way back to the apartment. Patty told us that there was a gondola near our apartment that takes you to a fantastic view above Almaty. We weren’t entirely sure where it was located and since we were doing everything by foot and it was in the mid-90’s today we started to tire quickly. We completely missed the gondola and ended up walking 2 blocks out of way to find it. It was worth the backtracking though. We got to the top to find a beautiful view of the city and the mountains. The also had a playground so we made a quick stop to let him roll around on a spikey ball, much like the one at the baby house. Izaak thoroughly enjoyed this.

So, after a 4-1/2 hour and 26-30 blocks trek with a 20-pound baby strapped on my chest, I was spent! Then I had to make it up 5 flights of stairs to get to the apartment! Not sure what we were thinking, knowing that we are going to have a long trip ahead of us, but we enjoyed our day out in Almaty. I must add that Izaak was wonderful. He didn’t fuss at all, took in a couple of naps and made his mom proud! I just hope he’s that good on the flights.

Izaak wasn’t as happy once we got back to the apartment. The kid was wound up! Mike let me take a nap so that I could recover from my little workout. While I was asleep Izaak had another poopy diaper that surpassed the last one Mike changed. Mike is still trying to recover from it. When I woke up he handed Izaak to me and said he’s yours, then he went in for a nap. I luckily got Izaak to sleep shortly after Mike fell asleep, but it didn’t last long till Izaak was crying and crying and crying. We still aren’t sure what was wrong, but a little playtime with daddy and he was all smiles.

We decided to take one more walk before catching our flight. We stopped at a shop that sells souvenirs and artifacts. It was in a yurt. A fuzzy hat caught Mike’s eye and he had to have it for Izaak (so he says). We had to put it on his head as soon as we got it – too funny! We tried finding a church that is supposed to be near the apartment, but didn’t and decided to head back to give Izaak some crawling/walking/playtime before he has to be cooped on the plane.

Well, he we are, almost ready to leave. We have to admit that we aren’t ready to come back to the real world, but it’s our time to come home and we’re excited about seeing our parents at the airport and introducing Izaak to all our family and friends. We’ve enjoyed our time in Kazakhstan and getting to know our son. We appreciate all of you who have sent emails, posted comments and kept us in your prayers. We’ve been truly blessed with a beautiful child, an amazing adoption agency and all the wonderful people that were part of this journey with us. ~A

Little Things About Kaz

We started writing this entry when we first got here on May 27. It somehow got forgotten, but we decided now would be a good time to post it since we are leaving in a few short hours.

So, we’ve only been in Kazakhstan for a short time, but we are already starting to feel like this place is home. It’s hard to believe that we will be here for a month. It’s great though, because we have the opportunity to learn about Izaak’s country and culture. We still haven’t really tried Kazakh food (and never did), but I’m sure we will once we are feeling settled. So far these are the things we’ve noticed:

• It doesn’t get completely dark in Uralsk until after 10:30pm. We’ve been quite confused about bedtime at night!
• Lines painted on the road mean nothing! A two-lane road can easily become a 3-4 lane road in a matter of minutes.
• Potholes dictate the speed and direction of traffic.
• A 30-minute drive is “far.” A 20-minute walk is even further (we enjoy walking, so this is odd to us).
• It’s at least 75-80 degrees and so far we’ve not seen shorts or flip-flops. Right now, most men wear long sleeves and pants and women wear very short skirts/dresses and extremely high heels. The fashion seems to be this strange 80’s thing. There’s definitely no way we are fitting in with fashion! (Towards the end of our stay we did see more shorts and flip-flops).
• Bugs are pretty bad in Uralsk, especially early in the morning and after 7pm.
• Children and older women sit on the street corners selling cups of sunflower seeds (Uralsk only, haven’t seen this in Almaty. The Kazakh’s also use sunflower oil as their main cooking oil.
• Kazakh women marry by 20. According to Aliya, 25 years old is an “old maid.”
• Uralsk is one of the oldest cities in the Kazakhstan and is on the line of Asia and Europe. The airport is in Asia, you cross a bridge to Uralsk and you are in Europe.
• As noted in an earlier post, the women here are gorgeous. The men look very aged and rugged. The men do not look as rugged in Almaty.
• There’s no Blacks, Hispanics, Middle Eastern – only Caucasian, Asian and a wide mix of both. Correction: We met Nadeer at the MacJohn’s, “one of the only 6 Arabs in Uralsk.”
• Just because it looks like a hotdog, doesn’t mean it tastes like a hotdog. We never did find a true hotdog.
• Mayonnaise is served with everything, much like ketchup is in the US.
• Most of the little girls wear big, puffy bows in their hair.
• They have tiny napkins here, almost what we would consider as a beverage napkin but they are used for dinner. You wouldn’t believe how many napkins we’d go through at the restaurants – quite embarrassing.
• No one sits on steps or the ground. Everyone squats if they want to take a break and there are no benches to sit on. We looked out at the casino last night and 8 men were squatting in a circle and looked to be playing games. Even the children at Zhas Dauren squatted when they were tired instead of sitting on the ground.
• The younger women and men are very fashionable. Nice (sometimes really tight) dresses, high heels for women and nice pants and shirt with pointy leather shoes for the men. We’ve seen women do everything in these high heels – walk block after block, move furniture, carry their 2-3 year old children, hike mountains – you name it. I'd kill myself in heels just walking into a restaurant for dinner!
• According to Aliya, women wear skirts, dresses or shorts to stay cool in the summer. It is not common to see men wearing shorts in Kazakhstan. They “suffer” through it.
• Aliya taught me that men should carry the ladies shopping bags. Mike was not thrilled about this new idea. We’ve been insisting that he carry our bags ever since!
• You have to check you personal bags when going to the grocery store. Handbags and backpacks are not allowed.
• Most stores are not get it yourself stores. Each salesperson has a specialty item (say the only sell children’s clothes) that they sell and everything is behind a counter. We did a lot of pointing and asking “how much” by handing them a calculator to get what we needed.
• Everyone uses bottle or boiled watered – even the restaurants.
• Children really are covered up when there is even slightly a cool breeze in the air. Small children must wear a hat at all times.
• Don’t be surprised if it takes 6 people to run your credit card. We decided to give up on the card and only used tenge.
• We got far more looks from the locals in Uralsk than we did in Almaty. There seems to be more diversity in Almaty – much bigger city.
• Roses seem to be the flower of choice, they are everywhere and are gorgeous!

So that’s our list for now. We had a great time in Kazakhstan and really enjoyed exploring the differences between our countries. ~ A

We’re Doing Just Fine – Week #3

So, here’s our weekly update of how Mike and I are doing. We’ve settled into our apartment in Almaty. We’ve located the grocery/convenience stores and have found some restaurants nearby. We are very fortunate to have such a nice apartment in a great location. We’re glad that it worked out for us to come to Almaty earlier. We questioned it because we had really become comfortable in Uralsk and we knew we’d miss our friends Aliya, Misha and Olga, but we’re glad to have a little extra time in Almaty to see the sights and collect some Gotcha Day Gifts for Izaak.

Amazingly since we left Uralsk, my runny nose has slowed down and I no longer feel like I have a cold. I’m beginning to think that it was allergies (even though my allergy meds were not helping at all). Regardless, I feel much better. Mike also said he no longer has cold symptoms. Maybe it was something in the Uralsk air. It’s a lot dustier in Uralsk and the car pollution seems worse than Almaty. Izaak’s cold seems to be getting better, though he is still struggling with a runny nose and a cough. I hope we’re all feeling 100% in the next 3 days to make our trip home easier.

I know it’s crazy but I’m beginning to become sad at the thought of going home. I’ve enjoyed the 24/7 time with my husband and my son. There are no distractions here. We’ve been able to bond and become a family. Mike and I have gotten along amazingly well. You wouldn’t believe how well we work together. I make sure Izaak is fed and Mike makes sure we’re fed – he’s been quite the chef even with limited cooking materials. We are also partners when it comes to Izaak. Since we are both new at the parenting thing, we’re constantly asking each other for reassurance or what do you think? We’re learning and growing together. I’m really going to miss him when he goes back to work a couple of weeks after we return! And I’ll miss him more when I go back in September.

So, we’ll spend our next couple of days in Kazakhstan enjoying the slower life, catching in a few more sights and learning more and more about each other and our son. ~ A

A Day in the Park - Day 26

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Well, Izaak slept through the night – yeah! He fussed a couple times, but put himself right back to sleep. Izaak seems more and more talkative each day. We heard some new sounds from him today and he’s really getting brave with walking around on his own (using furniture, people, etc. to hold on to). Every once in a while, he gets distracted and totally wipes out. We’ve got pillows down everywhere, but he doesn’t always hit the target. Izaak does a good job at breaking the fall with his hands, but still manages to bump his head. He’ll cry like the dickens for a minute, but resumes smiles as soon as mom or dad picks him up. One time, Izaak was approaching the end of the furniture/pillow boundary. Jokingly I said, “Freeze!” from across the room. To my surprise, Izaak froze and looked right at me with eyebrows raised. This would have been great, except that it totally threw him off balance, tripped over the pillow and hit the ground. I felt terrible. Dad scooped him up and gave him kisses and Izaak was back to pulling up on furniture in a few minutes. I’m buying him a helmet as soon as I get home.

We set out for the park this morning before our appointment at the US Embassy. The “Central Park of Almaty” is about 8 blocks from our apartment. There’s a WWII memorial and a beautiful Russian-Orthodox church in the park. We had a nice day taking pictures with the Big Bear, looking at pigeons, admiring the roses, etc. Izaak got in a nap at one point, but did great during the 3-hour excursion. On the way out of the park, an old woman asked for some money. She asked, “America? America?” She was really cute, so I handed her a coin then asked to take her photo. She took the coin and then got really embarrassed and covered her face with her hands while laughing and shaking her head. She talked some Russian words of wisdom at us for a bit and motioned to Angela - as if to say, “ you should take photos of this pretty girl, not this old woman.” So, we crossed the street and I snapped a photo of her – too good to pass up. The people here are still so interesting to me.

We came back to the apartment for lunch and attempted to put Izaak down for a quick nap. No dice. We’re starting to reconsider his nap schedule. Eating was a challenge today as well. I made an attempt at spooning in the mush, but it didn’t pan out. Mom chased me out of the kitchen and took over like a pro. At 2:45pm we were driven to the office where we met Sari and Lila and one of the staff who walked us over to the US Embassy across the street. Sari and Lila are staying at the Hyatt, so that was the first time we’ve seen them since Uralsk. Sasha was doing very well… but that child is LOUD!!! We were escorted upstairs to the processing room. We ran in to Patty and Noah. It was great to see them. Noah was doing very well and went right into play mode. He seemed to recognize us and even waved. We also met another family who just adopted from a region that we’ve never heard of. After a few minutes wait, we were called to the window and were handed Izaak’s passport. There are two main sections – one for Kazakhstan and one for the US. His passport photos are hilarious. Apparently, Izaak will be a citizen of Kaz until his 18th birthday. At that time, he has to choose which citizenship he wants to keep - US or Kazakhstan. We signed some other official looking documents and got Izaak’s birth certificate back and other docs to be processed when we return home. Izaak will be a US citizen when we land on US soil.

We left the embassy and stopped at the Lufthansa office to buy Izaak’s ticket and try and arrange for bulkhead seating. Yet again, they were unable to change the seats. It’s been such a waste of time trying to get these seats changed. This would be the 4th time we’ve inquired and each person seems to know less than the previous one. We will head to the airport a few minutes early and make another attempt. If we get bulkhead seating, it means that we can use a special bassinette that hangs on the wall directly in front of our seats. If not, it’s 18 hours of drool down my back!

Got back to the room around 5:30pm. Ate some dinner, fed Izaak and started to assess the packing situation. At about 7:30, we needed to get Izaak to settle down, so Angela strapped me into the carrier, added one part Izaak and sent us out the door for a walk. I’ve never felt so unmanly in my life. I know it shouldn’t be a big deal, but that thing is soooo girly I was sure we would both get beat up. I have to admit that it is comfortable, and able to hold Izaak’s 19lbs quite well. Anyway, we took a stroll around the apartment complex along some garden paths… back by the dumpsters where only cats dwell… then returned to the apartment. Izaak settled down a bit – dad tends to have a bouncier walk than mom, so the little guy got thrown around some. I continued to walk with him in my arms for a few minutes and noticed his eyes closing. I put him in his crib and did the back rub thing (as instructed by mom). The kid was out cold in 5 minutes.

On to packing… damn. ~ M

To Izaak’s Grandparents

Izaak has 6 grandparents (3 sets), 7 great-grandparents and 1 great great-grandparent. So, with all these grandparents we thought we’d make a list of things that any grandparent should know about their grandson.

Izaak…

• Tugs on his ear when he’s tired.
• Chews on his thumb.
• Rubs his crib sheets and your shirt or arm if you’re holding him when he’s falling asleep.
• Will zurbert/give raspberries on anything.
• Will become fussy out of know where and insist that you pick him up for bouncies - not swaying, not rocking – must be standing and bouncing.
• Can pull himself up on anything, but falls over easily. Make sure you watch him closely if not on carpet.
• Puts everything in his mouth and leaves teeth marks.
• Has an amazing smile with a quiet little laugh (quietness is slowly changing).
• Already likes smacking the TV (watch out Hector).
• Don’t make too much of a fuss about bedtime. Settle him down with quiet time, then put in crib and rub his back/stomach. He’ll fuss, but fall asleep.
• Will either push away/scream or start blowing his food out of his mouth when he’s finished eating.
• Loves his inflatable blue ball, but be careful to watch at all times as he sometimes pulls the plug and lets the air out.
• Is extremely squirmy, especially when changing clothes or diapers.
• Takes his morning bottle right after he wakes, you can hold him. Takes his evening bottle while sleeping in crib – do not wake – pop bottle in his mouth and watch it disappear.
• We go between using Izaak and Arman when addressing him. We are slowly letting go of Arman (he seemed to respond better to Arman at the BH and we didn’t want to confuse him since his caregivers called him by his birth name).
• Makes a gasping sound when pooping.

Happy Little Bloke - Day 25

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We woke this morning from a better night’s sleep last night. Izaak fussed about 4 times, but instead of picking him up, we rubbed his back/stomach and he fell right back to sleep. I got up twice and Mike got up the other two times. The funny thing is that Mike doesn’t even remember getting up. Guess we’re really learning to fall right back to sleep.

Izaak’s doctor’s appointment was this morning. This is required for the US Embassy. The nurse was very nice and gentle with Izaak. This was quite a change from the caregivers. I’m glad that I saw the caregivers handle the kids in a firm but loving way. It showed me that Izaak wouldn’t break, which eased my mind at changing clothes and diapers. We were glad to hear that Izaak had gained a pound in the past two weeks. He’s a whopping 19 pounds, which is still low, but at least he’s on the charts now. He is 28.5 inches tall. The doctor was very friendly – interesting guy, probably from the UK. He went through Izaak’s medical evaluation from the Baby House. We had heard a lot of this information from our doctor at home, but were glad to hear again that there was nothing concerning. The doctor gave him a good 5 min. checkup and commented several times on how happy and active he was. He called him a “happy little bloke.”

Our next stop was the Tsum store. It’s like a mall with a floor full of Kazakh gifts and souvenirs. We wanted to pick up some things for Izaak’s Gotcha Days. We were pretty proud that we got some “discounts” and “deals” on some of the items. There are tons of little booths with individual sellers. The only English they knew was “discount,” numbers (some pulled out calculators to show price) and please/ thank-you. As soon as you walk by, they jump up and start showing you their goods. We found lots of great things and amazingly got almost everything we needed with a few souvenirs for us. We apologize in advance to our family and friends for not picking up gifts for you. The luggage weight restrictions are going to be a bit tight on us. We’ve already had to pay twice – oops!

After the Tsum store, we grabbed a Sprite and popcorn and strolled down the courtyard to view paintings by local artists. We found two paintings that we liked and decided to buy. Our plan is to decorate our dining room with a Kazakh theme. I must say that during this time, almost 2 hours, Izaak was fantastic. He was in the carrier the whole time and only fussed a little bit. We somehow found a way to entertain ourselves with hands, gurgles and facial expressions. I got a lot of great eye-contract today! He even got two 30-minute naps during our trip today.

We thought we better not press our luck (and we’re paying the driver by the hour) so we headed back to the apartment for lunch. You’ll have to ready Mike’s excerpt regarding our lunch-time surprise! (**See below**) Izaak got a couple of hours of playtime. We decided to be “creative” and gave him an empty plastic soda bottle. This kept him entertained for quite some time. It’s amazing what you can do with an empty bottle - bang it, blow in it, roll it, tap it – we did it all. Then it was time for his afternoon nap. I tried calming him down by walking him in the bedroom, but he really wasn’t ready. Mike came in and we rolled around on the bed. He was a little fussy today, we’re still not sure why, but he’d go from laughing like crazy to a little fussiness, then back to playing again. Finally the 4pm hour was approaching and I was determined to get him down without the drama we went through yesterday. Put him in his crib, let him play for a few minutes, then laid him down and rubbed his back. Granted, I have to keep putting his head down, but after about 5 minutes, he was asleep. Much better than our marathon on Sunday!

I laid down to make sure he was asleep - didn’t want to leave the room until I knew he was out. 1-1/2 hours later, I woke up dazed and confused. Looks like all three of us needed an afternoon siesta as Mike joined me shortly after I fell asleep. After waking, we all had some dinner and decided to grab groceries to cover our last days in Kaz. The walk to the store is nice. Along the way we stopped at a yurt that is a souvenir store, looked at the fountains and enjoyed the evening air.

Got back in time for Izaak’s bedtime, unstrapped him from the carrier and laid him down. He fussed a little and within 2 minutes was asleep. Watching him fall asleep is so precious (now that we think we’ve figured out how to get him to sleep). If he’s on his stomach he spreads out his little arms and rubs the bed sheets with his hands. If you are carrying him when he starts falling asleep he will rub your arm or whatever happens to be close by. I think this is his way of comforting himself. So, we are hopeful that we’ll continue have a better nights sleep. We’ll update you tomorrow. ~ A

**We weren’t half way through lunch (my grilled cheese/honey sandwich specialty) when Izaak started acting up. He was standing at the chair playing with toys as he usually does, but then made a loud gasping sound and held his breath for a few seconds. I saw this once before – while he was trying to pass the baseball size turd. Izaak was at it again. Angela did a quick visual inspection and confirmed, “it’s time… dad.” Not sure why it was suddenly my turn, but whatever. I finished up my lunch and gave Izaak a few moments to finish whatever he was doing. Based on how much Angela was already laughing, I decided to take some extra precautions and wrapped a clean cloth diaper around my nose and mouth. She was kind enough to warn me of the orange color – I guess this was so I wouldn’t go into shock? Anyway, I picked the little sinker up and assumed the position. We have a nice little changing station in the bedroom. It’s on the floor and has short rails to it. Not enough to keep him in, but enough to keep him near by. At this point, Angela was in hysterics and ran to get the camera – thanks, mom. Drenched in a nervous sweat, I unbuttoned his onesie and pulled it up by his arms in case of a chemical spill. Already, the smell worsened ten-fold. Izaak was crying as this point and I tried to reason with him, but that didn’t work out so well… actually, I was just stalling. With a burst of adrenaline, I tore off the diaper and “wiped down” as instructed at our first-time-parents class and folded the diaper under. I tried not to make direct eye contact with the sludge in the diaper in fear that I may puke on poor Izaak. That didn’t really matter because the smell hit me like a ton of bricks. OH MY GOD!!! Glup, gag, barf… that was some skink like no stink I’ve experienced before. I blindly grabbed for a wet wipe as my eyes were now tearing up – partially form the smell and partially from laughing so hard. I mopped up as best I could as Angela disposed of the toxic waste. After some fumbling about due to being a bit light-headed, I got a clean diaper on Izaak and we both felt a whole lot better about life. So it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I can honestly say that my first poopy diaper experience didn’t disappoint. ~ M

Father's Day - Day 24

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Last night was hell again. We took turns getting up to put Izaak back to sleep – about 4 times total during the night. We got up for good at around 6:30am. I fed Izaak a bottle (my first) sitting in bed with him on my lap. This was a neat experience. He was more awake than he usually is for bottle time, so it was cool to watch his eyes and his little hands grab at the bottle, my arm, thumb, etc. After that, we were all still not fully awake, so we played in bed for about an hour. At one point I got on the ground and hid from Izaak. He would look around for me, then I would surprise him with a “peek-a-boo”. He got a big kick out of it and started to anticipate my antics more and more. His little eyebrows go up as he tries to look over the edge of the bed for me. That game ended when he stopped laughing. Guess I scared him a bit. Oops.

Had some breakfast and cleaned up a bit – the laundry came out just fine despite pushing random button on that darn Russian machine. To my surprise, Izaak handed me a card for Father’s Day… well not really handed, as I had to pry it from his mouth. It was nice to get my very first Father’s Day card while in Kazakhstan. Complete with teeth imprints from my boy.

We packed up some gear and headed off to the mountains. The driver picked us up at 9:45am for the 30 min. drive up. The ski/skate park is just outside the city, so we got to see some huge mansions and countryside before the terrain started to go straight up. We drove up to the ski resort and decided to hop on the ski lift in operation, which takes you up another who knows how high. The weather was nice. The sun was very warm, but there was a cold breeze. Izaak was strapped to his mother via the carrier and everyone seemed warm enough. We took the 5-minute lift to the next plateau and walked around for a while. Izaak was starting to get fussy, so we took him out of the sling and let his feet touch down on Kazakh soil. There was another lift that takes you to the top, but we opted out of that because Izaak started to get uncomfortable… fast. We took some photos/video of the beautiful mountains and boarded the lift to return to the car. On the way down (backs towards the sun) we realized how cold it really was. This was apparent because Izaak started screaming bloody murder! He was bundled up, but we probably should have sprung for the $3 Siberian winter jacket – dumb. Oh well, we made it down in one piece and Izaak recovered quickly once we got in the car. We’re such newbies, it’s ridiculous.

We went directly back to the apartment and cooked up some Ramen noodles for lunch. We got some food in Izaak (not as much as we would have liked) and had some more play time. I put Izaak down for his nap at 1:30, but he must have been too tired or hyped up from the mountain adventure because he was up screaming 45 minutes later. This is where the fun started. For the next 2 hours we tried desperately to get Izaak back to sleep – walking, rocking, begging, pleading, etc. It totally sucked. He finally went down…hard. Angela and I were exhausted at the point. We managed to get some downtime and watched a couple episodes of Firefly before waking the beast from his ancient slumber. At 6:30pm, Angela decided to give Izaak a Sumo wrestler portion of cereal and baby food. This kid took it all in. He looked like a Buddha after she got done with the little man. Too funny. We thought he would spew or spring a leak.

We moved on to afternoon fun and games. We popped in some Baby Einstein, which caught Izaak’s attention for all of 3 minutes – good thing I brought 4 hours of this crap. We blew some bubbles, walked and crawled. Izaak is doing so much better crawling and puling up to stand. We put some pillows on the ground around him, as he tends to get cocky and let go. The first time he did a head plant on to the carpet and has been more cautious ever since.

Izaak still has a cold so we have to break out the dreaded bright blue nose squeegee (I’m sure the fresh mountain air was no help). He hates getting this done as much as I hate doing it. Now when he sees the squeegee coming, he braces himself for impact. His face wrinkles up and he starts screaming which only creates more snots, so I have a field day sucking it all up – gross!

No wanting a repeat of the 2 hour “Izaak, please go to sleep, I’ll do anything” party, we tried something different. At about 8:30, we wrapped Izaak up and took a quick walk around the apartment buildings - nothing exciting, just a way to get Izaak to settle down. When we returned to the apartment, Angela took Izaak and laid him in his crib, rubbed his back and off to sleep he went in about 15 minutes. It still took a couple tries, but was so much better than what happened before. Mom’s getting smart and I’m taking notes. Maybe we’ll get some sleep tonight?

Quite the rollercoaster ride of a Father’s Day, but one I will never forget. Happy Father’s to all the Dad’s and Grandpas at home. This day was as much yours and it was mine as you’ve all helped this dream come true. ~M

No Sleep for these New Parents - Day 23

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Wow, what a day, or night should I say!!! We put Izaak to bed as scheduled! At 11pm, I gave him his bottle which he drank half of and then started screaming. It took about 20 minutes to calm him and get him back to sleep. We went to bed a little later than we wanted, about 1am, then the fun began! At 3:30am, Izaak woke screaming. We tried to ride it out, but nope, we had to pick him up. He cried and cried and cried. He had been developing a cold, runny/snotty nose, cough, etc. We did what we could and bounced him back to sleep. An hour later, more screaming, which went on every other hour. When he woke at 6am, I tried giving him his bottle, but he wasn’t taking it, just crying. Finally after settling down, he let me feed him while holding him. He drank the whole bottle, which is a first outside of the crib. So we got two more hours of sleep and then he was awake for good.

We went through our normal morning schedule; half awake I might add. To our surprise, we got our first poopy diaper. After opening this little package, we both understood why he was so uncomfortable last night. Poor guy spit out a solid turd the size of a baseball – no joke! Regardless, we were happy that his plumbing was working and he seemed much happier after that.

We decided to head back to the grocery store since Mike had to quickly grab the bare necessities last night. The store is about 3 blocks away. It’s a nice walk with tree-lined streets and fountains along the way. Izaak fell asleep in the grocery store. I must add that the carrier is working out wonderfully. If he has trouble falling asleep, I just strap him in and usually within 10 minutes he’s out (except for the past 2 days when it takes forever to get him to sleep). It’s really the only option since there aren’t any rocking chairs here and I tire quickly just holding him and bouncing. We got back in time for his lunch, which didn’t go down so good. I tried a box of rice cereal from home, but he isn’t very fond of it. Carrots didn’t even help. This is the second time he made a fuss with this cereal, so I’m going back to the oatmeal cereal that he loves.

Izaak was back to his good ol’ self after his nap with smiles, giggles and more. We were feeling a little refreshed ourselves since we grabbed a nap too. We were surprised with a second poopy diaper this afternoon. I know this sounds silly, but we really were starting to worry since we’ve had him for 4 days and nothing! We are actually relieved to get the stinky ones! We decided to venture out for another walk to see what’s around the apartment. We walked for about 30 minutes and decided to grab some dinner. Izaak had fallen asleep in the carrier so we were feeling lucky. Our first dinner out went smoothly. Izaak slept through the ordering and waiting then spent the other half of our meal drinking is sippy cup and playing with his toys. Dinner couldn’t have went any better, though I think I ate a little faster than I should have.

Mike grabbed an “ice cream cone” on the way back to the apartment. Fresh ice cream in Kazakhstan is not like ice cream at home. It’s more like crystallized sugary milk that went a little sour – yum! Cereal with egg yolk and playtime for Izaak when we returned. Now we are just trying to get him to sleep. A runny nose is keeping him awake, but we are both trying our best. We’re ready for a quiet evening with maybe a movie and a full night’s sleep. Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, we decided to wash clothes today. We have this really fancy digital washing machine. Of course, it’s not in English so we weren’t sure where to put the powder or which buttons to push. Mike spent about 15 minutes trying to decipher the words on the washer with his translator book and then got frustrated and did an internet search. The internet was of no use to us on this one. Not sure what he ended up doing to get the laundry going, but it’s spinning and became quite the excitement for Mike and Izaak. The both were sitting in the floor watching the laundry spin. The things that will fascinate my boys!

Well, Mike’s 3rd attempt in putting Izaak to bed has just ended with him doing walking laps around the living room (Izaak walking and Mike holding his hands). This might just be another sleepless night for all of us! ~ A

Back in Almaty - Day 22

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*** No more high-speed Internet, but dial-up seems to work. We’ll have to cut back on photos while we’re here in Almaty, but should be able to send/receive email just fine ***

A busy and emotional day today. We got up this morning, did the Izaak routine, packed up and checked out of the hotel, which had been our home for the last 22 days. Everything seemed so rushed. Izaak seemed more unsettled today. We noticed that he developed a cough in addition to his snotty nose, so we’re watching that closely.

We assembled all our gear in the lobby at 8:15 for our 10:15 flight, but no Misha. Of all the days to be late! Misha, Olga and Philipage finally showed up at around 8:45 and took us to the airport. We picked up Aliya on the way and made it to the airport in plenty of time. Izaak was doing well so far and generally enjoys car rides. At the airport, Olga took care of tickets, passports and checking our bags while we sat and talked with Aliya and Misha. It was great seeing Misha holding Izaak and giving him kisses. While we were waiting, I took a bathroom break. Aliya pointed out where it was and told me to have 20 tenge ready. This turned out to be a horrific experience. I opened an unmarked door and followed a dark stairway down one level. At the bottom, there was a big padlock on what appeared to be the men’s room door. I followed the corridor on to some kind of mop room. The further I went, the darker and stanker it got, so I figured I was getting close to some kind of bathroom. I turned a corner or two and wound up in a room that looked no different than a horror movie set. I aimed towards what looked like a hole in the ground and hoped for the best. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity. I started to get freaked out. Not just because of the setting, but at the thought of someone approaching me to pay for using this hole in the ground. I think I even started walking backwards before I was done. I’ll have nightmares about that for sure.

Anyway, back to the airport. We finished checking bags and were escorted to the gate (20 feet away). We said our good-byes (hugs and kisses and all) and squeezed through the doorway. Olga, Misha and Aliya were still waiving as we descended the stairs to the waiting room. These people have become our dear friends and we will miss them. Angela started tearing up as we descended down the stairs. You don’t realize how much people mean to you until you have to leave. It’s hard to believe that we’ll probably never see them again. They really treated us well and we felt they became our family during our brief stay in Uralsk. They will be part of our memories forever. Thank you Misha, Aliya and Olga for everything that you gave us and did for us, we can never repay you for your kindness!

We boarded the plane and got ourselves situated. As we took off, both Angela and I had tears in our eyes as we all looked out the window and watched Uralsk disappear below us. It was sad to know Izaak was leaving his home, but exciting to know we were one step closer to his new home. Izaak did really well on the plane. Angela fed him his cereal on schedule. We took turns eating the fancy lunch (steak, smoked salmon, caviar, etc.) Izaak even fell asleep on me and we both got in a good nap. He screamed a few times, but I think it was just because he was so confined (even though we were in first class). I put him on the floor in front of our seats and let him crawl around some – this seemed to do the trick. That and a candy wrapper I gave him to suck on.

We landed a bit early and waited forever to get our luggage, but it all got there ok. Walking out of the baggage claim we were greeted by Kirill (our previous driver) and headed on to the office to finish up some paperwork. On the way, we stopped to get a photo made for the medical exam on Monday. We got to walk around some and stretch our legs. The weather was nice – cooler than it had been in Uralsk. After the paperwork, Kirill took us to our apartment. We weren’t quite sure what to expect. After dragging the bags up 5 flights of stairs, we were shown in to the apartment. Very nice. We were thrilled. Furniture, kitchen, microwave, entertainment center, even an air conditioning unit for each room! No complaints here – even if we couldn’t figure out how to light the darn oven.

We got settled in and let Izaak play on the bed, then on the rug (with blanket). He was very happy to have some room to roll around and was back to his silly ways in no time. Later that evening, we decided to send dad to the grocery store while mom looked after Izaak. He still has a cough, and we weren’t sure what to do about it, so best to let him rest. I set out for the store with an empty duffel bag. It was going to be dark soon, so I walked as fast as I could… so fast, in fact, that I walked 2 blocks further than I should have and missed the turn for the supermarket. I spent the next 30 minutes walking all over Almaty, trying not to get lost and looking for anything that resembled a grocery store. What a pain. I must have clocked 10 miles. I wound up walking past a coffee shop we went to on our first visit here… no where near our new apartment. I finally found the damn store and threw the first 7 items I saw in to the cart and headed back to the apartment. Turns out, the store is only 4 – 5 block from the apartment… my little urban hiking adventure took over an hour to complete. Angela was pretty upset by the time I got back because she was beginning to worry. We cooked up some dinner, cleaned up and put Izaak to bed.

It will take some adjusting, but I think we’ll be comfortable here for the next few days. We’re glad that we’ll have some time to relax and see some sites in Almaty… hopefully not all on foot! ~M

Our Last Day in Uralsk - Day 21

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To our surprise, we were the ones that had to wake Izaak this morning. To stay on schedule we should have woke him at 6am, but we thought we’d let HIM sleep in – ha! I didn’t sleep well, kept waking up to check on him. He slept well through the night and only fussed once at 4:30am. I rubbed his belly and he went right back to sleep. He was very happy to see us this morning when we woke him at 7:30am. It still seems as though he thinks we won’t be there when he wakes and it such a great surprise for him when he realizes mom and dad are still here.

We fed him his bottle, which went much better than last night though he will only take it lying down. It’s okay that I hold him to feed him cereal and give him his sippy cup, but he doesn’t want me to hold him with the bottle, so it makes me wonder if they propped the bottles in the crib in the mornings and evenings and that’s the way he’s used to it. At this point, I will do whatever it takes for the little guy to eat, but I hope to change that when we get home.

We went down for breakfast – our first social outing. Two of the Hawaiian couples were there and it was nice to show off our new son! I managed to eat while Izaak crawled all over me. We were glad to see our favorite waitress was working. We gave her a rose and told her that she was our favorite and that we really appreciated everything. She was surprised and grateful. When our eggs came out she grabbed Izaak so that we could eat our breakfast in peace. It was a nice break and she seemed to do well with him. She even showed him off to the chef.

Well, we were way off schedule at this point, so we decided to keep him up as long as we could, gave him his second feeding – cereal with egg yolk and water/apple juice. He ate it all! We headed downstairs to upload the pictures. I did a pretty good job of entertaining him, and then it was Mike’s turn. Izaak sacked out at 11am. Up at 1:45pm (let him sleep a little longer since he missed his first nap) and ready to be fed. Today we tried peas. He wasn’t sure about them, but he ate them like a good boy.

Again, we missed a naptime so that we could run out to get a few last minute things and to say good-bye to Sari and see how things were going since she took Sasha home. I gave the carrier a test run for our first outing. He was amazing! He sat quietly in the carrier and looked around, but didn’t fuss. I just hope it goes that well at the airport tomorrow.

We decided to go ahead and feed him his evening dinner – more peas and cereal and then the fun began – bath time! We decided to fill the bottom of our shower since it would be shallow and to sit with him just to make sure he felt safe. He seemed a little confused at first and then he saw his toys. When he went to get his toys, he realized the water splashed so he kept splashing. The longer we were in the bath, the bigger the splashes got! He loved the water! He went from sitting on his bottom, to putting himself on all fours and then even tried to put his face in the water, which I didn’t allow. Mike video taped everything and had to keep moving back because the water was everywhere.

We literally had to pull him away from the water and swoop him up in the towel. He even enjoyed getting dried off. This kid is absolutely amazing! So we couldn’t help ourselves, we let him crawl all over the bed naked. It’s so funny seeing your kid naked – I don’t know why. We have plenty of pictures and video to make him hate us forever if we ever decide to pull it out when he’s a teenager.

So, Izaak’s down for his nap, another bottle and to bed he’ll go. In the meantime we have 3 weeks worth of things to pack so that we’re ready for our flight tomorrow. This packing job will be a bit different, as we have to consider Izaak’s needs while we’re in transit!

Not sure when we’ll be able to update again as we aren’t sure what our internet options will be once we get into Almaty. We’re staying at an apartment during our week stay. Wish us well as we get one step closer to home! ~ A

P.S. They say “mother’s instinct” kicks in when you have a baby. I didn’t think it would, but now I know it does. My thought about the caregivers feeding the babies at 10pm in their cribs while they are still asleep was correct. Popped the bottle in his mouth while he was still asleep and he started sucking away! He put his arm up as if to hold the bottle. We’ve had a hard time getting half the bottle down. Not tonight, he drank the whole thing in less than 10 minutes without even waking. We just weren’t doing it the way he was used to. It feels so nice to be learning what it takes to make my child happy and to know I’m doing the right thing. Okay, back to packing! ~ A

Izaak’s Gotcha Day - Day 20

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WPA families calls the day that you pick up your child from the orphanage, “Gotcha Day.” Many families celebrate this day each year with Kazakh food and traditions and give gifts from Kazakhstan to their child. We plan to do the same, but no day will ever be as special as the day that Izaak came home with us!

We were in a bit of a frenzy this morning as we had had a late night last night and had plenty to do before getting Izaak. We ran downstairs for breakfast, came back to the room to put the caregiver gift bags together, fumbled about trying to figure out what needed to be done and walked out the door without Izaak’s hat or coat (a big no-no in Kaz!) We arrived at the Baby House at 10:30am. Some of the caregivers were all dressed up with makeup. They were beautiful! It was hard to believe that we would probably never see these women again. How could we repay the love and care they have given Izaak for the first 10 months of his life? Two or three of the caregivers were especially emotional and you could tell that they had loved these children with all they had. It makes me feel good to know that they gave a bit of themselves to Izaak. I know a small piece of that will stay with him forever.

They invited us to see Izaak’s crib. His was in the middle of the room across from Sasha’s. It was too fitting. We said goodbye and moved into the playroom for parting words and pictures. We could tell that it was becoming difficult for the caregivers to say goodbye and Izaak seemed to not be his normal happy self. I think he could sense the caregiver’s sadness. The doctor came for her goodbye and wished us all well. She had some really touching words – we loved that doctor! As we were leaving the room, Mike was waving Izaak’s hand good-bye and saying “Paka” and then next thing Mike knew one of the caregiver’s snatched Izaak away. All the caregivers swarmed around him, gave him kisses and tried cleaning him up before returning him to us. Oh, it just broke my heart. Our last stop was to the Baby House Director’s office. She had some really nice things to say and wished our family happiness and safe travels. So, we said goodbye to the Baby House and to all those that have cared for Izaak for these many months. How lucky we are to get such a loved child!

Izaak was totally fascinated in the car. Misha played with him through the window before we left. As we drove back to the hotel, Izaak’s eyes were moving a mile a minute, trying to keep up with all that passed by. His head turned at every honk and sound. Aliya said that his reaction to the car ride was “good” because “his attitude did not change.” She came with us to our suite to make sure we understood the food instructions (written in Russian) and wished us well.

So, there we were, alone with a baby - yikes! Seriously, we looked at each other and said “now what?” The suite was a mess because we celebrated last night when we should have been cleaning. I guess we have the next 18 years to be responsible, right? So, we grabbed everything within Izaak’s reach and then just played with him on our couch and then on our bed. He was still a little fussy, but totally enjoyed the nice comfy sheets on the bed (as you’ll see from the photos). Mike got to suck a booger out of his nose with the squeegee – they both hated it. We got back to the apartment at his naptime, but there was no way he was going to sleep. We played with him for an hour and then I wrapped him in my carrier for bounces and down he went. Task #1 – complete, even if we were 1.5 hours off schedule. We let him sleep for 1.5 hours and woke him at 2:45pm – he was not happy about that! He seemed really confused to see us and to figure out where he was. He’s used to us saying good-bye before naptime.

Okay, now it’s time to eat! Again, we looked at each other in total confusion. I made the cereal and grabbed some apple baby food. We sat down to eat and then Mike realized we didn’t have any thing for him to drink. We didn’t have the secret recipe for the herbal tea, so we used water mixed with a bit of apple juice. We got off to a good start, but some squirming ensued. All in all, it went very well and we got some food in his belly. Izaak really enjoyed the apple baby food, so se saved some to mix in with dinner. After lunch, we treated Izaak to a teething biscuit, which he chewed on for a while.

We played for about 3 hours after lunch (skipping his afternoon nap – oops). We had big fun jumping on the bed, lounging on the couch and playing with toys. Before we knew it, it was time to eat again! Same drill for dinner, but we did a full plate this time. Izaak took it like a champ and finished off the entire bowl. We put the water/juice in a sippy cup this time and he got that down as well. We played for about an hour after dinner before strapping him into the carrier. This time it only took about 10 minutes for him to fall asleep – then it was into the crib for another nap. While Izaak napped, we managed to fix some dinner for ourselves and clean up a bit. This kid sleeps like a rock. Yes!!! We even had a visit from Patty and Noah. They are doing well and will be leaving for Almaty tomorrow, so we said our good-byes, but hope to meet again either in Almaty or for a week of skiing with her in Colorado.

At about 9:15, we woke Izaak up by rubbing his back. He was definitely confused about his surroundings, but came around in just a few minutes. Dad played with him on the couch while I tried to figure out how the darn bottle worked. After a couple failed attempts and soaking wet pajamas, I downloaded the instructions from the web – thank God for the Internet. This time we got it right. It took about 20 minutes to get most of the bottle down, but we did it. Back to the carrier for a walk around the room… it’s now 11:00pm. This time, Izaak was not a happy camper and had trouble settling down. We’re somewhat confused by the wacky schedule these kids are on, but we’re doing our best to stick to it for now. After about 20 minutes of walking, bouncing and swaying, I decided to stick him in his crib and waited to see what happened. He went right to sleep!

Wow, what a day. So much has transpired in such a short time. There were so many “firsts” today – first time we heard certain sounds from him; first time we got to rub his belly; first time we changed his diaper (just pee though – Mike get’s to do the poopy one); first bottle feeding; first sippy cup; you get the idea. So, we’re tired and it’s time for us to head to bed. We’re told we’ll have an early morning, if we’re lucky enough to get a full nights sleep! ~ A

Time to Celebrate

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Misha picked us up right on time at 4:15pm. I got in the car as I always do and said “Hi Misha!” He replied with “Hi Mama.” It was really sweet! We picked up Olga and headed to the Registrar’s office. We waited there for what seemed like an hour and were finally invited in to sign the paperwork. We briefly held Izaak’s new birth certificate listing us as his parents! It’s so hard to believe how much one piece of paper can mean! Izaak is really ours, our son! When we left the Registrar’s office, Misha surprised me with a rose. It was the sweetest thing he’s done during our stay here. I grabbed him for big hug that I think surprised him!

We had requested to stay in Uralsk through Monday, but Gulbanu seemed concerned about our limited time in Almaty, so we volunteered to leave earlier so that the passports got to where they needed to be. So, we leave Uralsk on Friday at 10:10am. We will be sad to go, but looking forward to getting one step closer to home. If all goes as planned, we will be home by the afternoon of Thursday, June 22. Our journey in Kazakhstan is quickly coming to an end!

We went back to the hotel. We saw all the things we had to do. We needed to baby proof the apartment, get the food thing figured out, straighten up a bit, but we just wanted to celebrate! So as the saying goes…“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”…nah! We walked to the Atrium to meet the Taylor’s, Zimmerman’s, and Miller’s for dinner at the Dixie Pub. After few rounds of beers and dinner, we headed for the bowling alley right across from the restaurant. Yep, bowling in Kazakhstan! The poor guy at the counter really had a hard time with us. You should have seen us trying to figure out what shoe size we needed until we got a clue and showed him the EUR size on the labels in our shoes. We were all fitted properly and hit the alleys. We had a great time, though I’m not bowler! Lisa and I tied for last most of the night.

It started getting late, so we decided to call it a night, but not before stopping at MacJohn’s and saying good-bye to Nadeer, our Egyptian Pizza/Burger entrepreneur. He was delighted to see us, but sad to see us go. We had hoped to get to know him better, but it was always nice seeing his smiling face as we passed by in the Atrium.

We broke our “curfew” and walked back to the hotel after it got dark. Aliya had recommended against it, but it was such a nice night that we wanted to walk back and I have to say I’m glad we did. Uralsk is beautiful at night! They have twinkle lights all around the city and they have colored lights splashed against the old buildings. There was a younger crowd out at night, I’d say in their 20’s and it looked as if this was the time for singles to meet. We made it home safely, but tired after a long exhausting day. It’s still hard to believe we are parents and we are taking Izaak forever tomorrow! ~A

Our Big Day - Day 19

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After a night of tossing and turning, the day finally arrived! We had worked on our answers to possible court questions throughout the day and night yesterday. This is the day! We stayed in bed a little longer than we usually do, but were pleasantly surprised when we went down for breakfast. A new selection of yummy pastries lined the buffet table and as an extra treat I got smiley face eggs, an indication that our day would be fine.

Feeding wasn’t as successful as yesterday. Got about ¼ of the cereal down and serious screaming started. After a few bounces and a lot of hugs, we got ¼ more down, but no more. The caregiver assured me that he is this way all the time and it was nothing I was doing wrong, which I thought was extremely sweet. I decided to let her give it a try and after about 3 attempts, even she gave up. Our fussy eater was back to smiles a few minutes later when he knew it was playtime. We decided to hit the playground since this may be our last chance to see the children at Arman’s Baby House. They were especially curious and some were even calling Mike, Papa, it was sweet and heartbreaking all at the same time. The playground was especially busy today. All the adopting families were playing with their children and the kids that would stay circling around us. Honestly, this morning was a blur, we were so focused on court today that I think we were both in a daze!

We headed back to the hotel after our visit for a much needed nap, lunch and to prep for court. At 20 minutes till pick up Patti knocked on our door to wish us luck. To her surprised I was still in my PJ’s – you should’ve seen her face. Our attitude was let’s stay comfortable as long as we can! We finally got dressed (we dressed “smart” as the British couple called it), took a few Pepto Bismol’s and headed downstairs to meet Misha and Aliya.

Our court time was scheduled for 2pm. As is customary in Kazakhstan, the judge wasn’t ready until 2:20pm. We went in for the biggest test of our lives. It all went amazingling well. Mike answered his questions on cue, Angela didn’t have to say much of anything and all the players did their part. So, to make a long story short, after 20 minutes in the Judge’s Office, today at 2:40pm, the Court announced us as the parents of Izaak Arman Cuales!!! We were also awarded Immediate Execution – which means we will be home by the end of next week.

We thought we’d share our court speeches with you:

Mike:
Your honor, we ask that you grant our request for adoption and Immediate Execution. We have great respect for this opportunity and appreciate your consideration. We are very thankful for the hospitality and kindness that we’ve received from the people of Uralsk.

Over the past few weeks, we have come to know and love Arman as our son. From the first day we met Arman, our hearts and family grew. His beautiful smile and his humorous giggles; the way he reaches for us at the beginning and end of our visits – Arman has already changed our lives forever.

We will do everything in our power to ensure that Arman has a prosperous future. We will provide him with excellent medical care, a safe and nurturing home for him to grow, friends and family that will love him as much as we do, exposure to the best education, and the opportunity to become a successful and creative individual.

My father grew up in an orphanage and was never adopted. We now have an opportunity to provide Arman with a loving mother and father – something my father never had. We have struggled for 5 years to have children. We have found the answer to our dreams through Arman.
We would be honored and forever grateful to this court and the country of Kazakhstan if the adoption of Arman is approved.

Angela:
I ask the court to grant our request for adoption and Immediate Execution. I support the same feelings that my husband shared. I would like to further thank the staff of Arman’s Baby House. They have truly touched my heart with the love and concern they have shown Arman and all the children in their care. The have helped facilitate the bonding between Arman and us and have given us guidance for his care. We will forever be indebted to them for their kindness.

During our time with Arman, I have come to love him with all my heart and cannot imagine our lives without him in it. Please grant our request to be his parents. Thank you.


We’ve ordered the crib from the hotel staff to be delivered tomorrow and are starting to baby proof the room. So, now we wait for Sari to get through court and then we’ll meet to sign paperwork and find out when we can pick up Izaak from the baby house and fly to Almaty. More details to come…. ~A

Teamwork - Day 18

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First of all, we have to say Happy Birthday to our niece Christina who turns 4 today! We miss you all so much and wish we could be with you to celebrate your birthday! Hugs and Kisses from Uncle Mike and Aunt Angela!!!

So, Mike and I are learning more about this parenting thing. It pays to work together!!! I got scrubbed and prepped for Izaak’s morning feeding. We commenced to our little feeding room, Izaak was eating okay and then a third of the way, screams, kicking and complete meltdown! I tried taking a bouncing break, but nothing helped. You’ll have to check out the tearful Izaak in our pictures today. The caregiver came as if to take over, but this mama wasn’t giving up. We went back in, more kicking and screaming, then… out of nowhere Super-Dad appears. I don’t know if it was Mike’s presence or the silly faces he was making, but Izaak starting opening his mouth and eating! Mike pointed out that I wasn’t putting enough on the spoon and we got really crafty and starting mixing the cookie in his tea with the cereal and before we knew it the bowl was empty! Ta da, we did it! So, a little teamwork goes a long way and has become our first lesson as parents! I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I was when we saw that the doctor and caregiver were impressed with our accomplishment!

Morning and afternoon playtime went as usual. We were feeling brave after the morning feeding, so we decided to pullout the baby carrier we brought. It’s a “Kozy Carrier,” kind of like a mai tai. I did a lot of research on “baby wearing” and have found that it is an excellent way to bond, not to mention frees your hands, so I was very excited and nervous to try it. I chose the mai tai type carrier because a lot of the commercial carriers do not fit petite women well and babies grow out of them fast. Izaak likes to be held, so I wasn’t concerned about that. Only concerned about his resistance to being confined and forced. We got the carrier on with him in and he immediately started fussing. A few bounces and walking around and he was better, but obviously not thrilled. We repositioned things a bit and found a better fit for us both. So, I successfully carried him for 15 minutes without too much fuss. I really hope he takes to it so that we can use it on for the travel home. We’re really hoping to avoid buying a stroller; we’ll keep you posted!

Today was a little emotional again as we realized that we may only have one more visit at the baby house tomorrow. We’ll have court in the afternoon so no afternoon visit and if all goes well, then we’ll take him with us forever on Wednesday. The caregivers even seemed a little quieter and gave him extra kisses and squeezes today. I think they know he will be leaving soon.

We went shopping for Izaak’s baby food today. Luckily Aliya knows a thing or two about what our little guy needs. I’m sure that first day at the hotel is going to be an interesting one. At least we feel confident with feeding, now we just have to figure out what to feed him. We have a combination of formula, cereals and baby food. Plus, I have all the finger foods that my friend Shelly got for us! I’m sure we’ll manage just fine.

We also had dinner with 4 adopting families staying at our hotel. It was all unplanned, but very fun! Patti, one of our friends here, had court today and got approval for adoption and will leave on Thursday for Almaty. We just all happened to head to dinner at the hotel restaurant at the same time she came in from court, so it turned into a celebration. We are all looking forward to having her son Noah join us tomorrow!

So, now I must go, so we can prepare ourselves for court. Mike has written his speech and I still have mine to write. I will add, that he woke me from my afternoon nap with tears in his eyes. He had been working on his speech and all the emotions that we are going through just came out. We both realize now more than ever just how much we have fallen in love with this little boy, Izaak Arman Cuales! We’ll share our news tomorrow. Until then, keep us in your prayers! ~A

Starting to Sink In - Day 17

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I came prepared for feeding today – brought the bib! They use what looks like dishtowels as bibs. It works, just wrap around the child’s neck and tuck it in the back of his shirt, but somehow, I still seem to make a mess, so I decided to give the vinyl bib invention a try. It was much better!!! We seemed to come out a little cleaner today, though I think I managed to get some on my nose? Izaak ate much better today, at least half the bowl and drank most of his tea. When the kiddo is done, he’s done. He fussed a little between breaks, but for the most part ate like a good boy. After eating half a bowl, the screaming and pushing started, so I knew it was time to call it quits. The caregivers may be frowning at the half full (or empty as I choose to look at it) bowl, but I was proud of our success!

Today was like most others. Music room first with tummy scoots, crawling up, playing with the truck and our teething toys, then going out for a 5-10 minute calm down walk. We did find out that Izaak has gotten very possessive of his toys. We took one away from him and it was instant tears and screaming – comical really. As soon as the toy was returned, he was all smiles and resumed playing. Izaak also likes to get a hold of dad’s glasses… and not let go. Oh, well. Guess this is part of the learning curve?

The afternoon was pretty routine. We went to the playground and had tummy time on the bench. We got especially lucky today with a toy truck that we found at the atrium. It kept his attention for 30 minutes! So, we’ve found that the truck, the blow-up blue ball and one of the teething toys are his favorites. We’ll definitely keep those handy on the flights home.

We’re beginning to feel that our journey in Kazakhstan is coming to its end. We walked a little slower taking Izaak back this afternoon. I got a little teary-eyed thinking that in just 3 days, Izaak may leave the baby house forever. Everything that he has come to know and expect is going to change forever. It almost saddened me. I hope that he adjusts well and that we have done a good job of taking pictures and video so that we can share all that we’ve experienced with him as he gets older. His caregivers have been so nice and loving. I know I will cry when we pick him up and say goodbye. Happy tears, that he’ll be our forever child and sad ones to not see the faces of the women who have cared so much for our son.

We met with Olga and Aliya after our visit to discuss court. We have court on Tuesday and if all goes well we will be able to take Izaak back to our hotel on Wednesday. Aliya is going to take us baby food shopping tomorrow! Oh, this is all starting to feel so real. If Izaak’s passport arrives on time, we may be able to fly to Almaty on Friday instead of Monday which will give us a little more time to take care of the final paperwork and tour the sites of Almaty. All depends on the judge’s decision on Tuesday. There is still the chance that we will not be awarded Immediate Execution, which means we will have to add 15+ days to our stay. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we will be able to come home soon.

We had lunch with Sari and Lila at the Chagala today – yummy burger, fries and a coke. As we were walking to the Atrium, we heard someone calling, "Mike." Now, "Mike" is obviously not a common name in Kazakhstan. We turned around and it was Baldar an 18 year old boy we met at Zhas Dauren. He walked with us for a while, showed us his college and told us that he is going to Almaty by train tomorrow to meet family. Baldar stopped at the bus station and we continued on to the Atrium where we waived to Nadeer at the MacJohn’s. It’s so nice that we are starting to see people that we recognize. Again, it’s just a reminder of all that we’ll miss when we are home. ~A

Eating Better - Day 16

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Last night we met 3 WPA families for dinner at the Chagala. They had been in Uralsk for only 2 days so they still had a lot of energy and were a lot of fun to be with. It reminded me of how excited we were when we first arrived. We’re still excited to be here, but we have fallen into our own little routine, much like we would if we were home. We eat breakfast at 8:30am, visit Izaak at the same times, and eat lunch and dinner at the same time every day. The only things that really vary day to day are which direction we choose to take our afternoon walk and which beer we decide to have with dinner. The pizza at the Chagala was excellent. We ran into Patti when we got back to the hotel. She’s really having a rough time out here, so we joined her for a chat and a beer (Derbes, a Kazakh beer). We actually stayed out of our room until 11pm last night, which was a record since we’ve been in Uralsk! We plan on meeting the WPA families again on Tuesday night for bowling. It’s possible that will be our last outing before we get custody of Izaak!

So, I’m a happy mama today! Izaak and I worked together much better today when it came to feeding. I think I finally figured out how to hold his head and I think he’s getting used to not being in his room. He didn’t fuss half as much and we came out cleaner than we ever had before! He ate about half the bowl, which I will gladly accept as a success. You just don’t know how happy I was after feeding time. I felt even more bonded with him than I already was – it was amazing! Mike was ready to take him after feeding, but I needed some snuggle time with my little guy – we did it and I wanted to relish the moment!

Mike and I have decided to try to spend our visits with Izaak away from distractions. It seems that going to the music room in the morning and the playground in the afternoon is the best way to be alone with him. Most of the kids are on the playground in the morning, which can be a bit overwhelming. So, we hit the music room. We threw the toys out on the sheet and let him loose. His new thing is to get on his tummy and kick his legs back and forth really fast. He looks like a little frog that can’t jump - it’s so funny! When he’s had enough tummy time he will scoot over to one of us, start fussing a bit and then stand himself up to land right in our arms. Usually a little rocking back and forth will do, but if wants us to stand up, he’ll fuss a little more, push his legs and up we go. Honestly, this kid has us wrapped around his finger and I think he knows it (doctor’s orders). Izaak was a little more vocal again today. He really pays attention to our sounds and will start turning to look at us when we call his name (this is of course if there are no other distractions). We really give him a good workout in the mornings to make sure he takes his noon nap.

Just as we had hoped, the playground was empty for the afternoon. We laid the blanket out on the bench and sat Izaak between my legs for toy time. We assume the “chew and chill” position until he makes a fuss – we usually get a good 15-20 minutes out of this. There was a nice breeze in the air this afternoon which was a change from the heat we’ve experienced all week. We walk around the playground when he gets fussy. Since there were no kids on the playground we let Izaak explore the little plastic play tree. It has all these great toys along the side. Izaak had a great time pushing the spots on the ladybug and twirling the rings on the loop. He also likes scratching the plastic with his nails. He really enjoys feeling different textures and hearing the different sounds when you pat, smack or scratch an object. He’s a very curious kiddo!

So, now we are counting down the days till we get to take him home with us. I can’t even imagine how wide-eyed Izaak is going to be when he takes his first car ride. I’m sure it will be sensory overload! The next week should be very exciting for us – court, custody, real life as parents and our first plane ride with Izaak. It’s exciting and overwhelming all at the same time!

By the way, we felt so bad about only taking a handful of pictures yesterday, that we completely over did it with 150 pictures today! ~A

Pre-court - Day 15

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*** Since we didn’t have many photos of Izaak today, we added pictures from our daily adventures in Uralsk. Enjoy! ***

Not many pictures today -- I think we both had “pre” pre-court jitters. The morning visit started with another attempt at feeding. Ha – this really isn’t getting any easier. The little guy is quite a screaming machine when it comes to eating! I got my lab coat on, sat down prepped, but before I knew it Izaak’s foot had turned the bowl over, tears were already starting to form and not much food was going in. I tried to regroup, got a few giggles, and then went back in for the challenge. A few bites went in – yeah – we’re getting somewhere, then my hopes were lost as the screaming started again. The doctor came in which made me a bit nervous, but he looked attentively at her and ate like a good boy! Whew, got through that one, but not for long. I even pulled Mike in for a few airplane spoons, but no luck. So, I’d say after 10 minutes of screaming, regrouping, alternating between tea and water, I only got about 20 little spoonfuls in. I was successful in getting porridge all over Izaak, the floor, the table and myself. Aliya was shocked when we walked out of the room covered in cereal and starting laughing at us - oops! The doctor said to give him a break and if he got fussy during our visit that we could bring him back early and the caregivers would feed him. Izaak’s nose was very stuffy today so I’m sure he was struggling with eating and breathing. Oh well, I’ll keep trying! Mike got some news about the feeding from the doctor; she said that he eats best at 6am and late in the evening.

The most exciting part of our visit was that we got to change Izaak’s clothes today. We laid a sheet on a small table, stripped him of his cereal/tea-covered onsie and proceeded to slip on his clothes. It was nice seeing his little stomach and belly button for the first time. He’s such a tiny little fella! The pants went on okay. I rubbed his bare chest for a second and then went in to put the shirt on. A family gave us the shirt because it was too small for their son. I think it may be a little small for Izaak but I somehow got it over his head, one arm through and finally the other – all digits in check. Whew – I’ve had quite a workout and we’re only 20 minutes into the visit. After we got ourselves back together, we headed downstairs. The baby masseuse gave Izaak a big smile and told us that he’s changed. We weren’t sure what that meant, but hoped it was a good thing.

Izaak was very squirmy this morning so we let him get his silly’s out in the music room. He squirmed all over the floor from one toy to the next. We tried encouraging crawling and walking, but he just wanted to do his belly scoot, so we let him. We all needed a breath of fresh air so we spent our last 30 minutes visiting the kids on the playground. There are 6 adoptive families at BH #1 now, so the playground quite active with parents trying to figure out what to do with their little ones and the baby house kids trying to figure out what to do with us. It really is cute.

We didn’t get an afternoon visit because of pre-court. We came back to the hotel for lunch, a nap and to rehearse our pre-court questions and answers. Misha looked surprised when he picked us up – said we looked “professional.” Aliya and Olga said we looked hot (heat hot) and the Baby House Director and Ministry of Education Inspector giggled. We thought we looked good??? The judge was running about 15 minutes behind schedule, so that gave us a good amount of time to be nervous! Pre-court was a breeze (after it was done)! We were asked almost all the questioned we were prepped for. The only surprise was that he asked me more questions than I expected. Usually the husband is asked the majority of questions, not sure what that says about Mike. Ouch – he just slapped me! We found out that Court will be on June 13 at 2pm, one day earlier than expected. After we left the judge’s office, the Baby House Director picked on Mike about his sweaty hands (he had shaken her hand). She also said that we had “charmed all the Doctors at the Baby House.” They must be wowed by my feeding techniques! We were happy and surprised to hear that. We also found out that Misha is trying to learn English – guess we’re having an effect on people during our short stay here!

We are posting this earlier than normal so that we can meet the three WPA families that arrived in Uralsk yesterday. We are meeting for dinner and also to pick up some clothes they brought for Izaak. We’re looking forward to a nice evening chatting with American families! ~A

Chillin' with Mom & Dad - Day 14

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I slept good last night… probably the first time since we’ve been here. I think I’m just about over whatever cold was threatening to get me down, so I’m happy about that today. There was a different waitress at breakfast this morning. I asked for scrambled eggs with bacon (I had this a couple days ago) but received plain old scrambled eggs. Oh well. I’ll just have to wait for our favorite waitress – short blonde hair, stocky and likes to listen to Barry White in the morning to wake up.

It had rained some during the night, so it was cooler this morning with a nice breeze. Angela made another attempt at feeding today, but they put her in a different room this time. Izaak was not at all happy about this. She managed to get in a few spoons before he let loose with a tantrum. The caregiver eventually came in and rescued her by taking Izaak back to his room to finish feeding. We didn’t’ feel so bad when we saw that Izaak was giving her a hard time as well. She managed to stuff him full of porridge and hand him off to mom and dad for playtime.

We forgot Izaak’s jacket today, so we stayed in the ball room. We turned one of the doughnut shaped mats on its side so Izaak could stand up in the middle. He did a good job getting around and had lots of practice squatting down and standing back up. Not long into the visit, Izaak got a solid case of the hiccups. Mom and Izaak spent some time rolling on the big blue ball. He got a big kick out of watching himself and us through the mirror. Izaak was very snotty today (as in he had boogers everywhere) and got cranky about half way through the visit. We think he may still have a cold of some sort as he was still breathing heavy. It’s sooooo hot in that room. He may just be uncomfortable from the heat!

After the morning visit, we stopped at Maternity Hospital #3 (now #1) where Izaak was born. This particular hospital is for the people of Uralsk as well as people from near by villages. This means that Izaak’s birthmother could have been from anywhere. There’s another hospital that is strictly for people of Uralsk. Angela got a little teary-eyed being at the place Izaak was born. We wished we could go in, but were happy just to at least see the outside.

At our afternoon visit, we went to the playground and enjoyed the nicer weather – there was a cool breeze today. Izaak really seems to enjoy the outdoors and tends to space out looking at the trees, listening to the birds, etc. He sat between mom’s legs and played with his toys – occasionally making a fuss to be picked up or bounced a bit. He really liked playing with my hat, and realized the hat he was wearing had a similar feel to it. He would grab on to the rim of my hat and put his face right up to mine, and then start laughing… too cute! Izaak was pretty laid back today – which was nice. He kept laying back on our chest which is a big step for him. It just shows how comfortable he has become with us. The three of us were able to sit and relax for a while. ~M

Today we met our 14-day bonding period requirement, which means we that we have Pre-Court tomorrow – yikes! In Kazakhstan it is customary to have a meeting with the judge before the actual court date to make sure all the documents are in order and to get some basic questions answered. Olga and Aliya prepped us this afternoon. It should be pretty straightforward. Mike will be asked about 10 questions, Angela about 3, we’ll show some pictures and make sure everything is ready for court. Our coordinators assure us that it should not take longer than 15 minutes. We’ll also find out when our official Court Day will be. It’s all starting to feel so real now. When I found out that we have Pre-Court tomorrow, I wanted to enjoy Uralsk a little longer. We joined Aliya and Sari’s mom for some shopping at the “Big Market” and then treated Aliya to a beer and had chicken shish kabob before our meeting with Olga. We also took our afternoon walk and headed to the Oral River for pictures. We’ve always wanted to buy sunflowers from the babushkas on the corners, so we felt this was the time. It’s hard to believe that if all goes well at court, in almost a week we will be leaving this wonderful place that has been Izaak’s home. ~A

P.S. We just watched Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals (Hurricanes vs. Oilers) on TV in Russian. It’s nice to see the RBC Center all the way in Kazakhstan! We feel like we’re right at home with the “Chicken Dance” and “We like to move it, move it…” song playing in the background. Go Canes!

Things are still good...

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in Kazakhstan for almost 2 weeks! Here is a second update on how we’re doing. We’ve settled into a nice routine and have become comfortable with our daily life in Uralsk. Our visiting schedule with Izaak is the same and we still try to take our walks in the evening, though we have been slowed down a bit. On Saturday, I got hit pretty hard with a bad cold. It started out as an extremely painful sore throat. I hung in there for the visits with Izaak, but it got the better of me on Sunday so I stayed in. Sleep is what I needed and sleep is what I got. I tried everything we brought from home, but nothing helped. In fact, the meds that worked best was over the counter meds from a local pharmacy, now I swear by it. Mike has been in good health, though his throat is starting to get a tickle. We just hope the cold doesn’t get him when we go to court! Another minor health scare of the week, were these crazy little bumps that popped up on my hands. A Google search brought up all sorts of scenarios and completely freaked us both out when “scabies” came up. We have scabies medication for Izaak (if needed), but never thought we’d have to use it. A quick email to our doctor in the States eased our concerns. I’m probably having an allergic reaction to the dish soap or have developed a form of eczema, nothing to be alarmed about! Whew!!!

We found salt at the grocery store – yeah! It’s almost like sea salt, but does the trick. We are still eating well. The breakfast pastries are taking their toll on our waistlines! MacJohn’s, the closest thing to fast food, has become our most visited restaurant. Who could pass up on burgers and pizzas in a foreign country? The funny thing is that I think we’ve eaten more American food since we got here than we do at home! We are also cooking in our hotel suite. This week we made pre-cooked chicken; spaghetti with meat sauce; some kind of meat strips (horse or cow – who knows?) with veggies and of course the left-overs we scrubbed from our meals out.

We are getting to know our driver and translator better. Misha, our driver, is a really neat guy. He doesn’t speak much English, but somehow, him and Mike have learned to communicate. They both like rock music and enjoy discussing computers. Misha is a diver and enjoys diving in the Baltic Sea (3 hours away?). He has shown a true concern for us and always worries that we aren’t eating enough. He was extremely concerned when I was sick. I think I will miss Misha most when we leave. Aliya is a very smart, curious young lady. She asks lots of questions about history, religion, English language and customs (sometimes very tough questions); she also expects explanations with most statements. We have been of little help for her personal research as our biggest hobbies are hiking/outdoor activities and watching movies. She doesn’t know much about pop culture, but reads a lot. One thing we do have in common is that we all like to dance. We asked for the “nightclub tour” and she laughed and quickly advised against it due to “liability.” We do get lots of looks and stares and sometimes giggles, so I guess putting us in the middle of drinking natives would not be a good idea. Aliya and I have enjoyed picking on Mike together. After getting to know both of them, Mike made each of them a cd with dance music for Aliya and rock for Misha. Misha played Metallica for several days!

We’ve also met some other great people. Kathryn and Charlie from Hawaii are adopting Benjamin, an adorable 1 year old. Pattie from Colorado has had a rough time out here, but will be adopting Noah, a burly 17-month old. We’ve also met a great couple from Ireland – poor folks have waited 4 years to get to Kaz! (that’s how long the adoption process in Ireland takes). Sari, from NYC and her mom, Lila from FL, are our travel partners. She is adopting Sasha, a “healthy” infant girl whose birthday is one day after Izaak and is in the same baby room. There are 3 more families from the States on their way and we can’t wait to meet them as well. The most interesting person we’ve met is Nadir from Egypt who manages MacJohn’s. He’s quite proud of his 5-year career at Pizza Hut and his 3-month employment at McDonald’s. He makes a great burger and a better pizza. He claims to be one of only 6 Arabs in Uralsk and was very excited to meet us. He wanted Mike’s cell phone number so that he could invite us over to smoke the hookah pipe (which we passed on).

So, we’re here with our son, eating well, fighting the colds and making friends – all is still well! ~A

Feeding Frenzy - Day 13

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Our day started with picking up the photographer who would take Izaak and Sasha’s passport photos. Aliya “missed her ride” so we were on our own at the baby house with the photographer on our heels. We sat Izaak up in his walker in the hallway. We thought he was being pretty still, but the photographer was looking for just the right shot. Mike and Izaak’s massage therapist were trying to keep his attention with toys and bottles. It was funny to see the caregivers doing all they could to get just the right expression for his photo. The photographer finally got what he needed and then it was on to my next attempt at feeding. I washed my hands, put on my lab coat and sat down ready to shovel it in. The caregivers invited me into his room today, which was a little better for both of us. We both did well the first few bites, even got some tea down the hatch and then screaming ensued. The caregiver and masseuse kept looking on hysterically, finally the caregiver took over and showed me how it’s done. She shoveled in the whole bowl of cereal. I was in shock! Apparently I wasn’t going fast enough! You just have to see it to believe it so we’ve posted a VIDEO HERE. I’ll have to study the technique for hours to even have a chance at mastering this feeding frenzy.

The morning visit was outside. We spent some time watching the children on the playground today. They are all so adorable. Several of them huddle in the sandbox while others run for the swings and others run up and down the slides. The caregivers were especially energetic this morning and were really playing with the kids. The Baby House Director was even out at the playground today. I think the kids are getting used to seeing us and continue to exhibit curiosity. Izaak’s new thing for the morning was discovering his denim ball cap. He kept pulling it over his eyes and then pulling it off as if to play peek-a-boo. Izaak seemed especially happy today and was giving his charming smiles to all that passed by.

Our afternoon visit was in the music room where he really walked around with assistance. He was talking a bit, but still pretty quite. Sari brought a new toy, which completely fascinated Izaak. He really got a kick out of seeing daddy in the mirror. He made the most adorable faces! We pulled out the photo album today and emphasized mom and dad’s (our) photos. In one moment he was really studying Mike’s picture and then looked up in amazement to actually see Mike. It was almost like he “got it.” He also studied my picture more than normal. I think he’s starting to recognize us, which is exciting. The visit ended with a few ball “zurberts” and then a short walk outside. He isn’t falling asleep at the end of our visits so he must be feeling better, though we still keep wiping a runny nose (make that two noses counting mine).

We visited bookstores during lunch and tried to get our photos for court printed, but no luck. We had to reformat the photos and found another place to process them. We also visited a souvenir shop after the second visit. There were two new couples at the baby house today. They really seemed uneasy and on edge, I wonder if that’s we looked during our first days. It feels to nice to be the veteran’s on the block. ~A

Practice Makes Perfect? - Day 12

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We made our first attempts at feeding Izaak and failed miserably! It started out with Izaak covered in mushy cookies – the caregivers forgot that we were feeding him this morning and gave him his morning cookies and tea. They dressed me in a nurse’s coat and sat me down with cereal mush then put Izaak in my lap with a cloth over his chest. His hands went straight in the bowl and when I tried to put the spoon his mouth he either pulled away or screamed. We made several attempts and then the caregiver admitted that he’s a fussy eater and gave us his cup of tea. He took that a little better, but was generally upset. We were supposed to be there to play, not eat, right? We tried a few more times and then I could tell the caregiver felt sorry for all of us so she said she’d feed him later. Whew - we got out of that one, but will try again tomorrow, we need all the practice we can get. I really think he hates being forced and I’m optimistic that when we get him back to the suite and let him take his time, things will go better – I guess we’ll see.

We spent both the morning and afternoon visits in the music room today since it was a scorcher outside – got up to 102 degrees – hot! Granted there is no air condition in the baby house but it seems to be cooler. We were alone for our morning visit, which was nice, all attention on us! Izaak practiced pulling up, standing and crawling a little. He really enjoys standing while banging his toys on a bench. The exciting part of our morning visit was catching his attention by snapping my fingers, opening/closing my hand and him exploring his hand on mine. It’s hard to explain, but he really seemed fascinated by something as simple as the movements and sounds of my hand. It’s nice to see him so focused. We had our wind-down walk before taking him back. We all enjoy this quiet time to take a break from the toys and just be close. We definitely have a snuggly kid. Better enjoy it while it lasts!

We found a more vocal baby for the afternoon visit. I really tried to imitate any sounds that he made and he seemed to extend the typical baby sounds more than normal. Our travel partner even commented that he was more verbal. He didn’t take to sharing his blue ball very well. Sasha was as curious about his ball as Izaak is and when she showed interest, Izaak immediately pulled the toy away. He’s quite possessive of his toys, in fact, he’s possessive of her toys too if he likes it. Guess we’ll have to work on the notion of sharing! We got to see him in shorts today, which was surprisingly exciting for us. It was so hot that the caregivers put him in the onsie short outfit we gave them. We love seeing every inch of our little guy and even pulled off the socks for a closer look at his piglets. Can’t wait to get him home so we can see all of him!

Aliya translated the doctor’s notes so the new info we got today is that the doctor said Izaak is “quiet, kind and sometimes lazy.” Lazy? This kid is wearing us out! There are 12 children is Izaak’s group with 5 teachers and 3 nursemaids. We also learned his schedule, which we’ll post separately. The caregivers seem to be taking an interest in us now. I didn’t expect that, but it’s nice to try to get to know them a little since they care so much for Izaak and all the children in his group. We’ll probably say this every day, but our visits went by so fast. 2-1/2 hours a day just isn’t enough. We are doing well in Uralsk, but ready to spend more time with our little guy! We can’t wait to spring him free from the Baby House!!! ~ A

Izaak's Daily Schedule from BH

6am - Wake up
6am - Feeding - Breakfast (Formula Nan) – bottle 200gr
6-8am - Lessons, games, walk
8-10am - Nap
10am - Feeding - 10% wheat cereal, tea with sugar, juice
10am-12pm - Walk, games
12-2pm - Nap
2pm - Feeding – vegetable, potatoes, purees, juices
2-4pm - Walk, games
4-6pm - Nap
6pm - Feeding
6-8pm - Games
8-10pm - Nap
10pm - Feeding – 5% wheat cereal – bottle
10pm-6am - Sleep

Playing with Friends - Day 11

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I felt so much better today and couldn’t wait to see Izaak. I didn’t realize how much I missed the little guy until I woke up this morning. Misha was very happy to see me when he picked us up to take us to the BH. He even gave a little giggle and a huge smile when I said my normal “Good Morning Misha!” Izaak’s doctor told us this morning that both of his birthparents were Kazakh. We didn’t think we would find out this information so we were happy to get one more mystery to Izaak’s life answered. We also found out that he weighs almost 18 pounds and is 28-1/2” tall, so he’s grown a little since his 8-month measurements. Izaak was very happy to see us and I was thrilled to see him.

We spent our morning in the music room. I must admit I hogged him a little. He was kind of fussy, like he wanted me to cuddle and hold him. He kept crawling up my chest and opening his arms, then leaning into me. I indulged us both a bit with hugs and kisses, but he hadn’t been this way with Mike the day before, so I think he’s figured out that I’ll give in before daddy. We know how important it is for Izaak to get his playtime (so that he’ll stay on schedule with his naps) so I eventually resisted the fussiness and distracted him with toys. Once he figured out I wasn’t going to give in, he was all over the place. There were three babies in the room today, Izaak, Sasha, our travel partners 10 month old, and Benjamin, another couple’s 1 year old. Izaak had a great time scooting all over the blanket and playing with everyone’s toys. It seemed that he was showing Benjamin how to play. He even tried crawling for a bit, which we were thrilled to see and I encouraged by “crawling” to the toys with him. Izaak didn’t fall asleep during our morning visit, so I know he must be feeling better. The smiles and giggles were back full force.

We spent most of the afternoon visit in the music room again. We pulled out fewer toys and tried to spend more time with touching, standing and crawling. He is so much more laid back when it comes to holding him. Only 4 days ago he wouldn’t let us put him on his back or hold him on our stomachs. He has done both during the past 2 days. We know the resistance a week ago was a control thing so it’s very encouraging to feel that he is starting to trust us. He also had fun standing while holding onto a bench and rolling/banging one of his toys. Izaak is still pretty quiet though. We’ve tried making da-da/ga-ga sounds and hoping he’ll imitate, but he’s not quite ready. He will make razzing sounds and of course he loves giving everything a nice big “zurburt” when he can. We get a few sighs, giggles and the general whininess. It will be fun to hear Izaak’s voice when he chooses to start using it (unless he starts screaming-yikes!). We finished our visit with a 15-minute walk outside, which ended up in a little snooze before returning him to his caregivers.

Our visits with Izaak keep going by faster and faster. It’s hard to believe that we are on visit day #11, though it seems he’s always been a part of our lives. This precious little boy was meant to be our child and we were meant to be his parents. It’s so amazing that God would bring us all together even though we were half a world apart. Miracles do still happen! ~A

*** We've posted a map of Uralsk on the MEDIA PAGE so you can see where we are and where we go each day ***

All to Myself - Day 10

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Angela decided to stay in today so she could fully recover from her cold. So today was my first big day with Izaak on my own. I have to admit I was nervous about it. What if he starts screaming? What if he pukes? What if he craps all over the place? Oh well, too late to worry about that now.

I had to explain to Misha, our driver, that Angela was sick and would not be joining us today. I managed to mutter the works, “bal’NOY” (sick). He was very concerned and immediately asked if she needed help – he’s a dad too. I assured him that it was just a cold, and that she would join us tomorrow. We got to the baby house and Izaak had just finished eating as usual. Izaak was happy to see me and gave everyone big smiles. Aliya accompanied us to the music room and hung out for a few minutes while I got situated. I immediately took out every toy possible and surrounded Izaak with plenty of options. Didn’t matter which way he went, he was going to run into some form of entertainment in this minefield.

Izaak did great on his tummy today. He scooted around chasing after various toys. I moved him from his belly to his back several times. While on his back, he gets a big kick out of getting his belly tickled and “I’m going to get ya.” Huge giggles. He’ll flip himself over on his tummy again when he’s had enough. I pulled a small white rocking horse onto the rug and let him examine it for a bit. Soon enough, Izaak scurried right over and even pulled himself up to standing by holding on to the rocking horse. He did a good job holding on to the handles while I rocked him a bit, but the novelty wore off in a few minutes. It was neat to hear Izaak tell me he had enough by looking at me and letting out little whimper. I only picked up Izaak a few times during the morning. The rest of the time was spent playing with toys, playing the piano and checking things out. His favorite toy today was a big red, white and yellow dump truck – that’s my boy! But he was especially attracted to my glasses (which I don’t normally wear). On several occasions, he snatched them off my face before I had a chance to grab his little mitts. He was really doing well today.

We packed up and headed outside for our “wind-down” walk. He really seems to enjoy this. After a few minutes outside, Izaak leans his head or chin on my shoulder and I can feel his body get more and more relaxed. We stopped in at the playground for a few where Izaak was greeted by his caregiver fan club – he’s very popular. He didn’t fall asleep today as he’s done in previous days, but he settled down nicely in time for his 12:00 nap.

Izaak was fussier during the afternoon visit. We joined Sasha and company in the music room for a while. We spent quite a bit of time standing this afternoon. Izaak had a lot of fun holding himself up on the kiddy chairs and walking along the wall. While on the ground with Sasha, you can tell that Izaak gets possessive about the toys. If Sasha got close to a toy he was holding, he would hold it as far away as possible with his other hand. Same thing if you try and take a toy away from him, he’ll hold on to it for dear life. Rarely have we seen him cry or fuss when taking away a toy. I think he’s just learned to hold on to stuff a little longer this way.

At about 15 minutes to go, I started packing up for our walk. Because I was on my own this time, I had to give the process some thought. I packed up all the toys, except for one Izaak was chewing on. I sat Izaak up with his toy in mouth and folded up the blanket. I sat behind him and put on his jacket and hat (I was really shocked at how well behaved he was being). Scooped him up and went outside for our walk. We encountered an injured (or tame) crow sitting on the ground. The crows here seem louder and are black and light grey – almost attractive. Izaak and I watched the bird for a while as his buddy screeched from a near by tree, then headed back to the room for naptime.

When I got back to the hotel, Misha turned off the car and came inside with me. I thought he wanted to use the Internet because I had told him about Pandora.com. Instead, Misha went to the front desk and told the receptionist (who speaks some English) to translate. Misha was still concerned about Angela and offered to take her to a doctor if necessary – his doctor I think. He insisted that I call his cell phone if we needed anything. Again, we are truly blessed to be so well taken care of. In exchange, I went to the computer room with Misha and showed him how to snag mp3’s from Pandora.com. He’s a computer geek too. By the way, Angela is feeling much better now. However, I’m starting to feel a tickle in my throat, GULP! ~M

Quick note from Angela: I’m feeling much better after doping up on meds and sleeping most of the day. I missed visiting my little guy, but it sounds like daddy did a great job! Mike has taken very good care of me over the past 2 days, which is comforting when you are in a foreign country away from all the comforts of home. Can’t wait to see Izaak tomorrow and assure Misha that I’m okay. I just hope Mike doesn’t get what Izaak and me have had! ~A

Sick & Tired - Day 09

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Well, today didn’t start off so great. Despite our best efforts to wash our hands, clean the toys, take our vitamins, etc. Angela wound up with a bad sore throat this morning. We didn’t want to miss a visiting day and were pretty sure it was the same thing that had just swept through the baby house, so we got Angela all doped up and set off to visit Izaak. She looked terrible and I felt bad because I know how much she hate’s being sick. It’s just a matter of time before it’s my turn.

We got to the baby house on time as usual and grabbed Izaak from his walker. We decided to go outside in the morning because it was still cool. Izaak seemed to be feeling much better and didn’t want to sit still. Angela was careful not to get too close. We walked around the playground for a while, played with some toys and watched the older kids on the swings and in the sandbox. At about 20 minutes until end of visit, we packed up and went for a walk around the baby house as usual. Izaak seemed fine – laid back as always, but didn’t really fall asleep this time. We brought him back upstairs at half-past the hour and went on our way.

After a nice lunch at the hotel, we headed back to the baby house and caught the tail end of feeding time for Izaak. He spotted us in the hallway and started giving the caregiver a hard time as she tried to shovel in the cereal – I think he’s starting to look forward to our visits. We decided to try the music room this afternoon because it seemed to be getting hot outside. After about 15 minutes of tummy time, Izaak started to really fuss – I mean really fuss. He was noticeably cranky and wasn’t happy with anything other than being held. We scooped him up for some walk and bounce and within minutes, he stared to fall asleep. Aliya mentioned that it wasn’t good for Izaak to sleep during playtime because it throws off the schedule, so we packed up again and walked out side hoping this would wake him up a bit. Not a chance. By the time we got down stairs, Izaak was out cold. We tried to stand him up and his little head flopped over like a rag doll. This kid can nap! It was still very early in the visit, so we tried to kill some time on the playground. It didn’t matter what we did, Izaak was determined to finish his nap. We decided to take him inside (we were getting a little worried) and hand him over to the caregivers so he could finish the nap in his crib. Aliya asked about him and we were told that little Izaak decided to skip the previous nap session that day and have some unauthorized playtime instead – they didn’t seem happy about this. Well there you have it - 10 months old and already getting in to trouble. No wonder the little guy was worn out. It was still nice to sit under a tree with Izaak as he slept… I just hope it’s that easy on the 26hr trip home! ~M

Feeling Better - Day 08

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Another beautiful sunny day in downtown Uralsk – 93 degrees today! But there’s always a nice breeze in the air.

We were anxious to see Izaak because of his fever yesterday. To our relief, we were greeted with a smile and news that his fever was down. Izaak was clearly in higher spirits than the previous day. We took him to the ball room for some crawling and standing practice – he really likes reaching over the little padded wall and trying to pick up the colored balls. Izaak had a lot more energy today and gave us some smiles and giggles. It’s clear that sometimes he just wants to be held – we think he’s starting to figure out that if he wines and flails about, he’ll get one of us to pick him up and walk around with him.

Izaak is doing much better with eye contact. He’s still curious about everything that goes on around him, but will lock his eyes on Mom or Dad for a while… which feels awesome every time he does it! He also likes looking at himself in the big mirror and banging on the glass. He makes more eye contact with Mom while looking through the mirror than face to face.

Sasha, our travel partner’s baby, was sick today with the same thing Izaak had the day before. The doctor came in with some meds and before we knew it, poor little Sasha was getting a shot in the butt. She screamed bloody murder, but managed to settle down in just a few minutes. The doctor called us over and gave Izaak a spoon full of some liquid voodoo magic. He kicked and screamed and did everything possible to avoid it. Angela had to hold Izaak against her and restrain his hands while the doctor continued to spoon in some tea/herb mixture. They don’t play around when it comes to medication time. It’s heart breaking to watch, but they get the job done. We were then handed a spoon and coffee cup full of this liquid and instructed to give it to Izaak, “as much as possible,” then the doctor left. Yikes! Neither of us had ever done this before. After a few failed attempts and medicine spilled everywhere, Angela handed Izaak the spoon so he could play with it before I tried to shove it in his mouth. This seemed to calm him down a bit. Angela held him in her lap and I proceeded to spoon it in. Each time I got close to his mouth, Izaak would start to whimper and then cry a little – as soon as that little mouth opened, I was able to dump a spoon full of liquid in. He made a fuss, but you could tell he was used to getting medicine this way. He was a trooper and drank about half the cup. I was totally worn out by the end of this assignment… can’t wait until we have to feed the little booger! Aliya actually suggested this to the caregiver after seeing our antics with the medicine – she thought it might be helpful for us to have some practice. We love her. We also had to take his temperature. You should see this thermometer – it’s a big glass contraption that you have hold under his arm for 5 minutes. 5 minutes! What an experience that was, just trying to hold this long glass tube under a baby that doesn’t like to be held down and who clearly wanted to play. Mom will bring the high-tech digital thermometer from home for the next time!

When we returned for the afternoon visit, we requested to take Izaak outside because he was feeling better. The caregiver agreed and took him back to his room for what we thought was a clothing change. In a matter of seconds, they had his pants and diaper off and proceeded to administer a nasty shot to the butt! That was the first time I saw him scream like that and I almost cried myself… poor little guy. I’m amazed at how fast these kids get over it - It’s been over 6 hours and I’m still upset. : (

After that horror show for this first-time-dad, the afternoon was pretty laid back. We spent some time on the playground and tried to practice standing and sitting, but Izaak really just wanted to be held and walked around. He’s so fascinated with the trees, sun, wind, etc. We just want to give him a chance to take it all in. I think Izaak is starting to trust us a bit more each day. It takes less and less time for him to ‘lean in’ to us as we carry him around. It’s possible that he’s never had the chance to fall asleep in someone’s arms before, so we welcome the opportunity each day. ~M

Angela's Birthday - Day 07

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Well, I got a sick baby for my birthday today! The doctor said that Izaak was running a fever today and had gotten a cold. He was extremely weak so we took it very easy in the morning. We tried to give him juice that the caregivers gave us, but he wouldn’t take much. We spent most of the morning just holding him, cuddling him and loving him. That’s all he seemed to want and need. We took him back early because he just seemed so tired, so we let him take his nap early. Olga, our coordinator, said that the doctor still wanted us to visit him even though he wasn’t feeling well. She said it was good for Izaak to have us there, which made us feel a lot better.

Olga gave me a box of chocolates for my birthday, which was really sweet. We also got to meet her son, an adorable 2 year old that loves to wave. After our visit with Izaak, we visited the Bazaar or Open Market. It is what we would compare to a Flea Market with lots of modern clothes and house products. We were told that there was a “babushka” that sold some great traditional Kazakh hats, but we weren’t able to find her. Patty, a lady we’ve met in the hotel, said she’d take us one day soon.

Izaak was a bit more active for our afternoon visit. We had tummy time for a while, but again, he quickly tired and we spent the last half of the visit just holding and loving him. Every time I tried to put him down he fussed a little and would stop when I put him back on my shoulder, so I kept him there most of the time. It’s so hard seeing him sick. He is such a happy baby, but you can tell when he isn’t feeling well. He just gets this sad look on his face and no smiles. It was really hard leaving him today, but we know the caregivers and doctors will take good care of him. Hopefully he’ll be feeling better tomorrow. (There aren’t many pictures of our little guy today because we were so concerned about him. We didn’t fuss too much with the camera. You can tell by the photos that he was feeling a little better this afternoon). We were told that there is a cold going around his baby house room which relieved us – we were worried that we made him sick.

So, we got a special treat today and what a perfect day for it. It’s my birthday and we were kind of bummed about Izaak, so a visit to Zhas Dauren, an older children’s orphanage (ages 8-18), was just what we needed. Today is Children’s Day in Kazakhstan so they had a concert or program. It was a children’s show with the residents of the orphanage putting on performances. It was fantastic! There was dancing, singing, skits and colorful costumes. The children were beautiful; many had amazing eyes and exotic features. We felt like celebrities there. Many of the kids knew basic English so they said “hello” and asked our names. They all wanted their pictures taken and were fascinated by our cameras. We’d take their picture and then show them the digital screen of themself. They also enjoyed watching the screens as we took pictures of other kids. One boy kept looking over Mike’s shoulder watching him video the show. Mike decided to let him try so the boy videoed one of the performances. You could tell that this made his day. He was wearing a “Myrtle Beach” t-shirt. We tried to explain that we lived close to there but he didn’t understand. The boys were captivated by Mike. They all wanted to do different handshakes and greetings with him. The kids here seem happy. They have their own community and you can tell that they take care of each other. It’s sad to know that these children will probably never be adopted, but they seem to have made their own families. US families can sponsor these children by writing letters and sending monthly donations that go into an account for them that will be available when they leave the orphanage. It’s a great way to give a child the opportunity to go to college or get a start in life. If you are interested in sponsoring a family please visit: http://www.worldpartnersadoption.org/project.html. For my family, it would mean a lot to me if, for my birthday present, you made a donation to Zhas Dauren (it can be a one-time offering). We brought the letters from sponsoring families, but were not able to hand them out ourselves because dinnertime followed the show. Regardless, it was an amazing afternoon with amazing kids!

By the way, yes, I blew out candles on my birthday. Aliya picked out a cake with me. It has a honey filling and peanuts around the side. No, it’s not my mom’s traditional birthday cake, but it was still good. We also had peva (beer) and pizza so we had our own little party. It’s been a nice birthday, the first with my son! ~A