Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Day 7 & 8 - Is that snow??!!
So sorry for the delayed posts ... the hotel Internet is "down" the vast majority of the time. We will not give up, and we will post as often as we possibly can!
It occurs to us that while it is kitschy to talk about the Groundhog Day comparisons, the fact that one day is pretty much like the day before dramatically increases the chances that this blog will sink into blah, blah, blah relatively quickly. So, if there is anything in particular that you are wondering or that you hope we will blog about, feel free to post it in our comments and we will do our best to expound on your thoughts and questions.
As for our actual experiences, we can and do find something new and different at every visit with our dear little boy, but somehow words just don’t do justice. We cannot wait to post pictures in which you, too, will see the amazing development that is happening right before our eyes.
On Sunday, we only had one visit in the morning. Also, it was Easter Sunday in Kazakhstan, as if I understand correctly, they still follow the “old” Orthodox calendar. We asked our translator about Easter traditions as we hope to incorporate parts of ZM’s language and culture into our everyday lives. She stressed the importance of “Easter Cakes”, which explains why we saw so many people carrying bakery boxes around on Friday and Saturday. (Phew – it does appear acceptable to buy your Easter cake versus baking it yourself!) She also told us about an egg smashing game during which two people each have an egg and you slam them into one another and you try to be the person whose egg doesn’t break. We said, “Oh, and then the person whose egg doesn’t break receives good luck or something?” She said, “No, not really, it’s just fun to win.” We’ve got a lot of competitive spirit in our household, so that tradition will work into our repertoire quite nicely! HA!. She was so excited to report to us on Monday morning that she won 2 of her 3 egg smashing matches.
One of the highlights on Sunday was that we also got to meet Matt’s and Suzanne’s daughter, as she comes from her own orphanage to the baby house every Sunday so they can play as a family with her little brother. She is simply adorable, and we were all tickled to hear her count in her perfect English as we climbed the stairs. Both of their children are SO smart, and we hope that we can provide help (and served as additional play mates) as needed when they spring them from their respective orphanages.
After our visit Sunday morning, we went shopping to try to find more clothes for ZM. We brought a few things with us, but some of the clothes are too small (and have been donated to the baby house for the smaller children). If we bring our own clothes to the baby house, they will dress ZM in those clothes when we arrive, and then we strip him back down to his skivvies when we leave so that they can put him back into his shirt and tights. His clothes are then stored in his little locker. It is no easy task to find clothes for him, at least in the shops that are walking distance for us. First of all, we can’t quite figure out how the sizes work, and it seems like there are two systems – we suspect because the clothes are imported from a couple of different cultures. Second of all, everything is either too “baby” for our little guy, or too grown-up. We haven’t quite located the middle ground that seems logical for a 16-month old. We managed to find a couple of things, and we also figured out that he fits in the 12-month jeans that we brought from home. Suffice to say that he is going to be a three or four outfit kid until we get him home and we can wander the isles of Target to build his wardrobe.
We really had a nice afternoon, strolling through the city and going into several other shops -- although our hearts panged a bit when 3:30 rolled around and we were not on our way back to the baby house. We went into a music store, and with a little help from Matt and his Russian skills, we were able to find a CD of what we think is children’s music in Russian. We are going to download it to our ITunes and Ipod and our translator can then confirm if we indeed have children’s music (or a recording indicating that John Lennon is dead). Suz and Matt also bought some DVDs for the kids to help with the transition once they spring them from the baby house.
After all of our shopping, we had a great late lunch/early dinner at the Chinese restaurant in town. The menu has rough English translations, and I had a really good spicy beef (we can only hope) dish with some interesting soft dough shells into which to put the mix. Glenn had a chicken dish that he wasn’t quite as crazy about, but we will definitely go back. We had our first payment snafu when I so proudly gave the waiter exact change, only to have him come back and show me that some of the coins I used were some other currency (Euros? Who knows?!). Fortunately, he caught us before we left the restaurant so we were not chased down the street.
Monday, we woke up to SNOW! Are you kidding me?! Last week, there were days during which it was 80 degrees (and 100 degrees in the baby house), and we drove through a blizzard to get to the baby house on Monday. Nothing much was sticking to the ground, but it was cold and windy. The southern California and South Africa couples who are here thought it was exciting. Us – not so much. We are relatively certain it was a fluke, and we still think that Spring is before us.
We had two great visits with ZM on Monday. He really is just so fun to watch, and we just wish we could figure out what is going on in that serious little head of his. He will play with us for long periods of time, and then he will just let out one long exaggerated sigh and climb into one of our arms for snuggle time. If I had to say, I think he favors Glenn’s arms slightly over mine. I’ve decided it’s because ZM has never been up that high for long periods of time and he likes the air more at six feet than at five feet. J Seriously, I could spend the entire 90 minutes watching Glenn cuddle our son. We have some amazing pictures of father and son staring into one another’s eyes, and we cannot wait to share those moments with everyone!
We had another adorable cute milestone when we arrived for our afternoon visit (brag, brag, brag. Hee hee). When we walked into ZM’s room, all 12 of the adorable kiddos were seated at their tiny tables and chairs. I kid you not, these chairs are so tiny that their little feet touch the floor when they are seated. I marvel at the fact that these 12 little munchkins all sit there, waiting for their snack. The caretakers were cutting up apples and ZM wasn’t going to miss his snack. So, he looked at us, and started waving, as if to say, “Hey, I’ll be over in a minute, but this apple is way more important right now than play time with you guys.” We almost got a little smile, too … the corners of his little mouth turn up just a bit more each day when he sees us. We were crazy silly parents standing there waving back at him for what felt like five minutes as he munched on his apple with one hand and waved to us with the other. We captured some of it on film, although we have to be careful as we have been reminded sternly that we are not to take pictures of the other children.
We are saying good-bye today to Anne today, who will leave after her court hearing. We have assured her that we will keep loving on her little guy while we are here. We were also joined today by another mom from California, who is adopting a little boy who is exactly ZM’s age. Her little guy was moved into ZM’s room on Monday, so we think we will share the play room with them for the next few weeks. (They started their journey one day after we did).
We know there is a lot going on in the Kaz adoption world right now, and know that for those of you who are waiting, we are trying to follow your blogs as best as we can. We promise you that when we are home, we will be aggressively cheering you along just as you are supporting us now. We feel the love and prayers that are coming our way, and we are humbled and overwhelmingly appreciative. We know we are blessed, and we will be there for all of you when your call comes.
Miss you all!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Days 5 & 6 -- Moving Right Along!
We’re settling into the Groundhog Day routine that so many before us have referenced. With each new day, we can tweak a few things from the day prior, making each passing day that much better. We’re both creatures of habit, so it seems that our bodies and psyches are aligning well with the Kazakhstan adoption process.
Our Friday morning visit started with a traffic jam and we sat unmoving in traffic for 20 minutes (hence the next day’s tweak – leave 20 minutes earlier!). Our hotel is on one side of the Irtysh River, and the baby house is on the other, and the bridge between those two points is under construction. Traffic is crazy and unpredictable. As we walked down the hall towards ZM’s room, we heard loud crying. Sure enough, it was our little guy. There he sat at a tiny table in a tiny little chair, still as could be except for the chest heaving that accompanied loud sobs and crocodile tears. The caretaker said, “he is crying because you are late.” Uh-huh. I scooped him up and he stopped crying instantaneously. We bundled him up and took him outside, but he would not let us put him down. So, we carried him around for a little more than an hour. It just breaks our heart to think of him sitting at that little table crying.
When we arrived (early!) for our afternoon visit, ZM had just awoken from his nap and he was lounging in a play pen. He didn’t stand up right away or reach for us, and his caretaker told him to “get up, or mama and papa are going to choose a new child.” We laughed along (when in Rome...), but yikes almighty. We couldn’t get to him fast enough. We are practicing how to say, “No matter what, mama and papa are your mama and papa” in Russian.
On Saturday morning, our daily improvements included our Ipod and speakers, a calculator, and a cell phone. We took all of these things with us for both visits, and ZM jumped on the chance to interact with every item. He still loves to pull all of his books out of the book bag, and he loves his stacking cups (especially knocking over the big towers that we can build with the cups). I danced around the room with him a lot – today’s music choices were Daughtry and Dixie Chicks – and I can almost always get him to smile while we’re jumping around the room.
After showing him how to do it, he also loved opening and closing the cell phone (which of course doesn’t work in Kaz – have we mentioned our technology problems?! HA!) and pushing the buttons on the calculator. We have no idea if he’s ever even seen anyone on a telephone, so I kept play acting with him and answering the phone (“Da?” or “Hullo?”) every time he handed it to me. As we were about to leave our Saturday afternoon visit, he held the calculator up to his ear like a phone. No words yet, but he is such a good little imitator, so we know we’ll hear something soon enough. (And, he will then likely jabber and scream non-stop on the 38-hour journey home…)
Giggles are still few and far between – this is one serious little guy with a lot on his mind. We feel comfortable that he is attaching well and he loves to climb up onto us and stare at our faces – making good eye contact. With each day, he makes it deeper into the visit before his low moan/whine emerges from his tired little body – a behavior which is soothed almost always with tight hugs in Glenn’s arms.
I know that the adoptive parents who are reading along know this Kaz adoption process well, but I’ll outline it for friends and family who are less familiar. We will spend 15 days “bonding” – time that is documented by a book that we sign each day at the baby house, and a journal that includes photos from each daily visit. (Having a camera that can date stamp the photos is important). We never remember to take the daily photo until the end of our visit, by which time I am a sweaty mess, so our journal is going to be simply lovely. :-)
As the bonding period comes to a close -- May 5 is our last official day of bonding – a court date will be set for the adoption hearing. If precedent holds, that hearing will be roughly one week after we complete the bonding. We will of course keep visiting ZM while we await a court date. We’ll write more about the actual court process as it approaches.
Following a successful court hearing, there is a mandatory 15-day appeal period. During that time (or at any time leading up to this point, for that matter), a member of the birth family can appear to contest the adoption. It is rare that this happens. At the end of the 15-day appeal period, a series of paperwork trails begin, which include obtaining a new birth certificate (including new name), passport and Visa for the child. The process culminates with a few days’ stay in Almaty, where the US portions of paperwork are finalized.
If all goes smoothly between the court date and the final appointments in Almaty, approximately 30 days will pass between the court date and a date in which the new family can leave Kazakhstan. But, it doesn’t always go smoothly, as many of our readers can share! Paperwork snafus, holidays, transportation challenges, etc. all play into delays.
As such, many families choose to leave the country after the court date – yes, without their child – and return at the end of the paperwork chase to bring their child home.
If I were able to work successfully in Kaz – smooth Internet and phone connections required – there is no doubt that I would stay until we could carry ZM out of the baby house ourselves. It is spring time in Ust, there is “sprucing up” happening everywhere around us, and our child is a mere 15-minute drive away (give or take traffic snafus). We are happy here in our child’s birth place.
But, we must manage our emotions against stark reality (or, in Glenn’s words, “Baby needs shoes”). Glenn is already on unpaid leave, and my vacation will run out soon enough. While we both really love our jobs (and our FMLA unpaid job protection), neither of us has a paid leave adoption benefit. This is a soap box on which I’ve stood too many times to count – had I given birth to ZM, I’d be eligible for up to 16 weeks of fully paid disability leave. Our colleagues in Europe don’t discriminate between the two … US companies, for the most part, have yet to consider birth and adoption as one in the same. (Note to Kim and Chris: I told you I’d use my blog to complain about this at least one more time – HA!)
For now, we are simply pushing this part of the process from our minds, and we are focused on the daily tweaks that will make tomorrow even better than today.
As I type this, the sun is coming up in Ust, we just found out via our Blackberry (God bless our Blackberry) that the Bengals picked a linebacker in the draft (continuing the longstanding and reliable tradition of picking against what every draft expert suggests they should/could/will do – giving us a good laugh this morning), and we have a great morning visit planned with our son. Life is soooooooo good.
P.S. We promise to post a few pictures soon, of at least Ust and our surroundings. We're slowly building up our patience and tolerance for very sllllllloooooowwwwww downloads.
Our Friday morning visit started with a traffic jam and we sat unmoving in traffic for 20 minutes (hence the next day’s tweak – leave 20 minutes earlier!). Our hotel is on one side of the Irtysh River, and the baby house is on the other, and the bridge between those two points is under construction. Traffic is crazy and unpredictable. As we walked down the hall towards ZM’s room, we heard loud crying. Sure enough, it was our little guy. There he sat at a tiny table in a tiny little chair, still as could be except for the chest heaving that accompanied loud sobs and crocodile tears. The caretaker said, “he is crying because you are late.” Uh-huh. I scooped him up and he stopped crying instantaneously. We bundled him up and took him outside, but he would not let us put him down. So, we carried him around for a little more than an hour. It just breaks our heart to think of him sitting at that little table crying.
When we arrived (early!) for our afternoon visit, ZM had just awoken from his nap and he was lounging in a play pen. He didn’t stand up right away or reach for us, and his caretaker told him to “get up, or mama and papa are going to choose a new child.” We laughed along (when in Rome...), but yikes almighty. We couldn’t get to him fast enough. We are practicing how to say, “No matter what, mama and papa are your mama and papa” in Russian.
On Saturday morning, our daily improvements included our Ipod and speakers, a calculator, and a cell phone. We took all of these things with us for both visits, and ZM jumped on the chance to interact with every item. He still loves to pull all of his books out of the book bag, and he loves his stacking cups (especially knocking over the big towers that we can build with the cups). I danced around the room with him a lot – today’s music choices were Daughtry and Dixie Chicks – and I can almost always get him to smile while we’re jumping around the room.
After showing him how to do it, he also loved opening and closing the cell phone (which of course doesn’t work in Kaz – have we mentioned our technology problems?! HA!) and pushing the buttons on the calculator. We have no idea if he’s ever even seen anyone on a telephone, so I kept play acting with him and answering the phone (“Da?” or “Hullo?”) every time he handed it to me. As we were about to leave our Saturday afternoon visit, he held the calculator up to his ear like a phone. No words yet, but he is such a good little imitator, so we know we’ll hear something soon enough. (And, he will then likely jabber and scream non-stop on the 38-hour journey home…)
Giggles are still few and far between – this is one serious little guy with a lot on his mind. We feel comfortable that he is attaching well and he loves to climb up onto us and stare at our faces – making good eye contact. With each day, he makes it deeper into the visit before his low moan/whine emerges from his tired little body – a behavior which is soothed almost always with tight hugs in Glenn’s arms.
I know that the adoptive parents who are reading along know this Kaz adoption process well, but I’ll outline it for friends and family who are less familiar. We will spend 15 days “bonding” – time that is documented by a book that we sign each day at the baby house, and a journal that includes photos from each daily visit. (Having a camera that can date stamp the photos is important). We never remember to take the daily photo until the end of our visit, by which time I am a sweaty mess, so our journal is going to be simply lovely. :-)
As the bonding period comes to a close -- May 5 is our last official day of bonding – a court date will be set for the adoption hearing. If precedent holds, that hearing will be roughly one week after we complete the bonding. We will of course keep visiting ZM while we await a court date. We’ll write more about the actual court process as it approaches.
Following a successful court hearing, there is a mandatory 15-day appeal period. During that time (or at any time leading up to this point, for that matter), a member of the birth family can appear to contest the adoption. It is rare that this happens. At the end of the 15-day appeal period, a series of paperwork trails begin, which include obtaining a new birth certificate (including new name), passport and Visa for the child. The process culminates with a few days’ stay in Almaty, where the US portions of paperwork are finalized.
If all goes smoothly between the court date and the final appointments in Almaty, approximately 30 days will pass between the court date and a date in which the new family can leave Kazakhstan. But, it doesn’t always go smoothly, as many of our readers can share! Paperwork snafus, holidays, transportation challenges, etc. all play into delays.
As such, many families choose to leave the country after the court date – yes, without their child – and return at the end of the paperwork chase to bring their child home.
If I were able to work successfully in Kaz – smooth Internet and phone connections required – there is no doubt that I would stay until we could carry ZM out of the baby house ourselves. It is spring time in Ust, there is “sprucing up” happening everywhere around us, and our child is a mere 15-minute drive away (give or take traffic snafus). We are happy here in our child’s birth place.
But, we must manage our emotions against stark reality (or, in Glenn’s words, “Baby needs shoes”). Glenn is already on unpaid leave, and my vacation will run out soon enough. While we both really love our jobs (and our FMLA unpaid job protection), neither of us has a paid leave adoption benefit. This is a soap box on which I’ve stood too many times to count – had I given birth to ZM, I’d be eligible for up to 16 weeks of fully paid disability leave. Our colleagues in Europe don’t discriminate between the two … US companies, for the most part, have yet to consider birth and adoption as one in the same. (Note to Kim and Chris: I told you I’d use my blog to complain about this at least one more time – HA!)
For now, we are simply pushing this part of the process from our minds, and we are focused on the daily tweaks that will make tomorrow even better than today.
As I type this, the sun is coming up in Ust, we just found out via our Blackberry (God bless our Blackberry) that the Bengals picked a linebacker in the draft (continuing the longstanding and reliable tradition of picking against what every draft expert suggests they should/could/will do – giving us a good laugh this morning), and we have a great morning visit planned with our son. Life is soooooooo good.
P.S. We promise to post a few pictures soon, of at least Ust and our surroundings. We're slowly building up our patience and tolerance for very sllllllloooooowwwwww downloads.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Day 4 -- He knows us!
Our Day 4 morning visit started out with a child in our arms and no where to go. We have heard that there are three more couples who have arrived to the baby house (from another agency – and from around the world, not just the US), so we suspect it was a full house. We eventually ended up in the physical fitness room, which is where the little ones have their structured “gym” classes. It is a very large carpeted room, and it was great to have the run of it in the morning.
We have a translator with us for each visit, which is a “nice to have” (especially since we pay for it – ha!), but it is not really all that necessary for most visits. That said, we love our translator, and she is already part of our “family”. She graduated from Kazakhstan State University with an English degree, so she can teach English here in Kaz. For now, she chooses to work as an interpreter. Here is how we use her during our visits: “How do you say ball?” “How do you say duck?” “How do you say up and down?” “How do you say kick?” “How do you say foot?” It is of course a different story for parents who are adopting children who are already talking, as the translator can and does help with overall communication. We have yet to hear ZM utter anything resembling a word. It will come with time. I’m guessing it will be either “meow” or “woof woof”, as I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time uttering especially those words, and I can manage that on my own without our translator. :-)
Now that we are “veterans” of the process (yeah, right), when we arrive to the baby house we walk unescorted up three flights of stairs and directly into ZM’s room. That couple of seconds before we are noticed is really cool, as we get to catch a quick glimpse of what daily life is like for our little guy. I’m embarrassed to say that I can never quite pick ZM out of the crowd right away – and Glenn admitted as much to me as well! As soon as we walk in, we have 24 little sets of eyes pointed in our direction, and we quickly scan the crowd looking for him. Honestly, given that the kids are all dressed in pretty much the same t-shirts, and most have on little bonnets, they all sort of look alike! Today for our afternoon visit, ZM saw us before we saw him, and he came running across his little play area. The play area is roughly 20 feet by 20 feet and is bounded by two walls, and then two low built-into-the-floor shelving units that are about three feet high. The “entry” to the area is blocked by a play pen. ZM raced over to that entry spot, and as his caretaker was moving the playpen, he squeezed his little body through the opening and came running to me with his arms up. I melted into a pile of tears on the spot. Instantaneously, it also hit me how hard it is going to be to leave him “between trips.” But, I pushed that from my mind as we scooped him up and headed into our regular small visitation room, which is adjacent to his living quarters.
We brought a few toys with us from home (knowing that we could buy more toys here as needed), but we really loaded up and brought many books from home -- many that are gifts from friends and family – thank you! As we mentioned before, ZM loves to take each book out of the backpack one at a time, and then he sets each one aside until they are all out of the bag. Today, he just wanted to settle in on my lap with piles of books on either side of us, and he would just reach back and forth to get a new book every few minutes. He doesn’t quite understand the concept of “being read to”, so we just read to him whatever page he happens to have open. It makes for some very good stories to read the last page then the first page then a few pages in the middle, etc.
One of his caretakers came in, and through our translator, she asked me, “Are you a teacher?” She said she had never seen so many books! We know the caregivers don’t have a lot of time to read one-on-one with the children, but ZM definitely knows how to turn pages and he likes to point to items on each page, so we feel that he’s at least been exposed to books. We believe that he is receiving amazing care from these amazing women.
His caretaker also told us that ZM is the most serious little boy in his room, She feigned shock when our translator told her that we have had him in giggles a few times. Perhaps they have trained these caretakers to say things like that to purposely make us feel like miracle-working parents, but we’ll take it any way that is comes!
Our latest technology dilemma is camera-related. We brought with us our Canon Sure Shot, which also shoots decent quality video, and a video camera. During some vacation or business trip somewhere along the line, we left the camera charger somewhere. Not a super big deal, as I easily picked up a battery charger from Radio Shack, and that’s how we keep the camera battery charged. Well, we fried that battery charger the first time I plugged it into the converter here in Kaz. Guess what? In Ust, it’s not that easy to “walk into Radio Shack to buy a new battery charger.” In fact, it’s downright impossible – although the adventure in trying to find one was pretty amazing because we got to see several retail outlets that are clearly aimed at the small part of the population who are benefiting from the growing economy. Through our translator, we asked one of the employees at one of these stores, “What do people here do if they accidentally lose the charger that they received with their camera?” His response: “We order them a new one and it takes about a month to arrive.” Hmmmmmm, probably not the best option for us.
So, how do we solve this challenge? Borrow a camera from Suz and Matt, who of course had an extra! Could this couple be any more heroic for us?! We want to take hundreds (thousands?) of pictures while we are here, but it’s also a required part of the process to have dated photos that document each and every visit. While we could have used our video camera to take still shots, it’s a relief to be able to easily carry along a small camera for every baby house visit and stroll through Ust.
Speaking of converters – we brought along two Eurosurgers that we purchased from Magellans. They are both almost always in use, and we’re happy we brought two.
Oh, and to Susan and others, we will not be selected as the winners of the packing light challenge. I once asked Glenn, “Would you rather haul my heavy suitcases up potentially many flights of stairs and have me be happy with a lot of clothing choices, or do you want me to carry my own suitcases and pack minimal clothes that could ultimately make me grouchy?” How’s that for a leading, loaded question?! I’m not exactly sure what Glenn brought along, but I packed four pairs of jeans (and I wish I’d thrown in a pair of Capris), about 12-15 t-shirts and tops, 4 cardigan type sweaters, a couple of blazers, 6 pairs of shoes (yes, 6 – 4 of which are comfy but heels!), a dressy-pants outfit for the first day at the baby house (which I did not wear – I decided to go with jeans and a nice top and blazer after discussing with our coordinator, who is always in jeans), and a dress for court. And, I brought a lot of jewelry – not loads of diamonds or anything (especially since I don’t own any!), but fun necklaces and earrings. I love it when ZM reaches up and gingerly touches my necklaces – which I imagine will turn into ripping it from my neck eventually, but I’m okay with that. So, Susan, if you’re asking me, your cute tanks will work out just fine except for Day 1 and Court.
Okay, final thought for today -- several people have emailed me about the food, as the people who know us well know that we are not “foodies” and we were slightly anxious about what we would eat. I’ll blog about our restaurant adventures soon, but suffice to say, our anxieties were overstated and we are doing fine. That said, we’re also happy that we brought along a 40 oz. jar of Jif and a plethora of granola bars.
Thanks for following along!
We have a translator with us for each visit, which is a “nice to have” (especially since we pay for it – ha!), but it is not really all that necessary for most visits. That said, we love our translator, and she is already part of our “family”. She graduated from Kazakhstan State University with an English degree, so she can teach English here in Kaz. For now, she chooses to work as an interpreter. Here is how we use her during our visits: “How do you say ball?” “How do you say duck?” “How do you say up and down?” “How do you say kick?” “How do you say foot?” It is of course a different story for parents who are adopting children who are already talking, as the translator can and does help with overall communication. We have yet to hear ZM utter anything resembling a word. It will come with time. I’m guessing it will be either “meow” or “woof woof”, as I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time uttering especially those words, and I can manage that on my own without our translator. :-)
Now that we are “veterans” of the process (yeah, right), when we arrive to the baby house we walk unescorted up three flights of stairs and directly into ZM’s room. That couple of seconds before we are noticed is really cool, as we get to catch a quick glimpse of what daily life is like for our little guy. I’m embarrassed to say that I can never quite pick ZM out of the crowd right away – and Glenn admitted as much to me as well! As soon as we walk in, we have 24 little sets of eyes pointed in our direction, and we quickly scan the crowd looking for him. Honestly, given that the kids are all dressed in pretty much the same t-shirts, and most have on little bonnets, they all sort of look alike! Today for our afternoon visit, ZM saw us before we saw him, and he came running across his little play area. The play area is roughly 20 feet by 20 feet and is bounded by two walls, and then two low built-into-the-floor shelving units that are about three feet high. The “entry” to the area is blocked by a play pen. ZM raced over to that entry spot, and as his caretaker was moving the playpen, he squeezed his little body through the opening and came running to me with his arms up. I melted into a pile of tears on the spot. Instantaneously, it also hit me how hard it is going to be to leave him “between trips.” But, I pushed that from my mind as we scooped him up and headed into our regular small visitation room, which is adjacent to his living quarters.
We brought a few toys with us from home (knowing that we could buy more toys here as needed), but we really loaded up and brought many books from home -- many that are gifts from friends and family – thank you! As we mentioned before, ZM loves to take each book out of the backpack one at a time, and then he sets each one aside until they are all out of the bag. Today, he just wanted to settle in on my lap with piles of books on either side of us, and he would just reach back and forth to get a new book every few minutes. He doesn’t quite understand the concept of “being read to”, so we just read to him whatever page he happens to have open. It makes for some very good stories to read the last page then the first page then a few pages in the middle, etc.
One of his caretakers came in, and through our translator, she asked me, “Are you a teacher?” She said she had never seen so many books! We know the caregivers don’t have a lot of time to read one-on-one with the children, but ZM definitely knows how to turn pages and he likes to point to items on each page, so we feel that he’s at least been exposed to books. We believe that he is receiving amazing care from these amazing women.
His caretaker also told us that ZM is the most serious little boy in his room, She feigned shock when our translator told her that we have had him in giggles a few times. Perhaps they have trained these caretakers to say things like that to purposely make us feel like miracle-working parents, but we’ll take it any way that is comes!
Our latest technology dilemma is camera-related. We brought with us our Canon Sure Shot, which also shoots decent quality video, and a video camera. During some vacation or business trip somewhere along the line, we left the camera charger somewhere. Not a super big deal, as I easily picked up a battery charger from Radio Shack, and that’s how we keep the camera battery charged. Well, we fried that battery charger the first time I plugged it into the converter here in Kaz. Guess what? In Ust, it’s not that easy to “walk into Radio Shack to buy a new battery charger.” In fact, it’s downright impossible – although the adventure in trying to find one was pretty amazing because we got to see several retail outlets that are clearly aimed at the small part of the population who are benefiting from the growing economy. Through our translator, we asked one of the employees at one of these stores, “What do people here do if they accidentally lose the charger that they received with their camera?” His response: “We order them a new one and it takes about a month to arrive.” Hmmmmmm, probably not the best option for us.
So, how do we solve this challenge? Borrow a camera from Suz and Matt, who of course had an extra! Could this couple be any more heroic for us?! We want to take hundreds (thousands?) of pictures while we are here, but it’s also a required part of the process to have dated photos that document each and every visit. While we could have used our video camera to take still shots, it’s a relief to be able to easily carry along a small camera for every baby house visit and stroll through Ust.
Speaking of converters – we brought along two Eurosurgers that we purchased from Magellans. They are both almost always in use, and we’re happy we brought two.
Oh, and to Susan and others, we will not be selected as the winners of the packing light challenge. I once asked Glenn, “Would you rather haul my heavy suitcases up potentially many flights of stairs and have me be happy with a lot of clothing choices, or do you want me to carry my own suitcases and pack minimal clothes that could ultimately make me grouchy?” How’s that for a leading, loaded question?! I’m not exactly sure what Glenn brought along, but I packed four pairs of jeans (and I wish I’d thrown in a pair of Capris), about 12-15 t-shirts and tops, 4 cardigan type sweaters, a couple of blazers, 6 pairs of shoes (yes, 6 – 4 of which are comfy but heels!), a dressy-pants outfit for the first day at the baby house (which I did not wear – I decided to go with jeans and a nice top and blazer after discussing with our coordinator, who is always in jeans), and a dress for court. And, I brought a lot of jewelry – not loads of diamonds or anything (especially since I don’t own any!), but fun necklaces and earrings. I love it when ZM reaches up and gingerly touches my necklaces – which I imagine will turn into ripping it from my neck eventually, but I’m okay with that. So, Susan, if you’re asking me, your cute tanks will work out just fine except for Day 1 and Court.
Okay, final thought for today -- several people have emailed me about the food, as the people who know us well know that we are not “foodies” and we were slightly anxious about what we would eat. I’ll blog about our restaurant adventures soon, but suffice to say, our anxieties were overstated and we are doing fine. That said, we’re also happy that we brought along a 40 oz. jar of Jif and a plethora of granola bars.
Thanks for following along!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
We Are Better! (Day 2 & 3 - Long Post!)
We must begin with a huge thank you for your comments, thoughts, and prayers. We have Internet issues (more on that in a minute), but I can download and read your comments via my work-issued Blackberry. I spent the last 48 hours reading them and reading them and reading them. I'll never be able to thank you enough.
So, let's talk family!
With each day, we are settling in further. We are thrilled to announce that we signed our papers this morning officially selecting our son. As we believe his initials will be ZM ("M" is his given name), that’s how we’ll refer to him from this point forward until the big reveal.
The weather here is beautiful, if not HOT, so we had the opportunity to go outside on Tuesday morning. ZM is still so unsure of what is happening around him, and he just wanted to lay on the blanket we brought with us and wiggle and cry and whine. In some ways, it was like watching a 3-month old, and it was a little freaky.
While we thought we’d seen him take a step or two the moment we first met him (it all happened so fast when they brought him in and handed him to us that we weren’t quite sure!), we never saw anything resembling walking from that point forward. So, when we came back inside, we mentioned to the coordinator that we were a bit concerned. She snatched him out of my arms, took him into his group room, and said something briskly to his caretaker. Then, she stood ZM on his little legs, and they both leaned down and spoke firmly to him. We suspect it was something like, “these freaked out parents think we are misleading them when we say you can walk, so let’s prove them wrong and get your little buns moving.” Sure enough, he toddled across the room. It was funny, heartwarming – and humbling and embarrassing to be the freaked out parents.
From there, we were escorted to the baby house doctor’s office for our pre-arranged appointment. With the help of a translator, the doctor read through a large hand-written file. We had prepared a list of questions, using information provided by our IA doctor and supplemented by information we found within Suz’s links on her “second” blog. We imagine that the doctor has faced parents such as us with pretty much the same list of questions, so she provided us with answers to just about every question before we could even ask.
For those who have yet to travel, here is the type of information we received:
- Birth mother full name and date of birth
- Prior births for this birth mother
- Medical pathology of birth mother (illnesses)
- Location/region of birth
- Height, weight, APGAR score, head and chest circumference – all at birth
- List of medical tests and results from birth through present
- Ongoing height, weight, head and chest circumference – about every six months after birth.
- Multiple other “seen by this doctor and nothing was wrong” reports
We also received a wonderful gift – a picture of ZM when he was first brought to the baby house at 12 days old.
He’s been receiving great care and apparently he’s not missing many meals – I put a 12-month shirt on him and it was snug; an 18-month shirt was just about right. He weighs about 20 pounds.
After our doctor visit, we had lunch with Matt and Suzanne (just before they went to court – successful thereafter, YAHOO!), and Anne and her 6-year-old son. We then headed off to the market to buy Pampers, and rested a bit before our afternoon visit. If we bring diapers to the baby house, they will keep ZM in diapers. Otherwise, they have him use the potty. ZM was much happier on this Tuesday afternoon visit – we stayed inside and played, and he has discovered that it can be quite fun to take all of the books and toys out of our backpack, and then put all of the toys and books back into the bag – over and over again. He also warmed up completely to Glenn (sans Bengals hat). He loves to drop something (usually a book) while Glenn is holding him, and then Glenn holds him sort of upside down as he reaches for the item. We heard our first giggles during this afternoon visit, and we captured those amazing sounds on video.
Today is day 3, and ZM was whiny and clingy during both visits. While it is about 80 degrees outside, it feels like 100 degrees inside … especially when you are crawling around on your hands and knees pretending to be a koshka (kitty) or sabaka (doggie). At least I am getting some exercise while here! And, I’ll do just about anything to get a giggle out of our little guy. He's sweaty and tired, we're sweaty and tired, and we're all still trying to figure one another out.
I know, I know, I know that everyone says, “these kids just need love” – and I have read dozens of accounts of children who were practically motionless when they were first introduced to their parents, only to blossom with two or three hours of direct daily interaction. So, I felt totally prepared to expect as such. And, it was still scary and overwhelming and we could barely hold it together. Thank you again for the encouraging words!!!!
And, we think we are over that hump and now we are a set of parents that, too, can say, “these kids just need love.” Our little guy needs a lot of love, and we cannot wait to shower him as such for the rest of our lives.
Out and about in Ust, we are growing more comfortable each day. I haven’t had to use my extremely-limited Russian much (except to say “I don’t speak Russian” -- Edita, I am trying!), as when Matt is with us, he is the pro. Every shop keeper has a little calculator of some type onto which he/she will type in whatever it is that you owe. They will then hand you the calculator so you can see the total in the little display. Once you grow accustomed to the Tenge denominations, it’s relatively easy to shop, order, and pay for groceries, meals, etc. – especially if charades is your game. (I LOVE charades!)
We also made the decision to upgrade our hotel room, which has made a huge difference in our psyches. As if the experience wasn’t draining enough, we initially were in a teeny tiny room with two tiny twin beds and a bathroom that reminded me of the bathrooms on a house boat or cruise ship (the “economy deck”), but even smaller. The sink was about 6 inches in diameter, and every time I tried to lean over to splash water on my face or brush my teeth, I would poke one of my eyes out on the faucet handle. We kept trying to tell ourselves, “Don’t be spoiled. You can live here. So what if you keep tripping over the suitcases to get to your bed. A little hop, skip and a jump is good for the heart.” But, it wasn’t working.
We so appreciate that our agency was trying to save us money by putting us up in the least expensive room, but we are soooooo much happier now. And, in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that much more expensive. Ability to wash my face without putting my eye out: Priceless.
The lack of Internet access is driving me crazy (ugh, there I am sounding spoiled again!). We brought two Macbooks with us, and we have introduced a foreign species into this PC/Internet Explorer-oriented hotel. My fabulous IT colleagues back in Cincinnati are working like crazy trying to figure out how I can tap into the WiFi at the hotel. Not sure that will ever be able to happen. I can receive work emails on my Blackberry, and I will try to park myself in the hotel’s business center for at least an hour every day so I can stay further connected to friends and family. An hour of dial-up come and go Internet access doesn't buy alot of "connection time", but I really want to document our experiences, so I will try to be diligent from this point forward.
We miss everyone so much and we feel your love and your prayers. Keep ‘em coming!!!
So, let's talk family!
With each day, we are settling in further. We are thrilled to announce that we signed our papers this morning officially selecting our son. As we believe his initials will be ZM ("M" is his given name), that’s how we’ll refer to him from this point forward until the big reveal.
The weather here is beautiful, if not HOT, so we had the opportunity to go outside on Tuesday morning. ZM is still so unsure of what is happening around him, and he just wanted to lay on the blanket we brought with us and wiggle and cry and whine. In some ways, it was like watching a 3-month old, and it was a little freaky.
While we thought we’d seen him take a step or two the moment we first met him (it all happened so fast when they brought him in and handed him to us that we weren’t quite sure!), we never saw anything resembling walking from that point forward. So, when we came back inside, we mentioned to the coordinator that we were a bit concerned. She snatched him out of my arms, took him into his group room, and said something briskly to his caretaker. Then, she stood ZM on his little legs, and they both leaned down and spoke firmly to him. We suspect it was something like, “these freaked out parents think we are misleading them when we say you can walk, so let’s prove them wrong and get your little buns moving.” Sure enough, he toddled across the room. It was funny, heartwarming – and humbling and embarrassing to be the freaked out parents.
From there, we were escorted to the baby house doctor’s office for our pre-arranged appointment. With the help of a translator, the doctor read through a large hand-written file. We had prepared a list of questions, using information provided by our IA doctor and supplemented by information we found within Suz’s links on her “second” blog. We imagine that the doctor has faced parents such as us with pretty much the same list of questions, so she provided us with answers to just about every question before we could even ask.
For those who have yet to travel, here is the type of information we received:
- Birth mother full name and date of birth
- Prior births for this birth mother
- Medical pathology of birth mother (illnesses)
- Location/region of birth
- Height, weight, APGAR score, head and chest circumference – all at birth
- List of medical tests and results from birth through present
- Ongoing height, weight, head and chest circumference – about every six months after birth.
- Multiple other “seen by this doctor and nothing was wrong” reports
We also received a wonderful gift – a picture of ZM when he was first brought to the baby house at 12 days old.
He’s been receiving great care and apparently he’s not missing many meals – I put a 12-month shirt on him and it was snug; an 18-month shirt was just about right. He weighs about 20 pounds.
After our doctor visit, we had lunch with Matt and Suzanne (just before they went to court – successful thereafter, YAHOO!), and Anne and her 6-year-old son. We then headed off to the market to buy Pampers, and rested a bit before our afternoon visit. If we bring diapers to the baby house, they will keep ZM in diapers. Otherwise, they have him use the potty. ZM was much happier on this Tuesday afternoon visit – we stayed inside and played, and he has discovered that it can be quite fun to take all of the books and toys out of our backpack, and then put all of the toys and books back into the bag – over and over again. He also warmed up completely to Glenn (sans Bengals hat). He loves to drop something (usually a book) while Glenn is holding him, and then Glenn holds him sort of upside down as he reaches for the item. We heard our first giggles during this afternoon visit, and we captured those amazing sounds on video.
Today is day 3, and ZM was whiny and clingy during both visits. While it is about 80 degrees outside, it feels like 100 degrees inside … especially when you are crawling around on your hands and knees pretending to be a koshka (kitty) or sabaka (doggie). At least I am getting some exercise while here! And, I’ll do just about anything to get a giggle out of our little guy. He's sweaty and tired, we're sweaty and tired, and we're all still trying to figure one another out.
I know, I know, I know that everyone says, “these kids just need love” – and I have read dozens of accounts of children who were practically motionless when they were first introduced to their parents, only to blossom with two or three hours of direct daily interaction. So, I felt totally prepared to expect as such. And, it was still scary and overwhelming and we could barely hold it together. Thank you again for the encouraging words!!!!
And, we think we are over that hump and now we are a set of parents that, too, can say, “these kids just need love.” Our little guy needs a lot of love, and we cannot wait to shower him as such for the rest of our lives.
Out and about in Ust, we are growing more comfortable each day. I haven’t had to use my extremely-limited Russian much (except to say “I don’t speak Russian” -- Edita, I am trying!), as when Matt is with us, he is the pro. Every shop keeper has a little calculator of some type onto which he/she will type in whatever it is that you owe. They will then hand you the calculator so you can see the total in the little display. Once you grow accustomed to the Tenge denominations, it’s relatively easy to shop, order, and pay for groceries, meals, etc. – especially if charades is your game. (I LOVE charades!)
We also made the decision to upgrade our hotel room, which has made a huge difference in our psyches. As if the experience wasn’t draining enough, we initially were in a teeny tiny room with two tiny twin beds and a bathroom that reminded me of the bathrooms on a house boat or cruise ship (the “economy deck”), but even smaller. The sink was about 6 inches in diameter, and every time I tried to lean over to splash water on my face or brush my teeth, I would poke one of my eyes out on the faucet handle. We kept trying to tell ourselves, “Don’t be spoiled. You can live here. So what if you keep tripping over the suitcases to get to your bed. A little hop, skip and a jump is good for the heart.” But, it wasn’t working.
We so appreciate that our agency was trying to save us money by putting us up in the least expensive room, but we are soooooo much happier now. And, in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that much more expensive. Ability to wash my face without putting my eye out: Priceless.
The lack of Internet access is driving me crazy (ugh, there I am sounding spoiled again!). We brought two Macbooks with us, and we have introduced a foreign species into this PC/Internet Explorer-oriented hotel. My fabulous IT colleagues back in Cincinnati are working like crazy trying to figure out how I can tap into the WiFi at the hotel. Not sure that will ever be able to happen. I can receive work emails on my Blackberry, and I will try to park myself in the hotel’s business center for at least an hour every day so I can stay further connected to friends and family. An hour of dial-up come and go Internet access doesn't buy alot of "connection time", but I really want to document our experiences, so I will try to be diligent from this point forward.
We miss everyone so much and we feel your love and your prayers. Keep ‘em coming!!!
Monday, April 21, 2008
First Trip to Baby House
We’ll cut right to the chase. We think we’ve met our son. We had one visit with him this afternoon, and we will meet with the baby house doctor tomorrow to learn more about him. He is 16 months old, and he is adorable. He is very shy and reserved, and he is downright scared to death of Glenn (I think it’s the beard and the Cincinnati Bengals hat – I think the little guy is frightened that we might expect him, too, to become a Bengals fan.) I’m guessing that he is wearing 12-month sized clothing … he’s small for his age, but not tiny. He is toddling around a bit, although he primarily stood frozen in fear when I tried to encourage him to walk.
So many people write about “knowing their child the minute they laid eyes on him.” We aren’t those people. This entire experience is so surreal, and it still feels like one big process to us. Fly through last minute paperwork. Check. Obtain Visas. Check. Survive three flights to reach Almaty. Check. Successfully locate and board domestic flight to Ust. Check. Meet two children. Check. Pick one. Check. Start to bond. Check. We are so thankful that we took great classes at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital, where we were reminded that “some people hear angels singing, and others do not.” We’ve yet to hear angels singing, although we did a lot of praying when our car was pulled over by the police on the way to the baby house for our first official visit. This is not the “good sign” that we were seeking! We think it was for a traffic violation -- which is ironic since we’ve yet to be able to figure out if there are any traffic rules (even “drive on the correct side of the road” is interpreted loosely), so I’m not sure how you know if you’ve broken a traffic rule. But, since our driver doesn’t speak a lick of English, we still aren’t sure what exactly happened. All we know is that after waiting for 10 minutes while he sat in the police car, he made his way back to our car and we continued our trip. Always the adventure.
We will try to be honest with our thoughts. This child is absolutely adorable, and we know that with love he will come out of his shell, but we also suspect that we could love any child that was placed before us. To steal Suzanne’s observation (the plagiarizing of her work continues), it’s not about whether or not we can love this child, it’s about whether or not we can parent this child. And, we are figuring that out.
So, regarding our new best friends Suzanne and Matthew. Words can’t explain how grateful and blessed we are that they are here and that they are so generous with their time and support. (And, they are BUSY with their two kids!) We have a renewed understanding and an overwhelming respect for anyone who travels to a region alone. Karen & Pat, I am going to re-read every word of your blog with a new perspective. Solely because of Suz and Matt (and Amy’s great map), we are already starting to feel like we are getting the lay of the land. We can walk to most anything that we need, and we think we even found a good path on which to go running along the river. We are craving a routine during which our bodies know when to sleep and when to be awake, and we look forward to the day that our stomachs stop gurgling.
We will go to the baby house twice each day – we believe 10:00 – 11:30 each morning, and 4-5 each afternoon. We are permitted to go outside with the baby, so we hope to be able to do so for some great one-on-one time. We understand that three more families are arriving tomorrow, so we think it will feel pretty crowded in the visiting room.
There is so much more to say, but it’s late, and tomorrow is another day. We’re still trying to sort out the Internet, which is not as readily available as we had hoped it would be. 95% of what we know about this process we learned from blogs and Yahoo groups, and we feel very compelled to continue to share that knowledge forward.
Don’t forget to keep Matt and Suz in your thoughts and prayers as they head to court on Tuesday. We look forward to celebrating with them Tuesday night. BTW, we met their son today, so we can share as objective observers that he is the cutest two year old in Kaz.
So many people write about “knowing their child the minute they laid eyes on him.” We aren’t those people. This entire experience is so surreal, and it still feels like one big process to us. Fly through last minute paperwork. Check. Obtain Visas. Check. Survive three flights to reach Almaty. Check. Successfully locate and board domestic flight to Ust. Check. Meet two children. Check. Pick one. Check. Start to bond. Check. We are so thankful that we took great classes at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital, where we were reminded that “some people hear angels singing, and others do not.” We’ve yet to hear angels singing, although we did a lot of praying when our car was pulled over by the police on the way to the baby house for our first official visit. This is not the “good sign” that we were seeking! We think it was for a traffic violation -- which is ironic since we’ve yet to be able to figure out if there are any traffic rules (even “drive on the correct side of the road” is interpreted loosely), so I’m not sure how you know if you’ve broken a traffic rule. But, since our driver doesn’t speak a lick of English, we still aren’t sure what exactly happened. All we know is that after waiting for 10 minutes while he sat in the police car, he made his way back to our car and we continued our trip. Always the adventure.
We will try to be honest with our thoughts. This child is absolutely adorable, and we know that with love he will come out of his shell, but we also suspect that we could love any child that was placed before us. To steal Suzanne’s observation (the plagiarizing of her work continues), it’s not about whether or not we can love this child, it’s about whether or not we can parent this child. And, we are figuring that out.
So, regarding our new best friends Suzanne and Matthew. Words can’t explain how grateful and blessed we are that they are here and that they are so generous with their time and support. (And, they are BUSY with their two kids!) We have a renewed understanding and an overwhelming respect for anyone who travels to a region alone. Karen & Pat, I am going to re-read every word of your blog with a new perspective. Solely because of Suz and Matt (and Amy’s great map), we are already starting to feel like we are getting the lay of the land. We can walk to most anything that we need, and we think we even found a good path on which to go running along the river. We are craving a routine during which our bodies know when to sleep and when to be awake, and we look forward to the day that our stomachs stop gurgling.
We will go to the baby house twice each day – we believe 10:00 – 11:30 each morning, and 4-5 each afternoon. We are permitted to go outside with the baby, so we hope to be able to do so for some great one-on-one time. We understand that three more families are arriving tomorrow, so we think it will feel pretty crowded in the visiting room.
There is so much more to say, but it’s late, and tomorrow is another day. We’re still trying to sort out the Internet, which is not as readily available as we had hoped it would be. 95% of what we know about this process we learned from blogs and Yahoo groups, and we feel very compelled to continue to share that knowledge forward.
Don’t forget to keep Matt and Suz in your thoughts and prayers as they head to court on Tuesday. We look forward to celebrating with them Tuesday night. BTW, we met their son today, so we can share as objective observers that he is the cutest two year old in Kaz.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
We're in Amsterdam!
What a great story this would make for our child: We were up all night Thursday packing and excitedly discussing our journey to meet you. Then, we felt the earth move – literally – when an earthquake centered 200 miles away shook our souls. Except, here is the real story. After a relatively stress free evening Thursday night, we went to bed a bit after midnight, and slept right through the earthquake. The first we heard of it was when we turned on the morning news at 7. So much for a great story.
While the packing was time consuming, it wasn’t horrific. I believe there are two key factors that contributed to the relative calm (one factor that is within your control and one that isn’t): Spring clothes and massive master list(s).
Spring clothes: I am certain that packing layering t-shirts and cotton sweaters is a heckuva lot less stressful than boots, bulky sweaters, long underwear, and mittens. It’s actually amazing how much of the former will fit into a suitcase. Between us, we have three checked bags, one of which is primarily toys, food, “home goods” (e.g. a long phone cord) and general baby stuff. None of our bags is over 50 pounds
Lists(s): I started a packing list and a “to do” list six months ago. I simply plagiarized the lists I found in cyberspace, and added to those two lists over the last several months. (At some point, I will post ours). As dumb luck would have it, I kicked into overdrive about 6 weeks ago and accomplished some key items: I ensured we had all of our gifts, I downloaded bunches of docs about development stages, play games, and medical jargon (using primarily Suzanne’s links and blog– what I like to refer to as the mothership), and I spent one long Saturday afternoon roaming every aisle of a super WalMart -- Not necessarily PC, I know, but I could accomplish so much under one roof. I would venture to guess that it took me about 10 hours to complete those three “tasks”, and I was able to do so in a leisurely fashion.
Looking back over the last 12 days, we didn’t have ONE spare hour, let alone ten. The morale of the story: if you haven’t yet traveled, believe what you’ve heard others say. It’s never too early to start planning and shopping and staging your packing area. I’m sure we could have said to our agency, “we simply can’t be ready in 12 days.” It was a joy to be able to say, “We are ready.” So, enough about me. ☺
A few other shout-outs: Kathleen was amazing as she transported us to the airport. I’ve been driving to that airport at least twice a month for the last several years, and I’ve never seen traffic like that (due to a complete shut-down of I-71 because of a multiple-car accident). She displayed just the right mix of illegal traffic moves and patience as we worked our way through multiple detours. (If you are reading this in Cincinnati, and you were cut off by a white Rav-4 sometime between 4:30 and 5:45 on Friday evening, our apologies). So much for getting to the airport 2 hours early! It turns out that you can indeed check in for a flight from Cincinnati to Almaty with less than an hour to spare and make it to the gate with a few seconds to breathe. It remains to be seen if our luggage can also bear the challenge of that same tight time line.
I definitely owe a shout-out to the bank despite a tiny notary glitch a few days ago. I’ve read so many accounts of banks that have not cooperated with either the bank letter or “new’ money. Our Fifth Third branch colleagues at our neighborhood Kroger were rock stars on both accounts.
My co-workers. Our employers received 9 business days’ notice that we were leaving for weeks (how many weeks remains to be seen). Everyone at my company kicked into overdrive to help me. We even snuck in a couple of celebratory send-offs. I love my job, and I have the best colleagues around the world.
We’ve finished two flights, with two to go. We are in the KLM Lounge in Amsterdam. I managed to get a lot of sleep on the overnight flight from Minneapolis, but we can’t say the same for Glenn. Coach airline seats are not made for 6’ 2” guys. He’s lounging on a bench now. Once we arrive in Almaty, we have a six-hour layover before heading to the region. We are able to get a hotel room for that layover if we’d like … we are going to wait and decide if we feel we need it.
I miss our pets already. What can I say? I'm a wimp.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Hello Paperwork, Good-Bye Cincinnati
Our Visas arrived just as scheduled. Somehow, I was expecting more than a giant sticker inside of our passports. That said, YAHOO, we have them.
Oh, the trials and tribulations of the final paperwork. We had the schedule down like clockwork ... I would go to the Hamilton County Courthouse at 8 AM, get the new notarized medicals and extra passport copies county certified, drive that back home (just 10 minutes one way), and then Glenn would be on his way.
Last night, we had the final paperwork notarized at our bank -- a bank that is blocks from our house and squarely in the middle of Hamilton County. Well, I got to the Clerk of Courts this morning, and it turns out the bank notary was commissioned in another county! Now, admittedly, this is on me, as I didn't think to verify that her commission was issued in the county in which we were all standing. The people at the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts could not have been nicer -- they felt my pain (and likely noticed the blood drain from my face), and they quickly gave me the court house address for the neighboring county. Off I went, high-tailing it to downtown Batavia, Ohio, to get additional county certifications. I then drove north, and met Glenn north of the beltway so that he was at least on his way. He got on the road at about 10:15 AM, and he managed to make it to Canton (240 miles) in 3.5 hours. (Thank you, Highway Patrol Gods, for cutting us a break today). I had called ahead, and he said the ladies in Stark County were waiting on him. Minutes later, he was back in the car, and he made it to Columbus around 4 (they apostille docs until 4:30). He was then back in the car around 4:30, and home by 6:30. Needless to say, as I type this, he is resting comfortably. :-)
Thursday night: focus on packing.
Thanks for all of the cheering and support. We can hear you!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
I love my husband
Good news: The FedEx tracking site says that our Visas are on their way back to us. Looks like they will be in our hands on Wednesday.
Bad news: No home study agency letter. I phoned the Stark County Court House, and they were about to put the letter into "regular" mail to us. It's the classic "he said she said" -- the home study agency says that "the clerk of courts has had it since Monday and should have sent it to you for arrival today", and the Clerk of Courts says, "it just arrived today." I said, "hold it at the court house."
This is where my husband comes in. Glenn is going to drive on Wednesday from Cincinnati to Canton (roughly 3.5 hours) to pick up the letter, and then swing through Columbus on the way back home to have all of the remaining docs apostilled.
It's hard for even me to believe, but by the end of the day Wednesday, we may actually have all of the paperwork we need in order to travel by Friday.
Now, it's time to start actually putting things into suitcases. And, likely, taking things back out of those said suitcases as I fear we may be slightly overzealous with our accoutrements. It may be nothing more than wishful thinking that one can take two seasons worth of clothes AND a case of granola bars. We'll let you know what we discover to be reality.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Weather, Packing, and Lists
As it turns out, I guess it isn't quite Spring yet in Ust-Kamenogorsk. We thought we were in the clear, and we are thrilled to think of traveling without boots and heavy coats. But, then I checked the most recent weather forecast, and what greeted me was a picture of a cloud with snow flakes. Yikes. We've had a brief visit again from Winter in Cincinnati, but I just sucked it up and kept wearing my spring coat any way. But ... snow?! We will likely miss this particular cold front, but how confident can we be that it will be Spring from that point forward? I'm going to obsessively check the weather (and reports from Matt and Suz) between now and Friday, but as of this point, I think it will be "Spring coat" plus "gloves and scarf" and "lots of layering clothes." Boots are out regardless. I am sooooo done with winter.
It is looking highly likely that the Visas will arrive, but until they are in our hands, we can't be sure. Supposedly they will be shipped from DC on Tuesday, and since we provided a paid, self-addressed FedEx envelope, we should be able to track the return shipment. We still don't know where we are staying, or whether or not we are flying to the region the same day we arrive into Almaty, or perhaps the next day. Given that I'm a planner by nature, not having details such as these a mere four days before leaving the country has me WAY outside of my comfort zone. I think this must be all part of the secret master plan intended to prepare PAPs for the fact that they are about to enter opposite world which will continue right into parenthood.
We have one added piece of anxiety-inducing stress, and that is that our home study agency license will expire while we are in Kaz. Of course, the Ohio licensing agency is not interested in issuing the renewed license until the last minute. So, we are awaiting a letter that says that the license "will be renewed." How is it that we had to submit dozens of extraodinarily detailed and official documents, notarized and apostilled and analyzed for every smudge, blue ink, or crooked photocopy, only to get to this point and a "letter" that says "something will happen" is good enough? Yet another mystery built into that master plan to ensure we are better prepared for all that is to come.
Supposedly, the letter will come notarized and already county certified (the extra step required in Ohio if the notary is not an attorney). That document, along with new medicals, new doctor licenses, and a few extra passport copies, still all have to be apostilled. Glenn plans to drive to Columbus on Wednesday to complete that task, provided we have the home study letter by then. If not, then there is always Thursday. Or Friday.
Tonight’s tasks: Figure out how to download DVDs to our ITunes so that we don’t have to carry a bunch of DVDs with us (thank you, Lani and Joe, for loaning us dozens!!!), and prepare fact sheets for neighbors and house sitters. And, GET SOME SLEEP. Easier said than done.
Thanks for following along.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
We finallly blog....
We are adopting from Kazakhstan. Somehow, I have a feeling my first blog words should be more exciting than those (e.g. "Four score....), but the pressure is on, so short and to the point will have to do.
After blog stalking for months, we have finally joined the fray. We said all along, "we will blog when we receive our region assignment." We figured that was a safe bet, given that we expected to travel about six to eight weeks thereafter. We pictured ourselves shopping, preparing for travel, and leisurely blogging during those blessed weeks. Then, WHAM. We got our region assignment and travel dates on the same day, the LOIs came four days after that, and we are now staring down the potential to travel this Friday, April 18. We know how fortunate we are. We know others have been waiting longer. We don't know what to say to those people, other than "hang in there" and "your time is coming." Ick, even as I type that, it sounds so trite. So, we'll just stick with, "we know how fortunate we are, and we are humbled by our good fortune", and we'll leave it at that.
Thanks to SOOOO many wonderul bloggers before me, we have been making lists and checking them twice for some time. I heeded much of that advance-planning advice and I have been shopping little by little for the last few months. I am not sure if it was so much about "advance planning" as it was "I need to feel like we are making SOME progress while we wait."
Alas, we still have what seems like a gazillion things to do (and thank goodness I can now check off "create a blog"!!!). And that's just the personal stuff. We thought we would be working for another 6-8 weeks, so imagine our co-workers' and our boss' surprise when we said, "ummm, it's 9 days, not 9 weeks." It's scramble, scramble, scramble, but it will be sooooooo worth it (and likely forgotten) in the end.
I sent off for our Visas this morning. The applications will arrive at the courier's office first thing Monday (isn't FedEx amazing?!), and hopefully she will hand carry the apps into the Embassy sometime Monday morning. We are planning as if we are leaving on Friday, but we know we aren't going anywhere unless those Visas turn around in four days. We won't fret either way (although I cringe slightly to think about every last seat being taken on every flight out. Middle seats, here we come).
We believe we'll be flying from Cinci to Minneapolis, then on to Amsterdam on an overnight flight. We'll hang out in Amsterdam for a few hours, and from there we head to Almaty. We still don't know if we will go that same day (it will be Sunday by then) to Ust-Kamenogorsk, or if we will stay one night in Almaty and fly to the region the next day. I suppose these are the types of things one finds out at some point in the week before travel?!
Time to go after the next item on our list -- taxes! Oh lucky me.
It's going to be a fun week!
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