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!