Days 17, 18 and 19 -- Club BH is not the same

It’s pretty easy to summarize Day 17 (Wednesday) from my perspective: “The ceiling of the hotel room is white.” I started feeling crappy on Tuesday night, and had a rough night of flu-like symptoms (sore throat, cough, etc.). I immediately flashed back to Jenny’s blog – Roxana’s mom – and recall reading about how the baby house ushered her into a separate "treatment room" when she showed up with the sniffles, and I decided I didn’t want to have THAT as a journal entry. I also did not want to bring more germs into the baby house. So, I stayed in bed all day on Wednesday, and self-medicated myself with an array of over-the-counter meds and antibiotics that we brought from home. Glenn, of course, carried on with visits, and had some great one-on-one time with ZM in my absence. As much I had hoped that ZM would be watching the door throughout the entire visit, wondering when his Mama would walk in, alas, it sounds as if they got along just fine without me!

I really felt better on Thursday, so we headed over for our morning visit. Within minutes, we could tell that our play room mate, ZM’s buddy, was not feeling well at all. Between the two families, we didn’t have a translator between us, but we could tell the caretakers were worried that he had an ear infection. Within about 10 minutes of being there, the doctors arrived, took his temperature, and soon thereafter, he was whisked off to the hospital. We know that they take extra precautions with these children, and if they are required to be on antibiotics, they often check them into the hospital. He was alert as Tina carried him out of the baby house, and we are praying for his quick recovery.

Of course, our morning and afternoon visits in Club BH – as we’ve coined our play room, which is always jamming with IPod Tunes -- were not the same, worrying about our little play mate. We arrived a bit early for our afternoon visit, and the caretakers now really seem to welcome my help as the kids are served their snacks. ZM still needs extra help, so I sat down between him and Anne’s little Timmy, and I played caretaker to the four little guys at my table. (I have to think massive happy thoughts to counteract the gag reflex that kicks in as I’m helping these little guys drink their kefir – what the heck is that stuff, really?!?!) I snuck in A LOT of extra hugs for Timmy, and we hope that his paperwork is well on its way and that he will be off to his new life in LA before long. Anne, I know you're reading this, and we promise you Timmy knows he'll be "home" soon with Brady and you!

We spent the afternoon outside – a gorgeous day in Ust – and we played with stones, bugs, and leaves. I rubbed a soft leaf across ZM’s cheeks, and then he took it from my hand and did the same to my cheeks. He is just too dang cute, and he loves to imitate us.

Thursday evening, we had dinner with Cyrstal at Pizza Blues. It is another holiday in Ust on Friday (I am SOOOOOO sorry, waiting families!), so Thursday evening was super busy as people were starting their long weekend. The line was long to order, and our regular order person just didn’t have the patience for us that she typically does … I’m still not quite sure what I ended up ordering for Glenn, but it looked like a pork chop covered in mayonnaise when it arrived. We split my chicken shaslik, bid farewell to Cyrstal who had laundry to do, and we walked into the town center to meet three sets of adoptive parents for drinks. These friends (S. Africa, Ireland, LA) are all staying in apartments around town, so while we do not see them at The Shiny River, we always make a point of tracking one another down at the baby house for friendship and support. Tina and her friend Kristen, our Club BH mates, were there, so we were so happy to get an update on ZM’s little buddy. He is responding well to the antibiotics, and Tina is hoping to be able to get into the hospital to see him Friday or Saturday.

Interestingly, when we all arrived into Kaz (we arrived one day before these three two-somes), at least one person within each duo was seriously considering staying through the entire time. Now, only Tina and her friend Kristen are staying, and the rest of us are leaving soon after our court dates. It’s really hard to describe how we came to these decisions … it is such a personal decision. To waiting families, I would say, "don't be surprised if you come with one plan, and you decide upon a new plan while you are here." The beauty of it is that you will find support no matter what you decide to do. There is some chance that we will all come back into the country at about the same time to pick up our children. And we look forward to a reunion of sorts if we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity.

When we arrived at the baby house on Friday, the caretakers told us that ZM was feeling a bit under the weather, and that he might want to sleep during our visit. Wow. They actually endorsed him sleeping with us! They encouraged us to take him outside, and we thought he would fall asleep in the stroller. Instead, he was really fussy, so I held him and he fell sound asleep. I plopped myself onto a bench, leaned against a pole, and sat for an hour with a sleeping baby in my lap.

We were primarily in the shade, with just the right amount of sunshine and breeze hitting our faces. Glenn and I talked about how beautiful this country already is, and how beautiful it will grow to be as the Kaz citizens take up even deeper interest in the environment and their surroundings. The baby house is adjacent to several high-rise apartment buildings and a school, all inter-connected by paved walking paths. Because it is a holiday, all around us there were families out for walks, children playing basketball and soccer, and a general feeling of happiness that accompanies what looks to be – finally – the end to a long winter. In the distance, we could see the mountains, which are now green with Spring color. Despite the fact that our little guy wasn’t feeling his best, it was truly an incredible hour, sitting as a family, enjoying a much slower pace than we’ve experienced in years.

We woke our little guy and headed him in for lunch, and then we were whisked off to Air Astana to purchase our in-country tickets from Ust to Almaty. We will leave Ust on Tuesday, after visiting ZM in the morning. It will be incredibly difficult, but we know that Club BH will go on without us, and Tina will keep us posted on ZM’s (and his buddy's) activities.

We then met with our Coordinator, and she reviewed (and edited) our speech. As Karen P. indicated in one of the comments on this blog, in her region (Uralsk), they were unable to write out their speech, and they had to “memorize it” so to speak and hope to remember to hit all key points. And, only her husband, Bob, was asked to speak. Not so in Ust – we are able to write out our speech and read it from our document in court, stopping every few sentences for the translator to deliver the message in Russian. And, we have to each speak for about the same amount of time. We haven’t yet figured out who will talk when, but we will have that sorted out (and rehearsed!) before Monday morning.

We had a great afternoon visit, and ZM was either feeling better or was pepped up on some strong medicine. The hour flew by, which was good, because we had an important mission ahead of us – one that involved heading over to the apartment to give Matt and Suz some respite care! :-)

After a quick stop at the hotel to gather up Crystal, we all hiked on over to the apartment. As Matt and Suz are sharing on their blog, going from short daily visits at two orphanages with a full-time translator to a small apartment with two kids full-time who only speak Russian and no translator help is …. well, at times, it’s been difficult. We were thrilled to play and play and play with the kids for a few hours, giving Matt and Suz time to have dinner together, do some laundry, and just take a few deep breaths. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to send some love out to them via their blog (and keep them in your thoughts if you are not regular blog readers). BTW, there are certain things that need no translation – balloons, tag, whoopee cushions, upside down tosses, Cheerios, and hide and seek. Their children are simply amazing (as are their parents), and we love them already. If nothing else, we hope that we wore the kids out so that everyone gets a good night’s sleep tonight.

On the way home (well after dark – we are getting VERY brave), we stopped on the foot bridge, looked skyward, and caught the end of the Victory Day fireworks show across town. Again, we marvel – we are standing on a foot bridge at 10 PM, over the Irtysh River, in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan (our son’s birthplace), under a moonlit sky, watching an amazing fireworks show. Are you kidding me??? Somebody pinch me.