Our Baby is Growing!

Ava is growing! She looks so healthy and happy these days. We are settling into a routine and enjoying our time together as a family! Ava had been sleeping great but then decided that she wanted to wake up about 6X or more a night and be rocked back to sleep every time (by mommy). Also, she had decided she didn't want 2 naps a day, or any naps some days. I was getting very tired but she is doing better (mostly) now! Also, it took 3 weeks but she likes her bath now! We had to very slowly get her used to the water, now she really likes it and reaches out when she sees water running.

Ava is doing new things every day and she said her first words!! They were "Dada" and "Ava"! She has also said, "duck" and "Bye". It's kind of funny her first word was her own name...but I guess she hears it enough! She is trying to say other things too...it's very cute! Here are some more pictures!

Ava's first haircut!

Here's what she thought! Of course her bangs are crooked because she was squirming!

Mommy's helper :)

Reading with Grandma

Playing with her bib & Spencer.

Bath time in the ducky tub!!

With her cousin Ben.

New Pictures

The sweetest face in the world.
Playing Guitar with Daddy!
She loves her playpen! Mommy does too!!
Making Music!

All Dressed Up

Ava dressed up for her first meeting.

She slept through most of the meeting and then woke up and started charming everyone with smiles. She seemed a little overwhelmed with all the attention before we left but she did really well.

More than one baby in the house...

Spencer found Ava's pacifier and was running around with it in his mouth! He thinks he's still the baby.

Visit with Great Grandma

Visit with Great Grandma, Grandma and Auntie (and cousin who is not yet born).

Visit with friends. Ava really didn't want to be held by anyone but me or Jason as you can see. She is very shy and thankfully very attached to us already!

Life With Ava

We are adjusting to life with Ava very well. It feels like we have been together so long...so much longer than a week! We can't imagine life without her! She is such a blessing from Jehovah!

First taste of applesauce.

She pulls herself up on EVERYTHING! We have to watch her every second!

Her new hat. Can she get any cuter?!

Her new walker ($5.00 on craigslist!)

She was so tired after a long day (Dr. visit and blood test) that she fell asleep eating her dinner.

Home at last

We finally made it. It was a very long trip, but Ava did great. We fed her a bottle for takeoffs and landings, and her ears didn't seem to be an issue. She got a little fussy from Amsterdam to Boston, but she really did great. Amsterdam was wonderful too. They have baby rooms with cribs & dim lighting, so we spent our layover there, and Ava was able to crawl and play which I know she enjoyed. Here's a picture from the crib there:
Royal KLM and Northwest were fantastic. We had bassinet seats for both, and the flight attendants were great. We have a "First Flight" certificate from Northwest, and little airplane wings, and they even gave us a bottle of champagne! They really made our flights easier. We had a 2 hour delay in Boston, but that actually went ok (outside of the grouchiest TSA employees on earth). We were on the smallest plane I've ever been on - 1 seat on each side, no luggage overhead etc, but the pilot was very nice to us through the delay. Checkpoints in our airports were simple, but I think we have Ava's beautiful face to thank for that. The scanners weren't much of a problem as Ava carried no contraband:
My family met us in the airport, even with the delay (thank you!!) and Ava was a little overwhelmed. All the faces were looking at her and smiling and she just stared at them, like she wasn't sure quite what to do. The car seat was not her favorite, but she fell asleep just before we got home. She went to her crib and slept for about 4 hours:
All three of us are very tired, but we're doing ok and Ava seems to be adjusting well. Being home as a family is just incredible. The feeling kind of hit both of us late last night as we did some needed unpacking before going to bed. After all the time, paperwork, travel and frustration; we have our daughter, and it is better than we could have imagined.

Coming Home

We are coming home tomorrow! We leave for the airport at 5:30am and will be home Sun. night. I'm sure we won't be posting for at least a few days after we return home.

Right now we are very tired. Jason still doesn't feel good and Ava has had an upset stomach too. Ava does not want to be put down at all when she doesn't feel good so I am very tired! She still gives us lots of smiles, squeals and noises though!

Here's a cute picture from today:

Another day in our adventure

Our second night was a little bit more eventful. Ava woke up around 1 AM, and we gave her a bottle according to the schedule that she was on at the orphanage. Unfortunately, she didn’t want to go back to sleep once it was done. Instead, she wanted to play! Needless to say, we didn’t. It took about an hour to get her back to sleep. After that, she slept pretty good until about 6 AM, but Amber & I didn’t. Ava is showing us more and more of her personality too. Her cold has her a little grumpy at times, but she’ll go straight from crying over having her nose wiped to giggling and rolling her tongue in the same breath. She doesn’t seem to cry unless she’s really upset. Her appetite isn’t what we hoped either, but we think it’s probably just the cold.

We were able to take a little tour in Almaty today as well. We’ve discovered that while Ava doesn’t like being put in her snowsuit, she is tranquilized by it once it’s on. She got lots of smiles from people on the street today too. We went up into the mountains, which are quite beautiful and remind me of the Rockies, the way they start from nowhere and go straight up. There was an ice skating rink where speed skaters were practicing too. The 2008 Asian Olympics will be in Almaty, so that’s my guess as to the training. We went to the Park of the 28 Heroes, which had some massive statues of the aforementioned 28 heroes (stopped a tank on their own), and other war heroes from various battles. Statues are everywhere in Kazakhstan! We visited a 100 year old church and did some shopping as well. But in a city this size (1.75 million people), I’m sure there was a lot we didn’t see.

I wanted to add a little bit more about the Embassy. It was actually a very simple process. We filled out one more form once we got there, handed it in, paid for Ava’s visa, and then waited to be called. Once we were called, we talked to Jeff, and it took less than 10 minutes. He told us our paperwork looked good and was very friendly. He then handed us one packet that has all of the Kazakh documents relating to her adoption in Russian and English. Included in this are her medical history, original birth certificate, new birth certificate, adoption papers, and even the hand written letter written by her birth mother relinquishing her. It was odd looking at that form in particular. He also gave us a sealed packet to give to customs in the US when we first land at our port of entry. I think the only question we got was ‘how are you doing?’! Lola told us that though it’s easy for us, they are very picky about the paperwork that is supplied to them, so I guess the pre-work is very involved for our coordinators over here. Of course, there’s still more paperwork when we get home, but the fact that we can get home with our baby is fantastic.

Second Day Together!

This is from yesterday...we didn't get around to posting it last night.

Everything is going great! We were a little worried about what and how much to feed her, are we doing something wrong, etc. but we are so happy to be with her now and are treasuring all the little moments with her. We feel like we know her better now (and she’s more comfortable with us) after a day and a half then all three weeks we were here before. Ava has really taken to us. I don’t know if it’s that she remembers us or she is enjoying all the love and attention. She has also become very attached to me and wants me to hold her a lot. If Jason has her she looks for me. She is so good natured. She was all smiles yesterday! She laughed and played and took a nap for us. We are trying to follow her eating/napping schedule as best we can. We also have a wall in the apartment that is all mirrors and there are mirrors in the bedroom (it’s a real “love shack” in here). You can slide one of the mirrors over to reveal the doorway to the bedroom. Ava loves the mirror, she looks at herself and laughs, squeals and moves her arms and toys in front of the mirror and just stares at the movement. She is fascinated by it! It really keeps her occupied!
There is no crib or playpen in the apartment so we were unsure as to where to put her last night. We decided it would be best to have her sleep in between us with the end of the bed blocked off and a blanket on the floor in case she did make it off the end of the bed. We also put her in her sleep sack so she was less likely to move around (although we found out later she can move and crawl in that fine). At about 9:00pm she fell asleep (in mommy’s arms) and then we all went to bed. She slept well and only woke up two times (one time I think she was just scared and then when it was bottle time) and fell back asleep quickly. She then slept until 6:00am. I thought she did pretty well considering. For her naps we fold a blanket on the floor in the living room and put her on that with a blanket or sheet on top of her. She loves the pacifier and I think it calms her. They give the babies pacifiers at the baby house so if you are adopting you may want to bring some for when you pick up your baby. We do feel stuck in the apartment because we want to make everything as calm as possible for Ava. But it’s not too bad. We’re still getting over jet lag also and Jason is still very tired…which means I get to hold Ava more! We tried giving her a bath last night in the sink, we had toys for her and the camera ready to take some cute pictures…it lasted about 2 minutes. After the initial curiosity she cried and cried until I quickly removed her. Jason bundled her up in a towel and she calmed right down. We felt bad though! Today we went to the Embassy. They gave us Ava’s passport and visa and they told us she will be an American Citizen when we touch down in Boston! We had Ava bundled up in her snowsuit and Jason was carrying her in the baby carrier. It was the cutest sight! We then went to the mall and ate in the food court. They had pizza, Baskin Robins and a Dunkin Donuts. They also had an ice skating rink in the middle of the mall. Ava has learned some new things like kneeling, sucking her thumb and waving. She is also much happier and smiley than she ever was at the baby house. She is really the sweetest baby and we are so in love!!


Julia and Oliver’s parents picked them up as well. Julia has gained 2 pounds! She’s so cute and pudgy! Ava and Oliver look about the same to me. Oliver is still stealing Ava’s toys and is as cute as ever. Ava is the same size as when we left. We will fatten her up though!

Reunited

We have our Ava again, and it is wonderful. We got to Almaty at around 4:20 AM (flight from Frankfurt was delayed 4 hours), met Lola, got to our apartment around 5:30 AM, showered, and then tried to rest a bit. At about 8:20, we met the car downstairs, and sitting in the back seat was our Ava nicely bundled in her snowsuit. Amber quickly grabbed her, and it was just a wonderful moment that we’ve waited so long for. We gave her hugs and kisses and she was all smiles. It did seem like she remembered us – almost that she was surprised to see us!

We then went to the doctor’s office. They took her weight and height, a blood test for HIV, and then a general exam. The only problem is that she has a little head cold right now, so we’re going to try to help her feel as good as we can before the flight home. The pediatrician who brought her down on the train said she was perfect the whole way, staying quiet and very content for the 10 hour train ride. Hopefully she likes flying too. She’s been a lot more talkative so far than she was on our first trip, but other than that and being a little longer; she’s very much the same little girl we left – sweet, smart, and easy going. She still has only the one tooth, though it’s much more pronounced.

The apartment is pretty nice, though not exactly baby friendly. We have no crib, and there are a lot of low things for her to go for. The toilet is in its own room as is the shower with the only sink being in the kitchen, which is inconvenient to say the least. The décor again is a bit odd, just haphazard like Karaganda. The grocery store is a block and a half away, but it’s a long block, past their “White House” and uphill. Almaty has some really good architecture, and the drivers set a new standard for barely controlled lunacy.

Tomorrow at 3 we go to the US Embassy to finalize her US papers and get the US visa for her Kazakh passport. From what we’ve been told it’s a straightforward process, but it is all needed to get her to leave the country. She’s our child officially to Kazakhstan, now the US has to agree. According to our plan, after that Friday & Saturday will be leisurely days getting to know our baby and her getting to know us, then a long trip home with our Ava.

Internet access so far has been a little problematic, so I’m not sure how many updates we will have this trip, but here are a few new pictures:

New Ava Pictures

"I heard Mommy and Daddy are coming to get me!"

Ava with her caregivers

We saw these new pictures yesterday on the Boykin's blog. One more day to go!

Two More Days!!

Only two more days until we leave! We leave Mon. at 12:30pm and get to Almaty Wed. at 12:45am. We will be brought to our apartment and will get a couple hours of sleep (if we can) and then meet Ava at 7:00am Wed. morning!!

Traveling will not be fun but seeing Ava again and taking her with us will be wonderful!

More Pictures and Return Dates!

We are leaving the 26th to go back and pick up Ava and we will be home on Dec. 2nd!

I also received two more pictures of our baby girl and here's what they said about her:

"Ava loves to cruise around in that scooter-she's fast! She usually greets us at the door when we come in- she's usually standing up in the big crib with a big smile on her face! We are giving her love and attention every day while you are away!"

Here are the pictures: She is with her friend Kyle who is being adopted by the above mentioned family.

Spies at the Baby House

I am following two blogs from couples who are in Kazakhstan now at the same baby house Ava is from. They are both adopting babies from Ava's room too!! So of course I frantically e-mailed them hoping to get information and/or pictures from them. They both e-mailed me back and we have 3 new pictures of Ava since we left!! They (the couples not the caregivers) also said they are calling her Ava for us so she remembers her name. They said she is doing good, she seems healthy and happy! We are so thrilled to see her little face and know that she is well.
This is the link to one blog http://boykinfamilyadoption.spaces.live.com./ the other one is private.

This is what they said about her:

"Ava is doing wonderfully!! She smiles every time we come in, and lots of times she is standing on her own in the big crib in the play room. We always try to give her attention when we see her- it is so cute how she waves!"

"I do see Ava everyday and she is so beautiful. I recognized her the minute I saw her, and so did my husband. The last two evening visits Ava has come over to us while we were feeding Nick. I laugh and tell Brent that she wants to help us. She is very sociable and sweet. I always speak to her and call her Ava when I see her."

Here are the pictures: