Our Life in Kazakhstan

We are really looking forward to having Ava with us full time! We are with her so little, then we have to share her with each other too! She really likes to be held but when we hold her she looks around at everything instead of us. There is usually a lot of noise and activity in the room for her to watch though. I think she feels secure when we hold her. Sometimes she crawls over to me, puts her little hand on my leg and looks up at me and when I pick her up she smiles. She already knows how to get what she wants! We also discovered that she is ticklish on her sides. She laughed so hard when I tickled her! We also noticed she has a little dimple on her cheek when she smiles really big.
As Jason said we’ve had power outages. Yesterday it was out for about 5 hours. There’s not much to do here as it is but when the powers out there’s even less. We ended up walking for a few hours and looking in shops along the way. We found an adorable traditional dress for Ava. We had to buy it!
The heat is now on for the city, our apartment doesn’t have a thermostat so it is very hot! We have to open up windows because it is that warm. I guess we didn’t need to pack the long-underwear.
Last night we went out to dinner at a place called Johnny Walker’s Pub. The waitresses were dressed in kilts and matching hats. They had American food and an English menu. The English was written funny and spelled wrong but at least we knew what we were ordering. The food was great, I got pizza and Jason got T-bon (that’s the way it was spelled) steak with French fries. I even liked his steak and I’m not a big steak eater! After dinner we walked home and in our courtyard behind the building there were men dressed in military-like outfits patrolling the area. I’m guessing they must do this every night. We were talking and laughing and one guard came up to us and started saying something in Russian. We tried saying we don’t understand in Russian (the one phrase we actually know) and he kept on saying something in Russian. Then he held out his hand and realized he was saying tenge (Kazak currency) and dollar! We just kept on saying we don’t understand even though we did at that point! We acted dumb and he finally looked annoyed and walked away. I can’t believe that he thought we would just hand him money like that!
One more thing: Tazsa, I wanted to tell you that Jason probably isn’t going to allow any boys near Ava for at least 30years! Sorry Noah!

Ava and her friends Julia and Oliver

The Dress we bought

Notice what she is wearing? A Bambi outfit!!
Ticklish Girl!

See the dimple?

More from the Central Asia Standard Time Zone

Sorry this post took so long. We’ve had electricity and internet access issues… Here’s a shot at a few more Ava pictures since blogger wouldn't work last time.

When we got there yesterday the caretakers seemed to be upset with us and the other families we are with for not being there in the morning. Apparently it never got relayed to them that they cut our visits in half. We were all hoping that they would let us go back to the twice a day visits, but sadly they didn’t. At least the caretakers know why now. Ava also had a little bump on her head from taking a fall in the crib. I guess she was pulling herself up in her crib, took a tumble and hit her head on a rail. It didn’t seem to be bothering her though, which is good. She got her passport pictures taken today too! It kind of makes it a little more real that soon she will be all ours and back home with the largest extended family ever. I keep wondering what her personality will be like. She’s a very determined and persistent little girl already, but she’s also very even tempered. She’s perfect in every way.

The weather has been great. It’s been sunny every day but one, with temperatures in the 50’s. It had to be in the 60’s the last few days. Everybody still wears coats and jackets though, and the babies that we see on the street look to be covered in 8-10 inches of padding in the form of snowsuits, mittens, hats, scarves, etc regardless of the temperature. I guess they got some snow and freezing rain a few weeks ago, but so far so good for us. We still have a while to go though. Apparently it gets to -30 C in the winter too. I am glad we aren’t here in January!

The food is actually really good. Most is comparable and their juice, milk, and corn flakes are much better than the US. In fact all of the families agree on this. I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve eaten. Shocking isn’t it? Feel free to make food related jokes at my expense. They have these little meat pies that are phylo dough with meat, chicken, or veggies inside. There is a little stand in front of our apt that sells them, and though they laugh at my Russian, they sell them to us and they are delicious. Two for less than a dollar! I also had beef stroganoff for dinner the other night at a restaurant, and it was awesome. Their salads aren’t particularly lettuce based – more a mixed vegetable thing. We bought some of what we thought was spinach, but it turned out to be very bitter greens. No horse meat yet, but I’ve been promised the opportunity to try some.

We even have a cleaning lady and her name isn’t Amber (HAHAHAHAHA). Thanks, I’ll be here all week. Her name is Luta and she comes on Tuesday and Saturday. I will say that my little Rough Guide Russian Phrasebook has been extremely helpful. Along with the pronunciations of words, it has them written in Russian too, which lets me just point at a page and let them point back or read what I mean. Also, when the store clerks see me fingering through it, I think it gives them a chance to figure out how to talk to the Americans.

We can’t believe we’ve been here a week already and have 2 more weeks to go!

Sorry to Keep the Fans Waiting!!

I know the Ava fans are anxious! But our visits are at 4pm-6pm and we were just tired when we got home! Sorry! No we don’t get longer visits, just two hour a day. Ava was feeling better today, her nose wasn’t as red and she was more active. Jason thinks we have a tomboy on our hands because she loves loud toys and she played with a little ball today. So I think I’ll have to dress her up now while I have the chance! We fed her (rice cereal & apple juice) this afternoon so of course she ended up wet from drinking out of a cup! So when we got her back to the play room I took off her outer shirt and we got to see her cute arms! We are seeing our baby one piece at a time! Her elbows have little dimples! So cute!! Then they gave us another shirt to put on her. You would never know it's about 80 degrees in there by the way the babies dress! I can't post any pictures because Blogger isn't letting me upload them!! I guess I'll try later.

Baby News

Today we found out that we only get to have one visit a day with Ava instead of two from now on. There are a lot of other families that are coming in and the orphanage doesn't have enough room for everyone to have two visits a day. We are very sad about this but maybe it's better that she doesn't get too attached to us before we have to leave. We are very attached to her though, so it's going to be hard!!
On a happier note, Ava cut her first tooth today!! We were so excited to see a tiny bit of white tooth on her bottom gums! She was drooling much more today because of it.
The other amazing thing she did was, she pulled herself up to standing by holding on to a kid size chair! All by herself too! We were clearly awed by her talents! She is very strong for being so small!
Today's visits were kind of laid back with her. She still has a cold and her nose was more red today. Also, since she is teething she wasn't as active. Also, the play room is so hot and they dress the babies in at least two layers, sometimes three with thick booties. Ava was sweating so much her head was wet! Jason was blowing on her head to cool her off and she loved it! I'll put the picture below.
We walked to some souvenir shops this afternoon and we wanted to buy everything! We are going to bring back some nice things, especially for Ava. Then we went out to dinner at the same restaurant as before.
That's about all for today.

First Tooth

Clapping!

Crawling!

Standing on her own!

I love her neck rolls!

One Smart Baby

I wanted to brag about Ava’s development. The day we first met her we tried to sit her up but she couldn’t sit on her own for more than 2 seconds without toppling over. Now she is sitting up for over 10 seconds at a time! Also, she was just scooting, trying to crawl when we met her and now she is really crawling! Also, I was clapping her little hands together yesterday and when stopped she kept on clapping by herself. She looked at her hands in amazement. It was so cute! Also, she was on the floor in front of me and wanted to be picked up but I waited to see what she would do and she climbed up on me! She pulled herself up almost all the way (then I helped some). See the pictures of her on top of me for evidence! We will have more pictures tomorrow!

I wanted to respond to Debbie and Harm’s comment. We can’t believe she wasn’t taken before either, but we know she was meant to be ours! We did meet the babies together with two other families. They brought the babies in for everyone to see. When I first saw Ava I thought she was so pretty and sweet that I absolutely hogged her. The other families looked at her also but we spent the most time with her, I didn’t want anyone else to want her! We also held the twins and a few other babies but I knew she was the one right away! It seems like each baby is with the perfect parents for them! The other Spanish families have been here for a month and their babies are perfect for them too. All of them are loved to pieces!

A little more about Karaganda

So first to respond to some comments. The orphanage we are in is named Shapagat. This is the Kazakh name for the Mylutka orphanage. Mylutka is the Russian name for it. I’m sure I’m butchering the spelling, though. Ava’s middle name is pronounced uh-seel in case you are curious. Also, we’ve deleted a few comments that had our last name in it. As hard as it is to believe with all the info we’re posting, we are trying to maintain a little bit of anonymity. So please don’t be offended if your post got the axe. Olga verified for me we are in a good neighborhood, in almost the center of town. In fact she said that there is really only one district where you wouldn’t want to walk at night. The other 2 American families we came with are in the same cluster of buildings that we are in, and I believe the 3 Spanish families are too. Our clothes dryer doesn’t so much dry the clothes as it does make it really hot and wet, so we have clothes hanging out to dry like a regular Kazakh family.

The baby house itself is wonderful. It is amazingly clean. The room that Ava is in has 10 cribs, an attached little kitchen, a bathroom with 4 or 5 sinks, and an attached playroom. We always see at least 2 caregivers in there, who seem to truly care about the babies. There are at least 6 other clusters of rooms that have a similar set up with groups of babies or toddlers. They don’t have children older than 5. At that age they go to another orphanage until they are 16 or 17. There is clean laundry drying everywhere, but I imagine that helps them maintain the high standard of cleanliness. You smell no dirty diapers anywhere. It’s almost odorless except for baby wipes and food (when it’s cooking). The standard of care they get there is excellent and helps us feel a little better about leaving her for a few weeks (though I’m already dreading that day). One day when we went to our play room, there was a group of kids from 2-4ish leaving the room. They were all so beautiful. I wish we could take all of them home. They all seemed happy though, which was nice. I really cannot say enough good things about the baby house. They do maintain a wonderful standard of care.

We’ve fed our Ava 4 times now. She gets a big bowl of baby rice cereal with little bits of bread mixed in at times. Then she gets formula or tea that seems to have honey or sugar in it. She loves to eat. We’re getting better at helping her too. I think she eats faster than me! And with the tea she drinks, she’s already imitating her daddy’s caffeine addiction.

We got some tepid water today in the shower. It was clear too! It was very exciting. I already miss taking a hot shower. I think the best we will do is a warm one. The shower isn’t really a shower either. It is a tub with a hand held sprayer, with very minimal water pressure. Attempting to wash up is quite the arduous and chilly task.

The heat still isn’t on, but we have a little electric radiant space heater, and the apartment has actually stayed pretty warm. Yesterday I videoed the drive to the baby house, as well as us going to Ava’s room, and then taped the drive back. The driver actually drove more reservedly than he had been though. No near death experiences to record at all. I think he was doing it so I could get steadier film. His name is Kairat and he’s a very nice guy and has even helped me with some of my Russian. After recording, Amber and I were wondering if anyone else is going to find things like the drive as interesting as we do. I’m sure Ava will when she gets older though, and that’s who this is all about.

Then today since we can’t see our Ava (much sadness), we went sightseeing. We actually went all around the city and took about 175 pictures. We went to Maternity House #2 where Ava and Julia were born, and then to Maternity House #4 where Oliver was born. Here’s Ava’s birthplace.

We also saw from a distance the coal mines and a coal factory where they generate the heat and electricity for the city. It was a little hazy so we didn’t get great pictures. We got pictures of their football (soccer) stadium, and we stopped at a Mosque and a Russian Orthodox Church. We then stopped at a Muslim cemetery which was very different from your ordinary American fare. Each structure you see is for a person or 2. The headstones are very ornate, with pictures etched in stone of the deceased; the vegetation is very overgrown and the roads are unmaintained, but some of the structures are made entirely of granite or marble.

We then went to what Olga called the ‘fake lake’. It is a lake on the edge of the city which is actually a filled in coal strip mine. If I understood right, they use it for their steam heat. Most of their water comes from underground aquifers as it is very dry here.

Sorry for the low Ava content of my post. Amber will be doing one of these later, and I’m just trying to keep my mind off of my baby since I can’t see her today.

More from Karaganda

Thank you for all the comments! We know our little girl is so loved already! Today I told her about her friends and family. She listened while chewing on her toy. I think she is going to be quite happy to meet you all! We are not going to have any visits tomorrow. They don’t allow visits on Sunday. We are feeling sad but we are going sight seeing with the other families and our translator. It will be nice to see some more of Ava’s birth country so we have something to tell her when she’s older. Actually it’s not too much different than home, people dress similar and act similar. Of course the language is different but it really doesn’t feel like we are halfway around the world! One thing that is difficult is not being able to drink the water. Also, I wash the dishes and then rinse them in boiled water just to be safe. To all those waiting to travel I recommend bringing powdered Gatorade packets, wet wipes for washing up when traveling and any favorite foods. They have a lot of similar foods as home but you may not be able to read the labels! Sleeping pills might be a good idea too!
Here are some more pictures of our sweetheart!

Ava Ava Ava Ava Ava

Amber mentioned a video, so here it is. It’s a Windows media file, so I hope you all can see it. The little giggles you hear are hers. She is even cuter and sweeter in person (of course!).

The last 2 days we’ve had no hot water. Apparently that is controlled by the city. The city also controls everyone’s heat. According to Olga, when they are turning the heat on (which they are doing right now), you lose hot water for anything from half a day to a couple of days. Looks like we are hitting the 2 day mark. We think that’s why the water was brown too, though we’ll find out when the water comes back on. The last 2 nights we’ve lost power, and when they lose power, EVERYTHING is black. I’ve been asleep both times, but according to Richard and Amber it’s just total darkness. The only light we had was the light from the laptop screen.

Someone had asked if we are in a good neighborhood in one of the comments (yes, we are reading them all, and thank you!), and I would say that we are. There are some other apartment buildings we’ve seen that look nowhere near as nice as this one on the outside, but it’s hard to say. We really have no idea about crime in general in Karaganda, but I’ll ask Olga today. Every time she looks at me she says, “Questions?” I guess I just look like I’m about to ask her something which I usually am. I find the area fascinating. So here are some more things I’ve learned.

The mall that has the grocery store we’ve been going to has a currency exchanger right inside where they will exchange dollars, rubles, tenge, euro’s, pounds, etc. for each other. I’ve been changing dollars for tenge, but I saw a guy go in and come out with a large bundle of dollars, and found that odd. I guess that though people get paid in tenge and everything day to day is in tenge, people save money in dollars or euro’s at their banks, you buy cars and apartments in dollars, and due to the proximity to Russia / China there is a fair amount of that currency around too. It’s not just for us adoptive parents :). They have quite the global economy.

Kazakh has become the official language here as well, though everyone we’ve talked to speaks Russian. They all describe Kazakh as a very complicated language, 42 character alphabet, odd pronunciations, etc. I have the problem that everybody tries talking to me in Russian. I guess I look like I fit in. So I’m glad I learned how to say “I don’t understand Russian” in Russian. Very helpful. If you want to fit in, dress nice, walk purposefully, and don’t smile unless you are talking to someone else. It’s actually interesting watching reactions when I tell them I don't understand. Some find it amusing, some seem annoyed.

In the apartment we have this little front-loading washing machine that has a dryer built in too. It’s been very useful to have! The apartment itself has 2 doors on the entry. The outer one locks with this 5 bolt mechanism that probably goes 3 inches into the wall! It reminds me of a bank vault type of lock. The inner just has a dead bolt. Most TV is in Russian, with a fair amount of American stuff overdubbed in Russian. I watched some of “Scrubs” yesterday in Russian. They have the North American Sports Network as well, so I’ve seen some college football as well as some NHL and MLB. No Sports Center sadly. The music on the radio is a mix of Russian and American. We heard Brittney Spears, Ricky Martin, and even a hip-hop version of a Pink Floyd song.

Driving is an experience! Everyone has the right of way. Cars zoom around each other with apparent disregard for anything else on the road, including people! Pedestrians likewise just walk across the road taking their time, with cars coming within inches of them. Our drivers have been very nice, but they speak no English, so interaction has been minimal. If you are coming over, just be prepared to muffle your yelps of fear while riding along.

That’s it for the Karaganda update. My baby girl fell asleep in my arms for the first time today. I am putty.

For all you Ava Fans

Play Room

She holds on tightly to Jason's shirt every time he holds her.

See the picture she's chewing on!! She loves her Grandma and Grandpa already!

Door to our apartment building

We had two great visits today. Ava is getting to know us better each time we visit. When we get to the baby house we take off our shoes, go to her room where she sleeps and bring her to the bigger “play room”. When we picked her up today she looked so happy to see us! All the families get their babies and bring them to the same spot. There are three Spanish families here also. There are throw blankets to put on the floor of the play room and two arm chairs. We will usually sit on the floor and put her toys down on the blanket for her. We also walk around and cuddle with her. She’s getting more comfortable with us and “talking” and smiling more. We also figured out ways to make her laugh, like kissing her neck! She has the cutest toothless laugh! She has a couple of teeth about to come in on the bottom. We can’t see them but can feel them. She likes to chew on everything also. We gave her the baby picture book and she did look at the pictures but really just wanted to chew on it. She has a little cold and a runny nose. Between teething and her cold you would think she’d be miserable but she was so happy and calm. We did hear a few whimpers when we put her down and she quickly learned that whimpers/cry’s get mommy or daddy to pick her up! She whimpers and the second we pick her up she laughs or smiles! She’s already a little manipulator!! We think it’s so cute!! But I’m sure we won’t think it’s so cute later on when we want her to sleep!

Our morning visit is at 10:00-12:00 and afternoon is 4:00-6:00. We usually just get up in the morning, eat and get ready to go. Then in between visits we eat lunch and look at all the pictures and videos we took that morning. Though today I took a nap and Jason walked to the store. The store is 5 min walk away! Then after our afternoon visit we are tired! We have also been posting on the blog, writing e-mail and looking through pictures in the evenings. I’ve made dinner a couple times (didn’t come out too good last night) and tonight we went out to eat. We walked to the restaurant. It was about 5 min away too. I had chicken with nut sauce, rice, cabbage and salad from the bar. The salad bar had dishes with vegetables, beans, croutons, fresh herbs and dressing on a counter. Jason had schnitzel (which was just basically a bun-less hamburger) potatoes, cabbage and salad. He also tried a local beer made in Karaganda. Everything was very good! We are planning on going back for desserts some afternoon because we were just to full to have any tonight.

Karaganda is much different than we expected. It is a very big city of over 600,000 people. Cars are very nice, Mercedes and BMW’s everywhere. People also dress very nice. It doesn’t seem as destitute as we thought it would be. Food at the grocery store costs about the same as home. Dinner was about $30.00. We also had to buy diapers for Ava and a pack of 64 pampers were about $19.00.

We will try to post a video tomorrow!

A few more pictures...

Hopefully this slide show will work. Dial-up is tough with a lot of pictures!

Presenting our daughter

So here she is, Ava Aceil.

She came into the world on February 1^st, 2007 weighing 6lb 4oz. She met her parents on October 10^th, 2007 weighing about 15lbs and is almost 26 inches tall. She was the second baby brought in, Amber said, “Awww”, immediately went up to hold her and we were essentially done at that point. We looked at the other babies, and played with them, but she had both of our hearts from the start. Aceil is her original name and we wanted to keep it as a middle name. Several of you picked up on the mention of twins in the earlier post, but unfortunately they just had too many health issues.

Now to the good stuff. Ava is, as you can see, adorable. She watches everything around her very intently. She’s fairly quiet, but quite the eater as seen here.

They gave us a full size spoon, and a bowl FULL of food. Olga (our translator), had us wedge the bowl right under her chin and start shoveling. At that point her chin was in her bowl of food. Olga said to feed her fast, because that’s how she is used to it. And eat fast she did. She cleaned out the bowl in no time. She even tried to take the spoon out of Ambers hand to feed herself faster. We may need bigger spoons! Naturally, the approach of a full size spoon into a baby sized mouth, controlled by baby sized hands had its downfalls. We were laughing so hard it was tough to keep up with the pace of feeding. Beth came over and took some pictures, as she and her husband found it pretty funny too. She then drank her formula straight from a cup! They said ‘she’s a big girl now’. I guess they take most of them off bottles at around 6-7 months old. If Amber is holding her she looks for me, if I’m holding her she looks for Amber. It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen (yes, I am a new dad talking about my little girl). She is fond of posing for the camera as well. I will dissuade her from the modeling career.
She’s not a big crawler, though she does ok. She prefers to stand and likes taking steps with help. She even pulls herself up in her crib! According to the orphanage doctor, she’s the only one in her group that does that. So this one isn’t just a proud papa talking, it’s a proud pediatrician too. She giggles a bit though she’s not very noisy. Her only little cry was when she got her diaper changed. They said she’s very quiet but sweet, and when we told the doctor we were adopting her, I got a nod, a smile and a thumbs up; kind of like she was saying ‘good choice’. We think so too. Really quite a bit. Really quite a lot in fact. We love our little baby girl and know you all will too when you meet her (YOU BETTER!). We’re so glad to be beyond the “Baby B" phase and to have a name and a face. Here’s one more picture of Ava being held by her mommy.
And for equality sake, here is a picture of Ava and daddy. Clearly you can see she adores me.

And for some final miscellany… Kazakh sausage tastes like salami, tenge (currency) is very pretty money, showering in brown water really isn’t so bad, chocolate butter is yummy, there’s nothing on TV in Kazakhstan either, if all goes well in court etc you will all get to meet her around the end of November, and go Cleveland.

An update designed to torture you

We made it to Karaganda. It's a pretty neat city. Our apartment is nice, and the food is actually quite good - we've only gone to the grocery store and cooked it ourselves. The flights were all great too. Aside from having to pay a fee for too much weight in our checked luggage on the flight from Almaty to Karaganda (I won't tell you it’s Ambers fault), really nothing has gone wrong! We are here with a couple (the Cruz's) from Arizona, and a single mom from Utah with her daughter she adopted from Karaganda last year (the Richards) and a friend. We're still running on very little sleep, but a bed sure beats an economy class airplane seat or a bench in an airport. We've been to the orphanage twice, and there will be baby pictures soon, we just don't want to post anything until it's official. Here are a couple pictures of the apartment - Jason

Living room:

Bathroom:

Hallway to the apt

This has been quite an experience so far! I only slept about 5 hours since Monday until last night and Jason not more than 3! We also were without showers for over 2 days, not pretty! Our apartment building looks very run down, dirty from the outside. The hallway inside is even worse. We were a little nervous when they brought us in but our apartment is very nice! We will try to post pictures. Jason is happy because he can still watch American football, it's just has voice over’s in Russian. We are eating very well, too well! I thought I would lose weight being here but now I'm not so sure! The store has coffee and lots of chocolate and sweets. We were told there wouldn't be coffee here but there is! The store also has tons of juice, a whole isle of just juice. The meat is mainly pork and red meat; we found just a few chickens at the store. People dress similar to home. The women all wear high heels though, even with pants/jeans.

The weather is nice, it's cold at night but sunny and warm during the day. Just a sweater is fine most of the day. We went to the baby house yesterday, after all this time it was hard to believe that we were actually there. It was surreal. We all went into a big room and sat on the floor or tiny sized chairs and waited for them to bring in the babies. They started bringing them in and they said their names and how old they were. They then either gave them to someone or put them down on the floor. The babies were all crawling, rolling, playing with toys and squirming around. It was a little overwhelming! They are all so beautiful! It really is so strange to have to choose your baby like that. However we have chosen our baby and we love our child already!!

As Jason said we will post about that later. I feel so mean, making you all wait!! -Amber

We're in Kazakhstan

So we're in Kaz, sitting in the Almaty airport at 2:30 AM local time because the nearby hotels are booked. Flight to Karaganda is in about 5 hours, so we still have some time to kill. But we are both very excited! Laptop battery is near death... more to come later...

Packing and other joys

As I sit here, lazily typing while falling asleep at 8:00 PM, I find myself reflecting on the chaos of the past week. Well, mostly chaos for Amber. She ran all over the place picking up the rest of our updated documents, getting them apostilled, trying to pack, taking care of an ill little doggy (just a ploy for attention as he knows we're going somewhere), getting updated pictures developed, buying clothes (never give a woman an excuse to buy clothes), and in general getting lots of stuff done. I tried to make as many calls, send as many emails, and do as much as I could do from work while still accomplishing whatever I could before I take 4 weeks off of work (I've got a great boss).
So now, paperwork is done and it's time to get things packed. This is not fun. Carry on bags can't be more than 18 lbs each (WE ONLY GET 1 EACH!), and checked can't weigh more than 50. There's also size restrictions too. So Amber's now swapping things around from bag to bag to make it fit. And of course we are trying to pack "light" despite the fact that we'll be on the other side of the planet for 3 weeks. The next few days we'll keep packing, organizing, double checking things, and trying to not stress too much, and then we drive down to JFK on Monday! Скоро мы встретим нашего ребенка!

What happens next?

That seems to be the most common question we are hearing these days, so here goes. As Amber said, our plan is leave on the 8th. That still could change, because we still have to get our visas completed and our passports sent back to us by a visa expediting company (Thank you Connie!). Once we have them, and a few more confirmations go around the world to Kaz & back, we'll be all set. We should know for sure in a few days.
Next (as it stands now), on the 8th we'll drive down to JFK (or get a ride), fly across the Atlantic, land in Germany for a few hours (quite a few actually, and Frankfurt if you're curious), fly across the rest of Europe & a chunk of Asia to Almaty, rest up a bit (hopefully in a hotel room), meet one of our coordinators, be given the tickets for a flight from Almaty to Kaz (no idea really how long this is, I'm guessing a few hours), make the flight (this is now the 10th), meet another coordinator in Kaz, drive w/ another couple to the orphanage (they are actually called baby houses), meet the babies, and try to make our choice!
Deep Breath...
Now, we pick out our baby (which I am looking forward to and terrified of at the same time), and spend 22 days in Kaz, spending 4 hours a day (2 on Sunday) with our baby, while people in the background get paperwork and everything else processed to make this all official. We have a short court date before we come home, then Amber & I will return, get everything else done at home that we need to for a few weeks (2-4 I think), then we fly back to Almaty, pick up our baby, do some more paperwork & stuff (stuff is the technical term for I have no idea), and come home as a family. The second trip should be only a few days over there, so it'll be pretty hectic.
I've signed us up for a web slide show thing, so as long as everything continues as planned, there should be plenty of pictures by the middle of next week!!!!!!! It still feels a little surreal, but I think once we actually get on the plane, it will hit me.

We have our LOI

Just heard word that we have our Letter Of Invitation! We also put tickets on hold for the 8th!

Only 9 more days!

FINALLY! We are going to meet our baby!!

We should be leaving on October 8th or 9th!! We have our final approval and our LOI is on its way. The region is open and we should be one of the first families there! There will be many babies available too since no one has been to Karaganda months. This feels so unreal. I have lists and sticky notes everywhere! I am busy packing, organizing, cleaning the house and of course calling everyone in the family! We are so happy and excited! I can hardly sleep and you know I like to sleep! We could have the baby home by the first or second week in December!

About Kazakhstan

Our agency informed us that Karaganda should be opening this week! We are happy but trying not to get our hopes up. We will be much happier when we hear something definite. We also have some paper work to redo but nothing major. Below are a few facts on Kazakhstan and some pictures. It is a very diverse and beautiful country.

Kazakhstan Flag

The population is 15.2 million

The capital city is Astana

The state language is Kazakh

Major religions are Islam and Orthodox

Still waiting

We still have no news...no idea what's going on, etc...

Here's a quote from a family who adopted their daughter from Kaz, I thought it was fitting:

"We have more hurdles, including an intimidating court hearing, but we are already beginning to feel like parents. And that's the thing about adoption. It's just like having a kid the regular way, only not. Unlike biological childbirth, there is no such thing as an accidental adoption. No equivalent of the broken condom or "forgotten" diaphragm. This is a deliberate, always conscious, undertaking. I can't say that makes it better—I wouldn't wish the process on anyone—but it does bring with it a certain sense of clarity. Why exactly do you want a child? What price—in money and sweat and tears—are you willing to pay? My answer, prompted by the two most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, is: as much as it takes."

Their blog address is: http://www.slate.com/id/2132692/entry/2132693 if you want to check it out.