Photos finally!

Saying goodbye to two of his caregivers. These women are so sweet and work so hard.
Nicholas' "grupa" gathering around him. Now that he has parents, he's like a movie star to them.
Sasha, the boy who was also "shown" to us on that first day when we had to "see" three children to abide by the law. He's so sweet. I hope we can see him in America one day.
This little cutie had fallen on her nose. She so sweet. It's tough tho. On the one hand, I want to tell all my friends to adopt. On the other hand, the agencies and governments make it so difficult, financially and emotionally. The time commitment is huge and sometimes you wonder if it really needs to be this long. After all, I've been basically waiting for a passport since I got here. Do I really need to be here?

I'm thankful for the time with Nicholas, but Isabelle is little too and this is just very, very hard on the whole family. And the "big" girls have gone to and come back from a week at sleep-away camp and I just hate not being there to see their faces all a-glow with the excitement.

Just an update

I can't wait to come home! Just for grins I went to the Air Astana office and made a reservation for Friday morning to get from here to Almaty. It probably won't happen--we're waiting for Nicholas Kazakhstani passport and I've been told it might arrive Thursday, but it could be as late as Monday. Ugh.

Nicholas and I are doing pretty well, tho I have no down time at all. He is very curious about everything and chatters away constantly, like another little someone I know, but I can't undertand most of what he's saying. Right now he's attempting to fold up a map of Kazakhstan, now he's pouring water out of his sippy cup. He can't stand t.v. unfortunately. I haven't been able to get any work done.

We do a lot of walking and just searching for basic things. Got him some fungal lotion for his little toes. The orphanage has them in shoes and socks all the time, and so at first he would start bawling "no spat" (don't want bed)whenever I took them off. He has started to eat more moderately, and is actually leaving food on his plate. This is another post-orphanage milestone. He has learned to pee standing up, like a good ol' American boy. He holds my hand everywhere we go, though today experimented walking for a few yards 'on his own.' He's really good with a ball, throwing especially. And light switches, the amazingness of lights on and off hasn't worn off yet.

I feel really drained tho. Not sure, maybe it's just the lack of a real goal each day. I have never had so little to do or had such a hard time just doing those little things that I do need to do.

He's out and about!

I have to make this a really quick post because Nicholas is doing the dishes--something that keeps him busy for a few moments before he plunges back into the next thing. I picked him up from the Baby House on Saturday. Things have been going really well--he is absolutley precious and precocious! He likes me to rock him to sleep--I'm indulging him since he may never have been rocked quite enough. My first thought this morning after I looked over and saw him sleeping sweetly next to me was about love and how it multiplies exponentially every time a child is added to a family. I just couldn't believe the feeling I had, the same I had at Katrina's birth. I had worried that I couldn't love the second child as much as the first, and then POW--she was born and it was amazing. Rather than having less for each, I had more. It happened again with Isabelle. But surely this miracle couldn't happen with an adopted three year old could it? It did--when I looked over this morning, it just overwhelmed me.

We are having a wonderful time--Nicholas is discovering so much. He's been really naughty twice. Once showing me his teeth with the evidence of the blue crayon he had just eaten, and the second time pouring the entire carton of milk into a small cup. He responded with adequate remorse after a little smack on the hand, so I'm not too worried about it. He's so cute when he's sorry that it's hard to stay mad at all!

Together again!

I was so excited as we got closer to the Baby House. First thing I noticed was a new sign outside, the old one had been torn by the wind last time we were here. It is huge and has a girl holding a teddy bear and says "this is our home." I was so excited and must have been hungry too because when we opened the front door, that familiar smell of boiled onions made me so happy! Finally we got up the third flight of stairs, thru the locker room and to his group's door. Sixteen little heads spun toward us, and as if he'd been tagged, "goose," Nicholas sprung from the circle and came running toward me. He gave me a big, strong, hug, and the caregiver said (and I understood thru Almagul), he missed you, he missed you.

Not long after hugging, he went to my purse, where he knew he'd find something special. Thank goodness I picked up a Dora color-with-water set in London. He meticulously colored in every bit of each of two pages. Almagul asked if he remembered his sisters and Papa, and he nodded "Da!" Then he said "Katrina," "Isabelle," "Sophie." Then he said the Dora he was coloring was "Stephanie."

We stayed a little while and then he went outside with his group. Tomorrow I'll take him out of the Baby House and see how he does. If he's ok, then he'll sleep here with me, and if its too much all at once, I'll take him back. On Monday I hope we can have a little party and give the caregivers their gifts.

Now let me tell you a little about the oddessey of getting here. Oh man, what a voyage! I didn't sleep a wink from Chicago to London, really surprising since the night before I'd only slept for about 4 hours. I watched "Blood Diamond" and "The Good Shepherd." Also chatted with a couple from South Bend, she a dermatologist and he a pediatrician, heading to Spain for a cruise with their three adult kids. How fun. Also turns out we're on the same flight back on the 26th, so Nicky will have his first dermatologist evaluation for his little dry patches, in flight! How cool is that.

The layover in London was 7 hours. I got very tired and laid down on some seats that didn't have the armrests separating them. Then got woken up by a lady putting her bag on my head, and to my horror, found that the quiet area I'd picked for a snooze was now teeming with people. How undignified! I felt (and probably looked) like a bag lady.

Little did I know, I'd soon be a bag-LESS lady. I got on the London to Almaty flight, fell asleep before takeoff and woke up two hours later to find that we were still at the gate! I went back to sleep and awoke as we were landing in a place called Ekatrinaburg, Russia (a stopover that was not on my itinerary, named after Katrina apparently). We sat there for a bit too, and the person next to me got off the plane so I now had three seats to myself!

Bummer though was when we got to Almaty, somehow only one of my two suitcases had made it! The one with the orphanage donations made it. Too bad I'm not a size 2-T. My bag is still in London, along with the stroller. Oh well, I made the connection to Ust with an assurance that my bag will arrive on Sunday.

Almagul was in the tiny Ust airport to meet me. It was great to see her. I'm the only client here right now so I got the "awesome" apartment. I went back to sleep, lovely to stretch out on a bed again, and had her call me at 2:30 so we could get to the baby house for the afternoon visiting time. We got an Internet card, phone card, Tenge (local currency) on the way, and then, the best part of all...

Tickets, must-haves, and the washing machine that won't go away!

I have our tickets. It was just so astounding to see in print "Nicholas Holland Almaty-->London London-->Chicago." Big doings for a little boy.

Isabelle and I spent quite a bit of time in Target today for "must-haves." Nicholas must-have a bike helmet, must-have a floatie for the pool, must-have XS boxer-briefs (they are the cutest thing I ever did see). So many decisions, spiderman print? Too scary. Sponge Bob, too wierd (for someone who hasn't been raised with that yellow creature).

Well, as you can imagine we were there for 3 hours! We even had lunch there. When Isabelle was on the verge of taking her nap in the cart, I finally headed for the checkout. Also in the cart were gifts for Sveta, Almagul, Aidar, the Minister of Education, and the Director of the Orphanage, Natalya. Thank goodness I had already found something for the 11 caregivers, online at the Lands End overstocks. Really cute fleece hats marked down from $15 to $5, all different prints and sizes--I mean ELEVEN caregivers? Anything I thought of that was mildly useful came out to a pretty penney, so I was glad when I found those.

I must say I am a bit nervous about how Nicholas will react away from all that is familiar to him. I heard from another adoptive Mom that her 5 year old son had a terrible time and they had to go back to the orphanage for an overnight.

An interesting tidbit to me was that in those first days her son preferred to watch the washing machine (a mini front-load so you can watch the clothes--all three pieces--in the bubbles) rather than "Cars," the movie. This caught my attention because my mom tells me that as a little girl I was fascinated by the churning water and soap of the washing machine. It is kind of hypnotic to this day. (OK, some of you are starting to think I have some weird type of washing machine fetish! Ha, maybe I do, come to think of it). ANYWAY, what this little detail made me think was that the whole language thing can be very overwhelming. It made me recall how after 4 months in Spain, a country I absolutely fell in love with, I just wanted to talk with an American for a little bit--just to be completely understood, not just my words, but the context, the nuances, intonations, facial expressions, silly puns that are all part of the communications package. There is something soothing about the monotony of the wishy-washy washing machine.

So, I should go easy on the language. Of course Nicholas is not going to want to watch American movies right away, after trying to communicate the most basic of things, like "gotta go potty", Nicholas is not going to want to "relax" with more words he can't understand.

With that in mind, I am going to try NOT TO TALK TOO MUCH (this is a mental note-to-self). Eating, eating is fun in any language. Bathing, bath time is soothing in any language. Hugs, hugs are good, no words required. That kind of thing. Come to think of it, Justin might like the new me too :). Eating, bathing, hugging, and no talking... Ha! Well, toodles (see that's a word no one would understand in another country no matter how many years they'd studied American).

His Family Forever!

The appeal period is officially over! Yesterday was day 15 and now the judge's ruling, made back on May 17th, is set in stone. Nicholas is legally a part of our family, a U.S. citizen, a baby brother, a son, nephew, cousin, and grandson.

We were asked if we would chose a birth date for him since the date was unknown, and had been determined thru a best guesstimate. Justin turned to God's Word for guidance on this one. In a letter to the folks in Rome where he's imprisoned, Paul explains that Jesus has granted us the chance to be in a child-parent relationship with God once again, restoring a loving relationship. You may know, Abba is Hebrew for "Daddy." It just fit perfectly:

"You haven't received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God's adopted children by which we call out, 'Abba! Father!'
–Romans 8:15

So August 15, it is. For now though we're focusing on the last week of school, going to the pool, a Kite Festival and soccer try-outs, summer reading, getting ready for sleep away camp, and just all the fun that comes with summer. I can't wait to have Nicholas begin to discover it all too! I'll be in Kaz from June 13 - 26, and then life together truly begins!