Around town

Walking around Ust is fascinating in many ways. For one, Russians (caucasians) and Kazakhs (asians), as far as I can tell, have totally meshed here. I think I said this in a past post. This is evident not only in the way they all live/work together, but in their features. I can't help but look twice when I see a blue-eyed, jet-black-haired asian man, sitting on the park bench with his red-haired russian wife, and their blond-haired, almond-eyed child!

Anyhow, I don't have many photos of the people because I feel awkward interrupting regular people to take their photos. But there are lots of other surprises here too. Picking thru a dumpster is not just for the homeless (hmm what have my neighbors left for me today). Ok, I did once take a plant that the Philipps' had set out for pick-up, but that's not a habit of mine. Broken side walks and over grown grass adjacent to meticulously maintained, expansive rose gardens. Perfectly ok for a male child to pee into the grass, not ok to step on it. We were reprimanded (army dude blowing whistle at us). Enormous attention paid to fashion--it's like Fashion TV on the streets. Also a photo of a shooting gallery. These are found on neighborhood streets. No idea why. I haven't seen anything other than a policeman pistol since I got here. The photo of the turquoise booklet is Nicholas' birth certificate and next to it, his adoption decree, with his new name: Nicholas Peter Holland (the "h" in Holland is written as an "X" here; the "p" in Peter is the symbol for Pi). The little log cabin in the flowers is a tiny Christian church.

As far as my plans, Sunday night I hope to be at the Hyatt in Almaty for a one-night mental health day. Just FYI, those Brits still haven't gotten me my luggage. I'm such a baby, but feel legitimately sad that I have no gifts to give, rum-pa-pa-pum.

However, I now understand that the lost bag is God looking out for us. The Friday, June 29th flight which was completely sold out (no chance of being done as originally scheduled, on 26th). But since Justin has been calling British Airways daily to find out about the bag, he was able to use the lost bag as leverage for a little special treatment. We have seats on the full flight. I'm always amazed by how I see the verse "What man intends for evil (or just screws up), God uses for good!" Amen.

More photos

In the bath. We have a good evening routine: eat, bath, eat, bed, milk, bed, sleep!



Nicholas loves yogurt, and luckily this word is the same in Russian as in English.



At the park in front of the city's largest mosque.



Writing. Thanks goodness, they've taught him quite a lot at the baby house. And he's a fast learner. His English has already grown exponentially. Some of his words/phrases are: I love you; kiss; counting 1-10 (we practice this on seven flight of stairs in our building); AMERICA (said holding his arms up punctuating the syllables with his fists; comb; socks; milk! and a few others. Oh yeah, he understands, though he doesn't say "wait!" "No" and "stop!"

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...