Official Days 8 & 9

Yesterday's visit with Kathryn was great. She was alert and playful. She "talked" alot and we could tell she was really enjoying the visit. She continues to get stronger. We are trying to do all the right things to help her build her strength including having her spend time on her tummy, stretching and putting weight on her legs. She is kicking and moving her arms more freely each day. She is even finding the way for her hand to her mouth. She loves to suck on her index finger!

Today was a very quiet visit. Just when we thougtht she was feeling better, she was not today. She was crying when we got there. She was warm and fussy. She was still adorable! It was just a different side we had not seen over the past week. Kathryn really just wanted to be cuddled and held. So of course, we obliged. She slept on and off for most of the visit. We were able to get a few smiles out of her. Not a big picture day - too busy holding her. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow.

During our visit we took the opportunity to talk to Inna, our interpreter about a few things. We asked for some ideas for gifts for the doctors and then she also filled us in on some of the court proceedings. There is specific information that we need to put into our speech that will be given on the day we go to court on our second visit. They expect the father to do most of the speaking, so Dave is beginning to work on the speech. I will only say a few words unless they ask me any specific questions. Can't wait for this day to come!!

I finally decided to leave some of the toys in her room, rather than carrying them back and forth each day. She has her blanket, links and bunny in her crib already. The other things I just left in the closet. Yesterday we found out her nickname in the hospital has been "princess frog". One of the toys we have is a frog, so Inna thought that was quite appropriate. Frog in Russian is "лягушка" pronounced "lyaGOOSHka". Kathryn just smiles when we say it - it is a familiar word to her.

Winter is setting in here. We are preparing ourselves for the cold we will experience on our second trip. On Sunday am it was 32 degrees and yesterday was in the 40's. Today is a beautiful sunny day - just cold. We spent time after our visit to do some grocery shopping and go to the green market. We will be doing some additional shopping in the next couple of days to get the additional gifts we need for the caregivers and try to find a warm snowsuit for Kathryn for our second trip. I also hope to find a souvenir book of Kokshetau to have as a keepsake.

We miss everyone at home. We again want to thank everyone who is checking in with the boys and willing to help in any way they can! We could not do this without each of you!

Tomorrow we will post on our brief sightseeing trip around town, hope you enjoy.

Official Days 6 & 7

Well, we are halfway through our required bonding time, and halfway through our trip as well. One week from tomorrow we will file our petition to the court as a formal request to adopt Kathryn. We will then begin the travel process back home while we await our day in court. Although our visits seem repetitive at times looking at the same plain four walls, Kathryn always rewards us with smiles and an abject joy to see us when she opens those big brown eyes from her nap. Our time with her is never too long. Each day we see improved abilities in arm and leg movement. We continue to work on other exercises to improve her strength to hold her head up and balance in a sitting position, which she currently does only in a semi recumbant position leaning up against one of us.

Kathryn stayed awake most of the visit today until our last 30 minutes together. All the stimulation is exhausting. I think she mostly enjoys the time we spend rubbing her down with lotion and cleaning her up as well as just snuggling in our arms. She lies in our arms and stares herself off to sleep. Just wait till she gets home and has all the excitement of having 3 brothers. She will thrive on all the attention!

Meetings with the Doctors

Well, we are definitely into the daily routine here. Our visits with Kathryn are going great. Today when we walked into the room, one of the caregivers was playing with her. She said Kathryn woke up and cried because she was used to waking up and having us there. She was in a very content mood. We did lots of stretching and tummy time today. She really likes it and is growing stronger by the day. Her grip in her right hand is much stronger now. When we are streching her legs, we can feel her pushing against them.

Over the past two days we were able to meet with both Dr. Natalia and Dr. Victoria. Dr. Natalia is the head pediatrician at the Maternity Hospital where Kathryn was born. Dr. Victoria is the head pediatrician at the Children's Hospital where Kathryn is now and has been since she was 3 months old. They were both very nice and informative. They both suggested we do massage and stretching with Kathryn and we explained that we been doing this since we got here. Dr. Natalia gave us an idea of some of the questions we would be asked in court. Mostly about already having 3 biological children and why would we want to adopt another one. Well, for us this is a simple answer - because our entire family loves Kathryn and she will bring a lot of love into our family.

Last night we took our first excursion on foot into the city of Kokshetau. It was a nice cool evening - not cold. We walked about 15 minutes to the Next Store to use the ATM ( in English), then another 5 minutes to the Tsum store and on to Pyramid for dinner. The Tsum store is an interesting department store. It has tons of small cubicle like stores. Each store has it's own specialty. There were coats, purses, toys, nicknacks, etc. Apparently many of the "designer" clothes stores are all knock-offs. We were there about 15 minutes and we were ready to head on to dinner. We had salad and pizza for dinner. It was pretty good. I ordered a Sprite to drink. It came in the same kind of plastic bottle we get at home, but when it was opened there wasn't any carbonation. It was still good - believe it or not. I had not had a soda since we left Fl over a week ago.

Tomorrow we will take a driving tour around town with Inna, our interpreter, and Yuri, our driver. We hope to take tons of photos of the city as a keepsake for Kathryn.

Life here in Kaz

Life is pretty quiet here. We are still not fully adjusted to life 10 hours ahead of FL. We do, however, take a nap in the afternoons when we are tired - not something we are used to. Here is a picture of our cottage. We stay in the one on the right.

In the evenings we have been losing our internet connection. They say it is because everyone gets home from school and work and logs on, so it is flooded with activity, but who really knows??? So, we have watched one Bourne movie each of the past 3 nights - always good entertainment. Our cottage mates are also Bourne fans.

Mona, one of our cottage mates, and I have tried to be creative at night with dinners. Last night we made fajitas by improvising with great Kazakh bread for tortillas. When buying meat, we pray we end up with beef - I think we did. The national dish in Kaz is horse, but I'm not willing to go there.... We have also made chili - or more like a goulasch - which was good. They have the best dumplings here with cabbage and mushrooms which we had the other night. We bought another pack to cook because we liked them so much. So, needless to say, we are not starving here. We have tried the chocolate which is great. The yogurt is delicious! We bought some fruit yesterday and the apples are wonderful. They say "apples are from Kazakhstan".

Tonight we are celebrating with our cottage mates. They had their court date today and officially became parents of a 4 year old boy! We are so excited for them and are looking forward to our day in court!

We are really enjoying our time with Kathryn and passing the time between visits.

Official Bonding Day #3

After days of stretching and working out Kathryn's muscles, she is now beginning to kick her legs on her own. She is getting stronger each day. She is starting to reach for things using her gross motor skills and she kick her legs when she is happy.

Today we saw her cry for the first time. She was drinking her bottle, more like gulping, and when we would take it away for her to catch her breath, she started to cry. It is amazing how she drinks her bottle, I don't know that any words can really explain it. She gulps and swallows and you can hear it dumping into her tummy. Of course she swallows tons of air! She would make her brothers proud with the burp that follows :-) Here is a picture of the Kazakh bottle she drinks from. Nothing like the ones we see now-a-days with the features to minimize air flow into the bottle.

The translator of our cottage mates, Makhabbat, told me today what they say about raising their children . . . "from 0-3 yrs old they treat them like kings (take care of them and give them all they need, from 3-7 they treat them like 'slaves' (teach them everything they can) and from 7 on they are your friends". We will provide all that Kathryn needs, teach her all we can and will be her friend when she is old enough!

Here We Are...

It's officially Day 2 of our bonding period. Initially we thought we were two days ahead of schedule and started our bonding on Sat, but that is not the case and we are right on schedule. We are enjoying the time. Our visits go by so quickly and it is getting harder each day to leave her at the end of the visit. She is starting to kick her legs and sort of bats her hands at times. I don't remember seeing her kick at all in the first few days. We spend time stretching her every day. I also massage her when we first get there while I change her clothes. I think this is her favorite time. She just smiles and starts talking to us. She spends some time on the floor on her tummy before she gets her bottle. We are hoping this will help her build some strength in her arms and neck. She is still coughing and congested, but seems better than yesterday. Once again, she fell asleep in Daddy's arms, but was awake when it was time for us to go. We kept kissing on her, we did not want to leave.

After the visit, we went to the Green Market. What an interesting place. Inside there all hundreds of booths. There are vegetables, fruit, cheese, milk products , breads and half the booths are meats. All the meets are layed out, many are fresh cuts of meet and others are fresh whole meats. Very interesting! They also sell clothes and other goods there. Maybe we will have a chance to get some pictures at some point. We can't take pictures AND keep a low profile.

Thinking of Home

Just sitting here having thoughts of home. It was almost a week ago that we were having our last day of work and getting ready to take the Boys out to our Family Night dinner. Hard to believe how quick a week goes. It is so great to be able to have internet access and cell phones to keep in touch with everyone. We look forward each day to checking emails and catching up with everyone.

I was also thinking today about Kathryn's room. Well soon to be room. She will stay with us in our room for a while till her room is built. I know this is the ongoing question, where is Kathryn going to sleep in our 3 bedroom house? We have just about decided to build a room in our living room for her. This is the best option so that she can have a room outside of ours and we still have plenty of room in the house with the family room. We rarely use the living room anyhow. This is a picture of the crib set we picked out for her room. No, her room won't look exactly like that but... It is pretty in pink just like Kathryn. Her great grandparents gave us the bumber, skirt and sheets at the Bon Voyage party last weekend. Can't wait to put the crib together and get her home.

Our thoughts and love go out to everyone at home. We have felt the prayers and love sent with us the whole time we've been here. There are so many people who have been a part of making this possible that I won't even try to start naming you - if you are reading this you are one of them. Our thoughts and hearts are at home with you all while we spend this time with our new daughter. This bonding time is so important in the journey of adoption.

Capturing our Hearts

Today was a little quieter than the past two day's visits. Kathryn wasn't feeling very well today. She has quite the cough. From what we have read for the past year on many blogs, these colds are very common. It was so hard not be able to just give her some medicine, though we were told she is getting cold medicine. They told us "there are lots of viruses around". Even with the cold, she was not fussy, just tired.

We still got several smiles and managed to stretch her out a little. She was definitely happier being held! This is just fine with us for now! When we got there, once again she was just waking up. She looked right up at us and gave us a big Kathryn Smile! Of course, that grabbed our hearts right away. It occurred to us while Dave was giving her the bottle today, that he was the first man to feed her the bottle! That was special for Daddy. You can already tell she has captivated Daddy' heart and will be Daddy's little girl.

We started taking our MP3 player and the speakers with us and playing some nice soft music. Today was Pachabel Canon with ocean background. She seems to like it and it gives some background music to an otherwise pretty quiet room.
Speaking of technology... wow life is not bad here since we have so much technology. Dave and I sit and watch a few episodes of Seinfeld or Frasier when we can't sleep - like at 4am this morning. We play on the internet, look up local news, and right now I'm also listening to Z88.3 compliments of zradio online. There is local free wifi, but we do not use if for security reasons. We have DSL wireless access in the cottage for a fee. We have settled into a routine after our visits of doing some daily shopping for whatever we need, having lunch, internet time, nap and then get dinner ready, visit with our cottage mates, more internet and reading. It is pretty quiet, but the time passes. Nothing to complain about because the cottage is very comfortable.

We enjoy starting our days by talking to the Boys at home. We miss them so much! They are doing well. We missed talking to Michael this morning as he was at Brian's house. Thanks to all our friends and family that are taking care of and checking in on the boys. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Sleep and Smiles for our Second visit

We are getting into a routine here, which happened faster than we had anticipated. It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do. We went to see Kathryn a little after 1000 wondering what her reaction would be to us today. Maybe yesterday was a fluke. She proved us wrong. When we arrived she was sound asleep in her crib and did not want to disturb her. She awoke about 15 minutes later, turned her head and smiled at us. The time flew by and before we knew it it was time to leave. She continues to be semmingly intrigued by us. We played, stretched her out, fed her another bottle and she fell asleep just before we left. She is easy going and playful. We will keep working on getting her strength increased a little at a time.

Life here is fairly quiet for us. Not in the sense that there are no kids, but in that we don't have the constant input of things like work, television, driving. Honestly, I don't miss the television much at all. Yesterday, after our visit with Kathryn our interpretor, Inna, took us to the grocery store for a few things. I'm a little rusty on my Cyrillic so I was happy to have her help in selecting the correct tortellini, the one with cabbage and mushrooms, and not horse meat. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

On that note, Karie and our other house mates went to the store to purchase some beef to go in the chili we were making for dinner. To get their point across in making sure they were getting what they wanted, they were "mooing" at the lady behind the counter. She laughed and said "Da"(yes). The chili turned out pretty good, more like a Gulasch though. Other than a couple trips to the store, we have not ventured out. It really isn't that cold to be outside during the day. It's the fact that you cannot blend in anywhere. Most people are very nice, but I would rather not have the attention. We are trying to keep a low profile and all we have to do is speak English and they know who we are. We will venture out a little more in a few days to see what kinds of Kazak items we will want to take home.

How Beautiful…

How Beautiful…

What a great way to start our visit but to be greeted by a beautiful young lady! Kathryn. From the moment we entered her room and saw her she greeted us with a steady stare from those big brown eyes and sometimes a smile. But mostly a look of curiosity and a look of content just to be held. We were told that we would have two hours visit with her and that would be the norm for the duration of our visits. She is small for her age (a little over 6 months and 12 lbs. Not bad for a preemie) but is well proportioned, nourished, has big brown eyes, and a calm disposition. She is very expressive with looks of content, interest, and delight. She does seem to lack some muscle tone for this age like holding her head up unassisted. But I’m no expert. There is even a slight showing of dimples when she smiles. She is already a joy and we know she will be a blessed addition to our family. It seemed like we did a lot during our visit; she looked at us and cooed, played, napped, drank a bottle of formula (kifer actually, like a yogurt) in record time, about 8 oz. in <4min.>

The Meeting

Our day began after a much needed good night sleep. The temperature here is cold and, since the heat is centrally controlled by the government (more on that later), it was for me at least, good sleeping weather. We spoke to the boys and Karie’s parents this morning via our cell phone since we could not connect with skype. We think we have the issue resolved with skype so we should have the ability to talk and video with the boys Saturday morning. At about 945 we were picked up by our driver, Yuri, who speaks only Russian but some how we still communicate, and interpreter, Inna (pronounced EENnah) a very professional bright young woman who majored in English at Kokshetau University and is wise beyond her years, and headed to the Ministry of Education. There, we spoke with the Deputy Minister, a Russian woman in maybe her late 50’s ish. With a stoic expression but polite tone she asked us, through Inna, to tell her a little about us and what we were looking for in terms of a child to adopt. After that brief discussion she asked us a few questions including “Do your boys treat each other nicely?” Of course, we said yes;-). Interestingly, she mentioned that Kazakhstan law provides for a parent to take off work until the child reaches their 3rd birthday. Regretfully, we told her that there are not the same provisions in the United States but we are taking as much time as allowed by law. She was pleased with our responses and allowed us to visit the baby house, which we did very shortly after our meeting.

Добро пожаловать в Кокшетау...Welcome to Kokshetau

We finally setteled in arriving last evening (Thursday) around 7pm. So although the post says 9/18, it's really the 19th...I'm pretty sure. It's cold here with highs in the 40's and 20's overnight. We are now at the "cottage", a three bedroom, two story place that we are sharing with another adoptive family. The 4 hour ride from Astana to Kokshetau was long, especially after not having much sleep in the previous 48 hours. The countryside here reminds me mostly of the midwest, without the farms. There are rolling hills and wide open countryside that seem to go on forever. We passed through a few small villages and two gas stations but for the most part there is nothing but open space for the almost 400km we traveled between the two cities. There is lots of road construction going on to improve and widen what is here now. The main road we took here consists of some new sections, some old, and sometimes there is neither. Just an unfinished new section that requires you to veer off to the side onto a dirt "road" until you reach another paved section.

The driving here is reminiscent of Chicago taxi drivers. The roads may or may not have lines defining lanes but in any case, there is always the option of creating your own, which is a frequent occurence. Even on the "highway" if the car in front of you isn't moving fast enough for your liking, just go around, apparently it's ok to take your half of the oncoming traffic lane, even with traffic coming! However, the oncoming traffic doesn't seem to mind since they tend to stay on their half of the lane.

Looking forward to our meeting with the Department of Education Director (they oversee the baby houses) and our subsequent visit to the baby house!

Journey to Kaz ... the long Silk Road

Well, once we were on the plane to Frankfurt, it seemed the travel would not end. It was a long road but well worth the time. We basically were in transit for what seemed like 2 full days. An eight hour flight to Frankfurt, a two hour layover, 6 hour flight to Almaty then a quick rest in the apartment in Almaty. Lufthansa does a great job with their flights. The US airlines could learn a lesson or two. We were served meals on each flight (two on the first). Free drinks/sodas the whole trip. It was strange to see the flight attendants coming up and down the aisles throughout the night serving wine. On the first flight we had personal TV sets and could watch TV or movies or listen to music.

Once in Almaty, Dema, our driver, brought us to the apartment. I could not believe the number of people out at 1230 in the morning. The city seemed to never sleep. The apartment was nice - 4th floor. We didn't really plan for carrying 4 suitcases and 4 carry-ons up 4 flights of stairs - but we did it! We barely slept 3-4 hours. We had a great wakeup call by the boys at 6am Kaz time. Daniel's first question was "Have you seen the judge yet?" We will see the judge after our 14 day visitation period which starts on Monday.

At 0845 on Thursday am we went to meet with the Sisters. They were very efficient and professional. We signed all the application forms and took care of the financial side of things. It went very smooth. At 1100 Dema took us to the Almaty airport. We took off at 1230 and headed for Astana. It was a quick 1 1/2 hr flight. Once in Astana, Yuri, our driver, took us on the 4 hour ride to Kokshetau. We arrived in Kokshetau around 7pm. It was a very interesting drive. Lots of flat land with small villages.

We arrived at the cottage and got settled in. Our room mates brought us a pizza - boy were we hungry! We got logged onto the internet and off to bed at 1030!

And We Begin.....

Actually, it's not really the beginning, but the culmination of many months of plannning and preparation. Maybe it's the beginning of the end, of this part at least.We are finally off to the airport and patiently waiting for our boarding from Orlando to Frankfurt, then on to Almaty, Kazakhstan. We will arrvie in Almaty near midnight Wednesday. The following morning, or sometime shortly thereafter, is when we will fly to Astana and then our 4 hour drive to Kokshetau. What's a little more time after months of preparing for this. It always seems like the last few hours (minutes) are the longest. Fortunately, the boys are in their usual routine at home busy with homework and practice and being well cared for by their Nana and Papa. Hopefully, this will keep some normalcy to their schedule. We miss them already but know they are in great hands with family and friends.

Family Time

Before we left on our journey we were able to spend some quality time with the family. My Mom and Debbi planned a Bon Voyage party for us on Sunday. Maddi did the great poster shown here. It was a lot of fun and we really appreciated the great time with the family. Nana and Maddi had gone shopping for some clothes for baby girl Ryan and gave them to us on Sunday. Mama Louise and Grandaddy gave us the crib set from Pottery Barn for baby girl Ryan. They are all adorable. The party was lots of fun.

On Monday after school and soccer, we took the boys to Fujiyamas for dinner. It was a lot of fun. The boys enjoyed having their dinner cooked in front of them. Michael tried some new foods and they all enjoyed it. It was just an enjoyable night out with the boys before our we off on the journey.

Family time.... we will look forward to our new family of 6!

We have them all - documents that is...

Just a quick note to say that all our documents are in our hands. FedEx came through with a week to spare. It is great to not have to worry at the last minute if they will get here. It has taken lots of hard to work and coordination to get most of the documents redone. But... we did it! Yeah.

6 days and counting....

Happy Grandparents Day!

Today is Grandparents Day. What a great day to think about bringing home my parents 6th grandchild ( second grandaughter). This will be Dave's Mom's 5th grandchild and also her second grandaughter. We are blessed to have my grandparents here to experience this adoption as well. They have all been so supportive of this process. Our children are so blessed to live so close to their grandparents and great grandparents.

My parents will experience staying with the boys for the time that we are gone. We are so thankful that they are willing to do this for us. Knowing that they will be staying with the boys has made the planning so much easier. Thank God for Grandparents!

8 days and counting....

P.S. I found a coat for our little girl for the cold weather!

The Countdown is On!

We are in the countdown mode. We have less than 2 weeks. We are still awaiting some of our apostilled documents to come back from the Fl Dept of State. I do feel better, however, that we have a back up plan if they do not arrive:-)

Between now and the 16th we have plenty to do. Not only are we getting ready for the trip, but the kids are starting up all their activities. School open houses are this week and next week. Soccer games start this weekend and baseball practices should start next week. Homework is in full force with projects starting all ready. Busy, busy, busy....

On Friday we will be going to Nana and Papa's to go over all the details of the boys' schedules. I think we have everything pretty organized for them. They will be busy, but they will have lots of fun and create lasting memories.

I have a to do list that is still incomplete.... we have added getting a winter coat for our baby girl to the list. It is starting to get cold over in Kaz. There is a custom/rule that when babies go outside they have to be wrapped and dressed in very warm clothes and hats - no matter what the outside temperature is. No exceptions. We are unsure exactly when we will take her outside, but we want to be prepared.

12 days and counting.......