Big Wigs in Karaganda

Hi All!
They are having the OSCE summit in Astana in a few days so they have closed down the airport here in Karaganda for all of the diplomats fly into and then drive them to Astana for the event. I think the airport here is bigger or something? In any case, there were police officers located on every single street corner this morning. Seriously, I kid you not, every single one. The BH is located pretty darn close to Nursultan’s residence here and so they were especially thick there. As a matter of fact Oxana was not even allowed to drive onto the property to drop us there this morning. She was stopped the second she turned into the driveway. She actually yelled at the police officer “But I am going to the Desky Dom (BH)! I need to get through!” She’s fiery little bugger when she needs to be. He told her it didn’t matter and to move along and she apparently told him that she was in fact not moving but that she was dropping us here and she would go find a place to park. I was actually afraid he might stop us from entering the grounds but, although he gave us a weird look and seeming to consider it, he left us to our business. Poor Oxana had to find a ‘yard’ to park in at one of the apartment complexes and then walk over. Always nice to have a little excitement to wake you up in the morning, right?

Little Sumo was cute as always. Our little punkin’ turned 11 months today. His doctor says he is not gaining weight but it’s probably because he’s been getting so much exercise with us. And one of his top teeth is coming in too. In the middle of our visit today, I started counting up how much time we have left with him. I have 6 visits which equals only 12 hours left to hold his warm little body. Yes, I am counting my time with our son not in weeks or days but in hours now. It makes me so sad. Every time I think about it, I get teary. I told Rin I was sad today and he suggested we stay here with Sumo and Peter go home to work. I might consider it if our visa wasn’t up on Sunday.

I was the one who stayed home with Rin today for naptime and nap he did. A few minute after he hit the sack, I looked outside and there were giant flakes coming down. I was really tempted to wake him up but then common sense took over and I let him snooze. But it was still going on when he woke up and he was so so excited to see it. We snuggled on the sofa and watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and ate popcorn while we waited for Peter to come home and we could go out and play. When we got out there, the snow was actually half slush and rather than snow angels, he made some mud angels. But there were no old ladies to yell at him this time so I let him just go to town and he was a happy boy.

I forgot to mention yesterday about how obsessed Rinat was with this one guy who was doing the vaulting on the horse who split his pants. They took 3 volunteers ‘from the audience’ (not really) to try it out and attached them to a cable in case they fell off. The first man was obviously just a regular man who really was a volunteer, the second one was one of the guys selling stuff outside and was an almost pro at it, and then the third guy made it really funny for the kids and he would almost fall and then climb back on and then almost fall off the other side and then get back on and then he split his pants and then finally stood up on the horse while it was galloping. Rinat could have cared less about him standing, he just was worried about his pants. “Who’s going to fix them? Does he have another pair? Will the circus people have a lady to sew them? Will his Mommy do it at home?” He is still asking about that guy’s pants today. It’s cracking me up.

And can we just talk about the weather for Friday for a second? High of 1, low of -13. Yup, that’s NEGATIVE 13. Well, maybe it will help me not sweat my fanny off in court because I’m so nervous. Let me say it again- a high of 1 degree. ONE. Yikes.

Keep warm! Love to all, -m

The Kazakh Circus

Hi All!

This morning started as usual- wake up, breakfast, get dressed, BH. Little Sumo continues to only want to be held. The second I put him down to practice crawling or play with toys he just crawls right back over to me and lifts up his tiny little arm for me to pick him up again and goes from grunting to whining to crying until I do. Peter has been making fun of me for giving in every time but at this point I just feel like our days together are numbered and before we know it, we’ll be headed back home and he will be here wondering where his Mama and Dada went. I feel like I have to just soak up every single second. And once we leave, I don’t think that there will be anyone in his room who will be able to send me photos or report what he’s up to for me. We’ll just be sitting over there in DC wishing he was with us or that someone would tell him that we’re coming back soon and wondering how he is. I’m sure the time will fly because of the holidays and all but I sure wish it was less than the 4 weeks or so that they are guessing it will be before I can come back. Sigh. But I will just do my best to take in and remember every little thing about him until we leave.

This week we finally bought tickets to go to the circus that is in town. Rinat has been asking and asking (and asking) if we can go since way back in October and finally there was a show in town and Oxana helped to buy us tickets. He was so excited about it. And it did not disappoint.

First of all, Rinat has never actually been to the circus before and he was unsure what I expect. I think he thought it was sort of like the zoo and so before we went, he kept asking “After we sit in our seats and watch, can we walk around and see the animals?” I did my best to explain how it was all going to go. But one thing I forgot to tell him was exactly how loud it would be. After jostling our way through the doors (Kazakhs are not big on personal space and pushing to get where you want to go is how it’s done), and begging the help of the very nice usher to help us find our seats, and watching the people selling all sorts of light-up toys and balloons, and waiting for it to start (“I’m ready for it Mama,” he kept telling me), he spent the first 10 minutes with his hands over his ears and a look of bewilderment on his little face. Not excitement, not happy, just confused. But after the first act or so, he got the jist of it and started to enjoy himself. There were dancing princesses, a silly man that we called Mr Noodle, poodles doing tricks, gymnastics in the air, vaulting on horses to the theme song of the TV show Dallas (you know when they do gymnastics-type moves while riding a galloping horse), trained bears, very risqué dancing done for the benefit of any fathers out there. And during the intermission, Rinat got his obligatory glow-in-the-dark sword and got to hold a giant snake in the circus ring. And after the show, he got to ride the pony while brandishing said sword and he pretended to be a cavalier (University of VA’s mascot). All in all, it was a good time. By the time we got out of there, Rin and I were sweating to death (he sat on my lap for free along with all of our coats), hungry (2 hours past dinner), and our little man was tired. So we walked across the street to the City Mall and got some dinner (and a giant beer). But I think that Rinat’s favorite part of the whole night might have been walking home. He lit the way through the Creepy Cave (alley behind our apartment building) with his sword and enjoyed being out past dark. It was very exciting. And it was a great change from our everyday life.

Love to all, -m
I have a ton of photos but this is all your getting until I have better internet

Brothers

Hi all!
I know, I know, I didn’t post yesterday. Really there’s nothing new to say. We are all good and happy and healthy. Rinat has been relatively OK behavior wise (and so has Peter- haha). We get up, we eat Bfast, we see Sumo, we eat lunch, we see Sumo, we eat dinner, we take bath, we watch another episode of The Tudors, we go to bed. That’s our day pretty much every day.

Yesterday was the day of barf. Nope, not just spit up, but full on barf. I don’t think he actually had any food left in his little belly after throwing up on me 3 times and Peter once or twice. Gross. But I have realized that by putting some good smelling lotion on his little face it can somewhat combat the lingering smell of puke. But he didn’t seem to be under the weather or anything. Rin had him laughing again by jumping up and down and making faces. Our little Sumo completely adores Rin and starts smiling the second he walks into the room. It’s so sweet. And when Rin walks by and pats him on the head or says a nice word to him, he falls even more head over heels in love with his big brother. He gets this giant smile and his little bottom tooth pokes up and he gets what Rin calls moon eyes. It’s really good for Rin that Sumo is finally giving him some feedback. He was not especially interactive when we first started visiting with him but now he’s a whole different kid. Today for instance, all he wanted to do all day long was be held by me. Any time I would put him down, he would scoot over to where I was and grunt and hold up his little arm to say “Hold me. Please please hold me.” and he would give me those puppy dog eyes. How could I say no to that? And really I love snuggles anyway so it worked out fine for me. My arms might be a little bit tired but they have been aching to hold another baby for quite a while so I’m sure not complaining.

And I know everyone says how different their children are from each other and to be honest I had sort of wondered if it might not work the same for adopted kids- that we might get two Rinats. But Sumo is a totally different kid. Rinat has never met a stranger, Sumo cries anytime someone new talks to him. Rinat is all over the place all the time, Sumo is happy to just sort of hang out. Rin was talking up a storm even at 6 month, Sumo grunts and every once in a while cries. I am so happy that I seem to have a calm child to counteract the whirling dervish that is Rinat. I think they will be a perfect match. Yin and Yang, Peas and Carrots, Chocolate and Peanut Butter- all good on their own but perfect together.

Love to all, -m

Oh, and tomorrow, being Sunday, we have the afternoon off so we are planning a day of souvenir shopping and the Circus. It should be fun! 

Thanksgiving

Hi All!
I started crying before I typed even the first word of this. But as Rin always asks “Mommy, are those happy tears?” and they really truly are. How can I even express how thankful we are this year? We began trying to start our family the month after I turned 30 (but it had nothing to do with age, I swear!). And here we are, 7 & ½ years later finally with what I always wanted. We have two wonderful children to love each other, play with, fight with, grow up with, share happy and sad times, deal with their annoying parents together (only kidding), and be there for each other. I have pretty much everything I ever wanted. And we are happy. I look forward to many fun times together and most of all, I look forward to watching them grow up as brothers. I had a good time with my brothers. We never really fought all that much that I can recall and generally enjoyed each other’s company. We still do. And I am so glad that I can give that to my two boys.

Our Thanksgiving was pretty darn good. We, of course, headed to the baby house as always. We brought some treats for the caregivers and I think they were happy to have a little treat. Rin was really sweet with Sumo today and had him doubled over laughing by jumping up and down which was the best Thanksgiving gift ever. Lunch was at the Ukrainian place which is pretty good. They have this little chalkboard for the kids to use. I came over and Rin was drawing a giant sun on it and Oxana had drawn a little house. Rin informed me that it was the Baby House and Sumo was there and he was really sad. “Why is he sad?” I asked him. “Because he misses his mommy.” “Oh yeah, and who’s his mommy?” “It’s you, silly!” Those were sweetest words I heard all day long. When we left the restaurant, it was snowing which was a happy surprise for us all.

Sumo was in a really good mood in the afternoon and I got lots of laughs out of him. Actually Oxana was entertaining all of the babies while they were on their tiny potties by jumping up and down and waving her arms around. They were really funny and she got lots of smiles from them. I always love it when people show them some attention. There’s only so much time the nannies can give them so I think it’s really nice that we get to be in the room with them. Even if it’s just a pat on the head or a tickle under the chin, it’s nice for them to get. After putting little Sumo to sleep, she and I went to print out our photos for court that prove we were actually here and visiting him this whole time. And then we went on a hunt for rotisserie chicken for our tiny little Thanksgiving Feast. I came home bearing chicken and Peter informed me that he needed to run out and pay for some more minutes on the internet and he also came home with some cake from Charlotka. Yum. So we enjoyed our Thanksgiving chicken, the stuffing and gravy I brought from home, some veggies and some wonderful Reforma cake. It was a pretty good Thanksgiving. Oh, and when I asked Peter what he was thankful for he told me “Sumo and the rest of my family” Rin told me “Sumo. And C (another baby). And T. And…what are all those other babies’ names? And Elf (the movie).” Me, I’m thankful for Fashion TV that we just discovered that we have on our TV here. Only kidding, you all know what I’m thankful for. Happy Turkey Day!

Gobble Gobble, -m

Welcome Back to Happiness

Hi All!


I apologize for yesterday. I am much better today. Around midnight last night I got a shower and it did wonders for my outlook.

This morning started off pretty well. Rin was in good spirits and insisted we play several rounds of Musical Chairs using his rules which I never got a really good grip on. Then he was being really funny while we were waiting for Oxana to come pick us up (Zhenya is sick and Oxana is driving now). He kept asking me where we could find a girl hole (huh?). It wasn’t until later that I recalled him saying something about a manhole cover as we were walking to our meeting place and I put two and two together. But it’s a good question, isn’t it, for a three year old mind to ponder?

We were late getting to the BH and poor little Sumo was crying so hard. I could hear him as we walked up the stairs to his room. But he stopped immediately when I picked him up and he very anxiously waited for us to get him changed and dressed so he could get his chow on. It was one of those days that he whined a bit in between bites as if to say, “Come on already, can’t you see I’m ready for the next bite?” But he was pretty smiley today after he got his belly all full up with corn mush. Actually Oxana told me it’s not corn but these tiny little circles that are bright yellow and they cook them down into mush. Anyone know what they’re called? All this little boy wants to do the last few days is stand. No more sitting for him, still no real crawling, he wants to pull up and stand. Anytime I hold his little arms and pull him up, he just smiles and laughs. He loves it.

Rin got him to smile again today by giving him tickles and pats on the head. It makes me so happy to see them interact. While we’re at the Baby House, Rin sort of keeps to himself mostly. I mean, he is a rough and tumble boy and that doesn’t really mix well with babies all over the floor. So usually when we get there, we will all go get Sumo up and then Rin gets his snack and goes into the other room to watch his movies while we feed Sumo his breakfast. Then he’ll sort of come back and forth to see what we’re up to or to get one of us to come play with him or to come play where we are while we’re having playtime with Sumo. Then sometimes I will have Rin get dressed early to go outside and play for a little while with one of us while the other one puts Sumo down to bed. It’s been working out pretty well.

But the best part of the day aside from our smiley baby was after lunch. Rin and I came home and I went to check and see if we had enough water to wash the dishes that were piled in the sink, and WOW do we have water. Vadim had come over and checked on our water situation. He obviously changed something because now we have probably 100 times more water coming from the faucet in the bathroom and it is scalding hot. I was so excited that I almost broke into the choreography from Footloose. I felt like they must have felt when they hit oil at Spindletop, literally jumping up and down and saying “Rin! Rin! Come look at the water!” We celebrated with a cleaning frenzy of the apartment. This girl is sooooo happy. I can sleep soundly knowing that there will be a shower awaiting me in the morning.

Love to all, -m

Warning- Bad Mood Ahead

Hi All!


I have to warn you- I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I’m not sure why. Mostly, I’ve been OK with dealing with any hardships here. I think Peter would agree that I’m not a huge complainer. But today, I just lost myself for the day. I woke up in a bad mood and thought that perhaps I could shake it with a shower. But of course there was no hot water (of course). So I put back on my stinky clothes from the day before. I mean, why not since I was smelled like BO anyway going on day 3 without a shower. And then I went to check email. I tried repeatedly to send one to my friend Diane. I mean for like an hour I tried and it still wouldn’t send. I almost told Peter I was boycotting the day and going back to bed. But then I remembered that little Sumo was waiting for me and we only have 11 more days with him and pulled myself out of the doldrums and rallied. And I am glad that I did. Getting outside helped. There was snow falling and Rinat was, of course, trying his hardest to roll around in it in his jeans and, mean mommy that I am, I wouldn’t let him. But he was pretty good once we got to the BH.

Sumo was still sort of whiny today testing out his ‘if I whine, I’ll get picked up’ theory. He now whines until I tell him “Come here, Sweetpea” and he’ll scoot my way with his half crawl and then raise his arm up to me for me to pick him up. I am so happy that he finally knows what I am for. I’m the picker upper, the comforter, the kiss the booboos lady, the fill your tummy person- someone he can trust. I am so happy that he is realizing this and at the same time I am sort of unsure whether to encourage it knowing that I am just going to leave him in less than two weeks and disappear from his world for a month only to come back and take him away from everything he knows. It is going to be hard on him- all of it- and it makes me feel guilty that we will be the ones causing him so much sadness. But I know that in the end it will be a good thing and he will be in our loving family and that is much better than where he is now. The nannies care well for the babies but they are not parents. Eventually he would move to another room with another group of nannies, and again and again and again until he turned 16. So I tell myself that a few months of chaos in his world is much better than the years that it would be otherwise.

Rin and Sumo had a good moment today. Rin went digging in the toy bag that has all of our stuff and brought out this toy that squeeks when you shake it up and down. Sumo was laughing and laughing and Rin was very proud of himself. “He doesn’t laugh that much but I got him to’” he told me later on that day. And it seems that a little encouragement goes a long with with Rin because he then brought him over some of the toys that he knows that he likes the best and gave him a little pat on the head before heading off to play on his own again.

Then we went to the Middle Eastern place for lunch. Rin ate some plain blini (Im finally figuring out what to order him here that he’ll eat) and a few bites of shashlyk. Then he ate ice cream and I had baklava. Yum. I love baklava. And it’s fun to make too. Our lunch went pretty well until Rin had a breakdown because the waitress brought him a chocolate egg and I wouldn’t let him eat it because he had just had the giant bowl of ice cream. Poor Rin. People are so nice here and give him free stuff all the time and then I won’t let him have it. And then he fell asleep in the car on the way back to the apartment, the tired little boy, and Peter said he napped for good long while when I was at the BH.

Sumo was good this afternoon and just wanted to be held by Mama. Sweetness. And I was happy to have a short break from my boys. Wonderful as they may be, it is nice to have some time for just me and Sumo to get to know each other without any distractions.

Since Rin took a good nap that afternoon, we told him that he could go outside and make a snow angel and then we’d take a walk to the Ramstore to get some groceries. The second we stepped outside, he threw himself on the ground and some old lady starting yelling at him and me. Apparently snow angels are not looked on too favorably in Kaz even when you have snow pants, snow jacket, snow boots, hat, and gloves on. Whatever. We went around the corner and made one anyway. It actually looked more like a snow eagle which is entirely appropriate considering where we are. Maybe the lady wouldn’t have yelled had she know he was making an eagle instead.

And the water situation continues. Today there was no water at all, not even a trickle, all day long. It came back on around 7 that night and was the color of CocaCola. Literally. We can’t wash dishes or take showers, flush the toilet (yeah, flush the toilet), or anything. I am officially annoyed. So I am going to feel sorry for myself for today. I just ate 400 sour strawberry gummy spaghettis. And I think I might go eat a Snickers Super now. Who says junk food can’t make you feel better? Well, me usually. But not today.

Hasta, -m

A Chilly Day at the Park

Hi All-
I have to admit that I had forgotten what it felt like to be cold but today I was reminded. It was chilly when we headed out to the BH this morning and we had planned going outside this afternoon so as a sort of afterthought, brought along another layer to wear and thank goodness I did. We had a good morning with our little guy. He was a little cranky and he actually cried several times today when we put him down or when he got a slight bump from someone. I wonder if he might be getting sick. One of the little girls, Zh, has been sick and crying for days so I wonder if it might be headed Sumo’s way. But he was still lots of fun to be around and I didn’t mind a little bit of extra snuggle time. And I think it’s good that he knows we are there to offer comfort when he needs it which hasn’t been all that much since we started visiting him.

Some men came in today to put in shelving in his playroom so they asked if we could bundle the babies up and take them downstairs on a walk around the baby house or to the big room down there. They didn’t have to ask us twice! It’s nice to have a change of scenery. But our little man was mute again and out of sorts being out of his normal surroundings. We brought him down and put him on the floor in the big playroom and he immediately started crying. Poor guy. Sometimes I forget that his world consists of just two little rooms and maybe 10 adults right now. But we were enjoying talking to the other two couples who are adopting right now and Rin was having a grand old time. There is a couple here from Spain who is adopting a two and a half year old boy so he played ball with him. And there were some people visiting the cutest little girl- probably 3 or 4 years old. I am not sure it was a local woman adopting or if it was the bio mother and grandmother or some other relatives of the girl coming to visit but she was super cute and had tons of energy and Rin played with her too. I even offered to go with him to try and find the Baby House cat, Sonya, who usually stays near the kitchen (which is near the bathroom we use and near the room where we were) and he said no because he was having too much fun there. He loves Sonya- who looks like our MassieCat but smaller- and tells me he has to go to the bathroom almost every day just so he can look for her. And then it was time for lunch.

We headed to Assorti at the mall. Rin tucked into some fried eggs, me into my chicken farfalle, and Peter into his pizza. Rin likes it there because they have a tub of toys that they loan out to patrons- today it was a giant green plastic dinosaur and a stuffed bear with a little red plastic nose. Peter and I like it because it is familiar food, the menu is in English, and they play the 80’s flashback videos. I mean, Cyndi Lauper True Colors? Come on. After that we, of course, headed to the Jungle Park. Being Sunday and cold outside, it was overrun with kids. But it didn’t bother Rin in the least. He won lots of prizes and then we headed out and got him another giant cotton candy before bundling up and braving the cold. And cold it was.

The whole time we’ve been here- a month if you add it all up- we have never made it to the city park. Pathetic, I know. We had the afternoon off today, the sun was shining, and so we walked over to the park. Now I am from TX and have never lived anywhere truly cold (aside from 5 short months in Boston) so I am unfamiliar with frozen lakes. But have you ever heard the sound that a chunk of ice makes as it skids across a frozen lake? It made me stop in my tracks and yell to Rinat “Do it again, do it again!” It’s completely entrancing. It sounds sort of like the underwater sonar sound of whales on a National Geographic video (which we watch a lot of at our house). Rin was throwing little ice chunks and having a good old time and then a group of teenagers came past, breaking up the lake to get giant chunks of ice to toss, and it was just one after another as they went ‘wooooowaaaaahhh’ across the frozen surface one after another. Amazing. Who knew that sounds was so beautiful?

And then we headed toward the big Ferris wheel and the tiny houses that we pass every day on the way to the baby house. Rin was very disappointed that all of them were closed up for the season but it was fun to walk through and see anyway. There were twirly rides and kiddie rides of every description and Rin had to check them all out. We wandered around until about 4 when it was time to head back. Rin didn’t have any quiet time today so I knew our minutes were numbered and also the sun was beginning to set and I didn’t want to be caught out in the cold. So we walked the 15 minutes or so back to our apartment and I have never been happier to have heat. It was pure bliss. Now if only I could get the hot water to work, I would have also taken a steamy shower. But at least we had heat to warm up our chilly bones. And MacCaffe Irish Crème flavored coffee. Mmmmm. It was a good day.

I have a million photos to put up for today but you’ll have to live with just a couple for now. Love to all, -m

Birthday at the Baby House


Hi All!

Nope, it wasn’t our little one’s BDay- not quite yet. There is a little girl here in Sumo’s room bonding with her family and it was her first birthday today. We celebrated this afternoon with cake, chai, and a gift for the birthday girl. So sweet. It made me just a tiny bit sad because I realized that we will miss the day our little Sumo turns one. I mean, we will absolutely make up for it once we get him home, but I had hoped to be back here in Kaz before it happened. But Little Sumo did have his first taste of cake today, and wow did he like it. I gave him a little nibble of mine as he sat in my lap and then he began watching as each spoonful went past his open mouth and into mine. He started grunting and squirming to make sure that I was aware he really would like another bite please. I was afraid he was going to squirm all the way onto the floor or knock into my scalding hot cup of tea so I went and put him down on the other side of the room (away from the circle of babies in walkers that were hovering around our table) so I could finish my cake. And, oy vey, the wails that came out of that boy. He was soooo sad. So of course I had to pick him up and give him some more- how could I not? So for the record, this boy really liked the milk mouse cake here in Kaz.

And for the third day in a row, our little Sumo was all smiles. He did a little bit of crawling, a little bit of talking, some dancing, and now he is starting to blow raspberries in response to ours. I think Mr Baby taught him that one too. This morning, there was a lady in the room drawing blood from some of the babies. This, of course, led to a fair amount of screaming from some of them. I could not pry little Sumo’s attention from the table where they were sitting. He literally wouldn’t take his eyes off of the lady and her sad little victims. And his sweet eyes followed her as she left as if to make sure that she wasn’t going to come back for him.

And as for our other little boy, he’s doing well. Rin too was so interested in what she was doing and why and told me about the times he remembered having shots at the Dr and how he didn’t like it AT ALL. He was pretty good this morning. He sat in my lap for a good long while and we played the IPad together. I called to Peter and had him sit next to us with Sumo and we tried to get some family photos but it’s hard to get a three year old’s photo much less when you include a squirmy little 10 month old. We tried. I might have to give in and hire someone to take formal portraits at some point because I am not sure if the Republic of Kazakhstan will actually believe we all live together otherwise.

For lunch today we tried a new place called Pivavaroff. It’s a German type place with rock walls and German furnishings and old stuff everywhere- phones, laundry rollers, wagon wheels, scythes. Rin decided that it was a castle and he went exploring several times. There was literally no one else in the restaurant so I just let him roam and he had a blast. And everywhere we go, people look at him with a little smile on their face. I mean, he is an adorable boy when he wants to be- which is most of the time. He does have his less than great moments but don’t we all?

And you can add a thermostat to list of things I won’t take for granted again. The heat here is controlled centrally by the government via hot water pipes. They decide when to turn it on in the fall and off in the spring. For the most part, if the hot water is out, it’s out for the whole city. And our place is so small that the radiators just crank up the heat to blazing hot. Most of the time, we end up with the windows open from the second we walk in the door ‘til the second we walk back out again. It is getting colder here, however, and last night I had to get up and shut the door to the porch because I was cold. Then, of course, I woke up a while later because I was sweating and Rin was thrashing around and I had to open it again. I am in love with our thermostat at home. Just thought you should know.

It just tugs at your heartstrings to see all of these cribs lined up in rows filled with babies. Some of them will have a home eventually and some won’t. And they are all so cute in different ways. There are the blond haired blue eyed Russians/Germans, the ones who look Roma or Spanish, the Korean/Kazakh/Chinese looking ones. It’s like a model UN in the baby house. I totally understand why people adopt a million kids. Once you see them and think about a single one not having a family it just makes you desperate to do something about it. To fix it- like that’s possible. I have been thinking about what I am going to do once I no longer have little ones to take care of all day every day and there is a part of me who would love to do non-profit work to help kids around the world. And, to be honest, a part of me that would really miss the school vacations you get when you teach. We’ll see. I’ve got a few years to figure it out.

I hope you all are enjoying your temperature-controlled lives over there in the US! Love to all, -m
Oh and that tree is the one outside our kitchen window that I look at every morning wondering what the day before us holds.  Will our Sumo be smiley?  Or will he need some love?  Will Rinat want to try something new today?  And will he be happy?  I just had to include it.

Let it Snow!

Hi All!
Rinat was so excited to come out of our apartment today and see that there were big snowflakes floating out of the sky. It was only a tiny dusting of it but he was really excited nonetheless. He wanted to know when it was going to snow enough to have a snowball fight. And when there would be enough that we have to shovel it. And when there would be a giant snowstorm where it went ‘insert arms flailing and sounds effects of snowstorm here’. And when he could eat it. And when he could go ice skating like on TV. And where we could go sledding over a big bump like last year at the park… He’s going to be highly disappointed if it doesn’t happen before we leave.

Little Sumo was all smiles again today when we went to pick him up from his crib. It makes me so happy. The doctor said that he is much happier since we came- not nearly as much crying. He is patient and waits to eat whereas he used to be one of the first ones to eat because he would wake up and immediately start crying until they came and got him. He still loves his food. Rin used to scream if we didn’t feed him fast enough but thankfully Sumo just sort of grunts. Every once in a while he will cry when the food bowl is empty though. His cry is so pitiful. For being the chunkster that he is, he has a tiny little cry. And his face is so sad that it makes me laugh because it is like a caricature. But these baby house kids are pretty stoic. But I’m sure I’ll ruin him when we get him home and I run to his aid at the slightest little whimper. And have I mentioned how adorable it is when he sucks his fingers? When he’s tired or hungry, he takes his two first fingers, turns his hand upside down, and sucks on them so the other fingers sort of curl up around his little lips. It’s precious.

And they have informed us that they are going to have to move him to another crib with a lower mattress because he is pulling up- they noticed too, huh? I had hoped that, like the crawling, it was a passing phase but it looks like it’s here to stay. He just better not walk before we come back to get him.

Rin had a sort of meltdown today at lunchtime so we brought him home for lunch and an early nap because he said he didn’t feel good. He was, thankfully, fine and has been driving me bonkers all afternoon wanting me to play with him. So much for the ‘poor me, I’m sick’ act he put on earlier. I think he may have just have been hungry.

And I don’t think I mentioned that we have flights home on the last day that our visa is valid- whew! Our wonderful travel agent, Eldo, kept checking and there were cancellations out of Almaty so we’ll head out of Karaganda on the 4th to catch the 4am flight out of Almaty on the 5th and be home that afternoon. Big load off our mind. Now the only hitch would be if the judge can’t see us by the 3rd. We apply for court on Monday so here’s hoping we get our date!

Love to all, -m

Tonsuit, Little Sumo!

Hi All!
It was another lovely day in The ‘Ganda. It started with a smile from our little man as we walked in to get him out of bed in the morning- first time that’s happened. And he was all smiles all day long. He was so sweet. He was quick to laugh at everything we did and had no complaints at all- not that he ever does. He spent a whole lot of the time staring at another translator who spent time in the room hanging out with Oxana. I like that he studied her. I think it’s good. It means the little cogs are turning in his brain. He has just changed so much so far. He is a far cry from the little guy who we started spending time with two weeks ago. Rather than an observer of life, he is a participant. He realizes that he can affect the world around him and it is so good to see. And he has gone from sitting for 2 seconds to sitting for pretty much the whole time it takes to feed him a meal. Amazing. There is still no full-on crawling (fine by me) but he pulled himself up to standing yesterday which I do NOT want him doing quite yet. I am so not ready for that.

For lunch, we joined our friends from Georgia one last time as they are headed out of town for a bit. The boys played together and enjoyed a last hurrah at the Jungle Park together. Rin has said commented several times since that now he’s not going to have anyone to play with. Anyone headed to Karaganda who is bringing a kid with them, please let us know because we’d love to have some friends again!

And then Rin and Peter went back to the apartment for QT while I went to spend some more time with our Sumo. He was again really smiley and talkative. Oxana played some music on her IPhone to show another translator how Mr Baby will dance on cue and I was sitting next to them burping our little man after he downed his chai. They were saying “Tonsuit! Tonsuit!” (Dance! Dance!) and he looked Mr Baby, at the lovely ladies and how they were paying so much attention and loving on her, and he started to sway back and forth himself. He’s no dummy. He loves the ladies and will dance for their attention if need be. I told Mr Baby’s mom that she has been giving him dancing lessons on the sly during naptime since their cribs are right next to each other. It was so cute.

And then it was home for some more of the same old- wash dishes, do laundry, make dinner, clean it up, give Rin bath, play, bed. Life is the same no matter where you go. But I will never again complain that the dishwasher at home doesn’t dry the dishes all the way because the dishwasher here is, of course, my two little hands. And I will not complain about the washer and dryer because it’s a whole lot better than laundry line strung across the bedroom ceiling. Sometimes I forget how easy we have it in The States.

Go do some laundry and throw an extra fabric softener sheet in the dryer in our honor! Much love, -m

Hi All!


We had a pretty good morning at the baby house with Mr Sumo. There was minimal barfing which always qualifies it as good. And Oxana had little man laughing and laughing saying nonsense words. It got so that all she had to do was turn around and look at him and he would dissolve into giggles. Rin was pretty well behaved and calm which was nice. We took turns trying to keep him entertained which helped a whole lot but I missed out on hanging with the Sumo. Mostly he wanted us to play knights with him which consists of us using the cone from the middle of two different sets of stacking rings as pretend swords and we joust and then we both die. It’s a whole lot of fun for my 3 year old boy. Then we headed to Line Brew for lunch and Rin acted like I was trying to kill him by making him take two bites of some shashlyk (grilled chicken) but was good aside from the drama queen act. And then Rin and I headed home to rest while Peter went back to the baby house to spend time with our littlest man. Rin had some quiet time and I read my book and I have to admit it was kind of nice. Then we went out bug hunting and watched the men build the building behind our apartment for a while. Pretty uneventful day. Uneventful is good as far as I’m concerned. I love seeing our little Sumo of course but we actually don’t have that much downtime here. We get up and have breakfast and then play for about 30 minutes before we have to get dressed and head out to the BH. After our morning visit, we head to lunch where we have to keep Rin under our thumb and try and finagle a bite or two into him and then it’s back for the afternoon visit. By the time we are done with the baby house and home it’s about 4:30 and we have about 30 minutes to hang out before I start on dinner and that’s usually spent writing, washing dishes, hanging laundry, or trying to sweep up the ever accumulating dirt. And that’s every day but Sunday. And it doesn’t include running errands or grocery shopping. So we really haven’t had all that much time to just do nothing or explore. As a matter of fact, last night I was looking at the calendar and I realized that we only have about 2&1/2 weeks left and I sort of panicked. I know this sounds crazy but I don’t want to leave yet. I’m not ready. We have sort of gotten in a groove here and aside from the sucky internet and showers and everything being dirty all the time, it’s gotten comfortable. I know, you don’t believe me, but it’s true. I know our time here is limited and I know that chances are we won’t be in Kaz for a good long while again and it makes me sad.

Rinat is really sweet to our friend from Canada’s little girl. They left last week (gosh, has it been a week?) and we are trying to give Mr Baby some love while D waits until she can come pick her up. Our translator made the comment “Oh, he is so sweet with her. You better make sure you get a girl next time.” But the sad reality is that I don’t know that we’ll be able to afford to do this again. I mean, we could take out loans but then I am afraid it could come back to haunt us and we’d have trouble paying for college and the other things to take care of the children we already have. I don’t know. We’ve talked and we will revisit it at some point. I just wish I could take them all home with us. Even Little A who cries every single second she’s not being held. I will miss them all and wonder if they ever found a family. I hope they all do but I know that’s not reality.

It’s finally starting to feel like winter here. There are grey skies that hang low all day, the trees are all bare of leaves, there is ice covering the puddles in the morning. Snow will be coming soon, I can feel it in the air, and Rinat couldn’t be happier. One of the ways that I got him excited to come back to Kaz was to tell him that there would be snow here. But so far, I’m a liar. Oxana said that there usually is snow by now but it’s getting later every year. Of course, the Karagandians (is that a word?) are happy that it’s holding off, but I do hope we get a decent snowfall in the next couple of weeks for Rin’s sake. But if not, he has informed me that we will be going to Gramma Shay’s house to ski soon so I guess he’ll see it then.

And for anyone who knows what it is, Rin made a Rube Goldberg machine tonight. He said “Hey Mom, you wanna play YouTube with me?” If you are curious, go to YouTube.com and put ‘OK Go Rube Goldberg’ into the search box and then watch the video that appears. Yeah, I think he might be a little Ted in the making. Ted used to make all kinds of booby traps for me when we were growing up that were the same kind of thing. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing (HaHa, only kidding Ted) but he is a smart little cookie. And this beautiful drawing below is a stingray with sand all around him.

Love to all, -m

Happy Kurban Ayt!

Hi All-

To celebrate Kurban Ayt, we had a lazy morning here at the apartment. I lounged in the bed for a bit while Peter fed Rinat. And then the boys played for a good long while as I cruised the internet. Rinat declared that they needed to play all sorts of Field Day games so they had a 3 Legged Race, an Egg Spoon Race (with plastic dinosaurs in place of eggs), and some sort of race where you hold a balloon between your bellies and try to run without it falling down. Then they had a pretend sleepover. Rinat truly is pretty easy to entertain when you can give him undivided attention. It’s just the 4 hours at the baby house that’s killing him. And going to lunch every day where he has be sit still and behave in between visits. And he doesn’t always get something that he considers edible. He has his moments but overall he’s doing ok.

After hanging out for a good long while, we decided to get out and about while we had some time off so we called up our friends from Georgia and we all walked over to the Green Market to see what we could see. This is the first day that it has been truly cold since we got here so we all bundled up in layers and hats and gloves and headed out over the bridge. Rinat loved going over it because it crossed the train tracks. We could see all of the people down below getting on and off and the men directing the trains. It was a very neat thing for a small boy who is train obsessed. And then the market itself was, as most markets I have been to around the world, a buzz of people and activity. There were stalls for fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, pickled things, shoes, coats, hats, and even a yurt that served what we assume is chai. In between the stalls were people shopping and men pulling very large wagons full of wares that looked like it would hurt a lot if they fell on me. And several places that made samsa and the like. Good stuff. We got some of the most amazing crunchy almonds and sweet golden raisins and a round of naan with sesame seeds sprinkled on top and a flower stamped into it. Why is it that things taste so much better when they are bought at a place outside? I think Rinat ate about 3,000 raisins as we wandered and Peter and I put a good dent into the almonds. I regret not getting any better photos but I just feel so conspicuous with this giant camera. The lens that I bought when my old one broke a day before we left (that is a lot better than the one I had actually) is longer and so I could sneak some in without being too obvious but I still feel weird. I’ve always wanted to take a class on how to take good travel photos- especially ones of people. Maybe that will be something I can do once we get back.

Then we wandered back across the bridge and ate at a place called Basilico and it was good pizza. Really good. There was no English on the menu but between the limited Russian that I can figure out and the Italian, we figured it out. It’s owned by the same people who own the Charlotka in the mall (with the good lattes and cake) and the Ukrainian place (good Perogi and Chicken Kiev) and the middle Eastern place (with good Lagman and Plov). They seem to have it all figured out because every one of those places is good. So much for losing weight while I’m here.

Then Sasha picked us up from there and we spent two glorious hours with our little boy. Again, it felt a little bit festive in there. The nannies/mommies turned on music and let the babies crawl around the floor. It was almost like a party. And our sweet Rinat was especially sweet to Sumo today. He was giving him hugs and kisses and tickles and patting him on the head and saying “You have the cutest little face ever.” Melt…

The only crimp in our day was the email that I got this morning saying there are no flights out from Almaty on Dec 5th, 4th, or 3rd (let me remind you that our visa runs out the 5th). I mean, come on already. And then our friends from France said that the Astana airport is going to be closed from Nov 30-Dec 3 for the OSCA summit. So maybe we’ll be coming home even earlier than we thought? I dunno. We’ll just have to see what kind of magic Natasha can perform.

And our day ended pretty wonderfully with a happy boy who played games with me, ate a full dinner, and is now playing Birthday Party with Bubby and Puppy as his guests. Could life get any better?

Love to all, -m

Some Fun at the Baby House

Hi all-


I think we are done with taking Rinat to the baby house twice a day with us. Today he was so tired at 4:00 that he was horrible all the way home- our poor driver. Then he fell asleep 5 minutes after I put him in the bedroom for a rest. Then when we woke him at 5:15 so he wouldn’t be awake all night, he screamed for 20 minutes straight as I took a shower (have to shower while we have water, right?). Poor Peter. And poor Rinat too. He was just exhausted. So I think we need to start trading off afternoons staying home with him. I will be sad to miss out on time with Sumo but we need a break from Rin, he needs one from us, and he needs some time to himself to nap or play quietly. This has just been too much for him. We gave it a good try though.

But Rin is acclimatizing pretty darn well I have to say. He doesn’t seem too out of sorts really aside from having unfamiliar food. Every once in a while he asks about when we are going to our house in Washington but not all that often. What he misses most of all is school and spending time with friends (and so do I). It’s hard being with him all day every day. But good too. He’s a sweetie most of the time.

Rin understands and accepts that they speak a different language here but what he doesn’t get is that I don’t speak it. He sometimes gets upset when I don’t know how to say something in Russian but he does like looking words up with me in the dictionary and trying to say them. He’s already speaking some words and recognizing them when others say them. I can hear him telling the other kids in the ball pit “Neee-Yet” when they throw balls at him. He also says some of the other basics like “Privyet” and “Paka” to our driver Sasha (Hi and Bye). And I have heard him several times saying “Spasiba” to a waitress or sales lady somewhere. It’s so adorable coming out of his 3 year old mouth. And I even caught him playing ‘shashlyk’ with Bubby one day (making shish kabobs). So cute.

And as for our other little cutie? He’s good. After learning to crawl that day, he seemed to have forgotten again for a couple but today he was back to a little bit of crawling again. And he is taking the toys and rubbing his little mouth back and forth on them. Not sure if he’s still working on #2 on the bottom which is mostly out or if the top is soon to follow. And he’s still talking a lot and following Rin and Peter everywhere they go with his little eyes. And he ‘talks’ to them much more than he does to me. Peter did get some cute photos of me and my sweet sons. I sure wish I could put them on the blog.

This afternoon had sort of a festive feel to it. There is a holiday tomorrow, Kurban Ayt, and they spent the morning cleaning up to make it nice in Sumo’s room. And then in the afternoon Mr Baby (our friend D’s little girl) kept going over to the piano in her walker. One of the nannies (or Mommies as Rin called them yesterday) picked her up and let her bang away on it. Then Rin joined in for a little duet. And the French ladies’ translator came in and played actual music and the entire roomful of babies froze and stayed entranced for the duration of it. It was sort of moving in a sad way. Aside from some songs on the radio sometimes, that’s probably the only music they’ve ever heard. Overall, I really enjoy being able to be in the room with all of Sumo’s ‘brothers and sisters’ but sometimes it makes me really sad. I look at them and know that only a portion of them will ever have a family and it makes me sad. They are well taken care of and they are cared for at the baby house but it’s just not the same as a family. I just wish I had a magic wand.

Tomorrow, because of the holiday, we will not be visiting in the morning. Kurban Ayt is a Muslim holiday when they butcher a lamb and give the meat away to the needy. I guess it’s sort of like our traditional Easter celebration used to be according to Oxana. And guess where a lot of the stinky lamb will end up. That’s right, at the baby house. People will be bringing meat over all morning. And then it will, of course, end up all over my pants when Sumo barfs it up. Awesome- stinky lamb barf all over me. What a celebration.

Happy Kurban Ayt everyone!  And thanks to whoever left the brandy- I needed it last nigth after dealing with Rin.  Brandy and cherry juice is not bad at all I have to say. -m

French Fry Soup and the Giant Carrot

Hi All!

Today was a good good day. It started when I slept all the way until 7:30 and Rin did to. Then he wanted to snuggle with me for a few minutes. I don’t get that all that often anymore. This was followed by a good, hot, shower with plenty of water. Ahhhhhh. What is it about a good shower that just makes you feel shiny and new? Then I was folding up the laundry on the drying rack and I looked at a pair of pants and thought “Gosh, these are so small. Does Rin really fit into these?” and it dawned on me that they belong to my other son. The little one. This is your cue to knock on wood for us. It’s the first time I’ve really felt like it might be real and it sort of took me off guard in a good way. So what are me and my two sons and Peter going to do today? Well, it’s morning at the baby house and then the day is ours. I have a very strong feeling that we’ll end up at the Jungle Park at some point. And I am hoping for a latte and piece of cake from Charlotka. Momma’s getting’ a little thin around the middle. I gotta keep my curves up so as not to disappoint my sweet husband, right? And so my pants don’t fall off. ;)

I am not losing weight because of lack of food of course, it’s just that things here are so different I don’t follow the same bad habits that I do at home. It’s good. And Rinat has finally gotten over his eating boycott and is doing alright. Last night, we met our friends from Georgia out for dinner and he ate, get this, 3 whole bites of baked chicken- ooohaaah. He is still addicted to yogurt but he is now branching out a little bit at least. Hunger will do that eventually I guess. But it cracks me up how much he loves the yogurt. We had our usual Friday Night Movie Night and I let him have two of them and he was so excited. He wanted banana, no peach, no banana, “are you sure?”, no peach, definitely peach. It’s funny what makes him excited. My little cutie pie.

Later that day…

Well, I think our late night with our friends caught up with our sweet boy because he was not exactly perfect this morning at the baby house. I think he was tired and hungry and it was sort of a disaster when he dropped his snack all over the floor and I had to throw it away. And then we had another hour and a half to get through with a hungry 3 year old. Ugh. But I guess he can’t be perfect all the time. Overall he’s pretty good. He has been really sweet with our friends from Canada’s little girl (Mr Baby) and he gives her rides on the walker and yesterday he had her dancing and the whole room, caregivers included, cracking up. Post baby house, we went to lunch at Assorti and Rin has discovered that he likes fried eggs and ate 3 of them (minus the yolks). Not bad for him. So we then wandered for a while in the mall as we waited for our friends from Georgia to meet up. We let him pick one thing out from the Lego store. We spent a good 20 minutes looking at everything and he chose a school bus and has been really excited about it. And we let him get cotton candy because he actually ate something at lunch. I will have to get a photo if he has it again because that thing was HUGE! And it’s cool because they make it right in front of you to it’s a treat and entertainment for a 3 year old all rolled into one. And then, of course, it was off to the Jungle Park for bumper cars, ball pits, kiddie rides, and fun with our friends for a bit.

When we were adopting Rinat, I found myself always scanning the crowds for people who I thought looked like him. I wanted to know what his parents look like and what he might end up looking like. Here in Karaganda, I find myself at places like the Jungle Park/Babylon scanning the crowd for kids who look like our little Sumo. I saw this little boy, probably 4 years old, who looked exactly like what I expect our guy will look like when he’s that age and he was soooo adorable. And then I looked to see what his parents look like so I can ‘see’ him as an adult. Not too shabby. He’s going to be one good looking guy just like Rin. They’re both going to have to fight the girls off.

And then it was home for some quiet time for Rin and I kept myself busy making dinner with the leftovers from Saturday night out. I made Chicken and French Fry Soup. Mmmmm. I also added onions (which could only be bought as a giant bag of about 10- I see French onion soup in our future), carrots (can you see that photo? The biggest carrot I’ve ever seen), and pasta in the shape of sheaves of wheat that Rin picked out. It was pretty darn good. We had some really good French bread to dip and some creamy feta to smear on and I have to say that we dined pretty well last night. French Fry Soup may not seem all that exciting to you but it’s a world apart from meat pastries or Ramen noodles for the millionth night in a row.

I hope you all have a wonderful night! Much love, -m

Peek-a-boo! It's Been One Week

Hi All!

So we have been here in Karaganda for one week already. At times, it seems to have flown by. At other times (when there’s no water) it seems to drag. But the big thing is that we’ve gotten to spend a whole week with our little Sumo (HaHa- I just made an oxymoron). The bonding process here in Karaganda is much different than in Astana when we adopted Rin. There, we were never allowed to see or play with any of the other kids, weren’t allowed to take care of him, weren’t allowed to even go into his room at all. When we took Rin from the baby house, we had never even changed his diaper much less fed him or put him to sleep. No wonder he was so miserable in the beginning- how could he trust that we knew what he needed? We didn’t really. Here it’s completely different and I think it is amazing how much more quickly I have gotten attached to Sumo than I did Rin and it’s amazing what a difference we’ve seen in him already. For one, the amount of time we spend with our little man is 4 hours a day compared to 2 and we get to come on Sundays too. We get to get him up from his crib, change his diaper and put him in clothes that we brought, feed him, burp him, put him down for nap, and we play in the room with all of his friends and caretakers. I have gotten to know the personalities of all of the babies- who is fussy, who I can make laugh, and sadly which I think have problems- and I will be able to tell him all about them when he’s older. And we can see firsthand the wonderful job that the caretakers do with the kids. They definitely do more than just make sure they are fed, changed, and healthy. That fact that we get to take care of him makes me feel like he’s more ‘ours.’ It’s nice. I can’t wait until he actually is.

Our little guy found his laugh today when we did Peek-a-boo. He thought it was really really funny. I would throw the towel that I use to change him over his head and then when he managed to pull it off, I would say “peek-a-boo” and he thought it was just hilarious. He is just so amazingly cute. He’s a pretty serious kid but when he laughs, he is baby transformed. And at the end of our visit, when I went to change him, he automatically began to laugh when I brought out the towel. He’s just so cute I want to eat his little cheeks up.

And Oxana told us to look and see if Sumo has a Mongolian Spot because most Asian babies do according to her so we looked and it turns out he does have a small one way back in his little crack. So now I have it down for posterity if someone accuses me of child abuse at some point. You can all vouch for me.

Have a great weekend! Love to all, -m

Ministry Meeting Checked off our List

Hi All!
So today was the day of our social worker meeting. It didn’t start off as the best day ever. I woke at 5am (not surprising since I went to bed at literally 8pm) and decided to post some photos on the blog. The internet works much much better early in the morning and the connection seems to get slower and slower as the day goes on. I went to post but for the third day in a row, Blogger wouldn’t open in the morning. Weird huh? It’ll open in the afternoon, but the connection is so slow that I can’t do photos. No one said life here was easy. Then I heard Rin crying and he came out saying that he peed in the bed (don’t tell the Kaz landlord) so he was up before the sun too. How we’re going to wash the giant quilt that was under the sheet (and thankfully caught the pee), I have no idea. It certainly won’t fit in the washer. I can fit maybe two pairs of pants, two shirts, and some socks and underwear and that’s about it. And where in the world I am going to hang it to dry I have no idea either. Then I went to take a shower and the hot water is out again. I mean, come on. I was nervous about our big meeting already and now I am going on day 3 without a shower? That bites. And the cold is just a dribble so I can’t even wash dishes. But, as always, I have to just shrug my shoulders and move on. And besides, I had my sweet Sumo to look forward to so how bad can my life be, right?

And he was a sweet little guy as always. For some reason, he forgot how to crawl today. I guess he was focusing more on the talking because he was certainly talking up a big old storm. But the room was quieter overall today without our friends. Rin was calmer and paid more attention to his little brother. He would periodically come over and pat his head, or kiss his belly. It just filled my heart every time. And Sumo is obsessed with Rin. He would walk past and Sumo would reach out to him. His eyes would follow him across the room and when he left the room to go play with Oxana in the anteroom, I could tell he was looking for him. I just know he’s going to follow Rin around wherever he goes as soon as he’s able like a true little brother.

In the afternoon, we actually got to take the kids outside. I know these outside days are numbered so we tried to spend as much time out there as we could. This is when little sweetcakes stopped talking altogether. I am guessing he’s only been outside the times I have taken him and I guess it is just a little bit overwhelming. There are cars whizzing past on the street, trees above, playground equipment, buildings, people, stuff everywhere that he’s never seen before and has no idea about. But if he’s anything like Rin, he’ll come to love the outdoors in time.

And then it was time to head to our meeting. Somehow we ended up being the last people seen so I am really glad that we stopped on the way to get some animal crackers for Rin. He ate about 10 thousand of them while we waited and then he was moderately good for the meeting itself. The four social workers there asked us several questions a piece and there were only two that we had to even think about. The first one was “What has been the hardest thing about raising Rinat?” and the second was about our religious views. In response to the first, we said it was his energy level- he wears us out! And as for the second, I knew what they were really asking- since our son-to-be is Kazakh, they wanted to know if we would be OK with him being Muslim and we were very clear that both of our children are free to choose whatever religion seems right to them. And that was it. We’re done with the scary Ministry meeting. Now I just have to stress about court :)

I hope you all have a wonderful day full of internet and hot water and free of pee-filled sheets and stress. Much love, -m

Goodbye Dear Friends! and 30 Days

Hi all!


Today we said goodbye to our friend from Canada and they will be badly missed. We have been spending a lot of time with them at the baby house in room #4 and in between visits too. Rinat has really enjoyed playing with C (who is 5) and I have enjoyed having another woman there to talk to. It was nice to have a friend for a short time. They had court on Wednesday and happily the judge said yes (“Does he always say yes?” Rin asked. “We’re crossing our fingers, Honey” I told him) so we met up on Weds night to celebrate. We had dinner at Assorti in the mall and then we left the kids with Peter while D and I had some girl time. We went downstairs and got dessert at Charlotka (the place with the amazing lattes) and chit chatted about their time here and about life in general. The Froth and the Reforma cakes are both pretty darn good. It’s going to be a lot harder at the baby house without a friend for Rinat I think. Since we started visitation, Rinat has pretty much spent the whole time playing with C while we got to focus on our Sumo. Today (Thurs) they hung out all morning playing, then we went to lunch at their apartment, and then in the afternoon they spent the whole time making a tent with the blankets in the anteroom. They pretended to be camping- they had ‘flashlights’ (baby toys that light up), they had ‘walkie talkies’ (baby toy phones). It was nice and quiet in the baby room. I’m not sure what Rin’s going to do to occupy his time now. We do have the option of trading off afternoon visits while one of us hangs with Rin at the apartment I think. But I’m hoping he’ll be OK because I don’t want to miss a single second with our adorable little boy. And I don’t want Rinat to either. He’s been really sweet with him overall. Yesterday he did tell me “Mom, I really want you to give Sumo to Daddy please” so he could sit in my lap. He asked so nicely that I complied. But he’ll periodically come over and pat him on the head or give him a little kiss or tickle him under the chin. It’s cute.

Mr Sumo was not sick at all this morning thank goodness. Most of the babies seem to be on the mend too- not as much crying today. And he was raring to go too. He was crawling up a storm. He went probably 3 feet all crawling, no belly scoot. I was so proud. And he is sitting up for a pretty long time too. And talking much more. I think I heard a ‘dadada’ out of him- pretty good for the 4 days we’ve been with him. But best of all was when Oxana came this afternoon and commented on how much more he is aware of the world around him and is watching everything instead of just looking with a blank stare. And she noticed he’s more smiley too. It’s gonna kill me to have to leave. But I guess I will get past it knowing that soon I will come get him and I will never have to leave him again. Until I need a break, that is 

And two quick pieces of news- we are meeting with the social workers tomorrow at the ministry of education so they can ask us a bunch of questions and make sure we are going to be good parents and can afford to adopt him. And also, can you hear the angels above singing? That’s because Natasha says that we should be able to get out of Kaz before our visa runs out. She is going to plead our case to the prosecutor and so we hope to be heading out of here on the 5th. Now I just have to contact our travel agent and see if there are flights out on that day…

I hope you all find a minute today when you can take in everything around you like our boy finally is. The world is pretty amazing. Love to all, -m