Another Emotional Day in Kaz

February 25, 2007

We have visited with Askar everyday. He smiles the minute he walks into the visiting room. The reality of his life is sad. We found out that he has been here his entire life. We are taking this situation very seriously. He is very special and you can tell he likes being with us, even though he might not completely understand what is happening. He most likely has never left these buildings that the children all live in. We believe when he is visiting us he can break away from all the rules of the orphanage. We have a really nice translator “Maria”. She is very loving and is trying to help us with our communication. There are so many emotions going through us right now. Askar desperately needs a Mom and Dad. The orphanage is nice and clean. We believe they are doing the best to take care of all these children. But you can only imagine how difficult it must be to take care of so many. The children are not treated as individuals, but more as a group. You can tell that Askar’s caregiver really likes him. We saw her give him a great “motherly” hug the other day.

When we bring him home we will have to work with him to help him become an individual, not just “one” of many.

We know that we can’t change the world for all the children here, but we can change the world for this one child.

We are happy that Parker has been allowed to visit with Askar. They seem to get along, even though they can’t communicate. We are learning some Russian words. Our translator is so nice at repeating the words over and over for us.

We Are Here!!

Hi Everyone! Gosh so much to say! We had longs flights and all in all we had no troubles getting here. Even all our luggage arrived! Yeah! One of the best parts about flying was Parker. He was such a little trooper! We were the most worried about all the flying and how he would do. He truly surprised us with his happy attitude the entire time.

We just now were able to get on the computer because we didn't have the right power adaptor. Many stores later and finally found the right one! As I write this, we are in our apartment. We are staying in a nice large 2 bedroom. It is definitely cold here. About the 20's to 30's. We are in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. The city dates back to 1720. It is really hard to imagine living here that long ago....the cold must have been miserable!

Within hours of our arrival we were taken to the Orphanage. We had so many different emotions going on besides being incredibly tired. We met with so many people, our coordinator, the doctor, the Assistant Director, a caregiver and a women from the Ministry of Education. Quickly we were introduced to 3 boys. We knew right away that we wanted to spend more time with the youngest boy who was 5 years old. His name is Askar. At first he was shy and didn't know what the heck was going on. He kept looking at the "strange couple" and couldn't stop smiling. He was standing closest to Tyler. He was so shy at first that Tyler decided to pick him up and sit him on his lap. He seemed very comfortable sitting there. I told our translator that Tyler was a wonderful father. Immediately the translator told everyone in the room that and they all seemed very happy to hear that! We were allowed to spend some time with him alone with a translator. Askar was very happy and enjoyed being with the “strange couple”. When our visit was over he gave us all a really nice hug when he left.

We had our 2^nd visit with Askar today. He seemed excited to see us. Askar is definitely very small for his age compared to Parker. We think that is because of his size. We brought Askar a juice box. He was sooo excited about the juice box. Apparently he has never had one before. He was amazed that you could put a straw inside the box and yummy juice comes out. We brought our camera and some toys. He was excited about getting his picture taken and then looking at it right away. He would say “I’m right here”, pointing at the picture of himself. He didn’t know what to play with first. He wanted to play with everything at the same time it seemed. He also liked some cleansing cloths that I brought. He proceeded to clean the entire room with them. Very cute. We asked our translator to ask Askar what he thinks about visiting with us. He told her that he is having fun and that he liked us. We don’t think he quite understands what we are there for, but he knows that something is going on.

We are going into day 3 and it feels like we have been here longer….strange. I am off to bed now. We woke up today at 4:00 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep. Thanks for all your positive thoughts, keep them coming! Positive brings positive!! Goodnight from Kazakhstan!

We leave tomorrow!

We are packed and ready to go! We wanted to send a heartfelt thank you to Orson over at Adoption International Programs for all his help in getting us to this moment. We also want to send a big thank you over to Kevin too! Everyone at AIP really made this process go so smoothly for us. Thank you, Thank you!!

We leave Tuesday February 20th

Well it is official, we are leaving Tuesday the 20th @ 2:30 p.m. (we were suppose to leave the 21st, but leaving a day earlier takes away a "stop in Astana, Kazakhstan". We want to make this trip with the least amount of stops for Parker's sake...okay and us!)

We are even being chauffered by the Lovely Lisa Lobel....Thanks Lisa, your the best! We are packing and still gathering little things here and there, but for the most part we feel like everything is falling into place! Christy is just hoping that she doesn't adopt the entire orphanage! Yikes!!

We Got Our Visa's

Hi, Everyone! We just got word that our Visa's have been approved and are being Fed Ex'd. We are officially leaving on February 21st for Ust-Kamengorsk, Kazakhstan. We are scheduled to come home on March 20th (it works out to be approx. 25 days!) Then we are home for about 25 days and then Christy goes back by herself to pick up the little guy! She will be gone for about 10-17 days on the 2nd trip. We will update you more as the days get closer to our departure!

We have sent our Visa's applications to The Assistant Stork. We are waiting for our LOI (letter of Invitation) We have been told by our adoption agency (AIP) that we should be hearing any day now for our LOI. We have plane reservations already. Hopefully we get the Invitation soon!

Our Adoption Journey to Kaz!