Bath day for Askar

Today is Bath Day for Askar. Our translator forgot that today (Saturday) we are suppose to have our visit at 4:00 p.m. instead of 10:00 a.m. We arrived at the Baby House and had to come back home until later. Apparently the children get a bath once a week.

The weather is a bit warmer today. In fact the icy sidewalks are melting…..much easier to walk now! However it is still cold out.

Yesterday we brought a DVD to watch, “Finding Nemo”. We thought that Askar would enjoy it. We don’t have it in Russian, so we had asked our translator Maria to translate. The movie starts and immediately Askar recognizes the movie as one he has seen before. After awhile he lost interest because of the English. We don’t blame him. We had our translator tell him that one-day soon, he will understand and speak English. He said “Da”, which means “Yes”. We do think his favorite part of the visit is eating! He loves the food we bring. I was able to find organic juice boxes with no sugar. He loves it. He is very hungry, so I am happy to feed him!

He has been speaking English words. His first English word is “Pretzel”. Now he says “Cookie” and “Bye Bye”.

We ate Chinese food yesterday with 2 other American couples who are adopting too. Joanne & Kevin from Long Island, New York and Debra & Tom from Oakland, CA! It was really great to visit with people from America! Our translator Maria joined us too. Maria speaks English very well, but I am sure that all the talking back and forth was difficult to keep up with. Maria is a trooper! It was a nice lunch!

We found one T.V. show that there was English dubbed, but then we could tell that the actors were speaking English too. Very confusing! It looked like a show from England. It was like a “Three’s Company” kind of show. For those of you who don’t know that show, it was with Suzanne Somers, Joyce DeWitt and John Ritter. We basically don’t even turn the T.V. on.

Several people have emailed us at laughingsurfer@yahoo.com. We are able to check our email everyday.

Again it is GREAT hearing from so many of you!

Yes, his name will be Quinn

Hi
Well today is March 1st. We have had 8 visits now with Askar. We had a visit with a woman from the Ministry of Education regarding our adoption. She asked us a few questions like how long have we been married and why were we adopting. She even asked Askar a few questions. She then asked if would be changing his name. We told her yes to Quinn Askar Turley. She didn't seem to sure of the name. We had to spell it for her, then we think that she understood a little better.

We can't change his name right now and nor would we dare to right now. We will ease into his new name when we are finally home.

We went on a walk with Askar today and were able to go earlier to bypass all the little cuties. Of course I had to go to bathroom and ran into a few of them. They immediately ran to me and wanted a hug. They proceeded to introduce themselves. One was name Maksim and the other was Elena. The other one just stared and finally wanted a hug. Then they had to go. Oh my heart!

We have had an overwhelming response to our missng dog photo from our last post...we weren't able to download our dog photo the other night because Tyler took it in too high a resolution and it would have taken 1 hour to download. So today we are at the internet place, so hopefully we can download it. So if you see it, then we were successful.

My wrist is about 50% better...YEAH!! I am seeing a complete recovery. I am staying away from all things icy!

Lastly we had a wonderful lunch yesterday! It was Chinese food. Very good. We also love the Pancake House...thanks Melissa and Jason.

Until tomorrow!

Wizard of Oz

We are definitely having a “Wizard of Oz” kind of day…There is no place like HOME!! Please be proud you all live in America! Oh and Australia…Hi Mandie!!

I would like to send out a BIG Thank You to Melissa & Jason who were here one year ago and adopted Maksim “Maks”. They have been so helpful to us while we have been here. Sharing their experience has been SO HELPFUL….MANY THANKS!!

I think that you can do all the research you want and talk to everyone you want, but there is no way to fully prepare yourself for this! One must come here as open minded as possible. It is an experience we will all never forget. Not only are we bonding with Askar, but we are bonding with each other too. That has been a nice plus to this trip.

Believe it or not Kazakhstan is growing on us. I think we are getting used to its “quirkiness”. I don’t know if that is the right word, but that is what comes to mind.

We saw the little guy today! The visits are getting better and better. Askar seems to be getting used to these people who keep coming to play…..oh and bring yummy snacks! We wanted to take him out for a walk and wanted to hopefully get outside before the little ones were out. Well no such luck. There was a small group of little ones out playing, which soon expanded into many more little ones! They couldn’t take their eyes off us and personally we couldn’t either. We walked past and quite a few who began to follow, saying things to us in Russian. Soon, their caregiver called them and had them stand next to her as we passed. A few didn’t want to listen it seemed and tried to still walk with us and talk to us. Then came the more forceful tone and they walked back to her. I feel bad because I want to hug each and everyone of them. I was able to hug a few little girls and boys today. Hopefully the caregivers don’t tell me to stop. They are these little angels that need to feel special…Askar must feel like a “RockStar”.

Our walk was almost over, when I slipped on the icy ground! I fell hard and fast! This gave several small children the opportunity to come over to me. At first they smiled and soon discovered that I had hurt myself. They all looked worried and one little one girl decided to stroke my face, then she hugged me. Sooooo SWEET. Tyler was around the corner with Parker and Askar and was wondering where the heck I was. I got myself up and figured that I probably sprained my wrist…at least that is what I am hoping. In fact I typed this entire blog with one hand…I know, I’m talented!!

One last thing. We are really impressed with the Kazakhstan Staff. They are taking such good care of us. We would literally be lost without them!

Check out our new photos, including our dog!!

Today was a Good Day!

Hi Everyone!

It has been sooo great hearing from alot of you. It makes us feel good to still be connected to home! Today it snowed for a bit. It was cool.

Of course I have adopted....a dog!! Well you all know me! He is the sweetest dog in the whole world...okay besides Ranger and Riley. We sneak him into our stairwell at night and we have gotten food and water for him. We are not the only ones in the house complex that sneaks this poor little baby in. It is so cold at night and he will freeze if left out.

We had a very nice visit with Askar today. He saw the photo's of our home and Ranger and Riley. He was very interested in the photo album. In fact towards the end of our visit he picked up the photo album again and wanted to look at it. We also went outside for a walk. It was cold, but it was our first time going outside with him. The sad part was that the other children were outside and it broke our hearts. They looked at us longingly. I couldn't stand it, so I waved and waved and blew them as many kisses as I could. They would laugh and do the same thing back. Next time we take a walk we aren't going to go out when the kids are out....too sad.

Here are some more photos of our visit with Askar!

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!