Just a tiny delay......

Well we got to the airport and.........the flight was over-booked! We were involuntarily bumped, but KLM gave us each a $750 voucher and they guaranteed us a flight tomorrow night (Saturday night) Here's the best part.....BUSINESS CLASS!! We are now officially spoiled! We now may actually SLEEP on an international flight....Wow!! We are SO EXCITED!

Our bags are on their way to Almaty, Kazakhstan. When we arrive we have to hurry and get our bags (where ever they are) and catch our next flight to see "Quinn" Askar. We should make it!

Thanks EVERYONE again and again for following along on our INCREDIBLE JOURNEY!!

Here we come Quinn!

Here we go again!

We are leaving this Friday for Kaz! We should be returning the next Friday the 20th.

We have some friends, Claudia and Stephan, that are adopting from the same orphanage as "Quinn" Askar. They have met a beautiful little 7 year old girl. We are so happy for them!! While visiting their little 7 year old daughter they have been hugging and taking photos of Quinn for us! Thank you so much Stephan and Claudia...It means so much to us!

We will of course Blog next week about our Court date. We are very confident that everything will go well.

Once court is completed and the judge allows us to adopt "Quinn" Askar then we have a mandatory 25 day waiting period. When that is done I will return to Kazakhstan for the last time (thank God) and finish this adoption and bring the little guy HOME!! Yippeeeee!!

Back to Kaz!

Hi everyone!
We should be leaving April 14, 2007 for Kazakhstan.
Then we request our court date and then hopefully a few days after that we will be in court to officially ask to adopt Askar "Quinn". We will only be gone from the states about 1 week. We will be leaving Parker with my Aunt and Uncle and our nanny too. This will be the first time we have ever been without Parker! We will miss him bunches.

We are excited that we are finally going to see Askar! We are certain he is confused by the unfortunate events that have made his adoption longer than usual. We are bringing him a map of the world and with red ink we are going to show him where we live and where he lives (for now) Hopefully he won't be too bummed that he isn't going home just yet. The process is just too confusing when you are only 5 years old. We are giving him a calendar to cross off the dates until his Mama (Me) comes back for him to finish the final step in his adoption.

Please check back for more......

Quinn was visited by our translator

Hello,

Our lovely translator Maria visited Askar for us! Maria found out that Askar had spent a week in the hospital for his ear infection. Maria said that he was brought back to the Baby House and that his ear looked fine. We are happy to hear that his little ear is better. Maria said that he asked for us to bring him new clothes and for Parker to bring him a car. Quinn(Askar) knows that he will be getting new clothes to leave the orphanage! We can't wait to bring him home!

Little did we know that a couple of cookies and organic juice boxes cause ear infections....ha ha ha!!

We should be flying back to Kaz the first part of April for our Adoption Hearing. Then there will be the required 25 day waiting period. Then I will go back to Kaz and get his passport and other items and finish with his medical exam from the US Embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

We'll keep you all posted with this final stage of this process.

The Special Document is SIGNED!

We just heard the news that the Mayor of Ust-Kamenogorsk signed the Special Document regarding Askar's adoption.

Tyler and I will now make our travel plans to go back. Just need to make sure my Visa is okay. Tyler's Visa is good because he accidentally got my "double entry"......oh well we ended up needing it!

Our Adoption Coordinator in Kaz said that she visited with Askar and she said that he really misses us. That is the sad part to us. This process must be confusing to him. It confuses us and were adults!

We will keep you updated on when we leave!

No Updates Yet

Hi to all that are still checking in!

We still don't have that darn document signed yet. It is Kazakhstan's New Year right now. We are hoping for some news by next week!

We are hoping to have the special document signed and then we will return to Kaz for the court date. Our translator Maria is going to visit Askar "Quinn" this Monday the 26th. Oh we are so happy. We hope he isn't too bummed waiting for us while the silly bureaucracy goes on and on!!

Just waiting!!

We Made It Home Safe and Sound!

Hi,

Well we made it home safely! What a long trip back....ugh! This will be short and sweet because we are all ready for bed and EXHAUSTED to say the least! I have had a hard time sleeping the last few nights before we left Kazakhstan and then sleeping on planes...well you know how that it!

We will wait to here from our US Adoption Coordinator, Orson, about our trip back for court. However due to Tyler's work schedule we won't be able to return to Kaz until after April 6th. This special document should be signed by then. (POSITIVE THINKING!)

It is hard to believe that we are going all that way for literally one hour for court and one night stay in Kazakhstan and then back to the US. We will see Askar briefly either before court or after. We are not happy about such a short visit, but under the circumstances it is the best we can do. Then after the court hearing, I will return 25 days later for the final chapter of this adoption process. I will stay for approximately 17 day (I hope, I hope)

Thank you everyone for all your love, prayers and good thoughts. Please check back from time to time for more updates!

The Big Surprise!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry that we haven’t blogged in a few days! No we have not decided to move here and change our last name to resemble the entire alphabet! Were ya missin us?

Well I can’t believe it but I got Strep Throat! I was taken to a Ear, Nose and Throat “Specialist”. Now that was an EXPERIENCE! The treatment room looked like it was from the 40’s on “Walton’s Mountain”. I was greeted by a very elderly female Russian Doctor. She thought I was German. Ha! Thank goodness our translator was there, I would have been lost. I was feeling miserable and desperate and would have accepted help from the “Pillsbury Dough Boy”.

Modernization has not hit Kazakhstan. Not sure when it will. She told me I have a Disease! I knew exactly what I had. I told our translator to tell her that I have had this a few times in my life and usually have to get a antibiotic (which I hate) and a pain killer so that I can swallow without pain. I ended up getting just that! She was a very kind Doctor.

Big News! The Mayor that was suppose sign that special document is now a “New” Mayor as of today. So this new mayor will need to settle into his position before he signs this document. Needless to say we are on our way home! We are scheduled to leave March 15^th. So we will be home a few days earlier than scheduled.

Update on Askar. Poor little guy has an ear infection. We really just want to get him to an American Doctor to clearly evaluate his ear problem. They just keep dumping more stuff inside his ear and it doesn’t seem to help. Tomorrow we will need to say good-bye to him until Tyler and I can return for court. We have no idea how he will take it. Tyler thinks that he will smile and say “Da” (which means Yes) It is really hard for Askar to understand what is happening with the adoption process. We could be gone as long as 3 weeks before our return for court. I am especially sad because I didn’t get to see him for 2 days because of my Strep Throat problem.

This journey and its been a JOURNEY has brought Tyler, me and Parker so much closer.

We will be seeing most of you soon! Thanks for following along! Thanks also for your prayers, positive thoughts, emails and comments. It was a true blessing to receive them all!

LOVE YOU ALL!!

We Completed our 16-Day Visitation Requirement

Well we completed our 16-Day required visitation with Askar. At first we were going to tell Askar of this milestone, but then our Translator Maria thought it might confuse him. Askar might think we aren’t coming to see him anymore. So we decided not say anything and have our own private celebration. We asked Parker how do we celebrate, he said by watching “The Ant Bully”, which I am sure most of you celebrate this way. Ha Ha Ha!!

We will be seeing Askar today, but later because today is Bath Day! He will be amazed at our house because every night is bath day! So many changes are in store for this little guy.

We are going to slowly introduce him to life in America. We won’t take him to Disneyland right away, but probably to the Orange County Fair in July. He will have been home a few months. Parker wants to show him his favorite ride…the Big Slide! That is the one where you sit on the burlap bag and go down the slide. Tyler and I love that ride too.

Askar’s life seems very mundane here. The same routine over and over again. He was moved into this particular house last October 2006. We found out the other children call him “Little Askar”, because there is another boy named Askar who is a bit older and was here before he was. We always bring some little treats for him to eat. His diet is pretty bland and the staff here gets upset if we give him sweets. We try and keep them to an extreme minimum. Askar really looks forward to the eating part of our visit. Yesterday we gave him a hard boiled egg with a little salt. He was so excited about that egg! He ate it so fast. We then gave him a banana and a few little Russian cracker things. We were giving him a juice box everyday (organic believe it or not) and they said it is too much sweets for him. Askar saw the juice box and our translator explained to him that they did not want us to give it to him. He did not protest or complain, he was completely fine with it. Tyler and I both believe that they give the children this bland diet and any disruption is not good. They do get sweets we heard only on a special occasions. I can’t wait to see his face when he eats a homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie for the first time!

We have to wait until Monday (Kaz time, Sunday your time) to find out if the special document can get signed immediately. So we wait…………………………………….!

"Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming" - Dorie "Finding Nemo"

That’s what you do…Keep Swimming! After our visit with Askar we were taken into the Director of the Orphanage’s office. We were told that Askar’s paperwork is NOT complete. Apparently we need a special document signed by the Mayor, which is like the Governor where we all live. Askar’s file has not been updated with some important information. Without the update we would not be able to go to court and request to adopt Askar. Our lawyer is working on the problem and hopefully he can get the document signed faster so that we can go home on time. We are schedule to leave on March 18^th. We don’t mind a couple of day delay, but any longer than that is a worry.

Quite a few of you have emailed us…THANK YOU!! We LOVE hearing from all of you! It is nice to read your words of encouragement. We need all the encouragement we can get! So again…Thank you!!

Parker is GREAT! He hasn’t once complained to go home. It is Tyler and I that seem to complain…ha ha ha!! We have run out of our beloved “Chai Tea” so life seems a bit dull…ha ha ha!!

We wanted to put photos of our “Home Sweet Home” on our blog for your enjoyment! Ha! Most of the population live in these huge brick monstrosities. There are 2 and 3 bedrooms and most of them are owned by their occupants. It cost approximately $55,000 to own one of these places. The Government controls the heating. If the place gets too warm we open a few windows and that cools it down pretty good. The hot water here is REALLY HOT!! Another feature from the Government.

The weather here is in the mid 30’s during the day and about 10-15 degrees at night. That is why “Kaz” the dog is brought in at night. It is getting warmer every day. The snow and ice are melting. Our translator said that it is warmer than usual….Global Warming???

Tomorrow we complete our required 16-Day visitation with Askar. We just need EVERYONE to take a moment and send a pray and positive thought that the special document will get signed immediately and we are in good shape for court!

Thanks everyone!! We Love and Miss you all!!

A "Groundhog" Kind of Day!

We go to court this Friday to set a court date for the Adoption Hearing. We are hoping to get a date quickly. So please think POSITIVE for a QUICK DATE (like within 3 to 5 days is preferable) once we have that hearing we can return home immediately. We of course have not told Askar yet that we are leaving. We were told not to say anything until it is time for us to go. We made him a photo album of Us, our dogs and home. We have also added photos to it of us all while we have been visiting him. That way we can leave that behind for him to look at while we wait the required 25 days back in the U.S.A. We are not sure how he will react to us leaving. I am sure he will not be too happy. We are not looking forward to that moment.

A few people have asked why we have “masks” on. We are required to wear them during our 2-hour visits with Askar. The reason is that it is considered “Flu” and “Cold” season and they want to keep everyone healthy. We try and take them off for photos so you can see our smiling faces!!

We have found a couple of restaurants that have made our stay more bearable! (thanks Melissa and Jason) We love the Pancake House and the Chinese food. We still have to check out the Police Chief’s Wife’s restaurant. We do lean towards the “picky” side of eating, so we only have a few things on the menu that we can try. Lots of meat dishes and we don’t eat meat. I even tried to make something here in our apartment and Tyler rated it a “1” on a scale of 1 to 10 and Parker took one bite and that was that! I am definitely out of my element. While at the very limited produce section of the local Supermarket, you have to point to what you want and how many and a produce girl wraps it and puts a price on it for you. You are not allowed to get it yourself.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect coming here. None of us did. It is not like any place we have ever been. This has been quite the journey. We will never, ever forget our time in Kazakhstan.

"We must be the change we wish to see in the World" - Ghandi

Such a true statement! It makes no sense to sit around and complain. It makes better sense to “be a part of the change” and show the rest of the world that it can be a better world!! Even little things like picking up trash you see and even hugging a little child who may not have had a hug today!!

We had another visit with Askar today. We all decided to meet him in the hallway. He came down the stairs and saw us all standing there. He had a shy little smile. Then to my surprise he came up to me and wanted to be picked up. I picked him up and brought him into our visiting room. As Tyler and Parker were getting their coats on to go outside I could feel that Askar wanted to be held. I felt his head lay on my shoulder. I have sang him the song “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” a few times and felt that this might be a good time. I slowly swayed back and forth and sang softly to him. For the first time Askar seemed content in my arms. It was quite a moment. Did Tyler have the camera ready….No!

We hurried outside to avoid all the little ones. We were only out about 5 minutes when we heard them! Askar wanted to still be held while being outside. Since my wrist is still a bit sore, I handed Askar off to Tyler. Of course Parker wanted to be held too. So there was Tyler holding both boys. He did pretty good too!

We were soon inundated with little children everywhere! Our translator Maria and I seem to get crowded around by all the children. I wave and say “hello”. They try and say things to me in Russian and Kazak and I just can’t understand them. A few times our translator will get a few things. One little girl wanted to say that she “Climbs trees, do we want to see her?” So immediately I say “Da” which is Yes! She hurries to the tree and climbs it! We clap for her. Then we all decide to make our way back to the visiting room amidst all the children. Then we are stopped by what looks like Askar’s group. There is this little girl with this extremely chapped red face. She has tears in her eyes with a snotty nose. She is the one I wrote about awhile back. She puts her arms out to me and not for a hug, she wants to be held. I picked her up and she smiled. I held her for a few moments and then put her down and she wanted to be held again. I had a little toy in my pocket that Parker did not want from a chocolate egg surprise. I pulled it out of my pocket and gave it to her. She was so happy. She smiled so big. I also took out some tissue for her poor little nose. She walked away and stopped and turned around to wave to me. It is moments like this I will not soon forget.

Today we are happy to have had a “cuddly and close” visit with Askar. He seemed to warm up to me more today than any other day. It will take him sometime to “feel” like he is a part of a family, since that is such a foreign feeling for him.

I will ask a favor from all who read this, to just take a moment and see us all with laughter and love around us! Thank you for the POSITIVE THOUGHTS and PRAYERS!

P.S. Happy Birthday Brent from Kazakhstan

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!!