Back to Kaz in less than a month

Dates to bring Jacob home!!!!

Since our last post, we've learned we need to be back in Kaz on July 24th. Total trip time will be only 7 days this time.... thank goodness. And travel will be back to Almaty, not Arkalyk, since Jacob will be escorted to the "big city" for us. Even though this trip is just 7 days, which seems like nothing compared to trip 1, 7 days is a long time for little JC. Despite many family offers to keep JC, including Aunt Jill & Uncle Eric who did an AMAZING job during our first trip, we've decided I'll stay home and let brave Tim travel to Kaz alone to pick up Jacob.

Tim leaves July 22nd and will arrive in Almaty early on the 24th. Jacob should be waiting for him there. If all goes as planned, Jacob will visit the American clinic for his HIV test and exam on Tuesday and will be processed through the US Embassy on Thursday. Together, Daddy & Jacob will depart for home Friday morning, July 27th, and arrive in New York around 9 PM same day since they'll be chasing time zones backwards. The big bummer is there are no flights home leaving after 9 PM. So, not to miss all of the action, I'll fly to New York that Friday to relieve Tim and reunite with Jacob. Together, the three of us will fly home Saturday morning to introduce JC to his new brother that he now calls "Jakey the Snakey".

We've spoken with Khibiba several times since arriving home and she reports Jacob is doing great. His first birthday is Sunday so Aunt Jill & I will use this as a good excuse to eat some cake :).

We cannot thank everyone enough for all of your thoughts & prayers. We're so excited to be just one month away from bringing Jacob home!

Home Sweet Home!

After 61 hours of not-so-fun travel, we made it home late Sunday evening. Tim & I spent Monday "regrouping" and waiting for JC to arrive with my sister, mom, 2 nieces and 2 dogs from Virginia. They finally arrived around 11 PM and we were THRILLED to see "the dude". I cannot thank my sister and Uncle E enough for actually volunteering to keep JC for the time we were in Kaz. JC had a blast! I think, however, he's in denial about Jacob. You ask "who is your baby brother" and he brilliantly changes the subject. Although during the first of many viewings of our 4 hours of video, he did say "Huggies Jacob" and walked towards the TV with his arms outstretched as if giving Jacob a big hug. We'll see how many huggies are actually given once he learns we have to leave again for about a week to bring Jacob home!

Speaking of bringing Jacob home, we're targeting mid-July but will be calling Khabiba this week to confirm.

Thanks to everyone who followed our blog. We appreciated knowing how many friends and family-members were cheering for and praying us through this amazing journey!

So, that's it for now.... check back in a week or so for a new update on trip two. In the meantime, I have some Diet Coke drinking to catch up on....

Cheers!

Last full day

We have been here long enough to be able to predict exactly what we are having for dinner. We have finished the first season of Lost. We have given a gift to everyone in town. It is time to come home.

This is our last full day here in scenic and entertaining Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. Tomorrow we will go to court at about 2:30 in the afternoon, have some papers signed at the notary, stop by and see Jacob one last time, have dinner and get to the train by 6:40. We are told we have plenty of time but it sounds like a busy afternoon. For you blog addicts keep in mind that we may not have access to the internet until we get home so this could be our last post for a while.

For the trip home we take the overnight train to Astana on Friday night, a flight to Almaty on Saturday, then sit around for about 7 hours until we board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey at 2:45 am, yes AM. Then we have about 6 hours to kill in Istanbul and then on to New York City, more waiting and then finally home Sunday night about 11:00 PM. Then we are going to sleep for a while. Sounds like fun but at least we can say we have been to Turkey.

There is just not much more to say right now except we are looking forward to seeing all of you and being home. Thanks for following along, as remote as we have been it has been very helpful to us to have such strong support and interest from home. We will start up the posts again when we get closer to the second trip.

Jacob hates shoes!

Yesterday we purchased two outfits, including shoes, for Jacob to wear when his escorts takes him from the orphanage in July to meet us in Almaty. To be safe, we decided to try everything on today. He looked sooooo cute in his new digs and was pretty happy about them… until the shoes… It’s safe to say Jacob doesn’t like his new shoes. After putting them on his chunky little feet, he wailed so loud we were concerned the caregivers might think us unfit parents. The shoes fit, but we discovered this was his very first time to have anything other than socks on his feet. By the end of our time together, he was OK with the shoes but not loving them. His wonderful caregivers offered to keep them and let him wear them often so they won’t be so foreign when the time comes to leave and he’ll need shoes.

We had an amazing experience this afternoon. We were offered a chance to visit a special group home for children who have parents but their parents cannot take care of them, mostly due to financial reasons. Twenty-five children live as one big family in a large, very clean building run by several women working for the town’s mayor. The youngest child is four and the oldest is seventeen. Apparently, the children were recently divided and the group leaving the home took with them the DVD player. The kids were missing it, as most American kids would be, and really wanted a replacement. That being said, we were happy to present a new DVD/Game/Karaoke/MP4 player complete with speakers and a microphone to the children. It was awesome to see how excited they all were with the gift. After the gift’s presentation, we were treated to a tour of the very clean and well appointed home and a wonderful tea, including one of the best apple pies we’d ever tasted. Truly delicious! A great afternoon!

Tonight we took a driving tour of Arkalyk. We were able to take pictures of the hospital where Jacob was born and see the sites. To be honest, there is just not that much to see. About 10 years ago, Arkalyk boasted 70,000 citizens. Today, the population hovers around 30,000. As you drive through one end of town, all you see are rows upon rows of 6 – 8 story abandoned apartment buildings. Some had occupants at one time others were never completed. It’s a bit eerie. The tour ended and our Kazakh hosts asked “Vodka”? We exclaimed “No Way”! But invited them in to split our one beer. Somehow, our hosts happen to have three more beers in their trunk so we had a small beer party with us sipping very, very slowly. I think Tim & I shared ¼ of a beer while our hosts and our flat’s owner consumed the rest. We think they were also a little relieved to keep the party short and sweet. We are starting to feel pretty much at home here but if we have to endure any more Kazakh hospitality we might not be able to survive much longer.

That’s it for now! We have two more days until we start the long journey home. We land in St. Louis late Sunday night! Whooo Hooooo! Can’t wait to see everyone, including JC and Abby-the-dog!

Cheers!

Our last bonding day…

Today makes day 14 and the last day of our official petitioned bonding days with Jacob. With the successful completion of today we can now go to court on Friday with a successful bonding period. We had two wonderful visits again today with Jacob and his peeps. He seems to enjoy being the only one not trapped in a high chair or a roll around thingy. On our second visit the caregivers asked Sherri to come back to their room and help with the feeding of Jacob. With about 12 kids to feed every meal, the ladies have a real way of making haste with this process. The kids also seem to know that this is no time for play. As soon as they hit the position you can see the jaws start flapping. It must work though because the kids all seem very well nourished.

After our first visit, it was time to organize the remaining gifts and purchase our authentic Kazakhstan souvenirs. Surprisingly, there are relatively few stores that sell authentic Kazakh goods but luckily our facilitator knows the right places. The store was probably a half mile from our flat so this was too far to walk!! So we took a taxi. The taxi’s here are not quite what we are used to. Both of them that we rode in for the 5 minute trip were from the 50’s at best. They were small Russian made cars multi-colored from the panels replaced over the years. If they had duct tape they could have put it to good use. Inside there was quite a bit of bailing wire and other improvised repairs to keep those old classics going.

It is colder still here today with strong winds making the wind chill feel down into the 50’s. We were prepared for hot weather with lots of heat but not the cold. We both brought one long sleeve shirt and they are getting quite a workout.

We bought traveling clothes for Jacob today. A couple of outfits and some sandals and a cool hat and he is all ready to go. Speaking of ready to go. In spite of all the friends we have made here we are ready to get home. We want to see all our family and friends as well as return to some of the comforts of home. By the way, this is just one of many reasons why we are ready to leave. JC’s big boy bed at home is bigger than this one.

See you soon.

Tim and Sherri

The Day After...

It’s cold here! I mean it. It’s 50ish degrees all of a sudden. Unlike at home, you cannot just “turn up the heat”. So, we’re a bit chilly today. For anyone reading this who has drank vodka with Russians or Kazakh people, you’ll agree that a blast of cold is good for clearing the mind on “the day after”. It is considered rude to turn down vodka from your hosts. Suffice it to say, we are not rude. Enough said except THANK YOU Nuprin and I never, ever, ever, never, ever, ever, ever never want to see, smell or even think about vodka again.

Jacob is taking a few steps on his own now. He gets this silly grin on his face, takes a few steps, falls down and claps his hands. We’re pretty sure he’ll be fast on his feet by the time we bring him home. Since it is cold and breezy here, the “big kids” were bundled up and playing outside this afternoon. They looked like little marshmallows all bundled up. But, I swear, judging from the amount of bundling going on, you would have thought we were in the Artic!

Jacob’s peeps and the kids just a bit older were not allowed out so when it was our time to play this afternoon, we barged in on the goings on with the 1 ½ - 2 year olds. It was really fun. Two of the little boys, probably just shy of 2, know us very well now. They go “hiiiiiiiiiii” and come running towards us arms outstretched for big hugs. There is also a chunky-monkey little girl who I swore was a boy until we saw her once in a dress. She loves to be tickled and laughs so loud and hard it makes you happy and sad at the same time. Another little girl, one of the three we’d been shown on our first day, actually loosened up today and let me hold her. Until now, we’ve seen no emotion from her at all. Just a blank expression. Today, something changed and she actually grinned at me and put her arms up for me to hold her. So many of these kids seem so normal, healthy and happy. Given they met our age requirements, our assumptions are they are not available for adoption. Either they have parents who visit them and just cannot parent, mainly due to poverty. Or, their birthmothers may have signed petitions stating they’d be back some day for their child. When you leave, you feel good about hugging them and making them laugh and really, really sad too.

My sister let us know today one of JC’s upper molars broke through. He’d been, shall I say, a little tiny bit crabby for her and has been picking fights with Julia. Now that the molar is in, Jill reports he’s back to being his normal, happy, plays-well-with-Julia self. Let’s see how long that lasts….

That’s about it from here today. Thanks again for the comments & emails. Thanks also to Katie, Susan, Pete & Ernie for calling yesterday. It was great chatting and we cannot wait to show you all 3 hours of tape and 400+ pictures!

Pulice erder to drink vodca..no blig todya

Sari, no blig tdeay, polise erder to dreenk vowdka..... mere later..

Another day in Kazakhstan

Jacob greeted us with a big smile and cheerful wave this afternoon. We had fun crawling all over the floor, the piano, the chairs, sofa and anything else in his path. He’s either really comfortable with us or we’re wearing him out because once again, Jacob fell asleep on Tim before our first visit concluded. During our second visit, we mingled with all of the other kids in the outdoor play yards. Seemed every time you turned around, a little kid (1 ½ to 2 years old) was taking off his or her pants. Remember, they don’t wear diapers here! I think it was their way of saying “Hey Ladies, it’s 80 degrees here. No more layers!”. The big kids (2 – 4 years old) had it much better. Not only were they NOT bundled up, they were each running around in shorts, no shirts and little hats. I caught a few glimpses of caregivers scolding a big kid or two for trying to strip totally naked. Guess something was in the air or someone, in baby babble, was shouting “Let’s go streaking!”

After our first visit with Jacob, we decided to venture out on our own. We’re turning in to quite the little rebels! Oh yeah, please, don’t tell our facilitator! We wandered to the market expecting to find some good buys. Instead, we found shoes. Literally thousands and thousands of shoes, kind of like Supermarket of Shoes only much bigger, no boxes, outside, and not very organized. I’m serious. There were enough shoes for sale to fit everyone in Arkalyk three times over. Very overwhelming! So, if you need some sturdy shoes or very sparkly high heels, we know just the place! Other than shoes, we found a lot of clothes, some fruit and kid toys. Nothing we couldn’t live without. I was hoping for the duty free shop you see in the Caribbean where they sell the giant Emeralds… As we arrived back to our flat after our secret escape, the phone was ringing. It was our facilitator calling with arrangements for a massage for Tim. A minute longer at the market and we’d have been busted for sure!

Tim had an hour-long massage for US$6 (including tip). The masseuse makes house calls and came to our flat. Our facilitator’s aunt has strong hands and puts them to good use on the Americans who visit. We’ve worked up such pain in our muscles for all the effort we’re exerting here reading books, watching movies, etc. We both need a massage! Ha, ha! In all fairness, we do go to the track for an hour each day and Tim runs hard the full time. He’s logging about 8 miles each day plus he runs up and down the stands. They think he’s crazier than me! Speaking of the track, we had the honor of meeting toothless Track Man’s main squeeze today. At least that’s what I think he told me as he introduced me to a woman who’d brought him lunch. Ahhhhh. The people we’re meeting in Arkalyk!

From a travel standpoint, our passports are finally back from Kostanai with new visa stamps. As you may recall, our visas were set to expire during our trip. Big problem! With passports in hand, our facilitator was able to purchase our train tickets for Friday night. She was worried about the availability of tickets since there is only one train and cabins fill quick. But, I have the tickets so we’re in good shape. We’ll leave court, pop by to kiss Jacob one last time and then hop the Friday 6:40 PM train.

The overnight 15-hour train will take us to Astana where we’ll hop a flight Saturday afternoon to Almaty. To purchase our airline tickets, we had to send cash to a woman in Astana. Get this. To send money, you give an envelope to the train conductor who gives it to your contact at the end of the line. Kind of like Fed Ex but probably more reliable from a timing perspective!

We’ll arrive in Almaty Saturday early evening and fly to Istanbul Sunday morning at 2:30 AM. From Istanbul we’ll fly to New York and we hope to still have time to make it home that day since we’ll be chasing backward time zones. So, if all goes as planned, we should be home by late Sunday night or early Monday morning! Whoooo Hoooooo!

We did get some bummer news today. Sounds like the timing to return to Kaz is going to be longer than we anticipated. Something about Jacob’s passport taking longer because the other two kids going home this month’s passports took longer to acquire. Right now, we’re being told we should plan to arrive back in Almaty (where they’ll bring Jacob to us) on July 22nd. We were really thinking it would be closer to July 10th. Nonetheless, we’ll be happy to reunite with the big guy ASAP.

On a sad note. Most of you know dogs in our family are family. The week before Tim and I left for Kaz, my parent’s had to euthanize their old boxer dog, Sooie. We’d had Sooie for over 13 years and she was loving, happy (although somewhat grumpy) old girl. When it rains it pours. Yesterday, my parents had to euthanize their other boxer, Sparky. Sparky’s cancer had progressed to the point where no pain management was going to keep her “sparky” and she was given a few weeks to live if she’d undergo chemo. Mom and Dad did the right thing and we lost quirky, funny, sweet, affectionate Sparky. I think it has been since I was in 7th grade that my parents have lived without a dog in their home. It’s bad enough to lose a buddy but to lose two buddies in less than a month just stinks. Our hearts hurt. This was one of my favorite pictures of JC and Sparky. Don’t worry, Mom, we’ll wait a few weeks before surprising you with a puppy or the perfect rescued boxer.

Thanks for following along!

Children’s Protection Day and Pleasant Surprises……

June 1, 2007 is called Children’s Protection Day in many Asian and European countries. In Kazakhstan it is a day off of work and a day for parties, music, songs and celebration by and for all the children. At the baby home the middle aged kids, 2 to 4 yrs, put on a wonderful series of skits and sang some songs. I am continually amazed that the caregivers are able to get 15 excited kids to sit in order and stay still. The room was decorated with balloons and streamers and shiny tape on the floor. Each of the older kids had something to say or did a small puzzle for the crowd to show off how smart they are. The highlight of the party was when the rooster showed up. One of the caregivers cock-a-doodled into the room to be met by excited screams and much running around. Apparently this has some symbolism surrounding the daddy chicken looking for his chicks. There were two small areas taped out on the floor. All the children would hide in one of the areas then the rooster would come around and find them. They would then all scream with excitement and run to the other area laughing raucously. This was followed by a puppet show and then it was all kids favorite time of any party – snacktime. Each child was treated to a juice box, a marshmallow cream pie and an ice cream cone. This influx of refined sugar whipped up the already excited crowd in to a frenzy. Jacob slept through the whole thing with the rest of his peeps.

After the first party we took a walk around town to investigate the other festivities. At one of the main town squares, there was a big gathering of people surrounding a decorated stage. A parade of local kids maybe 12 thru 18 were dressed up fancifully and singing songs to loud thumping music. They were not very good because we could not understand any of the words to the songs. But they seemed to be having a good time and the crowd was enjoying the show. We realized just how small this town is because during our 30 minute walk-around we saw every single person we have met here including toothless trackman. Many of the caregivers from the baby home were also in the crowd. Each time we met one of them they would ask that we take their picture with their own kids.

We also received some extremely good news today. As an example of how things can change quickly, our facilitator somehow managed to get our court date moved up to Friday the 8th. That is a week from today! If all goes well this could put us out of Arkalyk that same Friday evening and back home somewhere around the 11th or 12th . This is really big news for those of us who are getting a little homesick for friends, family and familiar food. More to come on this subject but we were so excited today that we plan to celebrate by sitting in our room, watching a movie and drinking a beer. Woohoo….

See you all soon..
Tim and Sherri