Appeals Period - Day 15

OUR LAST 2-HOUR VISIT BEFORE CUSTODY!

We estimate that the babyhouse was about a mile and a half from our apartment since it took about 30 minutes to walk there. The walk was uneventful, but we'll go through the "sights" later in the post. When the caregiver brought Max in, she spoke to us in Russian or Kazkah in an attempt to ask us something. Since we were there without Natasha, it took a little while to figure out that she was asking when we would be going home to America. Of course, even we don't know that for sure, but we do know Max will be leaving the babyhouse in 2 days. She eventually said something and held up some fingers, and Jenny just responded, "Da." that seemed to satisfy her. I'm sure her main question was "When will we have to say goodbye to Misha?" Of course, all the caregivers will miss him greatly I'm sure. And he will miss them just as much.

Our visit was very nice again. The Spanish ladies were there for the first hour, but no interpreter or coordinator or Alikhan, so it was a pretty quiet visit. Max was in good spirits for most of the time we were there, but still got fussy and a little whiny towards the end. We started Cheerio-time a little early so he was happy about that. But most of the time, he was having a ball doing the usual things. Here are a few photos and a video clip.

Someone had asked a while back what Aktobe looks like. Is it a big city? Or more rural? As you can see in this aerial photo, it is quite a large city. The photo shows our neighborhood. The tall green and white building near the center is our apartment building (16 floors in total and we are on the 12th floor....no elevators were working today...ugh). To the right, you can see the blue dome of the mosque mall.

I took a screen shot from Google Earth and labeled some of the landmarks and places we have mentioned on the blog so far. The two yellow thumb tacks mark our apartment building and the babyhouse. The green line is the route we walked. We passed the Mosque-Mall, Kemer and the Anbar market across the street, the soccer stadium on the corner, the monument to a famous Kazakh sniper in WWII, and the Kazakhstan Flight School. You can click on the photo to get a larger version which will be easier to read.

Here is a photo of the minaret of the mosque (located behind the Naurdalet mall). On our way home today, we happened to be walking by while the midday chant was going on (you can hear it a little bit in the video clip below).

Here is a photo of the outside of the soccer stadium. It is decorated with banners commemorating the 140th anniversary of the founding of Aktobe city. It is coming up in a week or so and the President of Kazakhstan (Nursultan Nazarbaev) will be making a visit. Today, there was some sort of field trip going on because there were many students lined up out in front escorted by what appeared to be their teachers. We got a LOT of stares from the kids as we passed them by.

Here is a monument to a famous female sniper who had over 90 kills during World War II. Her name is Aliya Moldagulova and she was killed in combat at the end of the Siege of Leningrad. She was named a "Hero of The Soviet Union" posthumously. She was born right here in Aktobe and is a very big hero to the folks here.

Here are some photos of the Kazakhstan Flight School. Its grounds are littered with planes and helicopters dating back (I'm guessing) to the USSR.

When we reached the Flight School, we took a right turn down this dirt road which leads to the babyhouse. This photo was taken from the front of the babyhouse looking out toward the Flight School. The building on the right which is still being built can be seen from our living room window.

On our way back from the babyhouse, we stopped at the market to buy some fruit for Max and chocolate for us (there MIGHT be some left for Max, otherwise, we'll have to get some more...we can't wait to see his reactions to some of these new foods he is about to enjoy!). Then we went to lunch at a little cafe called Chocolate (it's the same place we went to for hot chocolate the other night). We each had a sausage and cheese sandwich, an orange soda, and we split a hot chocolate. While we were there, Natasha called to let us know the plan for Monday. We will go to the babyhouse at our normal visiting time (10am till noon) and we will wait there until our coordinator Natasha calls to let us know that she has all the paperwork we need. At that time, she will tell us where we are going next. We do know we will have to go to the other orphanage to meet with the Director. So we thought today would be our FINAL day in the bonding room, but it looks like we're going back once more.

We have no visit tomorrow, so we will spend the day getting ready to bring Max "home". We will be making a run to the market for diapers and some food for him. We need to clean before we bring him back to the apartment. And then we are meeting the Joneses for dinner.

2 days until we get custody of Max!!