Keeping up with the Joneses

We had our usual morning today, but we tried to get moving a little quicker to make sure we got a walk in before lunch. We stopped in at the mosque mall to a kids clothing store to look for some pants for Max. We have been rotating two pairs of pants since the others we brought were just too big in the waist. We found a pair that were like sweatpants (just like his other two pairs, but at least now we have three pairs to get into the rotation). Then we went to the farmer's market for some fruit. We bought bananas, apples, some grapes, and an orange, then headed back to the apartment by way of the other market so we could get some sodas and ice cream (of course).

After lunch, Max took a longer than usual nap, although we're not sure when he actually woke up. We heard him babbling in the bedroom instead of crying, so he might have been awake and amusing himself for a little while. After his nap, we met the Joneses at the park by the stadium and walked around for a while. Marina was very cute in her Russian scarf and she was very sweet with Max. You can see in the first photo how much taller she is than Max (but of course she is two years older and big for her age).

We all then walked to Kemer for dinner with a plan to get hot chocolate afterward. Dinner was very nice and delicious as always. Max LOVED him some mashed potatoes (although he was eating constantly from the moment we sat down...graham crackers, animal crackers, bread). Alan made several comments throughout dinner that he couldn't believe how much Max could eat. Since dinner went until about 7:45, we decided to postpone hot chocolate to another night and we headed home. Max went to sleep pretty easily tonight, so we're glad he is getting into a new routine with us (of course, that will be disrupted as soon as we leave for Almaty).

One observation....We have noticed that people have tended to be more friendly to us now that we have Max with us. We still get lots of stares since we're Americans, but we also sometimes get smiles and even some locals who try to strike up a conversation with us (Jonathan and Shannon...did you notice this to be the case when you got custody of Dmitri?).

Tomorrow, we are scheduled to go back to the Sulpak market. When we went last time, we pretty much rushed in and rushed out since we were just there for the stroller and crib, so we're looking forward to a leisurely shopping experience.

Splish, splash, Max enjoyed his bath!

Well, the title says it all. We finally found a way for Max to enjoy taking a bath (at least for one night). A few times today, he would venture into the bathroom and peek into the tub standing on his tiptoes (Aunt Shannon, you'd be proud). We kept him clothed at the beginning, just throwing toys into the water splashing us. He loved our reactions to that. Then we slowly started to get him undressed, one piece at a time and still playing. Eventually, we got him in the tub and the splashing continued as did the laughing. We were soaked and so was the floor, but we're ok with that because there were no tears.

Aside for that minor success, it was a pretty dull day. Our usual walk in the park. Food all day long. We were supposed to meet the Joneses for dinner, but it started to rain as we were getting ready, so we pushed it back to tomorrow. So it was a long afternoon and evening in the apartment. Even Max was bored, as you can tell in the following photo...


We saw this cool statue in another park, adjacent to the mosque mall. We assume this was some sort of musician and poet, but I could not find any information on him on the internet because of the spelling of his name in the Cyrillic alphabet. Anyway, we thought the statue was neat looking and there was also a mosaic wall to the left that also included some of his writings. The pictures do not do it justice, but it was very pretty in person.

Nap times and bed times are still going well (knock on wood) and Max is walking more and more. But we're ready to move on to Almaty!! We are going to start stocking up on snacks for the three hour flight.

12th floor, no waiting!

That's right, our elevator is back!!! We got a late start to the day today, so we did not do a morning walk (can you tell that we're having difficulty with having to get three people ready in the morning?). We're not sure whether the elevator was working this morning, but when we went out after Max's nap, it was back. Praise God (as one of our English-speaking Kazakh neighbors put it)!!

It was another day filled with eating for Max, but we won't bore you with an inventory (suffice it to say, it was comparable to yesterday). We spent the morning eating and playing and then eating some more. Max went down for his nap at 1pm and it was painless. Not a tear was shed and it only took about 5 or 10 minutes. After his nap, we decided to head back to the park across from the stadium on our way to the pub for pizza. We tried to keep him moving since he doesn't really ask for any food if he's distracted with going for a walk. We went down past the sculpture garden...

...all the way to the World War II memorial. We had driven past the memorial a few times, but had never seen how cool it is until we saw it up close. It is a large obelisk with a Kazakh warrior carved into it with his sword raised. At the bottom (to the right in the picture) is an eternal flame. The first picture is the one I took, but today was pretty overcast and it is fairly dim. The next picture is one that was linked on my Google Earth and it was a clear, sunny day when it was taken.



Dinner at the Alehause Pub was good. Max ate graham crackers and animal crackers until the pizza arrived. Then he polished off a slice and a half of that and he thoroughly enjoyed his first taste of pizza. Just wait until he tastes GOOD pizza from LaRosa's back home. On our walk back to the apartment, we ran into the Joneses and their new little girl Marina. She is adorable and we had a nice chat with them for a little while and we have plans to meet them tomorrow evening. We stopped at the market to stock up on things since the elevator is working (for now). It was such a pain lugging everything up that we wanted to take full advantage of a functioning elevator. They also had MaxiBons back in stock, so all in all, it was a great evening!

We have two video clips for today's post. The first one shows how much Max likes to walk (especially when holding on to something). In it, he is moving some furniture around to properly align things in fung-shui. When everything is just right, you'll notice him making a gesture that we see about a thousand times a day (MORE!!...he also asked for more while lying in bed tonight). The second video is Max just having some fun walking around in his train jammies. It's a short 9 second video, but that laugh is tremendous!

Have you had enough, Max?

The answer to that question is a resounding NO.


We went ahead and followed the experts' advice and gave Max something to eat anytime he "asked" for it or went into the kitchen. It was a success, if you want to call it that. Here is what he ate today (in no particular order): a bowl of oatmeal, a banana, a TON of Cheerios spread out over many snack-times throughout the day, Gerber puffs, animal crackers (3 different times), a hotdog, grapes, yogurt melts, buttered noodles, some pelemeni, a quarter of a watermelon, an apple, a couple of potato chips, some bread and butter, chocolate ice cream. We think that is everything (and he was even gesturing for more after the ice cream, but it was bedtime). You should hear how happy he gets when the food is brought out and how impatient he is if he doesn't get it instantaneously. And you should see the load that was in his diapers two different times today. Wow. We will keep this experiment up as long as it takes him to realize that there will always be enough food for him.

It would be nice if they would finally fix the elevators. We feel a little trapped here in the apartment because we dread that long walk up the 12 flights. If we had an elevator, we would take short walks to the market or to the park or just downstairs to the small playground behind the apartment building (like we did this afternoon). We also went to the park this morning for a walk so we got out of here twice, but that required two trips back upstairs. Here is a photo of Max and I at the little playground. We are sitting in this weird little frog-swing and in true Kazakh fashion, I neglected to smile (they NEVER do).

So while Max was much happier today because of the non-stop eating, there are other times where he will pitch a fit that has nothing at all to do with food. We are learning the joys of parenting an almost two year old. The more we learn about Max, the more we see how stubborn and mischievous he can be. Jenny has taken to referring to him as King Max since he acts like the world revolves around him (which it kinda does here). When he doesn't get his way, he often will throw a little temper tantrum (sometimes even throwing himself on the floor, kicking his legs and screaming). It is nice to know that some issues really are universal, even though many of his are related to the adoption.

We are going to attempt a restaurant this weekend and also meet up with the Joneses and their new little girl Marina. We will of course come prepared with a bag full of goodies to keep Max occupied if we have any troubles.

We would like to wish my brother Brian a very happy 40th birthday!!

22 months old today

Today started much like every other day. Breakfast, play time, snack, snack, snack, lunch, nap. We had planned on a morning walk, but we were a little late getting ourselves together, so we postponed that until after Max's nap. As usual, he continued his obsession with food (today was the worst and most frustrating day yet). We contacted Dr. Staat at Children's Hospital International Adoption Center because we were getting very frustrated with it all. He wants to eat all day long and we are going to let him even if it makes him sick. The experts all agreed and we are on board. So now, any time he starts to get fussy because of no food in front of him or because he crawls into the kitchen and cries, it's snack time!



We did get out for a walk this afternoon. We went to the farmer's market around the corner from the soccer stadium and got some bananas, apples, and a watermelon. We didn't really consider that we were going to have to lug all of this back to the apartment and up 12 flights of stairs. Yes, the elevator is STILL on the fritz (maybe you can tell, we're getting kinda ticked off about it)!! We also went to this other park that is across the street from the soccer stadium. We forgot the camera, so no pictures of the sculpture garden (though we posted one of those way back in May) or the life size chess board with big metal pieces or yet another fountain. We did stop for, you guessed it, snack time! Animal crackers were on the menu for this stop. While we were having snack time, we got to see the President's motorcade (we think) drive by on their way to the stadium. When we passed the stadium, there was A LOT of commotion and we could hear someone addressing the crowd. We also saw lots of policemen out on the streets. When we saw the motorcade, it all made sense. Today must be the day they are celebrating Aktobe's 14oth anniversary. The motorcade was pretty cool. Four or five police cars led the way with men shouting through their loud speakers. There were also some vans that had soldiers inside holding their rifles armed and ready. There were five or six nice black cars and a couple of ambulances, followed by a few more police cars. They were all on their way to the stadium where President Nursultan Nazarbaev was addressing the crowd. There were people lining the street to hear him even though they couldn't get inside (pretty impressive). He is beloved by the people of Kazakhstan. He's been their leader since the country gained independence in 1991 when he won the election with 91.5% of the vote. The parliament even changed their constitution to allow him to remain in power. Here's a picture of a stamp with his likeness.

We stopped at the market to pick up some water, bread, and of course ice cream. Since today Max turned 22 months old, we celebrated by giving him some chocolate ice cream (we assume) for the first time ever. He loved it. He got to enjoy it after his dinner of grilled cheese and watermelon. But really, it was after bath time. It was horrendous yet again. He never stopped screaming, but we think it really tired him out because he went down tonight better than ever. We don't expect that to be the norm however. The good folks at Children's also confirmed our suspicions about his sleep issues, so we do not expect these to be cleared up after only a few nights. They said that he is having insecurities about whether we will still be here when he wakes up and that these issues may take weeks or even months after we return home to get better. But we'll take the easy bedtime routine when we can get it! He was out in about 15 minutes tonight. (Of course the fireworks down at the stadium started as soon as we were leaving the bedroom, but he slept right through them and they went on for a good 20 minutes)

Here are some good photos of Max in his jammies playing a little bit before bedtime.

We thought it would be nice to answer some of the questions that people have been so kind to leave in the comments section (we LOVE those comments and check for new ones all the time...keep 'em coming!).

Laura Holland asks...

"Scott, did he say "Dada" when he gave you the ring?? Is he picking it up that quickly??"

He did, but he says "Da" or "Dada" pretty much whenever he wants us to hand him something or if he wants to hand us something. I resist the urge to think he is really addressing me. He is responding to his name more and more though, so that's progress.

"Was he puzzled with your trip to the park? Do you think he has been outside much/at all?"

Pretty much anytime we have been out of the apartment, whether in a car or in the stroller, he has been a little freaked out by all the activity, but he usually relaxes after a little while. We do not think he was outside much at all during his time at the babyhouse.

"Any chance of shaving some time off your trip since custody started on a Monday??"

No.

"Are you almost out of your American food stash or are you still good?"

Our supplies are dwindling. I brought 10 tuna pouches with 10 mayos and relishes and I ate the last one today. We do have over a dozen ramen noodles left, so that's good. Our Easy Mac supplies are in decent shape as is the supply of Cheerios (thank goodness). I am almost out of Ravioli and we're down to one can of LaRosas's spaghetti sauce. We're also down to about half a jar of peanut butter (surprisingly, Max did not care for peanut butter, so maybe that half a jar will last through Almaty). Anyway, it'll be a sad day when we eat the last of our American food.

"What's your weather like?"

Very mild, but occasionally rainy (like tonight).

"Did you eat all 4 Maxi-bons at one time?"

Of course not, but we could.

"Were they wearing Kazakh costumes for the Constitution Day celebration?"

It was tough to tell from our bedroom window.

"Did you get any on tape? Did they play dombras?"

Nope. And dunno.

"Have you done any good shopping? Do they have dream quilts and rugs everywhere like in Almaty or is it not really geared for tourists the way Almaty is? Do they have cool Russian stacking dolls everywhere? "

Not really. We are going back to the Sulpak market next week, but we plan on getting most of our keepsakes and things when we get to Almaty. There just doesn't seem to be too much of that sort of thing here in Aktobe. I can't imagine that they get a lot of tourists here.

"Have you eaten Russian "pancakes" (like crepes)? Have you eaten Borscht?"
Nope. And nope (beet soup? I think not)

Margie Geisler asks...

"Okay, the chant was eerie on the video clip. Did it sound eerie to you in person? What does the chant actually mean? Is it a prayer?"

No, the chant does not sound eerie in person, it's actually kinda cool. It is a prayer called the Salah. An obedient Muslim is supposed to pray this chant five times a day: dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and nightfall. That chant comes over the loud speaker at the top of that minaret and if our windows are open, we can hear it in the apartment.

Mrs. Brian Bradley asks...

"Tell me about his Gap shirt. Is there a Gap over yonder or is that shirt you brought him?"

That shirt was a gift from a coworker of Jenny's (thank you, Marla George). We brought a number of outfits on the first trip and they dressed him in those clothes on some of our visits. There are very few "American type" stores, although we have seen an Adidas store and a Benetton store down the street. But those kinds of places are few and far between here in Aktobe.

Mom Louis asks...

"Did the Baby House give you some kind of schedule that he has been on? Like when he takes a nap - what time he eats?"

Yes, we got his schedule well before we got him, but we don't believe all that was on it. For instance, they had several periods of the day listed as "outside walking". We never saw kids outside (although Jonathan and Shannon saw it a couple times).

"Did they have lights on at the Baby House all the time?"

We don't know, but we asked Natasha about it after that first bad night falling asleep. Natasha didn't know either.

"What size clothes does Max wear?"

Max wears a lot of 12-month size shirts and they fit him pretty well. 12-month pants only fit him however if they have an elastic waist or a drawstring. If they just have a button (like the jeans and khakis we brought), then they fall off because his waist is so skinny and he has no butt to keep 'em on. He would have crawled right out of the jeans when Jenny put them on him.

09-09-09

We had a nice day with Max today. He slept through the night, getting up around 7am. We had more oatmeal and banana for breakfast and the we just played in the apartment for a while. The highlight of the day was that we got out of the apartment and took a little walk before lunch. It was a beautiful day, sunny and 70. We didn't take a very long walk, just over to the park across the street from the statue of Abul Khair Khan. It has some well-landscaped areas with flowers and grass and a nice little fountain. Max wore shoes for the first time (ever? who knows) and he liked that a lot. He was able to walk better in these shoes much more confidently than without (we think it gives him added stability). We let him out of the stroller for a bit in the park. We wanted to make sure he was good and tired for his nap after lunch. The problem was, WE were the ones who were good and tired since the elevator is STILL out.

Just a cool looking statue in the park (no idea who these people were)

We had grilled cheese for lunch today and Max gobbled it up (I put extra butter on his bread). He also liked the grapes we gave him after the sandwich was all gone. Lucky for Jenny and I, we have found some potato chips that we like. The carry Lay's brand at the market, but their flavors are different. There is one with cheese on the bag, one with green onions on it, one with some sort of mushroom thing on it, and one that we couldn't tell what was on it, but the bag was a reddish-orange color, so we thought it might be BBQ. When we tried them, there was a smoky, almost mesquite flavor to them, but they were not BBQ. Then it dawned on me when I looked closer at the label, which said (in Russian) bekoh. Of course, that taste is bacon! So we've had those and the green onion which are just like our sour cream and onion chips. It is amazing how comforting it is to find food similar to back home.

Nap time was very easy today. He cried a little bit but fell asleep in 5 or 10 minutes and slept for about two hours. We would have gone back out after Max's nap, but with the elevator STILL out, that is just too much work lugging both Max and his stroller up 12 flights. Natasha showed us these beef hot dogs in the market, so we were going to have those for dinner. We cooked up three of them, but once Jenny and I tried them and felt their mushiness, no more for us. Max on the other hand LOVED it. He actually had two hot dogs (and would have eaten the third, too) and some milk (and some Cheerios to keep him occupied while we ate our ramen noodles).

No bath tonight. With the ordeal last night, we're planning on every other night being a bath night (unless he begins to cope with it better). He is doing very well with letting us brush his teeth before going to bed. Tonight's count for bedtime was about an hour and twenty minutes to fall asleep. He cries a lot less than before, but just doesn't want to fall asleep and he cries if we leave the room while he's still awake. You can see how tired he is. His eyes get heavy and he starts to drift off, but then he'll wake himself up and check to see that we're still there. They say that adopted children are afraid to fall asleep because they are worried that their parents won't be there when they wake up. We can definitely see that at work here.

We mentioned how the shoes gave Max more stability and confidence in his walking. Here's a video of him setting a new personal record for distance. He even keeps his balance through a couple of sneezes and picks himself back up after a spill (and handing me one of his rings).

The second paperchase begins...

Jenny and I went to bed last night around 11pm. We had left the light on in the room since Max had such a hard time with the dark. It was just a bedside lamp, but we were not going to be able to sleep with it on. When we turned it off, uh oh. Max immediately woke up and needed some attention. We ended up bringing him into the bed with us for a little while. Trouble was, he didn't want to sleep, just mess around. Eventually, we got him back in the crib and asleep after crying some more. Jenny ended up sleeping in the living room on the sofa bed and Max didn't wake up until about 6:45am. Not too bad.



After breakfast of oatmeal, milk, and a banana, we got ready for our paperwork errands. The three of us and both Natashas all went out to sign for the birth certificate and apply for Max's passport. This required several stops and we were out until about 12:45pm (3 hours total for all the stops). Max was a trooper throughout, even though we were quite late getting him some lunch. We tried some Easy Mac with mixed vegetables for lunch. He liked the Easy Mac of course (who wouldn't?), but the broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower were not to his liking (he takes after his old man). He did seem to like the Chef Boyardee Ravioli that I was having. He also tried out the yogurt and he liked that a LOT. After lunch, it was nap time! That did not go over too well. It took quite a while to get him to relax, and he kinda just cried himself to sleep.



The nap lasted for about two and a half hours. We played for a while in the apartment instead of venturing out for a walk in our new stroller because the elevator is STILL out. I did go out for some water and other necessities (like ice cream), but that walk up 12 flights is really bad when you're carrying Max with you (although it was no picnic lugging that 5-liter jug of water either). For dinner, Max had grapes. We tried to give him some of our eggs, but he didn't seem to care for those. So much for getting some protein into him. So we gave him some bread and butter to go along with his milk and yogurt. Lots of nutrition tonight! But we have to give Max some credit....no crying when the food was all gone and cleared away! That's a lot of progress for just one day!




After dinner was bath time. ugh. Max HATES having his clothes off. He doesn't like diaper changes and he really doesn't like bath time. He was screaming bloody murder before his feet had even touched the water. It was the fastest bath ever. We wrapped him up in a towel, but the screaming continued. He got his diaper on, but the screaming continued. But once the jammies were on, all was right with the world. No more nudity. This kid does NOT take after his Uncle Rodger or his cousin Eli Darnell, that is for sure.

Finally, it was bed time for Max. Boy, we miss the days (er, day) of him going to sleep in just 45 minutes! Tonight, it took a good hour and a half before we were able to successfully leave the room without getting an earful. We started around 8:30 and were finally done at 10 o'clock. We have been tip-toeing around the apartment for the last 40 minutes (I'm actually afraid this typing might wake him up). Hopefully, tomorrow will go a little better.

Our timeline for returning home is starting to take shape. We applied for the passport today and that takes the longest of all the things we need to do. We have been told that it will be ready for us on September 18. We are hoping that we can do his visa application that same day and we hear that we can leave Aktobe for Almaty as soon as the application is filed. So we are not positive exactly when we leave Aktobe, but we're hopeful it will be very soon after the 18th.

Keep your fingers crossed that we can sneak into bed without waking Max up!

Gotcha!

Well, we didn't really understand how things would proceed today. We thought that we would visit with Max like usual and during our visit, we would receive a call from Natasha Li telling us that we should meet her at the orphanage director's office to sign some documents. We thought we would be taking Max with us at this point. Nope.

We did our two hour visit from 10am till noon and then we left and returned to the apartment to wait for Natasha to call. We ate lunch and then left at 1:45 to go see the orphanage director. He was busy, so we signed the papers and left his gift with an assistant. Then we went back to the babyhouse to get Max. They woke him up from his nap, changed him into the clothes we brought for him, and then brought him out to us. We got a little emotional watching his caregivers say goodbye to him for the last time. We left the babyhouse at 2:30pm Aktobe time (that's 5:30am back home) and here's our first photo as an official family. Natasha took this picture as we walked out of the babyhouse.



The drive to the apartment was a little overwhelming for Max. He had a death grip on our fingers as we rode the mile and a half. His eyes were bugging out as he took in all the sights. We finally got to the apartment building and climbed the 12 stories to get to the palace. Our elevators have now been down for the last three days (some palace!). Max spent a while exploring his new digs and it wasn't long before we were offering him food. We found some cookies at the market that were like the ones he would sometimes get at the babyhouse. Here he is enjoying his little midday treat.


We played for quite a while this afternoon. Here's some video of a little peek-a-boo game.

He has been coping pretty well with his new life. He cries during diaper changes and when we put him into his PJs, but the more heartbreaking time was that he cried when dinner was over. This was a serious cry. I guess he thought that he would just keep eating all night long, but he did NOT like when the table was cleared. He ate all of his oatmeal and an entire banana after he had already had that cookie as well as some Cheerios. He did not like the apple juice we got for him, but he LOVED the grape juice. We'll have to get more of that. We'll try milk in the morning with his oatmeal and maybe another banana.

We decided not to try to give him a bath tonight. We figured he had been through enough for one day, so we'll give that a shot tomorrow. Bedtime was a bit of a challenge as well. He cried when we put him into his crib, so we pulled him out and all three of us laid down on the bed until he was relaxed. Then we tried again to put him in the crib. Again, more tears. But this time, we just tried to soothe him in the crib and after a little while, his eyes started to get heavy and he fell asleep holding on to his squishy bus from Uncle Tim and Aunt Shannon. All in all, the bedtime routine took about 45 minutes. Not too bad at all. We're hoping that he makes it through the night, but we're not counting on it. We moved the crib into our bedroom because there is no air conditioning in the spare bedroom and it gets a little warm. Also, it'll help having us so close, so hopefully he won't get scared if he does wake up.

It's about 10pm now, so we're gonna watch some TV on the computer and then get to bed.

Final Day Without Max

Just a quick post on our last day before custody.

We did some cleaning today and did some shopping for groceries in preparation for the big day. We also met Alan and Melinda at the Business Centre (yet another mall). Jonathan and Shannon had recommended it to us (thanks!) because there is a pub there with an English menu. We all had pizza tonight which was much better than at the bowling alley because this pizza had sauce. It was still pretty greasy, but still pretty tasty.

Now that we're back at the apartment, we are going to put together all the gifts we will need tomorrow. One for each of the six caregivers, one for the babyhouse doctor, and one for the orphanage director. Then we're going to eat some ice cream and try to watch the Elder game against Colerain online. Hopefully the internet connection will allow us. If not, then we're going to TRY to get some sleep.

So please say some prayers tonight and tomorrow for Max so that he has a smooth transition to his new, forever family. We are prepared for some bumps in the road, but all prayers will be gratefully accepted. We know that he is going to miss his caregivers tremendously. He has been our son to us since day one back in May, but we know that we are not yet mom and dad to him yet. That will come in time.

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!!

Appeals Period - Day 14

First of all, the good news. We were told that we would not get to see Max at all on Saturday and Sunday due to the orphanage being closed and the team getting the weekend off. Obviously, the orphanage itself cannot completely close, so we had Natasha ask the head doctor if it would be all right if we were to visit on Saturday and she agreed. So the team will still get the weekend off and Jenny and I will just walk to the babyhouse. It's a bit of a walk, but not too far. We will still miss him on Sunday, but this is way better than going two days without seeing him.

Today's visit was remarkably similar to yesterday. Max was very happy and laughing and playing for the first hour, and just wanted to be held and walked around for the second half of our visit. He didn't seem tired at all today, so that doesn't seem to be the reason. The Spanish lady's baby seemed to be in a similar mood because she ended up walking around with her while we took turns with Max. Again, we're not complaining, just reporting. We ended up starting Cheerio-time a little bit earlier than usual which was a good thing because his caregiver showed up a little early to get him.

Anyway, all the pictures and videos are from the first half of our visit.

We didn't get a photo of Alikhan and Max together, but he is in the background of this first video. As we mentioned in yesterday's post, he is almost Max's size, but a whole year younger. Alikhan seems to be an average sized 10-month old, so that gives you an idea of how small Max is. Max has been wearing size 18-month pants the last few days and they keep falling down and we roll the pant legs up so that he doesn't step on them. He is clearly older than Alikhan when you look at their behavior, just not in their size.

After our visit, we stopped at the market with Natasha so that she could translate some of the packaging on some food items. We found out which bottles would be good milk for Max, which hotdogs are made of beef, etc. We plan on going to the market on Sunday to stock up on items for Max before we get him for good on Monday.

Overall, today was a pretty good day. Finding out that we do not have to go two days without seeing Max was great. We also got hot water back in the apartment for the first time in 3 or 4 days. It had been quite a while since my last shower, so I was getting a little ripe. Of course, it was scalding hot at times, but much better than the ice cold water of our last few days. We are looking forward to tomorrow being our final day in the bonding room!! We are hoping to get together with the Joneses this weekend to help pass the time.

3 days until we get custody of Max!!

Appeals Period - Day 13

It was another crowded day in the bonding room today. And Max was very preoccupied once again. We still played in the usual manner. Cups at the chairs and bench, etc. and he even shared his cups with Alikhan, the 10-month old son of the Spanish lady's translator. He is about 80% of Max's size and a whole year younger. We'll try to get a picture of the two of them together. The Spanish lady's visit time was from 9-11, so everybody left midway through our visit. Once we were alone in the room, we figured that Max would be less preoccupied and be back to normal. Instead, he just wanted to be held and walked around the room. He kinda cried a little bit when we tried to sit down with him and take a break, so we had to keep circling the room with him. He kept wanting to be passed back and forth between us. The second one of us had him, he would reach out for the other. We think he was a little tired because he seemed to be fighting to keep his eyes open. That may have contributed to his funky behavior. He perked right up when we pulled out the Cheerios a little earlier than usual, though. We didn't pull the camera out too much today, so we only have this one picture to share. We'll try to take more tomorrow.

We're hoping to make a visit to the market accompanied by Natasha the translator so that she can tell us what some of the things are. We want to be able to get some things for Max like milk (cow's milk, not horse milk), apple sauce (if possible), hot dogs, etc.

4 days until we get custody of Max!

Appeals Period - Day 12

Here is a video clip that we intended to post yesterday but were unable to due to the intermittent internet connection...

It was an early morning for me today since I awoke at 5:30am to prepare for our fantasy football draft at 6:15am (which was 9:15pm for those back home). I felt I did ok with the draft since I like Drew Brees a lot and you can't go wrong with Reggie Wayne.

Anyway, our visit today was good as usual. Max was his normal happy self when he was brought in to see us. He was however out of sorts due to the fact that we were sharing the room today with another adoptive family. There was a single Spanish lady and her mom who were bonding with a baby girl. They were also accompanied by there coordinator, interpreter, interpreter's baby, interpreter's sister. So he spent much of our visit keeping an eye on all the new people. He was very much used to having the room all to himself. Despite his preoccupation, Max was still in very good spirits. It is getting harder for us to leave him and it will be very difficult if we have to go Saturday and Sunday without seeing him. (We were told that the orphanage would be closed for the weekend and that our team was getting a couple days off. We're hoping that we might be allowed to walk to the orphanage ourselves and visit on one of those two days because we don't really need Natasha to be there. The caregivers and doctors recognize us and know why we're there, so we've got our fingers crossed that we won't have to miss each of the two days before our Gotcha Day.)

5 days until we get custody of Max!!

Appeals Period - Day 11

Max was in a fantastic mood today (again)! Lots of laughing and lots of smiles. It was a little cooler out today than it had been (low 50's although it warmed up to around 70 by early afternoon), so they had him dressed in a flannel button down and some sweat pants. Thankfully, they did not put a hat on him.


We saw his belly for the first time and he loved getting raspberries from both of us. He also enjoyed getting a drink of water (we are getting more bold with what we are giving him at the orphanage...we're his parents for crying out loud!). They must only give him tea at the babyhouse because he had the biggest smile when he got his drink of water (imagine how he'll react when he's getting juice).

After our visit, our driver took us and the Natashas to the Sulpak Market to look for a stroller. We found one for 4500 tenge ($30) which was about what we were hoping to spend. Our coordinator Natasha Li also surprised us when she bought a crib that we will be using when we get custody next week. After we leave, she said she would just hang onto it and offer it to future families. We were very grateful since Jonathan and Shannon had some issues with Dmitri's sleeping situation. We had to have the crib taken apart to get it back to the apartment, so much of the afternoon was spent putting it back together.

This evening, the Natashas wanted to take us out with the Joneses for a traditional Kazakh dinner. We had beshbarmak which consists of flat noodles, potatoes, onions, and usually horse meat or mutton. Thankfully, they gave us Americans beef on it instead. It was pretty tasty although it was swimming in butter. The words besh barmak means "five fingers" becasue it is traditionally eaten with your hands (we used knives and forks). It was served with baursak, which are kinda like doughnut holes, though not quite as sweet. They were delicious. They also brought out a cup of "soup" for each of us (it was actually just the broth that the beef was boiled in...we didn't have too much of that...very salty). After dinner, they brought out Kazakh tea, but since neither of us is a tea drinker, we both declined. We hope that Natasha was not offended that we didn't try it, but it did not look too appetizing. There was also an assortment of "sweets" and dried fruits. All in all, we were happy with the dinner. We were both somewhat nervous about it because we didn't know what to expect (and after seeing the Kazakhstan portion of The Amazing Race last year, we were prepared to be grossed out). After dinner, we went to a little cafe for hot chocolate. Honestly, this was just about the best hot chocolate either of us have ever had. Very rich (and very close to the apartment, so you can count on us returning).

Here are some photos...

Jenny and I with our translator Natasha

Alan and Melinda Jones

Our coordinator Natasha Li

We tried to upload a couple videos, but the internet connection was not up to the task. Maybe we'll get 'em on here tomorrow.

6 days until we get custody of Max!!

Appeals Period - Day 10

Well, Sunday was as boring as expected. We were up somewhat early (it's tough sleeping past 7:30am) and we had nothing to do until dinner time. There was a "celebration" going on outside our side window for Constitution Day (right in front of the statue of Abul Khair Khan). We could see the stage and the crowd from our apartment. There was music and dancing and speakers, but by the time we were going to venture out in the early afternoon, all that had ended and it was starting to drizzle. So much for going for a walk to kill some time in the afternoon. Back inside we went to watch more TV on the computer and do some reading.

We met the other American couple for dinner at Kemer (we had our usual chicken kebabs). The Joneses were very nice Southern folks from a small town in Georgia near Savannah. Alan is a youth minister for a Baptist church and Melinda is an elementary school teacher. It was so nice to have a conversation in English with people besides each other and Natasha. They are adopting a three-year-old girl (Marina) from the town of Alga which is about 40 minutes south of Aktobe. She is adorable. We will definitely be spending more time with them, especially after we all have custody of the kids. Marina is extremely tall (especially for being in an orphanage), so it'll look more like a 4 year old playing with a 1 year old when we get Max together with Marina.


After dinner, we stopped into the market and were very disappointed that they were out of our favorite ice cream dessert, the Maxi-bon (which is half ice cream sandwich and half Klondike with chocolate chip ice cream throughout...yum....we bought four of them today when they were back in stock).


Our visit today was another good one. Max was very excited to see us when he was brought in. He likes to be passed back and forth between us when he is first brought in. After 5 or 10 seconds with one of us, he reaches out to the other. That is usually how we spend the first few minutes of our visits. I know we sound like a broken record, but our visits are very repetitive. We're not complaining of course, but there's only so much you can do in the bonding room. We can't wait to get him out of there so he can see everything the world has to offer. He is always very attentive to sounds he hears outside the building....a passing car, an airplane flying by, birds chirping, etc. He also likes looking out the window, so we can only imagine how much he's going to enjoy going for walks and playing on the ground at the park and just being in the apartment since everything will be brand new to him.


Here's a few pictures...




And Jenny and I would like to send out some birthday wishes to Skip Niemiller, Rodger Pille, Lisa Wilhelmus, and Bev Ross, all of whom are celebrating their big day on the 30th or 31st. We wish we were home to celebrate with you!

7 days until we get custody of Max!!

Appeals Period - Day 9

Max was in a very good mood today when he was brought into the bonding room. Lots of giggling and playing. He was a little preoccupied with trying to get the Cheerios before it was time for that, but otherwise, he was very happy.


We have complained many times about the smells here, but today, we experienced the worst smell of the trip. Max had a load in his diaper during our visit that was disgusting. We told Natasha that he needed a diaper change. We didn't know whether the caregivers would just give Natasha a new diaper and some wipes, or whether they would insist on changing him themselves. Natasha returned with a new diaper and some wipes. Jenny did the honors and could have used more than the two wipes they provided. Yuck. (We have decided that changing diapers will be a nice bonding time for mother and son....at least I think so)

After the change, Max was in a much mellower mood, so we did lots of holding and walking around before Cheerios-time. And we got an extra 20 minutes with him today because the caregivers were late in coming to get him.

Tomorrow is a no-visit day since it is a Kazakh holiday. We were hoping to go to the Sulpak Market, but that is looking unlikely as well. Maybe we will do that on Monday. So our Sunday will likely be a very boring day for us (and probably no blog post as well).

9 days until we receive custody!!