

We are over-the-moon excited and have just a few more hurdles to go through before bringing him home. But this court decision, by far, has been the biggest one to accomplish and we are confident the rest will all fall into place.
Quick update. Pre-court went smoothly on Monday, 6/22. We met our Judge, he went through the paperwork (dossier), and said a few words to confirm our understanding of the Kaz adoption process. He said our paperwork was in order and most importantly, he granted us our actual court date. We were very happy to hear he wants us to return on Wed, 6/24, at 3:00PM. We are told court should take an hour and his decision will be announced an hour or two after.
We are in our 5th week here in Karaganda and continue to visit our “little one” daily. After court, there is a 15 day “wait period” for the Judge’s decision to become final. We have just been told we will continue visiting our “little one” at the Baby House during those 15 days. After that, we can FINALLY take him home (to our apartment) until we get his passport and birth certificate, which should take 2-3 weeks.
So that’s the latest news and we will let you guys know, as soon as we can, what happens in court. In the meantime, wish us luck and keep on praying for us!
Thanks for everyone’s support and emails (I’m saving the all for our little one’s scrap book). Sorry I have not been able to write back this week but we have been busy with last minute stuff, including working on our speeches for court.
Love,
Linda and Mike
Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there including our fathers back at home and of course, our soon-to-be fathers here in Karaganda (Mike and Chris). Father’s Day is not celebrated in Kazakhstan; they actually have a special day of their own today called “Health Care Worker’s Day”. So today, in Kazakhstan, we also celebrate and thank the team of caretakers here at the Baby House for all that they do for the 100+ babies and children they care for each and every day.
Our fourth week here in Karaganda has ended yesterday. Our pre court is tomorrow (6/22) and we are hoping to get our big day in court this week as well. We continue to visit our “little one” each day at the Baby House while we wait and I must admit, I will miss the other babies and children I have met during our visits. We have seen all the different age groups playing outside in the sun or being pushed in strollers by various caretakers/volunteers and we, quite literally, would take ANY of them home with us with our “little one”! In fact, Mike and I have already asked about adopting an additional child but Kaz law will only allow siblings to be adopted per visit. Unfortunately, our “little one” is not related to any of the others but the idea of returning is very tempting.... but in the meantime, anyone else out there interested?!?! I promise to hold your hands through ALL of the paperwork (as I feel I am an expert after having done most of the paperwork 2-3 times already!). I have grown quite fond of their face and personalities and I can’t help but wonder what lies in their futures. I know a few of them have families coming for them soon and for the rest, I hope and pray for a wonderful, happy future. After court we still have a solid 3+ weeks here in Karaganda so hopefully we will see more families coming to adopt these beautiful children.
As for our “little one”, we still can’t believe how much he changes from day-to-day! He has become much more verbal (including louder) this week and has been experimenting with the different noises/sounds he can make. He has made rolling around his preferred mode of transport while he continues to figure out how to crawl. On Wed (6/17), his very first tooth finally broke through his front lower gum. He still loves being carried around the Baby House playground in the Baby Bjorn but now watches the kids playing and wants to touch every piece of playground equipment. The kids have gotten used to seeing him each day and call him “lala” (which means doll). We usually end our visit with him watching the cars drive by on the street until he falls asleep (such a boy!). Speaking of which, he has obviously taken a liking to an “older” girl (Karina, who is moving to Paris in a few weeks). They have been caught chatting and playing, while they are supposed to be napping, more than twice this week and now there cribs have been separated!!!
For now, that is all we have to report but we will keep you posted when hear our Judge’s decision.
Wish us luck!
Linda and Mike
Our "little one" is sitting! We’re excited- it’s a huge difference from 2 weeks ago. He was a little bit of a “bobble head” when we first met and last week he started the tripod sit. His head stability has improved and now he’s sitting, not for too long but each day getting stronger and stronger. Whenever we clap for him, he looks at us like "what's the big deal, of course I'm sitting". We are still so amazed at how much a little love and one-on-one attention can help develop a baby. Sitting is just one of the many new discoveries for our little guy but I won’t bore you with the rest!
So it’s Friday (6/12) in Karaganda and while we are waiting to hear about our court date, we are making our plans for the weekend. I guess it’s official, we are totally settled in and feel at home now because we have a weekend full of fun activities that go beyond our Baby House visits and watching DVD's. So here is what a weekend in our “new hometown” consists of: Right now, Fri evening, we are having drinks at the Cosmonaut bar/lounge (4 star hotel near Baby House) while taking advantage of the fastest WiFi service in town. For dinner, we have dinner plans to join our travel partners (it’s there 5 year Anniversary- HAPPPY ANNIVERSARY Jessica &Chris!) at the Cosmonaut’s very nice restaurant. I should add that they insist on us joining them, I swear we aren’t crashing! Tomorrow, after our Baby House visits, I have made plans with my interpreter, Julia, to go shopping to find Kazakh children story book and CD’s. We’ll later have dinner at the Giorgia, a Georgian restaurant, for a greek salad and amazing cheese bread that’s like a pizza with a yummy sauce(kinda like salsa) to dip it in. The kebabs are great their, too. On Sundays there is only one Baby House visit permitted so we plan on going to the “Green Market” just outside of town in the afternoon. It is bazaar-like market for the locals to buy just about anything you need- a fun place to explore through and get a feel for what living in Karaganda is about. We’ll end our weekend over at our travel partner’s apartment for dinner. We have been having each other over for dinners throughout our weeks here since we both like to cook and it’s nice to have home cooked meals every once and a while!
We are very happy to announce our 2 weeks of bonding is officially over and our final papers were notarized on Sunday, June 7th. So on Monday morning our coordinator, Natasha, will submit our papers to our attorney and we can file for a court hearing with the judge. Our court date is estimated for 6/22 but may be before that; we just have to wait and see. We are in very good hands here in Karaganda and are thankful for such great team of people to have on our side!
These 2 weeks have gone by quickly and we are hoping the next few weeks leading to our court date will be just as smooth. It’s getting a little boring going to the Baby House each day (not the part about hanging out with the “little one”), just the part about being in the same small room to visit in and the same walk around the Baby House exterior. Of course our “little one” doesn’t know the difference and continues to be content with our routine. It’s more Mike and I dying to show him the world outside of his Baby House walls. He loves being outside either in the Baby Bjorn or the stroller. His eyes are so alert when he’s out and it distracts him from his teething (and even his crankiness from the cold he just had, poor guy). So right now, it would make us happy to just be able to take him out of the Baby House gates and explore Karaganda’s Central Park and city with him. Bringing him home to SM is still a far goal with a few more hurdles along the way (the biggest one, by far, is our court date). So we are just concentrating on one hurdle at a time and staying positive that we will: a) get through them and b) accomplish them in a reasonable amount of time.
In the meantime, we are making the best of our stay here and the weather is making it very easy for us! Summer is here in Karaganda and everyone is out walking around. The sun doesn’t set until after 9:30 PM, so we have tons of time after our Baby House visits to walk around. We have found excellent restaurants so walking has been essential! On top of the good restaurants, there are delicious bakery goods at the market and our travel partner, Jessica, is an amazing cook. We still can’t believe how lucky we were to get paired up with such a great couple! Even the staff here in Karaganda commented on how great it was to see us get along so well.
OK, now let me end with some updates of our “little one”. As I mentioned, he is teething like crazy and gnaws on everything he can put in his mouth, including our fingers and had a fever from one week ago. Then, he caught a cold (viral, that spread throughout the entire room in less than a minute!- even Mike and I couldn’t fight it off!) that wiped out his energy for 2 days then turned him into the “cranky little one” for a day or two. When he was at his sickest, he just wanted to be held by us and cried every time we tried to put him down (a good bonding sign since all the other kids had the same cold but weren’t so needy). Then on Saturday, when we went to visit him, he was back to being his same happy self, smiling and laughing in his crib... what a relief! He even raised his hands up to us to get him, which was a first. Also a first that day, he pushed himself around with his feet in the walker, balanced himself in the tripod position while sitting (for a second), and discovered his feet to play with while lying down. So not only did his spirits improve, he also had many “first” milestones in the 4 hours that we saw him. Mike was so excited to see this and immediately had our “little one” practicing his balance while standing on Mike’s stomach- tuning the “little one’s” balance and coordination for surfing and skiing already!!!!
Hope all is well with everyone and you’ll be hearing from us again soon.
Linda and Mike
Hi everyone,
This week has flown by us so fast! Everything from meeting the little one to making this town and apartment “home” for the next month or so has taken up our entire day. THe hardest part of living here is the language....Russian is soooo hard! I can’t, for the life of me, pronounce some of the words and memorizing these long/complicated phrases has been hard on my brain. On the other hand, Mike has been communicating just fine- he’s even cracking jokes with these guys which is pretty funny to see since their culture is pretty stone face and stoic (in general). Nothing gets in Mike’s way when it comes to talking- no matter how hard the language is. Oh, and I forgot to mention, he can read the cyrillic letters without any any problem as well.
Today is Sunday and normally we can only have one visit but because tomorrow is a holiday (Children’s Day), we can only visit once for the afternoon. Apparently, there will be government officials visiting the Baby House (the children are putting on a show for them- which we are not allowed to see) and they don’t want us around. So today we’re happy to get 2 visits in. The little one gets really happy to see us and is at his ultimate cutest when we get to pick him out of his crib. Each time we go into his room, we find him playing with his pacifier, totally content after his nap. When he sees us (Mike and I are usually elbowing each other out of the way to get the first peek), he’s all smiles and laughs for about 15 minutes which then continues unto his feeding time. This little guys loves to eat and they serve HUGE portions for breakfast and lunch. He also loves his left thumb (a leftie?) as you can see in this picture. Take care and we'll post again soon!