Happy Birthday Linda

Today is Linda's birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

What a  better way to spend it than

playing with our new son.  I didnt think he would know how

to blow out candles but he did a good job.  The cake I baked for

Linda was perhaps a little rich.  The other children loved it.

The chocolate made them a little hyper, but as we say here in

Karaganda,  MALADIET DETEE.  I am so happy to be here with

my wonderful wife.

Linda's loving husband,

Mike

   

Hi from the "Little One"

Had another fun day (visit #10) at the Baby House.  The weather cooperated enough for a short walk outside (the doctors there are VERY cautious and do not allow any of the children outside for the slightest of wind).  We just found out we have our social worker visit tomorrow (6/4), my birthday.  Wish us luck!

Week One:

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!

Hi from Kaz

Hi everyone, 

We are having a blast getting to know our little one; each day he smiles and recognizes us more and more.  We are in day 6 of our 14 day bonding period which means we visit the Baby House twice a day to feed and play with him.  Between Baby House visits and exploring the town of Karaganda, we have had little time to do anything else!  So we are sorry for not updating our post.  Also, we do not have internet access in our apartment so we can only log in at internet cafes during our lunch breaks and before today, we have been using most of our free time figuring out how to live here for the next 4-6 weeks.  Don't get me wrong, it is a great place to be and Karaganda offers pretty much everything we could need- we just needed time to "settle in". So know we have figured out how to use the oven/stove/washing machine/etc, and where to shop at to make a meal or know where to go to find good food with English menus. Big accomplishments for us and now we are set to live here for as long as we need to. 

There are VERY few people here that speak any English so we are learning how to communicate- well, Mike is figuring out that part while I just point and smile.  The problem with that is that everyone here thinks I'm Kazakh and expects  me to do the talking.  I get those confused looks when it becomes apparent the "Amerikaneet" (American) is the one who knows how to speak Russian. 

This journey has been awesome and another bonus is that we have been matched up with great travel partners.  We feel fortunate to get to share this experience with such a sweet and fun couple from Georgia adopting toddler twins.  We see each other daily and and have even had each other over for dinners at our Karaganda "homes".  

Our first day with the little one....

We finally met the little one!  After all this time (and effort), this day has finally come.  As fate would have it, today is our 7th anniversary as well.  We couldn't ask for a better gift!  We'll write more later, just wanted to post this and some pictures (couldn't wait to show him  off!). 

The countdown begins....

We officially submitted our acceptance for an adoption of a baby in Kazakhstan. We knew from day one this little boy or girl is the one for us but kept thinking this is too good to be true! 
So now we wait for our Letter of Invite from Kazakhstan. Two weeks? One month? Maybe two months from now, we will get our letter, book our tickets, and fly across the world to the little one waiting  for a family. In the meantime, this family needs to get themselves ready for the baby!

Got the call we've been waiting for!

We finally got our phone call! On April 10th our adoption coordinator called me at work to give us news. I was surprised to get a call from Susan and did not expect to hear such great news. I was in shock for a while and the girls in the office had to help me call Mike and forward the email to him- I was all thumbs! That morning, Mike was in Reno, visiting his Dad, and was driving in the snow to a ski resort when I called. He pulled over to read the email on his phone and for anyone who knows Mike well, it takes an act from God to distract him from getting to a ski resort on a powder day!! So basically, that is how Mike and I can sum up our phone call on our Good Friday.