5/31/07

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but we left two weeks ago tomorrow and it really feels like this past week flew by (I'm sure I will be eating those words next week..ha ha)....

of course we had another great day with Lucy. It was very hot and humid today, she was slightly lighter dressed, sporting shorts with tights and a sweatshirt. Always interesting to see what get up she will have on for our visits : )

The wireless connection at the internet cafe was down. I tried a few times to load a picture on the dial up and it won't seem to load. Not sure what the problem is.

Tomorrow is the celebration of the Children at the baby house. We are not sure if there will be a party, or if we will just know it's a special day. We are visiting early, and then going to lunch and site seeing with our California friends. We will have lots of pictures to upload and will post a few extras.

Saturday our Coordinator Zhaniya is taking us to lunch and up to the mountains. They look beautiful from our apartment window, I can't wait to see them in person. We will take lots of pictures. Sunday we are off to the Almaty Zoo and Gorky Park.

I can't believe we have plans the next three days : )

5/30/07

Hello Everyone,

We had another wonderful day with Lucy at the baby house. Not only did we take her outside (our normal routine now that the weather is warm and sunny), but we asked if instead of bringing her inside for snack, and fighting with her in the separate room, if she could eat with her group. They agreed and we stayed and watched! They also let us take lots of pictures of all the little boys and girls. It was fantastic! We will savor these pictures and show them to Lucy when she is older so she will know who her buddies were at Baby House #3. We would love to share, but clearly we were asked to keep private. I will sneak on a picture of Lucy sitting at the table like a big girl, drinking from her porcelain mug with her caregiver. Very funny : )

Lucy was dressed to impress today, with an eyelet hat and all : ) I think we have warmed up to the caregivers and director nicely, and I think they trust that we love Lucy and will take good care of her.


Enjoy : )

5/29/07

Another beautiful day in Almaty! We had a great visit with Lucy today. She had a lot of fun with her Daddy : ) She will still reach for me if I get too close, but if I back off a bit she warms right up.

We decided to let her have her snack and milk BEFORE we went outside today, and that worked out much better. Today she had a roll, and she ate the whole thing. In addition we gave her an entire banana and a cookie. I guess eating won't be a problem when we get home : )

There was one little girl outside today that Zhaniya was visiting. She used the same coordinator as us, and her mother left to go back to the US last week. Zhaniya brought her a bag of treats, Lucy was very interested in Rosa's treats and quickly wanted to get down and walk over to were she was opening her bag. We gave her a cookie, but she was still eyeing Rosa's cupcake : ) It was nice to see Zhaniya visit with this little cutie, and we can only hope she will do the same for us when we are at home.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend : ) Love and hugs......

5/28/07

Hello,
Sorry this update is a day late. We were actually busy on Monday, too busy to come to the internet cafe (this is a good thing : ) We got a call from Ivonne and Dan (and Jadyn of course) to see if we wanted to go for a walk, and out to lunch. We of course said YES! We walked around the city for an hour or so, and went to lunch at the Soho Almaty Club. They had a large menu, and Ivonne and Dan had eaten there before and said the food was good. Jon and I were both went with cheese pizza, and it was actually good : ) I think next time we eat there (we would go back) we would venture out a bit and try something different. As you know, we are the PB&J King and Queen, so pizza was a big step for us!

We then went for our daily visit with Lucy. She was a little hesitant when she saw me, and cried for a second when her caregiver handed her over. We were asked to bring her outside, and bring her back in 30 minutes for her snack. We of course busted out he banana and juice as soon as we went out, and when it was time to bring her in she wanted NO part of her hot unpasturized milk, or cookie. She actually had a full blown melt down and was screaming. Her caregiver tried to get her to take it, but she kept swatting and screaming. She quickly took her bib off and told us we could take her back out. Lucy was all smiles and happy to go back outside. We of course snuck her a little cookie and some more juice. The banana was a huge hit, so we will continue to bring that on our daily visits.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. I think we got a few more smiles today : )

We also added a picture of Jadyn : )

Happy Saturday : )

Today was a beautiful day in Almaty. We went to the baby house in the morning and it was great to see other American/and Canadian families visiting their babies. We for some reason were given the later time Monday-Friday, but all the other families come earlier (we asked to go earlier, but we were told it's too crowded). It's too bad, because Lucy definitely seemed a little more spunky and interested in what was going on around her. She even smiled for a woman from Connecticut. I was a bit jealous, but also happy to see her smile : )

Lucy did not want to get down and play, and she is definitely giving her Daddy a run for his money. Lucy likes to reach for me and tease Daddy when he is holding her. She does a fake cry, almost like a cough. It's actually quite cute.

As you will see food is something she will take from us no problem. It's hard to get a picture of her without a cookie in her mouth! We were told we could bring some banana on Monday.

We hope everyone has a wonderful long/holiday weekend!

TGIF!

Today was another outside day for Lucy, Mommy and Daddy. We had a good visit, but she clearly is still not feeling well. We were told today that she has bronchitis and is being treated with antibiotics. They said the reason is there are too many children and not enough caregivers (doesn't make us feel very good). She isn't running a fever, but sounds very chest congested. We of course wish we could take her home yesterday, but that decision is out of our hands. We unfortunately have to wait about another 5 or 6 weeks (ugh).

Lucy did come right to Mommy today, and only cried for a second or two with Daddy. We were both very pleased. We stayed outside the whole time; I thought some fresh air would do her good. We were told we could bring cookies and juice for her, and she at first didn't know what to make our sippy cup we offered her, so I took the lid off so she could drink right from the cup. Before long she wanted the lid back on and took to it like a bottle. I'm sure she misses her bottles she was receiving at the previous baby house (she was just moved about two weeks ago); she is now treated more like a toddler then a baby.

Lucy drank the entire cup of apple juice and ate some of her cookie. She was very sleepy, so at the end she fell asleep walking around outside with Mommy. When it was time to bring her back inside, she actually cried when I passed her back to her caregiver. We are definately making some progress : )

Tomorrow will be very short visit in the morning, and Sunday no visit : (

We will still update the blog, we have been meaning to add pictures of our apartment as well as the city. Thanks for checking in : )

We got to go outside today : )

Today was a great day! We got to spend some time with Lucy in the official play room, not a common room that the caregivers walk through. We were very happy about that. In addition we were told we could take her outside. We played inside for about 15 minutes and then headed out. As you will see in the pictures, she was much more active and we possibly saw a few smirks, and maybe she might have said "ma ma?" or am I imagining things? I think I heard it, but for now I won't get to excited. I will wait until I hear it a second time to confirm : )

She seems less congested and hopefully is on the mend. We hope the nice weather stays, so we can spend more time outside : )

Here she is, check out her moves. She is quite fast when she gets going.

Day 2, and poor Lucy is sick : (

Greetings from Almaty,

Today was visit number 2, and Lucy has a really bad cold and cough. We noticed this yesterday, but it seemed worse today. We were taken to see the director who told us "one baby gets sick, they all get sick". We realize this, but still we want to make sure that little Lucy is ok. The doctor saw her and said she just has a cough, cold, and is teething. She listened to her lungs and said they sound clear. We just hope she is feeling better soon.

She was very clingy today and very much so not wanting to be with us. We are in a room that is a walk through for the caregivers. It makes it even harder because every time she spots a familiar face or voice she cries. I was a little upset, but I am also being patient and realizing that she will warm up with time. Ok so now for some pictures of the little cutie.

She is a binkie girl as you will see, and she loves her tag blanket from cousin Matthew : )

Here's our Girl!!

What a fabulous day today was, of course because we finally got to meet Miss Lucy. She is absolutely perfect and we had a good visit with her. She is of course a little shy and strange with us, but does seem very cuddly. We played for a few minutes after our official meeting with the orphanage director, and then she needed to eat. We were able to wait for her to finish, and they brought her back. At that point it was nap time, so our timing was way off for visit number one. Although I was very pleased that she fell asleep in my arms. Tomorrow we will visit later in the afternoon (3:30-5:00). We have no holidays coming up, so we should have Monday-Saturday visits from now until we leave. WOO HOOO

A better day : )

Today is day 2, and such a better day. We are finally settled and rested, and honestly feeling much better. We did not get to meet Lucy today, but we did have our interview with the Ministry of Education, and we got approval to visit the baby house tomorrow! We are very excited to finally meet Miss Lucy.

The blog (other then posts) is all in Russian, hmmm....Lynn maybe you can help me fix that?

We got to meet Ivonne and Dan today (friends we made over the internet, and Ivonne has been a life saver over these past three weeks of delays). Ivonne and Dan adopted baby Jadyn last week. She is an absolute doll, and we are so happy we got to spend some time with her and her parents. We hung out in their apartment for several hours. We might see them again tomorrow. They are only about 10 minute walk from us, so very easy, and very nice to have someone to speak English with!

We are going to do some more food shopping tomorrow, maybe Ivonne will go with me (she has been much more adventurous and cooks full blown meals, she is blowing our PB&J diet out of the water : ). I hope to eat some "kaz food" some time this week. For now instant oatmeal, balance bars and PB&J is treating us just fine.

More to come tomorrow. We will post a picture of Lucy just as soon as we can and also talk about the city......

Thanks for the love and support, we certainly need it.

Greetings from Almaty!

We made it!! We arrived Saturday night around 11:45. We stayed in a hotel last night, and today we were taken to our apartment were we will stay the remainder of the trip.

We feel very out of place and I'm a bit out of sorts. I hope that some rest and seeing our girl will put me back in place. It's very hard to be in a country when you don't speak the language or truly understand the culture. But I'm being a big girl and trying really hard to stay strong. Thankfully Jon has taken over that roll right now, and I sure need it : )

We will be going to the minstry of education tomorrow to interview and get approval to visit the baby house. We might not meet Miss Lucy tomorrow, our timing might be off. If not, we will see her on Tuesday.

We don't have internet access in our apartment, so we are using an internet cafe at the mall around the block. It's actually quite nice and very clean. We will hopefully be able to update the blog and post some pictures every day or two.

Thanks for checking in, and hopefully we will have a face to show the next time we post : )

We are FINALLY leaving : )

What a glorious day! We found out that our visa's are being processed today and will be shipped over night either tomorrow or Thursday. We have a flight out of Boston on Friday night.

We are so excited to finally know that we are ON the finish line, and will be in Almaty on Saturday night.

We should be able to meet Lucy on Monday afternoon : )

Thanks for checking in, and for all the supportive emails. The past two weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. Thankfully when emotions were running high, my wise Mother put me in check and said "keep your eyes on the prize".

And what a prize it will be!

Not leaving, Again : (

We just got word that due to the "May day" holiday in Kazakhstan at the beginning of this week, our papers did not move forward as planned. They will not be looked at until at least Monday. We are not even going to guess at when we are leaving anymore, but rather will update when we hear.

Thanks for checking in......