Home

Yes, we’ve made it home. Sorry to leave you hanging like that, we really did intend to post right away, but it just didn’t pan out that way.

Our adventures certainly continued as we made our final journey home. You may or may not have heard that some of the Lufthansa employees went on strike. Guess which airline we were flying? Good guess! Guess which international flight was the only one cancelled? Right again! So here’s what happened… We had heard that there was a strike before we left Almaty, but when we checked the flight status online, all of our flights were still a go. However, when we got to the airport, we learned that our flight from Frankfurt to Calgary was cancelled. After quite a long time, the supervisor was able to get us booked on an Air Canada flight instead, but wasn’t able to give us a seat assignment and said we would have to do that once we were in Frankfurt. No problem, so long as we’re on the flight, seat assignment is minor. Also, they were unable to rebook our flight from Calgary to Saskatoon, but we could also do that once in Frankfurt.

Or so we thought. The impact of the strike was quite evident as we arrived in Frankfurt. First, we were given an apron position on landing, which means that rather than pulling right up to the terminal, you are shuttled from the plane to the terminal in a big bus. Then, once we did arrive at the terminal, we found ourselves amid a throng of fellow Lufthansa passengers who were all trying to figure out if their flight was still good, and if not, trying to make other arrangements.

We checked in with the Lufthansa service desk, which then told us we needed to talk to Air Canada instead. So, we waited in line once again. We were given boarding passes for the flight, but again were told that we couldn’t get our seat assignment until we were at the gate. Our boarding passes said “gated” and we told that meant that we were on the flight and not on standby. But again, no luck getting our flight to Saskatoon figured out. So, we heaved a sigh of relief that at least we would get back to Canada and set out to keep ourselves busy for the next six or so hours.

In the meantime, we thought we would send a quick email and blog to let everyone know back home what was happening. However that was exactly the time that our laptop battery decided that it had reached the end of its useable life. It partially powered up and then immediately shut down, which apparently caused a number of problems that continued when we got home, including not being able to connect to the Internet. No Internet, no blog.

Anyway, since we had the time, we thought we would head early to our gate to try to get our seat assignment and arrange flights from Calgary to Saskatoon. At the gate we were informed that we were on standby and wouldn’t know if we were actually on the flight until minutes before departure. Obviously this caused us some significant stress. Add to that the fact that the area we had to wait in was very crowded and very, very warm. Rod stayed in line and dealt with the ticket situation while Tammy cruised the airport trying to extend the ‘happy baby warranty’ as much as possible. Just before departure, we finally got seats and were on our way to Calgary. Whew!

Once at Calgary, we needed to make arrangements for our final flight, but we weren’t too terribly worried because at least we were back in Canada and the worst case scenario meant that we abandon flying and rent a car to get home. Not that after 36 hours of travel were we in any shape to drive, but we knew that we would be able to successfully book a hotel room, get some rest and head home in the morning with little trouble. But, we did manage to get two seats on the second flight to Saskatoon and decided that we would get home quickest that way, so we set in for another wait before our flight.

Finally, just before midnight on the 30th, we touched down in Saskatoon and were met by many of our family and friends at the airport, only 8 hours later than originally planned. All in all things worked out really well, considering what could have potentially happened.

So, how was Max through all this? Amazing! We really did prepare ourselves for the worst and had already rehearsed our apology for our fellow passengers who would have to endure endless hours of misery on our account. But, we ended up with bulkhead seats from Almaty to Frankfurt and so Max was able to stretch out and sleep in a bassinet for almost the entire flight. He only woke up long enough for us to feed him some breakfast and then it was time to prepare for landing. He stayed awake the whole time in Frankfurt. (Really, who could sleep with all the comings and goings there?) He also slept for about 6 of the 10 hours on the flight to Calgary and when he was awake, he was either eating or playing. In Calgary he got a lot of time to stretch his legs and burn some of his energy before our flight. He was pretty active on the last flight, but it was only 45 minutes, so it wasn’t too hard to keep him entertained.

And, what have we been up to since then? For the most part we’ve been getting ourselves readjusted to being at home, and enjoying seeing Max in his new home. We had prepared ourselves for many days of struggling to get his clock turned upside down, but really he seems to have had the easiest time out of all of us. We’ve only been home three and a half days and already by the second day he was right back to his routine. He’s only had a couple of early, early mornings and for one of those he went back to sleep in less than an hour, so we’ve been really fortunate to be able to get some decent rest already. Now we’re just needing to finish unpacking and get things put away. As you know, Max is really good at unpacking, but he’s not too keen yet on putting things away. Well, we can’t really blame him, he’s only been here three days, so he doesn’t yet know where everything goes!

Helping Mom and Dad sort through 10 weeks of mail.

Everybody enjoying Max’s high chair. (including Max's new best buddy Bear)

Getting ready for camping or an evening sit around the fire.

Enjoying the reclining feature of his new carseat.

We’re not sure yet which direction our blog will go from here. For now, we’re going to focus on getting settled and into a routine. We may post a blog here and there, but we aren’t sure yet. We’ll have to see how things go. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or just want to find out what’s new. It has been a pleasure to have you all along on our adventure. We hope you have enjoyed it along with us.
Take Care and Best Wishes

Time...

Goes…so…slowly…when…you…are…waiting.

Well, here we are folks, all our documents are done, our bags are packed and we are just waiting those last few hours before we are picked up to go to the airport.

It’s hard to believe we’re leaving. We’ve developed a whole new realm of “normal” for ourselves. As in, it’s normal to not really know what you’ve ordered for supper and it’s normal to have to stand for minutes at a street sign to sound out the letters so you have a clue where you’ve gotten yourself. It’s also normal to look ten times before crossing the street and have much too close of an understanding of how gophers in Saskatchewan must feel.

And, it’s normal to be full time parents with nothing else to do all day but make sure our little guy is happy, healthy and knows just how much he is loved and just how privileged we feel to be given the opportunity to be his parents.

So, what will we miss? Well, lots and probably most of it we won’t even realize for many more days to come. But, at the top of our list:

*The people at the baby house, both the staff and all of the wonderful other adoptive families we have met and shared this experience with. Although we are very much looking forward to seeing our families again, we also feel that we are leaving some new family behind as they continue their adventure in other directions.

*The wonderful coordinators and translators that we have worked with here that have helped make our dreams come true. They do not take enough credit for all of their hard work and dedication.

*The scenery, especially the moon peeking over the mountains and shining on the river across the street from our apartment in Ust.

*Learning about another country and culture first hand. Seeing how other people really live, not how their lives are portrayed in a distilled book or internet version. And yes, to some degree, the language. Although it has been trying at times, to say the least, it has also given us a definite sense of accomplishment to know that we could survive on our own and could learn at least a tiny bit of another language.

*The yogurt. ‘Nuff said. (and butter, and full sugar soda - all of the things we generally don't indulge in at home.)

Anyway, our goal is to get at least a couple of hours rest before we are picked up for the airport, so we’d best sign off and do our best to accomplish this feat.

Catch you on the flip side!

So Much to Do, So Little Time!

That sums up our experience in Almaty. Being the largest city in Kazakhstan and the former capital city of Kazakhstan, Almaty is abundant with things to do and see. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in the predicament of deciding what to see and what we are close enough to see by walking since we haven’t really all that much time here. Something that also weighs in on our decision is the direction of the mountains. Since we are on the south side of the city, going is much easier than returning because the city is built on quite a slope, so it’s downhill all the way there, but uphill all the way back. And by uphill we don’t just mean a little bout here or there, it’s a steep uphill the whole way. On one block we walked yesterday we were able to calculate that the grade rose about 6 feet over the course of the block. The shopping mall across from us has a full story difference from one side to the other. That is, when you walk in the side closest to us, you are at street level but if you depart from the other side, you must go down one level to be at street level again. Those of you who spent considerable time here in Almaty must have legs of steel by now!

However, our adventurous spirits did take us on a bit of a walking tour the past two days. The first day we scouted out the locations nearest to us until we got our bearings and yesterday we ventured a little farther. As it turns out, we are about two blocks from the Presidential Residence and the Central Museum (pictured below), which we will set out to see later today.

Yesterday we ventured to Kok-Tobe, which is a beautiful park up the mountain that you access by taking a cable car. From atop Kok-Tobe you can look over the entire city, (well the part that isn’t covered up by smog, anyway). There is a bit of a zoo, some restaurants, a children’s play area along with numerous water features and souvenir stands. It was definitely beautiful and very peaceful there, and we can see why it is a popular destination. Here are a couple of pictures from atop Kok-Tobe. The views of the city appear blurry, but that is actually smog, not a camera malfunction.

Nope, we didn’t get as far as Paris, this is the French Embassy here in Almaty!


On Friday, we ventured south of our apartment to scout out an area that has a lot of new developments. There are a number of skyscrapers being built. We also came across this beautiful building, which isn't on our map, so we aren't exactly certain what it might be. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a great picture of it because it is surrounded by trees and buildings that block the view, but it is definitely beautiful nonetheless. From the side you can get a feel for the steepness of the city.

Max enjoying the playground on one of our last days in Ust.

We’ve Gone Prime Time!

Okay folks, so here’s a crazy story…we’re in Almaty!

Yeah, we know we were supposed to get here eventually, but we originally had our flight booked for tomorrow, not today. So, here’s what happened…

Minutes before noon today we were lounging around waiting for Max to get up from his nap when all of a sudden the phone rang and our coordinator told Rod that she was going to be at our apartment in 5 minutes to pick him up because we needed to fly to Almaty today and we needed to change our tickets. Oh, and could we be packed and ready to leave for the airport in an hour so we can catch our 3pm flight!

No, we’re not kidding.

So picture it, Rod running out the door, somewhat clothed, and Tammy trying to get some lunch into her son that just woke up as she’s doing the mad dash packing race. Picture a hot dog eating contest, but instead of the contestants sitting at a table with a big bib on, they’re rushing around 600 sqft grabbing and smashing stuff into suitcases and duffle bags. AND, one charming and well rested little boy is trying to help by chasing his frantic mother around the apartment and unpacking the suitcases as fast as she can pack them!

Rod arrived just in time to see both of us near complete meltdown and felt that the best solution was to join in the ramming and cramming. Our poor driver, who thought he would come up and grab whichever suitcases were ready, stepped into a complete mad house. The ear to ear grin on his face said it all. We’re really glad he kept the quiet part quiet because one peep out of him may have ended his lovely life.

Now, if you think our day was stressful, just imagine our friend DW who was in the same predicament as us, but didn’t get the call until just after 1pm and in addition to all that we had to do, also had to pick his son up from the baby house (which is on the very opposite end of town as the airport – couldn’t get any farther apart).

So, you’ve heard us talk about adoption being like the movies Groundhog Day and Lost in Translation. Now, as we’ve said, we’ve gone to prime time and we now have The Amazing Race – Baby on Board. These couples on TV have nothing on us. We can do all that, carry a toddler, and somehow change a diaper or two! Oh, and we weren’t packed nearly as light as those lucky contestants.

Oh, and how did Sir Max handle the whole episode? Well, besides a few tears during the packing frenzy, he was amazing. Once we got all our stuff and ourselves crammed into the car, he was totally a trooper. He didn’t fuss whatsoever until the last couple of minutes before we finally got to the apartment here. Now that’s an amazing feat in itself considering the poor guy barely got to eat dinner, was witness to the packing disaster, missed his afternoon nap and didn’t get to eat supper until 7pm (don’t worry, we packed him full of cheerios and biscuits on the plane, so he won’t starve before tomorrow.)

We had planned to post a picture of Max getting ready to leave Ust and take his first plane ride, but for one, we don’t know where we crammed the camera and two, we had to make a choice – take a picture of the plane he would ride on or get on the plane, we didn’t have time for both.
Anyway, so that was our day. How’s things on your side of the world?

Almaty, Here We Come!

As promised, we said we would let you know what we know, which most days doesn’t add up to much, but here’s what we know today:

We will fly to Almaty this Friday afternoon. We still haven’t heard where we are staying, but are confident that there is a place that will be ready for us. We won’t know for certain if Max’s visa will arrive in time for our flight until Monday or Tuesday, so you will all have to continue to be patient along with us. Believe us, we do understand just how hard that is. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Other than that, we’re just riding the days out here. We now realize that if you have forgotten what we look like, we will be the only ones wearing sweaters in August back home. After a month of temperatures in the mid 30’s outside and low 30’s in our apartment, what we consider cool weather has increased considerably. The other morning we were discussing how we maybe shouldn’t have left the windows open and fan on overnight because it was rather chilly in the apartment. We then noticed that the thermometer in our alarm clock sat at 26 degrees! Brrrrrrrr……

As always, Max is doing wonderfully. He continues to be a very happy little boy that we can’t wait for you all to meet. We’ve discovered that he is rather fond of walks in his stroller. This afternoon Rod pulled it out from the balcony for us to walk down for some groceries and Max’s reaction could be likened to Christmas and Birthday all in one. You would have thought we had just presented him with the biggest gift ever! He was laughing, kicking, flapping his arms, screaming, and crawling around like a mad man. I guess he needs his daily outings as much as we do. We are very happy that he is willing to spend some time in his stroller because it will make navigating airports that much easier and we don’t have to worry as much about him when we are fumbling around for passports and paperwork. Of course there is the little glitch of preferring to be in motion, but he’s gotten much better at sitting patiently for a couple of minutes, especially if you sneak him a cookie!

We’ve also completely lost our desire to cook and so we are using our last few days here to visit all of our favourite restaurants one last time. Tonight was a visit to a restaurant that is nicknamed “The Pancake House”. It has another name that we can never spell, but it has excellent food and an English menu. The Beef Carmen is fantastic, as are the Russian borsht and the ham and cheese crepes. Tomorrow we will either head for the restaurant below the Pancake House (take the doorway on the right instead of the left) which is also highly recommended and is a more traditional sit-down restaurant or the Pizza Bluez by the traffic circle. We had originally thought that it would be difficult to take Max to a restaurant for a meal, but he does really well. Maybe it’s all the action and people coming and going, but he doesn’t fuss (touch wood) and eats really well, plus it is much easier to find something for him to eat when he has a bit of variety from both of our plates.

Well, we’ve got a few things we want to get done yet tonight, now that Max is asleep, so we’ll sign off for now and either post an update on Thursday or possibly not until Almaty, if we find somewhere to access the Internet.

Take Care

Here's the Plan, Stan

Yes, Max’s passport did arrive, so as far as we know, everything is still going according to schedule. Tomorrow morning we will go to purchase our tickets to fly to Almaty on either Thursday or Friday afternoon of this week. As it turns out, the coordinators are able to apply for Max’s visa on our behalf (we love these people) and so we will meet up with the remainder of his paperwork in Almaty, on time for us to fly home on the 30th.

This morning we thought it might be a good idea to do a little more packing since we didn’t know exactly how much noticed we’d get about departing for Almaty. We knew it was going to take us a bit to get everything perfectly arranged (crammed in) because we replaced our depleted supplies with new purchases, so we didn’t have as much extra room as we hoped. Plus, our goal was to go down at least by one piece of luggage so we packed pretty much everything and it appears that we will be living out of suitcases for the next few days.

As always, we’ll let you know what we know as soon as we know it.

Random Thoughts

As the days wear on we can honestly say that NOTHING seems new or noteworthy, so finding things to blog about can be a bit of a challenge at times. However, we know that at the very least reading a new blog lets you all know that we are alive and well, so here are some random thoughts that have passed through our minds the past eight weeks or so.

Spaghetti
When we first arrived here in Ust our first apartment was only temporary and so we tried to avoid unpacking a lot or accumulating anything extra before we switched to our current location. On top of that, we were dead tired and completely disoriented in our surroundings. The first thing we did after our visit to the baby house on the first day was make a stop at Arzhan, which is similar to Costco to pick up some food and supplies. Of all the things we had on our minds, what we might eat for the next few days or weeks never crossed our minds, so when we arrived at the store, we went completely blank. In addition, we had no idea what we would find, and with our driver’s little car, we didn’t want to buy too much stuff so that both families would have room. One of the first things we laid eyes on was a bulk package of spaghetti (about 2kg). Perfect! Simple, versatile, easy to cook and store. We knew we’d be able to work with that and at the very least could have just plain ol’ spaghetti with butter.

So now it’s eight weeks later and we are still working on that same package of spaghetti! We are starting to feel that in addition to the movie Groundhog Day we can add segments from Forrest Gump as well when Forrest’s friend and business partner, Bubba, is telling Forrest about all the things you can do with shrimp. “You can bake it, broil it, fry it, make it with sauce, …”

Things That Don’t Translate Well
We expected the language thing to pose a few challenges along the way, but we are quite surprised by the two things that seem to be the most difficult to translate.
“Right of Way” – as in the pedestrian has the right of way. Here, it seems to have been interpreted as “the pedestrian had best move right out of the way if they wish to make it to their destination in one piece.” Now that we are moving about the city with a stroller, we have noticed people are more willing to stop to let you cross the street, but we are actually finding that even more tricky because with multi lane traffic you can’t assume that just because the first car stopped that the next car will catch on so you sometimes find yourself half way across the street peeking around a bus for oncoming traffic and the bus driver is getting a little impatient because he doesn’t want to fall behind schedule and he doesn’t know what you are stopping for.

Which leads me to another thought about strollers. I totally understand why you push them, but doesn’t it seem just a little strange that when we head out in the world with the children that we are trying our hardest to protect and nurture that we make them go first into whatever awaits us? Almost sounds like those medieval taste-testers that were forced to taste the king’s food to make sure it wasn’t poisonous. Okay kid, you go first, and if nothing bad happens, I’ll follow….

“Poop” – before we became parents we noticed that other parents spent a lot of time talking about poop. We didn’t know that so much could be said about poop. So when it came time to find out about how our little guy has been raised before we assume his care we felt obligated to find out about poop. We gave our translator a list of questions about his schedule, diet, sleep habits, etc. to ask the caregivers while we were having our visit. Now, not wanting to sound crude, we wrote “How often does he have a bowel movement?” Now, to some of you, that may seem like a really absurd question. But the whole time we had our visits, Max only had one soiled diaper, so we were wondering if he was one of those people who just didn’t need daily movements. (I know, too much info) And, knowing that we were about to completely throw his little system for a loop, we thought we should know if any of the changes we made were affecting his digestive system.

Anyway, we handed the translator our list and went about our merry way so we could enjoy our time with Max. A little while later, she returned and said she got information about most of our questions, but there were a few she needed to ask us about. Sure enough, the poop question was one of them! She said, “What is a bowel movement?” Now of course our first reaction was to go completely blank. It totally threw us for a loop that this would be one of the things we might have to do charades for. I even looked it up in our Russian/English phrasebook. No poop. You wouldn’t believe how long it took for us to try to find a tactful and not too disgusting way to explain what we were wondering. Her first reaction was one of, “He poops when he poops, you can’t set a clock to it, you just deal with it when it happens.” But, finally we were able to explain why we wanted to know and she seemed satisfied that we weren’t off our rockers. (Note to self – just because someone says they speak English (Russian, French, etc.) does not necessarily mean they understand it!)

Russian Music Videos
In addition to our one and a half English television stations (CNN and a sports channel that is sometimes English and sometimes Russian) we have about 40 Russian stations that we surf through once in a while to see if there is anything we can watch, even if we can’t listen to it. Funniest Animals is one of our favourites because it is actually just as funny, if not better, without the annoying commentary. Sometimes we can catch a music video channel that plays a lot of music from North America (the popular music here is about 50% North American and 50% other) so when we can we tune in to it for some variety. We’ve noticed that a lot of the Russian music videos that we’ve seen look like they are right out of the 80’s. Very low budget, so they end up looking a lot like “Mickey” by Toni Basil (as in, “Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey!”) or some of the early Cindi Lauper or Madonna videos. Nostalgic yes, but not necessarily good.

Dish Racks
Now here’s a great idea. In the cupboard above our sink is a built in drying rack for dishes. The dishes can drip dry right into the sink and you don’t have to go back to them to put them away because the dish rack doubles as cupboard space. The only downside for our North American lifestyles is that as far as we know, most people like to situate their sinks by a window and so to have a built in dish rack you would have to sacrifice your view. However here, where dish towels seem to have absolutely no absorbing qualities whatsoever, we love the built in dish rack.

Zoning
Another interesting thing we’ve noticed here is that there doesn’t seem to be any zoning bylaws. We originally thought that the plan right from the start was to build the stores along the street and the living areas above them. As time passed and we saw a few new stores being established, we realized that most buildings were once completely living spaces, but as times got better, if one wanted to start a store of their own, all they had to do was purchase a ground floor suite or two which they could renovate into a store. As time passed, more and more people did this, which has lead to the street level shopping and apartments above.

So, that’s all for the random thoughts from our little corner of the world. You never know, we may come up with more, we may not. Here’s hoping your little corner of the world is happy, healthy and looking forward to a terrific day!

So What's New?

Let’s start with the new things that Max is doing. First of all, he babbles constantly. Well, actually sometimes he replaces babble with all and all out yelling, but it’s the happy sort, so we love it. He would never be allowed to be this loud in the baby house, especially at nap time. He usually sings himself to sleep, which we love listening to. He also is making a few new sounds, including ‘ma’ and ‘ba’ (he already had a solid use of ‘da’) and is starting to try to imitate us. Max most definitely has begun to understand some English, especially his name and ‘no’. He responds to the words ‘come here’, ‘up’& ‘sit’.

He has started to stand a little bit on his own and we can really see the strength in his legs build. Today he spent about 20 minutes bouncing up and down on us, mostly under his own power with us to balance him and give him a little up start.

Today he decided to try out using a spoon on his own and actually did very well. We have some spoons that have slightly longer handles so Mom was able to give a bit of hand over hand help loading the spoon, but he got it in his mouth and eaten all on his own. It helped that he was eating stew, which sticks to the spoon so he could be successful even if he tipped the spoon over. He’s also sitting at the table on his own for most of the meal. We found a little stool that we can use as a booster seat and he will sit there even though there is no belt to hold him down. Of course one of us is always right beside him, but this makes it so much easier to feed him. Once he starts to get full he moves over to Mom’s lap for the last little bit, but this is so much better for all of us.

Other than that we are waiting for Max’s passport so that we can start to make plans to move to Almaty. As we said, we don’t know exactly when this will happen, but we will try to do a quick post when we know. We don’t know what or where our accommodations will be in Almaty, so we can’t say if we will be easy to contact or if we will have Internet access right away. If we end up in an apartment there that doesn’t have a phone, we try to find an Internet café. We’re hoping that our coordinator there will be able to fly to Moscow to process Max’s visa, which would shorten our wait by two or three days. The peace of mind will be worth the fees to expedite the paperwork.

The forecast for tomorrow calls for lower temperatures (26 degrees) so we are looking forward to getting out for a walk or for a treat. It’s 31 degrees in our apartment right now and we just heard some thunder, so maybe our relief will arrive a bit earlier than expected.

Take Care and Best Wishes

Closer

Okay folks, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel! We’ve booked our flights home (a very painstaking and troublesome event) for July 30th. Our flight leaves Almaty at 3:20am on the 30th and we will arrive home around 3:30pm on the 30th, if all goes as planned.

Travel will take approximately 24 hours in total, but we gain 12 hours on the way home, so this accounts for what seems to be a short trip. So that means that when we arrive at our final destination our bodies will think it is 3:30 in the morning, so we hold no promises that we will be alert and logical at that time. We actually have the fastest possible route home, but this also creates relatively short layovers which are a blessing if we make the next flight and a nightmare if we don’t. We’re pretty confident that each connection gives us ample time to stretch our legs, get to the next gate, go through customs (Calgary, we assume) and do whatever else we need to between flights. If all goes as planned, we will arrive in Frankfurt at 6:25am, depart for Calgary at 9:55am. Arrive in Calgary at 11:40am and depart at 2:25pm.

But before we get too ahead of ourselves, there are a few things that need to be completed here. First, we need to get Max’s passport in hand. Best case scenario, it could be here this Thursday. It may take until Monday or so, but we’re hoping for sooner rather than later. Then, we have to apply for a visa for him to leave Ust (yeah, we don’t get it either) which apparently takes only a day or so.
Then we’re off to Almaty to apply for his entry visa into Canada. This can take anywhere from two to five days, so that should still leave us a couple of days grace if something gets hung up.

Best case scenario, everything is done in the least amount of time possible and we have to keep ourselves busy for five or so days in Almaty. Next to worse case scenario, we make our plane with all documents in hand by the skin of our teeth. We don’t need to tell you then what the worst case scenario would be. We’re not sure yet who would lose their minds first, Rod or Tammy, if this happens. We’ve got our fingers crossed that by then we will have taught Max how to beg, plead and fly a plane so we can all get home.

So, we started packing today. First, because we are eager to get this show on the road, and second, we don’t want to be caught off guard if we get last minute confirmation that we can fly to Almaty. There is only one flight per day and we want to be on the first one possible!

Keep your fingers and toes (and whatever else you can think of) crossed for us!

(Gerald, now would be a good time to put a good word in for us!)

Week One

It’s hard to believe that Max has been with us for only a week. All in all things are going very well and Max has made great strides breaking his new parents in. Max continues to sleep well and is generally rather easy to put to bed. He continues to play hard and is doing very well stacking his cups by himself. He loves to play catch with his Dad and loves even more to be chased around the apartment. Unfortunately though, he doesn’t like to wear socks and the harsh carpets are doing a number on his soft skin. We’re trying to keep either socks or footie pyjamas on him, but we’re in another heat wave, so we’re trying to figure out the lesser of two evils.

He seems to be cutting more teeth, we think molars this time, so from time to time he’s a little cranky, but snaps out if it rather quickly. We’ve tried the baby orajel, but when he’s fussy, the last thing he wants is someone sticking anything in his mouth and in the end we all end up more upset than soothed. (Another catch 22) Meal times are probably our trickiest time of day. Max can be a good eater but can also be hesitant to take the first bite and sometimes won’t even eat the things he devoured the day before. However, he is certain to eat bread and anything that resembles bread, so we keep a lot of that in stock. We know food fussiness can be typical toddler fare especially with all the changes he is experiencing, and keep telling ourselves that at least he is eating something every day and he definitely won’t starve. It will take time for us to introduce new foods and will probably take even longer for him to try them. So far, we know it’s yes to bread, pancakes, oatmeal and French toast, no to spaghetti, macaroni and perogies, and maybe to applesauce, yogurt and rice.

We have tried to get out at least once a day for a walk. Max enjoys his stroller and is excited to see when we pull it out. He can hardly wait for us to put his shoes on before he’s trying to climb in. This is good, because it is a real lifesaver when you have to walk everywhere. He’s happy to ride around for about 30-45 minutes so long as we keep moving. We’ve also tried the baby carrier on the cooler days and it works for short bits, so it should come in handy when we’re getting on and off the plane, but he probably won’t tolerate it for much more than that.

Here are some of the new sights we’ve seen during our daily walks over the past few days:

An absolutely amazing Catholic church. The roof is real gold.

A couple of the apartment buildings along the river that are undergoing renovations. The purple one appears to be just started and the other has had most completed so that it looks like a new building until you look more closely.

This barn shaped building caught our attention because it is so different from the typical concrete rectangles that you typically see. It appears to be an automobile garage, with service bays on the bottom, but we’re not sure what the upper level is used for.

Along the Ulba River enjoying the cool breeze, but not the glaring sun.

As we wind our way along the streets of Ust we see much evidence of a much better time in its history. There are many well built playgrounds scattered throughout the city, but time has not been kind and many are quite run down. The same goes for the buildings. New buildings are plunked amongst the old and condemned. However, there is much evidence of the city and economy rebuilding. There is much work being done in public spaces and many buildings being given a face lift. Roses are planted everywhere and seem to grow very well here.

We are always impressed by the resourcefulness of the people of Kazakhstan. Little is wasted. When a building is being demolished, bricks are painstakingly conserved for another use. Brooms used for sidewalks are made from bunches of twigs bound together with twine. Grass is cut with a scythe rather than a mower. Rather than buying a new cloth end for a mop, an attachment is used that allows one to make a mop out of rags. As always, there are many lessons to be learned.
The mix of old and new also strikes us on a daily basis. As you walk down the street you see many cell phones, fancy cars, SUVs, high heels, designer clothes, but then you see a car, bus, ambulance or an old motorbike with a sidecar that looks like it just drove out of an episode of M*A*S*H*. Although we’ve been here for 7 weeks, it still catches us by surprise.

It's the Little Things

It’s amazing what you might miss if you let yourself get too wrapped up in unimportant details. A few things that one might think are little, but are actually quite big have happened the past couple of days in our world. We’re glad that we didn’t miss them.

First, Max let us cuddle and rock him before he went to sleep. He’s actually been much cuddlier than we expected right from the start, but this was somehow different. Although he was quite tired, he seemed to be having trouble settling himself down, so Tammy bundled him up in a soft fleece blanket and rocked with him while she held him snugly. We expected him to fight her on this but he only fussed for a second or two and then completely relaxed and started to fall asleep. Before he completely nodded off, we tucked him into his crib where he gave us one last long gaze and a big sigh before he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

The next little big thing was that Max fed both of us some food. Not that he’s been starved in any way, but once something to eat is in his hands, he isn’t too keen on giving it up (that is, unless he’s decided to launch it into orbit). Well today at lunch, out of the blue he picked up a piece of his pancake and shoved it into Rod’s mouth! Then at supper, he kept feeding Tammy pieces of macaroni. Mind you, he didn’t want to eat it himself, so we think he was trying to say, “Well, if you like it so much, you eat it!” But still, we think that for a kid who would pitch a complete fit if we tried to take a bite of his cookie or even pretended to, giving us some of his food is a big deal.

Third, our little guy plays pretend. At first we weren’t sure what he was doing but the first time we noticed it, he was pretending to pick stuff up and put it in and take it out of the basket of the stroller. Later on, he was playing with a toy telephone that we brought. He hasn’t really cared to play with it for the last month, but he has really taken to it the last couple of days. It’s hard not to bust a gut when he picks it up, puts it to his ear and says, “Da” which is exactly how people typically answer the phone here. So, that was cute enough, but then after an unfortunate crash which he seems to have blamed on the phone, he has switched to using an empty water bottle for his telephone!

The other day we found ourselves yet again going back through all of the photos we’ve taken since we arrived. We never cease to be amazed by how much Max has changed since we first met him. From the timid little boy that we first met to the sing at the top of your lungs go getter that we spend our days with now.

Day 1

Today

So, although sometimes we have been given the advice to forget the past and just keep looking ahead, we’re really glad that we took the time to look back. It’s hard to know just how far you’ve gotten when you don’t look back to find out just how far you’ve come.

Your Questions

Some of you have asked us questions along the way that we haven’t yet answered. If you’ve been waiting a long time, we apologize and hope that our answers will still be helpful.

The language…
Someone asked us how we learned Russian before we arrived. To be honest, we didn’t and we still haven't. Most days we feel we still don’t know enough to talk our way out of a wet paper bag. Learning the language was at the top of my “to do” list as soon as we decided to adopt from Kazakhstan, but for a whole variety of reasons that aren’t interesting, it didn’t happen. Here is what I did manage and what we have learned along the way…
First, we bought a “teach yourself Russian in 10 minutes a day” type of book. It’s not that the book isn’t any good, it’s just doesn’t fit how I learn a new language. However, something that I did get from the book is a fair understanding of the alphabet, at least most of the letters. How this has been helpful is that if you sound out many words, they will sound like the word in English. For example, “суп” sounded out is “soop” and lo and behold, it is soup! Now, unfortunately, not all words work like that. “сок” sounded out is “sock”, but means juice. The other thing from this book that has come in handy have been the 5w’s (who, what, when, where, why) and how. You can get a lot of information if you start with one of these question words. Now, there are probably many other wonderful pieces of information in this book, but this is as far as I got.

The other thing that has actually been more helpful than we realized is that Tammy comes from a family that has members that speak Ukrainian in various amounts (from sporadic to fluent). I myself would definitely be more on the sporadic end of the spectrum but there are some common phrases and words that come up that are fairly similar between Russian and Ukrainian, so all those years of hearing the language must have sunk in to some degree.

But all in all, I would put us at the non-speaking end of the language. We have a few basics, as I’ve written about, and when we are needing something specific that might be difficult to find, we make sure to always have a pocket translator of some type with us or we look it up at home and write it on a piece of paper to take with us. As for our pocket translator, we have the typical Russian/English phrasebook but we also purchased Russian/English dictionary/phrasebook software from LingvoSoft for our PalmPilot. Now, had we not already owned the Palm, we definitely wouldn’t have gone out and purchased one, but since we did, the software was a fairly inexpensive piece of software that has been very helpful.

A stroller…
This was one of the things we really went back and forth on before we left. We’d read many different stories about the cost and availability of strollers here in Kazakhstan and worried that it would be expensive to find one here. In the end we decided that we would take our chances and wait until we got here and met our child before deciding. Our reasons: our heavy luggage and near maximum carry ons would be enough to manage in the airports; the possible excess baggage fees (because it wouldn’t be considered permissible carry-on when there isn’t a child to fill it on the way here) would outweigh the possible higher prices; and since we hadn’t met the child it was intended for, we didn’t know exactly what we wanted or needed. In the end we are glad that we waited. There are many decent strollers in all styles and price ranges available here (in Ust anyway) and we found the prices to be comparable to home.

On the other hand, we did bring a baby carrier that we thought we would prefer because of the bonding/attachment opportunities it could give. However, due to the 30+ degree temperatures, it just isn’t going to work for us. If we were here during any other season, it would have been perfect though.

Things we’re glad we brought from home that we’d pack again…
*Our laptop – this has been possibly the most important thing we’ve packed. It has saved us from feeling isolated from our families and friends because we can use email to keep in touch, plus we brought a variety of DVD’s to watch (before Max got here anyway). We actually found that television series on DVD work better for us because an episode works out to about 45 minutes, so you don’t have to set aside a whole evening to watch a movie if you are only in the mood for a little bit of TV. If you are planning to bring a laptop, make sure you really know how to work it before you leave home! Find a WiFi spot and practice hooking up to it, find somewhere with a dial-up connection and do the same so that you have a good idea what you are doing before you leave.

*Flash drive – this has been great for selecting pictures to take to the photo shop for printing as well as sharing documents with our coordinator. We actually ended up bringing two and it’s worked out well because sometimes we didn’t get the one back from our coordinator for a couple of days. They don’t need to be ones with large memories, so a couple of cheap ones would certainly do.

*Sippy cups & extra valves – We are especially glad we brought some that are the no-drip ones intended as a transition from the bottle to a sippy cup (they have a soft latex spout on them rather than a hard plastic one). There are sippy cups available here, even the no-drip ones, but we haven’t seen the transition ones. I really debated about even buying these cups because we really didn’t expect to meet a child under 12 months of age, so I thought they might go to waste because they are intended for younger infants. However, they have been wonderful for us. With his caregivers Max was accustomed to drinking from a cup. But, the way that they drink from those cups just wouldn’t work for us, especially on an airplane when we would have a limited number of changes of clothing available. In addition, we wanted something that he would need to suck on for the plane that would help to ‘pop’ his ears. The soft spout ones were much easier to get Max on to because he was teething and liked to chew on the spout, which got some of the liquid flowing, which taught him how to suck, because he wasn’t used to doing this. At first we took the valve and opened the cut a little so he wouldn’t have to suck as hard, but once he caught on we changed valves so the cup wouldn’t drip as well as so he would have to suck harder.

*Stacking cups – they have been an absolute hit with Max as well as all the other children we’ve gotten to know and not easy to find here.

*Ziplock bags – we have come across some since we got here, but they don’t seem common yet and they aren’t cheap.

*Trail mix and granola bars – yep, even though the trail mix weighed a ton and caused us much stress trying to balance the weights of our luggage to keep them each underweight. Plus, now that they’re eaten, we have lots of room (and lots less weight) in our luggage for the return trip.

*Cloth shopping bags – we brought 4 fairly large fold up bags that will fold up and fit into our pockets when we go shopping. In many places in Ust, plastic bags must be purchased and they aren’t of the greatest quality so aren’t likely to make it in one piece anyway.

*Miscellaneous - can opener, mini-LED flashlight, duct tape (we wish we would have brought 2 rolls), mosquito netting

Things we brought that we don’t need or are glad that we didn’t bring in the first place…
*Two packs of water purification tablets. We’ve barely even used a quarter of one, and that was only because we got into Almaty too late to pick up water for the next day. Bottled water is readily available pretty much everywhere.

*A set of bedsheets - but that’s just based on our experience, we know there are others here who would definitely disagree!

*Toilet paper – easy to find and although it isn't Charmin, it does the job. It even comes in a variety of colours and scents (apparently they didn’t get the memo about being kind to your behind). We did pack one roll which on a lark I vacuumed-sealed, so I thought it ended up looking like a block of contra-band which is the only reason I didn’t pack more. (No, it didn’t cause any suspicion at security, maybe just a laugh or two) That one roll was much appreciated for the first few days until we had enough time to go shopping for the basics.

Things we wish we would have brought…
*Our travel booster seat – not that it would have made packing any easier, but it definitely would make life here a little easier at meal times. I may have even sacrificed a few of the other things we packed, such as extra shoes and the trail mix. We’ve seen many high chairs, but no booster seats. We debated purchasing a high chair to leave behind, but then would be back to square one when we got to Almaty, so we’ll continue our tag-team strategy of holding and feeding until we get home. We’ve also elected not to use our stroller as a make-shift high chair, again based solely on our experience; it may work wonderfully for others.

Disclaimer: These comments and suggestions are based only upon our experiences and do not under any circumstances constitute an official packing to do/not to do list! We take no responsibility for any grief or stress caused by trying to pack one of everything from every list you find on the Internet. (Which is what Tammy tried to do at one point before she realized that she’d have to separately finance the excess baggage fees as well as her pending divorce if she asked her husband, “Do you think we will need…” one more time. However, although he won’t admit it, quite a few of the things Tammy insisted on have been very helpful!)

Happy packing and repacking!

Building Endurance

Now we know what you must be thinking – that it takes a lot of energy to keep up with a 15 month old and that the parents in question haven’t quite built up their endurance yet. Yes, that is probably true, but that’s not even the half of it.

Max also has to build his endurance to playing. We were beginning to worry about how much he was sleeping (as crazy as that sounds when a week ago we were worried that he wouldn’t sleep enough!). For the first few days it seemed that he was asleep more than awake. Our first thoughts were that something must be wrong. Could he be getting sick? Too much heat? Not enough food? Too much food? As you can imagine, a little bit of new parent paranoia set in. But then we stepped back and took a closer look at the bigger picture. Max has pretty much the same schedule here as at the baby house, but what he is doing during his play time is much different. Here, he has more space, more interaction, more activities, etc. As it turns out, he’s playing and crawling around just so darn hard here that he’s exhausted! After a couple of hours of being on the go, he’s rubbing his eyes, yawning and absolutely ready for a nap! When we put him down, he’s fast asleep in about 15 minutes (well, when Rod puts him down, Tammy isn’t quite so lucky, or maybe too easy of a push over) and sleeps hard for a couple of hours.

As for eating, well that’s a hit or miss experience. Sometimes he hits the plate when he throws something he doesn’t like, sometimes he misses! We really feel for this little guy because no matter what we try, it just isn’t the same as the baby house food and sometimes new foods are a little trying. We know that he loves his bread, so we’re wondering if a loaf of bread is permitted in one’s carry on luggage! He’ll eat most of what we’ve tried, but the tricky part is getting him to try the first spoonful. Some meals, he’ll eat something if he sees that we’re eating it and sometimes not. We have learned that he isn’t very fond of slippery food yet (mashed bananas, tomatoes, canned peaches) or anything that hasn’t been warmed up.

Which brings us to today’s challenge. Yet again, we have no power in the kitchen (but still power in the living room, go figure). It seems that we have tripped the breaker for that half of the apartment, but despite everything we know about breakers and electricity, there is some trick to resetting these breakers that we haven’t been informed of. Our best guess is that there is another breaker box in the main hallway that we need a key for. We’ve called our coordinator for help, but lo and behold, today is a holiday and the owner of the apartment is unavailable! We’re being extra careful with the other circuit so we don’t end up completely in the dark again.

Which brings us to the current hostage situation happening here. It is actually a two-fold hostage taking. First of all, the washing machine is holding our clothes hostage again because no power means that it can’t drain, which means that the door won’t open. Secondly, we’re hoping to learn how to reset the breaker so we don’t have to rely on someone to come (or not come, as it turns out) from who knows where to flip the switch, but we have no idea if or when the guy will arrive, so we are feeling a little like we are under house arrest here.

Last night we got together with 4 other adoptive families for supper. It was really good to see them all again because although we are very happy to have Max here, we feel even more cut-off from the rest of the world. Even though the daily visits were getting somewhat monotonous, we always enjoyed seeing all of the wonderful people we have met as a result of this experience. The neat thing about last night’s gathering is that it involved parents and children from all over North America and also from every part of the adoptive process. One couple is still completing their bonding process and should be applying for a court date any day now, another couple just got their court date (finally), one family has completed their appeal but haven’t had their gotcha day yet, and then there was the two us with our little “the diamond in the rough”, as one parent commented, meaning the light at the end of the tunnel and the goal at the end of the challenge.

Max was excellent during his first outing to a restaurant. It was really hot in there, but he sat on Mom’s knee and ate pieces of ham and cheese off the pizza but no crust - it was a little squishy from the tomatoes and we didn’t want to be the instigators of an all out food fight! Here’s a picture of our supper group outside of Pizza Blues:

We’ve been using the stroller to block the door to the balcony, but our son woke up with greater determination today and insisted on getting out to the balcony, even if it meant for a few stressful moments when he got himself hung up on the stroller. Needless to say, we set about trying to baby proof that part too. If the people who usually live here ever plan to return, it will probably take them weeks to find all of their stuff!

The First 48

So, it’s been about 48 hours since you last heard from the German Trio. We have all managed to sleep, eat, play and handle diaper duty. We live in an equity family, so everybody has a job to do when it comes to diaper duty! Some of us fill them, some change them, some of us deal with the aftermath which might include rushing them out the door. Okay, too much information, we know. But many of you wonder what we are up to, and this sums it up.

We are doing our best to try to figure out Max’s life and he is doing his best trying to figure out ours. He’s been eating and sleeping fairly well and seems to be enjoying having the opportunity to have preferences for some foods as well as negotiate bed and nap times. Although we asked many questions of the caregivers about his daily routines, routines aren’t that easy to follow when you change as much in his life as we have.

Yesterday went amazingly well for our first full day as a family. Max ate everything we prepared for him and went for naps and bedtime when expected. He’s slept through both nights and had an absolute blast in the tub. Today was a little more challenging. He’s been a little fussier about food and not so easy to put down for naps. We know that it will take time to develop a routine and to get to know one another, so we are thankful that we have the opportunity to focus on being parents right now.

We are also excited to learn even more about our little guy. For example, we now know that when he is settling down to sleep that he rotates his ankles and kneads his toes into the bed (very cute). We also know that when he shakes his head “no”, he really means it and any attempt to override his decision will get launched across the room.

Max is also learning about us. For the most part he accepts that our glasses are off limits – no exceptions. The last thing we need to happen is to break a pair of glasses. We are both completely helpless without them and didn’t bring an extra pair (not that we probably would have even if we thought of it beforehand). We can just imagine the disaster it would be trying to navigate the streets here and airports with one of us needing the other as a seeing eye dog!

Now, for those of you who only come for the pictures:

Dad gave Max his first bath here at the apartment.

Max likes to sleep with his bottom in the air.

Max checking out all the features of his new stroller (or planning his method of escape).

Gotcha!

Today was better than Christmas, Easter, and birthdays all wrapped into one. Our day started pretty low key with us having the morning to tidy a few things up, duct tape a few things closed and just imagine the day ahead.

At 12:30 we headed off for the registrar’s office for Max’s new birth certificate and another paper which we think is his official change of name. After a couple of more stops for our coordinator to rush around to do paperwork on our behalf, we were off to the baby house to collect our little Max. We arrived around 2:30 and signed him out. After a quick change of clothes and fast goodbye with today’s caregivers we rushed off to the passport office. We barely had time to snap a picture of our last decent down the front steps of the baby house. After the passport office we were returned to our apartment, but this time as a family of three!

Max was very good during the car rides. We thought he might be either a little overwhelmed or very squirmy, but for the most part he simply sat on one of our laps and watched out the window at all of the things going by.

With all of the sudden changes we expected him to be quiet or unsettled back at the apartment. At first he wasn’t too happy about sitting on the carpet in the living room, so we spread out the blanket that we have been using to sit and play on at the baby house. He was okay with this and quickly dove into the toy basket which held the familiar toys from our daily visits, plus a couple of new ones that we kept here. After about 15 minutes of quiet play, he crawled back and forth from the living room to the kitchen as fast as his little legs and arms would take him for the next 30 minutes or so. The whole time he was chatting and laughing. Then he decided to check out the bedroom, mainly to empty the laundry basket and play in it for awhile.

Then we stopped for a bit to have snack, which only fuelled the little guy up again for round 2 of Max’s raceway. We stopped for supper around 6:30 and Max was so tired by this time that he could hardly keep his eyes open while he ate. So around 7:15 we got him ready for bed and set him into his crib. He fussed for only a few seconds but then started to settle himself into bed. After 45 minutes of him playing with the bars on the crib, the zippers on the suitcases that are behind the crib and smiling at us and the baby in the mirror, he finally gave in and fell asleep. We decided to stay in the room and quietly lay on the bed and floor until he fell asleep because he has never slept in a room by himself. Every few minutes he would roll over, see that we were there and then settle back down with a smile on his face. He’s been sleeping now for almost 2 hours and we’ve probably peeked in on him at least a dozen times to prove to ourselves that he really is here.

So all in all our first 7 hours of official parenting have gone pretty smooth.

We had a pretty good chuckle at our little guy’s expense yesterday. When we arrived at the end of the hallway that leads to Max’s room we could hear him howling all the way down the hall. We didn’t know what to think. Was he sad? Was he hurt? What could possibly be going on to cause such a commotion? We rounded the corner to find that he was being wrestled to the ground by a little girl in his group who wanted a little face time with the caregiver that Max was chatting with! So in the end, really only his pride was hurt, but he sure made an issue of it!

We have no idea what time Max will be up, or how many times he will wake through the night, so we’d better get ourselves to the Land of Nod as well.

Happy Canada Day!

Hope you are getting ready for a wonderful and relaxing Canada Day. We're breathing a sigh of relief today because our missing medical document finally arrived today. Now we're anxious to get our little one out of the baby house and here with us. One more day, two visits and two nights to try to make ourselves sleep. We're just so excited we can hardly contain ourselves. We don't ever recall even Christmas being this exciting as kids, waiting for Santa to arrive!

In fact, we're so excited we can hardly think, so it's really hard to try to think of things to post about. Many of the other families here are also excited for us, especially the ones that are just getting started or have just had their court date and it looks like this day is so far off. We are living proof that it can happen and it does happen.

We wish you all the same luck and well wishes that we have been so fortunate to have. Your day will come, too.

Somebody Needs Their Sleep

Max definitely didn’t get enough sleep last night. Even his caregivers were quick to warn us that he was overtired and not in the best of spirits this morning for our visit. Yes, he is a real child and we were wondering when we would finally see this side of his personality. Actually all in all it wasn’t too bad, as far as cranky toddler goes. Not that we are challenging him to show us his finest, at least not yet.

It probably didn’t help that his mother and father are a little short on sleep right now as well. As we’ve already noted, the bed and pillows here are not “sleep number” perfect for us and no matter what we do it doesn’t get any better. We’ve actually considered sleeping right on the floor because at least there wouldn’t be any springs poking us in the ribs.

We’re also in the middle of a magical missing document puzzle. Don’t panic, it’s nothing too serious, more annoying and confusing right now than anything. Without getting into too many boring details, we have one last piece of paperwork that we will need in the next couple of weeks so we will be ready to file for Max’s entry visa into Canada as soon as his passport and birth certificate arrive. The document missing is a simple statement regarding his medical information. What’s confusing about the whole thing is that this same letter for the other couple somehow just appeared and no one knows exactly how it got here, so we don’t know how to get ours. Person A says that Person B needs to request it and Person B says Person A should be getting it, and Rod and I are neither A nor B. We’d thought we could maybe make the formal request, since it is a letter for us, but it seemed that no one really knew exactly where these sorts of letters come from!?! It’s hard to make contacts when you feel like your sitting on the outside of the circle and the people in the circle just keep pointing back and forth to each other and throwing up their hands.

As it turns out, there seems to be a really good explanation for all of this confusion. Normally, this letter is automatically forwarded from the doctor reviewing the results of the exam and no request for it needs to be made, which explains why no one knows who to request it from. However, we still don’t know what exactly happened or didn’t happen, but we look to be on the upside of the challenge, so hopefully we have a better chance of getting some sleep tonight. If after reading this your head is spinning and you don’t understand a word we just said, join the club!

We’ve been treated to a couple days of intermittent rains and some wind storms. Being a city set in the foothills of the mountains, weather changes rather quickly and unpredictably. Twice now we have all had to do the mad dash for the baby house with our children and leaving our spouses to pick up the toys and blankets because a sudden dust storm has blown in. Rains happen quickly and for a short time, broken up by bursts of sun before the next rain cloud peeks over the mountains to douse us again. Kind of reminds us of home where, if you don’t like the weather, you just have to wait 10 minutes for it to change!

We are again at the point where we are experiencing both joys and sorrows. As we get nearer to our “gotcha day” we can hardly contain our smiles, but at the same time, we have to say goodbye to even more people whom have touched our lives in so many ways. First are the caregivers from Max’s room. There are approximately 12 of them who rotate through the schedule, so sometimes we only see them once a week. This means that there are some we won’t see again before Thursday, so we have already had to have our goodbyes. Second is Superdriver, Boolat. He has been such an incredible and kind man. He has tolerated our ignorance, helped us search for pretty much everything we have wanted or needed (including, but not limited to: silk trees, plastic cloth, cinnamon, internet cards, bank machines, diapers, etc.) and patiently listened to Rod (Go Riders!) and Dale (Go Bombers!) discuss CFL football, all with a smile and a “No problem, it’s good.” We know that we have been very fortunate to have his company and we know the next family he works with will be blessed to work with him. We know we have.

To each of these people, we know we can never thank you enough. We hope we have somehow found a place in your heart as you have in ours.

How Many More Sleeps?

That’s right Max! Only five more big sleeps until the big day! We’re down to only a handful of days until our “gotcha day” and we can hardly wait. So, what does one do when they can’t sleep, partly because of anticipation and partly because our tolerance of the pillows and bed has completely expired?

Well, after our visit today we went on a big hunt for gifts for the baby house. We originally had wanted to find something special for each of the caregivers because they each in their own way have really touched our lives and we can’t thank them enough for how wonderful they have been to Max. However, this was looking to be no easy task because even though we have seen these people often, we realize that we really don’t know too much about them other than their lives at the baby house and we haven’t ever had the chance to meet the night staff. Not that we aren’t interested, but time and language make this difficult, to say the least. So, we decided that a better way to thank them was to find something that would make their days maybe just a little bit easier. So we asked them what they would most like for the room that would accomplish this. And that is what we set out to find. The first thing on the list was easy: a cordless electric kettle (√). The second and third things proved to be much more elusive - a colourful artificial tree and some new fabric for the pads in the playpens, something a little more colourful than what they currently have. First, where to find artificial plants in this city? Even our amazing driver and translator had no clue. We stopped at a few places and each time they pointed us in the direction of another store. No luck. We finally did find some, but they were rather plain and too big to fit into the car, so we decided to call it quits and keep looking another day. We then headed to the Chinese Bazaar to look for the fabric. We definitely found some wonderful fabric, but what they need is something that wears and washes well that was very colourful. We found lots of beautiful and attractive fabrics, but nothing suitable for a playpen. With our time running out, we decided to ask the caregivers if they had some suggestions on where we could buy the fabric.

Since we were already at the bazaar, we thought we’d scout around for a few more outfits for Max and we kept looking for hats, since a few people have made it clear they don’t like the yellow elephant number. Besides hats, it has been difficult to find pants at this time of year. Lots of shorts, but we wanted some pants for on the airplane. We did find some, so we should have enough clothes to get by on until we get home.

While we’re on the topic of hats…

Yes, we did pick the yellow elephant number ourselves, but it’s not quite that simple. When we first arrived here we were able to get Max wearing the clothes we brought right away, but we didn’t have a hat. His room at the baby house had lots of toques and knitted hats, but with the temperatures in the 30’s he definitely needed something cooler, but we couldn’t take him out without a hat (not that we wanted to, anyway) and the only cap they had was much too small. So, after our first visit on the second day, our driver asked us if we needed anything. We needed a hat and shoes, so he took us to a baby store, but he didn’t have much time, so neither did we. Plus, being well into the sunny season, this was the only hat that would fit Max that didn’t have frills and lace. We bought it with the idea that it would only have to last a couple of days until we could find a different one. (good luck) We have constantly been on the lookout for a different hat, but every store in the city seems to have the same stock! We don’t feel so bad because since we arrived there are three other kids at the baby house who are now in the same predicament. In addition, Max is now rather taken with his hat. He wears it every day and we think he has sort of become attached to it. He knows that when his hat comes out that it is play time with Mom and Dad. So we’re not too sure if he will let us replace it, even though we did finally find a couple of possible replacements today. We’ll try them on if we can and then we’ll let the judges weigh in on the decision.

This evening we ventured out with Dale, another adoptive parent from Canada in search of a good Chinese restaurant. Our driver recommended one that is about half way between Dale’s apartment and ours, and he said we didn’t need to know a lot of Russian to order. Sounds right up our alley! We did find the restaurant, but they didn’t have an English menu, which is what we thought Boolat meant when he said we didn’t need to know Russian. However, they did have something even better – a menu with pictures! We were on the hunt for something with chicken and vegetables and we thought we’d found it. The waitress even confirmed it. This dish was big enough for the three of us to share. It was chicken pieces with potatoes and onions in a tasty sauce. Thanks Boolat!

On our way home we decided to walk through Kirov Park. It has changed quite a lot in the last couple of weeks since we were last there. The roses are in full bloom along with a wide variety of flowers and they have soft music playing throughout the park. It was very relaxing to stroll along the paths and under the flowered arches, listening to the water run in the fountains and streams.

Remember those artificial trees we were looking for? It’s amazing what you find when you stop looking! On our walk home we passed by a small flower shop that we walk by at least 3 or 4 times a week. Right at the front entrance they had these two lovely flowering trees! Somewhat forgetting ourselves and our location, we walked up to the florist, who was standing in the entrance and asked if those trees were for sale, completely in English. Oops! We’re not in Canada anymore, and it was too late to turn around, so about half an hour later we finally determined that:
1. Yes, they were for sale,
2. Yes, they are in our price range,
3. Yes, we really did want something artificial and
4. If we hurried we could get back to our apartment in time to grab some cash and get back before the store closed. Sold!
Oh, but how to get back to the apartment with them? Well, I guess we’ll just have to walk the four blocks back to the apartment with these two flowering trees. Did we tell you that it was windy today? So, we have officially proven that we’ve lost our minds, and there is now a lovely lady in a florist shop in Ust that will testify to this fact! Thank goodness there weren’t too many people out at the time.

We can’t wait to see our driver’s and translator’s faces when they arrive tomorrow to pick us up and we’re sitting on the bench between these two trees!

Oh, and here’s a few more snapshots to fill you up for a couple of days.

Max, Rod and Boolat (AKA SuperDriver) Note that Max is usually rather fond of Boolat, but the little gaffer just got up from his nap, so he was a little on the crusty side.


Dad was aiming for a kiss on the lips, but Max had other plans. At least he wasn’t playing “bonk” today which nearly gave his mother a bloody nose a couple of days ago when she wasn’t paying close enough attention to him.
Max telling Mom exactly what he thinks about the things in the knapsack that he really wants, but can’t have.

Nothing!

That’s what happens when your power goes out. No lights, no telephone, no computer, no TV, no sleep, nothing! But that’s not even the half of it – let’s back up a day or two…

A couple of days ago we made our usual run to the store for a few groceries. Nothing special, but we did decide to treat ourselves to some ice cream. It was another really hot day, so we were looking forward to our treat and walked quickly home so it wouldn’t melt too much. Then it started – we couldn’t get the key into the lock on our door! Oh darn, but we’ll just call our coordinator who will summon someone to give us a hand. But, oh yeah, we left the cell phone to charge before we went to the store! Now we have a problem. Luckily we were able to wiggle the lock and key enough to get the key to fit and all was well. The ice cream was even salvageable. Lesson #1 – Make sure the deadbolt is turned all the way to the side. Lesson #2 - Don’t leave home without the cell phone, not even for a minute! But with lessons learned and ice cream in belly we chalked it up to experience and went upon our merry week, but the excitement didn’t end there.

Our coordinator mentioned she was having trouble getting a letter regarding Max’s medical clearance and was wondering if we could contact our agency in Canada to see if they had any idea of where it ended up. Sure! We can do that, we’d be happy to help. Problem was, no one seemed to have heard of this letter and the description we gave of its contents did nothing to make it clearer. Hmmm, now what to do? Well, sometimes email isn’t the best way to figure these things out, so we though we would just telephone at a time that wasn’t ridiculous for either side and wouldn’t get anyone out of a nice sleep. So, we have a plan, now we can relax…or so we thought!

Last night we thought it would be a good night to do some tidying up before we called our agency. Again, nothing out of the ordinary - laundry, vacuuming, dusting, etc. Then, half of our apartment lost electricity. No problem, probably just tripped a breaker. Found the breakers, nope, nothing tripped. But, we’re still okay, we have power in half of our apartment, so we’ll just use an extension cord to plug the washing machine back in so we can drain it and retrieve our clothes from the front load machine which locks the door until the end of the cycle and then we will use the extension cords to plug the fridge in. Yeah, right! Just after we plugged the washing machine in, we lost power in the other half of the apartment. Clothes still trapped in machine, no lights, no telephone (because there is only a cordless in the apartment) and a fridge full of food that won’t last forever. We made a quick call to our coordinator who assures us that it can be easily fixed but not until the next day. Okay, well, that’s going to be a real pain, so we try to figure things out ourselves. Rod heard voices in the hall, so ventured out to see if anyone could lend us a hand. The people we found all tried to be very helpful and all tried to reset the breakers, but no luck.

But hey, we’ve got hot water again (oh yeah, it was off again for a day), so no boiling, we still have granola bars, so breakfast is taken care of and despite Rod’s assurance we wouldn’t need them, Tammy insisted on packing some candles and matches, so we can at least play cards for a few hours until it’s time to call our agency (we can use the cell phone, that’s why we have it) and then off to bed. At this point we can’t do anything about the fridge, so we’ll just have to deal with whatever happens and try to keep the door closed as much as possible.

So, when it was time, Rod dials the phone, manages a, “Hello, how are you today?” and then nothing – the phone shut off. Now what? Well, it seems that international rates for cell phones are nothing short of ridiculous, so although we thought we had about 30 minutes left on our card, it only lasted about 30 seconds because we were calling internationally. Okay, we can deal with this…

We’ll just email back and forth! We’re pretty sure our agent is in the office, so although the telephone doesn’t work, email still will. That is, unless your laptop battery is low! We managed only one email and then it powered off. So although the sensible thing would be to try and get some sleep, the whole ordeal pretty much made sleep impossible. We’re not used to being so dependent on others, and something like this was certain to send us a little over the edge, at least for a few minutes.

So, we went about our regular visit with Max and after our visit our driver was going to look at our power problem. We returned to our apartment where our driver told us that it was a BIG problem, not just a tripped breaker (we’d already figured that out, but nobody believes the foreigners). The owner of the building showed up and repaired the problem, and so here we are, back in one piece, and power on.

Oh, and by the way, the letter was found! It turns out it actually was a letter that needed to come from the coordinator at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, not our Canadian coordinator. So really, it was never really lost, we were just asking the wrong person.

Once again, it’s all good!

As for Max, everything is going well. We are on the big count down to the day we bring him here to the apartment. (7 more sleeps) We will spend the weekend shopping for gifts for the Baby House, Max’s caregivers and will stock up on diapers, food and a few more clothes for Max.

Who would have thought...

that Elmo Springtime Elixir would be such an excellent drain opener! One thing about our apartment that has made it extra special is the significant time it takes for the kitchen sink to drain. One of our first purchases here was some sort of chemical to unclog the drain which worked somewhat, but never really got things going. But, since we’ve poured the elixir down the drain, things have never worked better! Plus, it was cheaper than the chemical stuff and probably a lot kinder to the environment, even if it wasn’t so friendly to our taste buds.

Yesterday we weren’t in the mood to cook so we thought we try out another restaurant in our area that was recommended, nicknamed the Pancake House. It appears to be a sister company to Pizza Blues and we were happy to see that they also had an English menu. We’ve thought about going out on a limb and going to any restaurant or café and just pointing to a random item on the menu and seeing what we get, but to be honest, we’re just not that brave. The food was very good, but one thing we’ve learned is that food arrives as it is ready. This means that the people at your table may all eat at different times, depending on the time it takes to prepare the meal. Tammy’s meal came in record time, and Rod’s arrives 30 minutes later. It worked out okay because we shared both meals and we were happy to sit in the air conditioned restaurant for awhile. It takes some getting used to menu descriptions that have been translated. There are some pretty funny translations that could turn you off of food if you weren’t creative. Another thing that is interesting in all of the restaurants that we have visited is that you order at the till and then the food and drinks are delivered to your table. Again, we don’t know if it is that way in all restaurants or if we just happen to have picked the only three that serve meals that way.

Max has learned a few new things this week. He surprised himself with his ability to blow razzberries and now his caregivers say he spends a lot of time doing this and we think they are under the impression we taught him this. Nope, but it is darned funny! Today, he also started to give kisses when asked. Rod gave him a kiss and then Tammy said, “Where’s mommy’s kiss?” to which Max turned right around and planted a big sloppy one on her lips. I don’t know who was more surprised. We are definitely counting the days until he comes to stay with us (8 more by the way) and we know the last stage of waiting to get home will be the hardest for a variety of reasons.

As we’ve mentioned, more new families have arrived this week to start the adoption process. It’s always nice to meet new people and Tammy was very excited to find someone who was looking to swap books. She didn’t budget nearly enough suitcase space for reading material and was at the point of having to limit the amount she read each day to make her books last. No worries now, as she’s found someone in the same predicament and with a similar taste in reading.

This week we will start getting some things together for when Max comes here and will do some shopping for gifts to give the caregivers and baby house. It isn’t expected of us, but these people have a really hard job and have done wonderful things with the kids here, sometimes with very limited resources. They have also been very kind to us and have gone out of their way to accommodate our visiting schedule, even if it messed up their daily routine a little. If there is anything we can do to make their days easier, it will be our pleasure. Even though we are eager to get Max and get home, we will truly miss these special ladies who are a very important part of our family. Of all the times we wish we could speak Russian fluently, it is when we are trying to tell the caregivers just how much we appreciate their work and their kind hearts.

So wish us luck as we venture out to continue nesting in our home away from home and go on one more taste test adventure to try out kefir, a dairy drink that we know Max has every day at the baby house. We’ll let you know how it goes (if it goes, that is).

Not All Ideas are Good Ideas

This is an interesting week to be hanging around the Baby House. There are many new families arriving and we, along with the other family who are staying through are the “old guard”. We are the families the new families look to as proof that someone has made it to the next level. At the same time, we have had the opportunity to meet a few returning families who have come back on their second trip to pick up their children and return home to be a forever family. They are the ones we look to as proof of the next level. Congratulations to those families who are on their way home with their little ones. We can’t wait to walk that ever important walk down those Baby House steps. We know it will be as amazing for us as it was for you.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day for us. We thought it would be a good day to catch up on some needed rest and recharge our batteries for the next little while. We stayed in and watched a movie on our laptop, did laundry, tidied up our apartment, and other everyday stuff that we’d been putting off for a few days.

Today, we decided to tour across the river and check out a few other landmarks we’ve seen on our map. The cooler weather has given way to another wave of heat. Today it is about 33 degrees, but it also seems that we are starting to get a little more used to it. Plus, we’ve learned to plan our routes according to the shaded sides of the streets and the breeze. We didn’t find much, we thought we were headed to a large park, but it ended up just being a statue and some flowers in the middle of a traffic roundabout. We couldn’t even get a good picture, because it was in one of the busiest roundabouts we’ve seen, so we decided against risking our lives for a photo-op. We’re pretty sure our travel insurance won’t cover us for acts of stupidity!

Max continues to be ever entertaining during our visits. We hope we are as entertaining for him. We took a larger blanket today to sit on so he had a lot more room to move around, which he enjoyed and took advantage of. Here they frown on kids crawling on the ground, and so some days it has been tough for him because he just wants to cruise, but he doesn’t quite know what to make of the sand or pavement, so he is limited to the blanket and where we carry him. He will be so excited to be in an area he can cruise in, we’re sure he’ll wear out the knees in his pants just checking this place out. He’ll probably wear his parents out a little too, but that’s okay, we’re looking forward to it. Anything to help us sleep better!
Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days (if you don’t mind, that is)

Here’s Max modelling his Canada shirt (the only one we could find in the Toronto airport).


Airplane, one of Max’s favourite activities with Dad, especially because Dad makes the best sound effects.

Max making the most of his lounging time. He spends a little time each day like this with either Dad or Mom. We’d love to say he was holding the book for Dad to read to him, but really he was just planning which page to chew on next.

Now, on to the title of our blog. We don’t know if it was the heat, but today when we went grocery shopping, this bottle caught our attention.

Part of this trip included us being open to trying new things, especially if we can at least get a little information about what we are about to try through some English or pictures. This bottle of “ELMO Springtime Elixir” intrigued us, including the description “carbonated dairy drink”. Yes, bubbly milk. We like milk, bubbles are okay too, so what could go wrong? Well let me tell you… there is nothing good about fizzy milk! I don’t know why we were surprised by this, but if you want to recreate the experience for yourself, take some milk, add some water and a whole bunch of Alka-Seltzer tablets, and you too can have ELMO Springtime Elixir! I don’t know what springtime brings to this part of the world that makes this a good idea, but it must be pretty bad. It also didn’t help that Rod somehow forgot the effects of shaking a bottle of carbonated liquid, so we also got to enjoy an ELMO Springtime Elixir fountain in our kitchen! Like we said, not all ideas are good ideas. We managed one sip of about a teaspoon each and the rest went down the drain.

Hope your day is filled with good ideas!