Was someone important here?

When I woke up this morning the wind was blowing cold air in the bedroom via the open window. It felt so nice and I could hear the breeze blowing through the trees. I thought I was in Hawaii again until I opened my eyes and seen the glitter in the wallpaper and the ugly dark blue curtains blowing in the breeze. Darn we’re still in Kazakhstan.

On our morning walk to the baby house today it was raining. This was the first opportunity we had to use our brand new travel size umbrellas. It didn’t go pretty. First off there pretty small but big enough to cover your head and maybe a shoulder. So here we go walking in the dirt to the baby house with the umbrellas. It lasted about 15 seconds until the wind blew them inside out and I quickly discovered that they were very cheep. Knowing it wouldn’t withstand the gust of wind I decided to close it. In the process it broke and it was done for. Both of them went into the first trash can we seen. Lesson learned, don’t but cheep umbrellas.

Once we arrived at the baby house, wet, we visited Sophia. It was a treat as always. We haven’t been taking much for pictures lately because we’re trying to get some videos of the funny stuff she does. She has been doing yoga’s downward dog, clapping her hands and doing dental exams on Melissa. She loves Melissa’s teeth for some reason. As expected Sophia loves my glasses and can’t resist trying to rip them off my face which is why there is pictures of me without them. Maybe she will be a dentist or an eye doctor.

On our afternoon walk to the baby house we took a little shortcut through the apartments. Keep in mind that this looks like the projects. I seen what has to be the most expensive car we have seen in Kazakhstan so far. I was shocked. It was a Mercedes but it didn’t have a model on it but I’m sure it’s an S class. Melissa swears it has to be a Guardian and maybe Bella was in the area. I had to get a photo of this car. Since I’m an avid license plate collector I had to check out the license plate too. It too appears to be a very special plate. According to the license plate club archives, which I’m a member of, the “P” means that it is assigned to the Kustanay region which is the area we are in. Since this is plate 001 AA I believe this is the very lowest numbered and lettered plate you can get. These types of plates are usually reserved for dignitaries such as mayors, governors, senators and such. I think it was the car that belongs to the mayor of Kustanay. How cool is that. If I only had a screwdriver!! Just kidding, I don‘t steal plates.


Watching Twilight, again.

Mercedes Benz S class Guardian??

We're still here.

Okay, the internet here has officially ticked me off. Over the last few days we have had very poor to no internet. So poor that I couldn’t even get on line for almost 24 hours. I thought I was going to need an IV push when it came to. There isn’t much to do here so when I can’t get online it’s bad. Melissa even put her Twilight book on the table by me just in case. I have three English magazines with me and I have wore them out. I have even read over the advertisement index. I finally went down to the landlords apartment with laptop in hand and tired my best to use some sign language that the internet was not working. Hey I’m not dumb I took a visual aid with me and I think it worked. The strange thing is that even though I couldn’t get on line for most of the weekend I could still use Skype. Don’t ask I don’t know.

Since I have several emails to take care, I’m just going to post some photos and say that our little Sophia is the best. She is just so much fun to be around the last month. We know that the best is yet to come and we can’t wait to experience it. The last two days she keeps kissing her book. We guess she really likes it.

14 official bonding days, DONE

Today we completed our mandatory 14 bonding period. To bad it took us 27 days to get to this point. Tomorrow we will petition the court to adopt her. We are hoping for a quick court date. Yesterday Sophia was so tired during our visit. We tried to get her to take a nap but she just kept fight it. When Melissa was feeding her she was falling asleep in the chair. We know she went right to sleep when we left her. Even with her being so tired she still didn’t cry much and was sweet. She is really enjoy us visiting her. We had a great visit today also. We stayed in the baby room because the visiting room was locked. It was good because Sophia loves the walker and we were able to interact with the other babies in her group. Last night we went to a soccer game or as they call it “football“. They are really into soccer here. It was fun. The local team won 4-1. For part of the game we ended up sitting near the loudest fan club ever. They didn’t stop with their cheers but it was fun to watch. We don’t know what they were saying but they were enjoying themselves. The best part was that it only cost about $3.35 for each ticket. You can’t park for that price at any US sporting event. The worst part was dealing with the smokers. They smoke everywhere here. We also miss non smoking restaurants in the US. We are watching Dirty Jobs on The Discovery Channel right now. Did you know Mike Rowe speaks Russian too? We just seen a McDonalds commercial. That is so unfair. There isn’t a McDonalds anywhere close to here. Melissa said she would run around a McDonalds parking lot all natural for a happy meal right now. Can someone send us bail money?
Pictures below:
*Sophie laying down with Daddy looking at her book. She was kissing her book today. *In her walker.
*Police at the soccer game. Notice the lack of guns.
*Soccer game

Clap your hands.

This might be a quick post because I’m a little under the weather and we just got back from a late dinner. We tried again to go to the Knight’s Castle and once again they were closed for a private party. We ended up going to the Bavarian Café. It was good and a good price too. There was three of us and we each had a meal and non alcoholic drinks, one salad, one soup, two orders of fried mashed potato balls, bread and two ice cream deserts all for about $35.00 US. It would have easily been a $60.00 meal in the USA. We also have to say that the ice cream here is the best!

Now for our visits. I have been trying my best to keep my distance form Sophia because of this cold I have but it’s so hard not to want to pick her up and give her kisses. Today I took video of when we arrived at the baby house. Just to show how happy she gets when she sees us. When we arrived for the lunch time visit the children were outside in strollers. We decided that we would stroll her around some since the weather was so nice. She loved it and has to see everything. When we got close to the gate we turned around but apparently not soon enough. One of the caretakers came running after us. Maybe they thought we were taking her shopping. We thought it was crazy. We’re to adults and they don’t trust us to go close to the gate with a baby. Today Sophia also mastered clapping her hands when we tell her to. It’s to cute but we haven’t been able to get it yet.

Enough for now. By the way, apparently Michael Jackson was famous were too. They have his videos playing everyplace you go and the bus driver even had MJ playing on the radio.

Pictured below:
*I think I can eat this book. Cool house, can't wait to return there.
*Pretty girl.
*A traffic circle that looks like a death trap. Not everyone stays right.
*The shopping area close to our apartment.
*The small store close to the apartment. We stop here everyday for something. Water, ice cream, snacks.
*Russian church. This manually operated bell tower wakes us up every morning.
*Nice play area at the baby house. This eqipment was donated by a US agency. We think only the toddlers use it.

Yes, it’s still June in Kazakhstan.

You would never know it by looking at the way Sophia was dressed but today is June 25. She had two on two t-shirts, a fleece shirt, a jacket, the heavy outer coat, two hats, a pair of footed flannel pants, a heavy pair of pants and two pair of socks when we arrived. We would hate to see what she would have had on if it was winter. The temperature here did drop some over the last couple of days but for goodness sake it’s not like it’s freezing. I think the current temp is 66° F. Once we shed some layers off the munchkin we had a good visit but once again she seemed tired. When we arrived today Sophia was the only child out 8 in her group not taking a nap. She was just a dancing little girl today. She likes to stand and bounce up and down. She really seems to like music.

We were told that the locals average pay here is about $250 a month. We couldn’t believe this was accurate so we asked our second translator and she too said it was correct. We just don’t know how they do it. The people here dress like there is no tomorrow. It seems like everyone is into fashion and try to copy the high dollar models. We thought that it must just be the above average workers but even the people who live where we are staying and riding the bus with us dress for success. This is not a complaint from me but the women wear the highest heals and shortest skirts that we have ever seen. Even the men dress with some flash.

Bonding day 10

We are already finished with 10 bonding days. Our last one will be Sunday and our coordinator is already working on getting the paperwork ready to file for a court date first thing Monday. Yes, the weekends count for bonding days. Truth be told we kind of enjoy our weekend visits. It’s more relaxed around the baby house and we are all alone with Sophia without interruptions.

The children today spent the day outside in their hut which you can see in the photo. They have cribs and a playpen in there. They also have a sink and potty chairs. I noticed that they were doing a good cleaning on the indoor room so we’re guessing they take the kids to the huts during the cleaning. When we returned today for our second visit we were told that Sophia didn’t take her nap. It showed to as she was a little grumpy. However we still had a good visit.

After the visits today we just wanted something simple to eat so we went to our favorite little pizza shop, Dolce Vita. The coordinator was busy today getting Sophia’s medical paperwork ready for court so she met us there after the visit. We then just ran some errands with her and came back and did our daily load of laundry.

"Hmm, I bet I can rule the nest"

Daddy reading Sophia Brown Bear Brown Bear. She loves it!!

The baby house.

The outdoor hut for Sophia's group. They have about 14 of these.


Our favorite pizza shop with an English menu.

Daddy's new haircut. I asked for a flat top. Melissa likes it. I might keep it. It looks like the Kazakhstan water is making my hair look a little on the gray side.

Two visits today.

Today were able to visit Sophia twice. Once in the morning and once at the regular time. This morning visit was short because there was a mix up on the time. We’re suppose to go from 8:30-9:30 but we were told to be there at 9:00. When we left this morning all the children in her group were going to take their nap out doors in a little hut they have in the yard. When we returned for our afternoon visit they were still outside. Sophia was all smiles when she seen us. We also noticed that there was a new bump on her forehead. They said she fell in the playpen again. We want so much to buy padding for the playpens. We are told that they don’t have padding so they will be easier to clean. I would love to know how many kids get knots on their heads from this playpen. Yesterday we also seen there was another child there with a big knot on her head. The little Miss Sophia seemed to be a bit on the tired side today but she seems to handle it well.

We asked our coordinator about bringing a cake to the baby house for Sophia’s birthday next month. We are told we can but she can’t have any. We will be allowed to eat it with the caretakers. Momma is HOT over this issue!! We are going to have to somehow sneak her a piece of birthday cake. We don’t know why they have this rule.

After our visit we went and ate at an underground café. Inside it’s made to look like your in a submarine. It was neat and the food was the traditional Kazak foods. I had chicken and pineapple on a stick with fries and Melissa had Sheppard’s pie and soup. I then went to get a haircut. The guy who cut it didn’t speak any English. Melissa likes it but I’m still not sure. It’ll grow back.





Look what's coming soon to a theater near us.

A very short visit with our Sophia

When we arrived at the baby house today Sophia was in the swing. Once again she started smiling like crazy when she seen us. We were really glad to see this today because we knew she had a doctors appointment this morning. We were expecting a grumpy baby. Knock on wood, she has been very pleasant lately. We are thinking she just needed to get to know us in the beginning. We took her back to the visiting room and within 10 minutes our coordinator came in with the log that we have to sign in everyday to prove that we did the 14 day bonding period. We were told to take Sophia back to her room so we could meet with the director about her doctors appointment. This check up was needed to be performed by an outside doctor to prove that the baby house doctors aren’t fabricating her medical charts. Everything was very good and nothing unexpected. Her weight today was 19.4 pounds. They say she was full term but small when she was born. They think she is still small for her age but think she is progressing very well. So basically everything is great.

We asked the director if we could spend more time with Sophia and she said yes. We are now allowed to come at 9:00-10:00 a.m. and 1:00-2:30 p.m. everyday. We also gave a monetary donation to the baby house today and she asked if we would like a tour of the facility. We were shown the quarantine room where all of the children stay when they first arrive to make sure they don’t have any illnesses. We seen the play room that has some very nice padded play equipment and we hope we will be allowed to use one day. They have a sauna, an indoor pool, a music room, a sea salt room, a massage room and we meet the head caretaker. After all of this it was time for Sophia to be put down for her nap. We went to her room and they already feed her and were just starting to change her. When she seen us she was happy again. We think she knew our visit was short because she didn’t want to lay down. She kept smiling at us and trying to get up. Everyday it hurts a little more to leave her there.

We then went souvenir shopping and ate at a Korean restaurant. I don’t think we will go back there even though they have an English menu. We had asked to be taken to a Chinese restaurant but I think we were misunderstood. When we got back to the apartment the cleaning lady had cleaned everything up. We then had an appointment with the massage therapist from the baby house. I sure hope Melissa doesn’t get use to all these luxuries.

This was about the best we could do for pictures today.


Look at those curls.

Happy Father’s Day & Sophia turns 11 months old.

As I’m sure everyone knows today is Father’s Day. When we arrived at the baby house there was a surprise for Daddy. His little girl was wearing an outfit that read “ I love my Dad” “Happy Father’s Day, Old Navy 2009” Melissa gave this to the caretakers to put on her today. I have to say that it was so nice to celebrate Father’s Day again. My Dad lost his battle with cancer 13 years ago on Father’s Day so it has been a sad day in my life for a long time. It‘s so nice to actually be a Dad on Father‘s Day. Someone pinch me. I’m a Dad. It’s hard to believe. I hope that I will be as good of a Father to my child(ren) as my Dad was to his 5 boys. He left some big shoes to fill. Really, they were size 13.

Also in the news today, Sophia turned 11 months old. We’re told that in Kazakhstan they celebrate a child’s birthday each month until their a year old. We have already checked out the cakes so we can bring one to the baby house when she turns the big 1.

We also took notice that we have been off US soil for three whole weeks now. It seems like just yesterday that we were dropped off at the airport but yet so much has changed in our lives in the past three weeks. We don’t even know what an elevator looks like, we eat things that aren’t truly identified, do laundry by hand, brush our teeth with bottled water and not because were high maintenance but because we have to. Oh yea, and we became parents. Life is GRAND!!







DOES THE LAUNDRY EVER END.