Doing Our Laundry in Karaganda

Kazakh Version of Pringles

At least they tasted good!

We're in Germany!

I bought a one hour internet pass while we wait here in Frankfurt for our next flight home! I figured I could post some more pics of our girl :) We miss her terribly. But we can't wait to see everyone when we get home!! I'm really tired, these pics are probably repeats, sorry!

More cute pics (from Jenya's birthday)

Some cute pics

I feel like I've looked at the hundreds of pictures we've taken of Jenya so many times that I don't remember what I've posted on the blog already! So hopefully these aren't repeats. But I wanted to keep my mom and April satisfied with pics until we get home tomorrow! And anyone else who still follows along :) Enjoy ladies!

Almaty

Rick and I had an awesome day in Almaty. So much so that Rick actually said he was glad that we weren't able to get on the Saturday flight! Can you believe it? The one who can't wait to get home to his dog and a hamburger is happy to be staying in Almaty a few extra days. But we really got a chance to see the city today. We were lucky enough to have Daniyar, who coordinates our flights and hotel while in Almaty, offer to take us around. He and his friend John drove us up to the mountain where they are building the stadium and sports complex for the Asian Winter Games that they are hosting in 2011. It was really an impressive sight. I don't know if you can appreciate it from the picture I posted. In order to take the picture we had to climb 1200 concrete stairs built into the mountain. I didn't think I was going to make it, I am so out of shape! But we finally did and the view was breathtaking. The most embarassing part of my struggle to conquer the mountain was that on the way back down there was a woman who seemed to be 100 years old nearing the top of the staircase! I really wish Rick had captured a picture of her - that was amazing.

After a few hours of exploring the mountain, we then went to see some traditional nomadic dwellings called yurts. Yurt is a kazakh word for felt house. I posted a picture of one of them, along with a picture of Rick inside wearing the traditional Kazakh dress. What a great experience we were able to have thanks to Daniyar. And it didn't end there! We went to a Kazakh/Uzbek restaurant for dinner and had our best meal to date here in Kazakhstan. I know I haven't spoken of food for a while, but I've finally been feeling better and was able to enjoy the meal. We had bread stuffed with ground lamb and seasonings, a great salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, croutons, feta cheese and olives, barbeque chicken skewers, and a rice and lamb dish. Everything tasted so amazing! I know my mom won't eat these foods with me when we come back, so I'll have to search out some places she'd like too :)

Last Visit at the Baby House

Somehow we think Jenya knew what was going on yesterday when we saw her after court. I know it's not possible, but she was just so full of energy and more excited than we've ever seen her. I wish we had taken more pictures of her, but there just didn't seem to be enough time. Two hours flies by when you have to include a tea party with her caregivers! They were so sweet to us. They told us not to worry about our babies, that they would take great care of them until we are reunited. And that if we came back to adopt we had to choose a baby from their room again :)

As you can imagine it was terribly hard to leave Jenya. Tanya (one of the caregivers) asked us to try not to cry in front of the babies because they can sense that we are upset and react to it. That was not an easy task. I started to tear up when I put her down and wouldn't you know she started blowing raspberries at us! Big sloppy ones that got us wet. Thank God for that, because then I started laughing and it made leaving just a little easier. As soon as I got out the door, though, I lost it. Catherine did too. Luckily Rick was not sobbing so he could help us carry everything back out to the car. How do men do it??

So one of the pictures I posted is of Jenya in her room's new walker. The three of us bought it for her room because their other ones were so worn out. There used to be a piece of plastic on each side of the tray that the babies could hold on to while walking, but Jenya busted them off. I only know she did it because Catherine witnessed it. She is too funny. We better get right to baby proofing our house when we get home! She can do some damage :)

The other picture is of daddy saying "see ya later" to Jenya. Not goodbye, because very soon we will be together as a family again!

Introducing Jenya Marie Deyo!

As you can tell, court went well today! We didn't understand a lot of what was going on, but the final announcement was that the judge agreed with our adoption and that Jenya would be ours. And of course Catherine's went well too. The judge didn't get in until almost 10:30 instead of 9am, so we were in court until 12:30. Afterwards we went and saw Jenya for about an hour and then had a tea party with the doctors. Since we hadn't eaten yet and it was now 2pm, we were starving! Especially Rick, who definitely ate his share of lunch. Everyone was laughing at him because he was so hungry, but Natasha translated that they like men with big appetites, it makes them stonger! The coordinator, Tamara, who spoke on behalf of all of us for the adoption, also attended the luncheon, which was really nice. She is usually too busy to be there, but she was able to today. We even got big hugs from her at the end. I think they are all really happy that things went well and told us that we are welcome to come back again for another baby! Wouldn't that be great??

Anyway, we have one more visit today for about 2 hours and another tea party with the caregivers. I will try to post some pics later on tonight before we leave for Almaty. We just wanted to share our wonderful news!!

Mommies and Babies!

If Looks Could Kill

Jenya was perfectly happy playing on her daddy’s knees, so I’m not sure how I captured that first picture. I thought it was cute even though she looks so mean! I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last day with Jenya.

Thank you to all of you that have followed along on our journey and especially to those who left us comments every day. Your support has really meant a lot to us these last four weeks. I’m not sure when we will be able to blog again. It may not be until Saturday because tomorrow is going to be such a busy day. We have court at 9am, then a party with the doctors from the baby house to celebrate, and then another party with the caregivers (not sure why they’re separate unless we just misunderstood Natasha), and then our last visit with the babies. We leave for Almaty Friday evening and will stay there until our flight home leaves on Tuesday. Can’t wait until we can see you all again!

Wednesday Morning Visit

There’s not too much new to update, Jenya continues to be so excited to see us and sad for us to leave. I found out that as of July 30, she weighed 19.6lbs. That means by next month we can skip right over the infant car seat, right? Karen, thank you so much for all the infant gear you lent us, but I guess we won’t be needing any of it! Who knew we would come home with a one year old?

Jenya is getting better at walking on her own, too. She can take 5 or 6 steps before she starts to lose control of her feet. I think the problem is that she gets so excited to walk to us that she starts giggling and running head first, which doesn’t work too well! I have no idea what to expect when we see her again next month. She could be walking on her own by then because the caregivers have figured out that she’s trying and they like to practice with her too.

We also haven’t been taking as many pictures because it takes away from our precious time playing with Jenya. So the ones I’ve posted are the best we could get today! Hope you enjoy them.

April - today is the last goldfriend night apart! Woohoo! Can't wait to get back into the gf routine :)

Afternoon Visit

Stuck Inside Today

It turned really cold and windy here today, so we had to stay inside for our morning visit. Jenya was especially happy to see us this morning, she was all smiles and “talking” like crazy. We played for a while with the blocks, as you can see it’s still her favorite toy! In the second picture she’s clapping for herself after she dumped all the blocks from the basket onto her lap. She cracks us up. I’ve taken some great video clips that I can’t wait to show when we get home. It will almost be like being with her!

Jenya also likes to look at books and I got a great shot of daddy reading to her. I hope she loves to read as much as I did growing up!

We found out today that we have court to finalize the adoption at 9am on Friday. So at 11pm Thursday night please send us your thoughts and prayers for a smooth and successful proceeding. We’d really appreciate it! Friday will also be the last day we see Jenya for about a month, as we fly to Almaty that night and then home on Tuesday. It’s so bittersweet because we can’t wait to get back home but are dreading having to say goodbye to our baby for a few weeks.

Outdoor Fun

We spent a lot of time outside with Jenya today. She loves to take walks in the stroller and pull on the leaves she finds along the way. We even wore her out by the end of the visit - she fell asleep in my arms on the swing set. Rick and I are having the most amazing time with our daughter and can’t believe we only have a few more days with her here in Karaganda. Today we handed in our baby bags full of everything they need to bring Jenya and Tyler to Almaty to meet us next month! Get ready Nonna, it’s coming up soon!

Astana

We had a nice time in the capital, but quite a long day. Sorry we didn't post last night, but we fell right to sleep! I know I made my mom and best friend worried since they didn't hear anything from us, and I feel terrible about that.

Here are some pics of the city. I wish we could post more, but when we get home we'll share the rest. It was really impressive how modern Astana is, compared to where we are staying in Karaganda. If we hadn't seen it with our own eyes we wouldn't have believed it. We were able to go up into the monument seen in the first picture and the second pic shows a view from there. I will explain the meaning of the monument next time, I'm in a hurry to get ready to go see Jenya! The last picture was taken inside a new "mall" in Astana that we think just opened up last month from what one woman had said. Anyway, it has everything you could imagine and is enormous. Besides stores, there are around 4 full size amusement park rides, a waterslide, a whole floor full of arcade type games, and the best of all: the top floor was made into a tropical beach area, with an "ocean," sand, and a tiki bar! We didn't expect something like this to be here in Kazakhstan, that's for sure.

A Grandson!

Rick's daughter Laura gave birth to Cayden Joseph on Aug. 4 at 11:32pm. He weighed 7lbs 10 oz and she said that labor went well. Becoming a new dad and a grandpa within just a few days of each other, how amazing!

Group Shots

Jenya Enjoying the Outdoors

We must have walked 25 laps around the baby house today. Jenya loves riding in the stroller and looking at everything going on around her. The playground was filled with the older children running around playing together. It’s a beautiful day here today and the kids were having a lot of fun together. There were two girls playing on the swing that would yell to us every time we passed, saying “Mama!” and “Papa!” and smile and wave. They were so adorable. I wonder if they have parents who visit them, I really hope they do. We recognized a few of the children playing whose parents had just left after their first trip. The two boys adopted by the Canadian couple came up to us to say “hello!” It was sweet that they wanted to greet us in English because they know that’s what we speak.

Tomorrow we will spend the day in the capital city of Astana. It is a couple hours drive by car, but is a must see according to everyone we’ve spoken to. We even met a young man on the bus who attends Karaganda University who told us that Astana is a beautiful, modern city and it even has skyscrapers! Rick asked him if it was similar to NYC, and he laughed and said that it wasn’t quite as big. He told us he was so excited to be able to speak to us in English since he’s been learning it for his law degree. So we’ll keep busy tomorrow touring the capital and taking lots of pictures for Jenya to look at when she gets older.

A Few More Pics

Department of Education Meeting Completed!

Sorry today’s post is so late! We had quite a busy day today. We went to see Jenya this morning and her fever was gone! We were so happy. We played and had a great visit and then our translator told us that our meeting with the Department of Education was going to be this afternoon. It’s probably better that we had so little advance warning because I would have stressed out about it for a while. You know Rick, nothing really phases him, so it was just me freaking out. But it seemed to go smoothly. Natasha told as afterwards that we did an excellent job and that it went really well. What a relief. The reason this meeting is so important is that the woman from the DOE that interviewed us will represent us in court.

During our visit with Jenya, the baby house put on a puppet show for the older children. By older I mean 3-5 year olds. It was so cute. Jenya really enjoyed it and even clapped with everyone at the end! One of the families that is leaving tonight gave out stuffed animals to all the children at the end. One of Jenya’s caregivers really wanted her to have one too, so she pushed me up to the front to get one for Jenya. It was so sweet. I love how much they care for her, and that she has been and will continue to be in such good hands until we are able to take her home. That is what gets me through when I have to think of leaving her.