Day 10 waiting "A donkey of a day" (double click for pics)

Saturday, July 29--- (Day 10 waiting period)

Privet! We’re still here…. Actually there’s no where much for us to go….
We’re holding strong in the waiting pattern -----we are counting the days/minutes until we pick up Landen on Friday.

Another normal morning today, followed by an odd visit with Landen in the afternoon, a night-time Kazak concert and a chance meeting with an honor English student to end the day….

After the normal morning routine, we arrived on time for the visit with our son. Kim went to pick him up, and she noticed he was not at all happy. He was not crying at the moment she got there, but from the look on his face, his watery eyes and the toys thrown on the floor around him, it had not been long before since the tears had been flowing.
Kim noticed a couple little red marks on the top of his head which may have lead to him being upset. They appear to have been from him bumping his head, but anyway--- another reason to hurry up and get him home…

The visit was, well you could say “snoring”. Landen for the first hour and half would not let go of Mommy. We have mentioned on prior days that he wanted his Mommy, but today he had her and was not about to let go. Within 10 minutes of Kim bringing him into the music room to join Rylee and me, he was asleep. You could tell he wanted nothing to do with toys or anybody, he needed comfort from his Mom and she was all about giving that to him. Kim and I explained to Rylee that for the first time in his life (we presume) he was in need of comfort and got it. Just think what an amazing feeling that had to of been for him! After his siesta, we had a mellow play time of 30 minutes. He still remained with in arms length of Kim, but he was a trooper to give us a few smiles. It was very hard to leave him today, especially since we will not be visiting tomorrow.

After the visit, we thought Lena may call for an afternoon of exploring. We are still planning to visit her church, the art and history museums and another place or two with her, prior to our departure. Around 4:30, we decided she was not going to be up for a walk around town, so we decided to go out on our own . We did have a tactical plan in place to complete, but got a little sidetracked. As part of the “gotcha” day on Friday, we will be giving gifts to the caretakers, the Director of the baby house and the city and regional officials (Nina and the chief) as a little thank you. Kim has brought with us several little “American” gifts that are favorites of hers (just make sure they do not say made in China), but we are planning to buy some little photo albums and make one for each of the gift bags. We shopped a little for albums and found some at a good price. Kim being the ultimate shopper thinks she can beat that price, so we did not purchase them. I’ve realized that leads to another day or two of shopping….she only thinks she fooled me.

As we were walking down the main street, we noticed a huge crowd growing around the park at the “beach”. The majority of the crowd was made up of teens, but there were a lot of families as well. We ventured off from our plan of shopping for photo albums and followed the crowd. What an experience he had. There was a concert getting ready to start and the “fair type” vendors were everywhere around the area. Rylee got to ride a donkey and I must say she did a fine job. Feet were down, loose hands and good posture. Scott, Payne and her buddies at Quail Ridge Farm would have been proud of her. She said it was not her Scar-Scar, but it was fun. After the donkey ride, we started looking for some place to sit. Good luck in this crowd as there was standing room only. We decided to walk down by the river, which was kind of behind the stage area, and listen to the music there. We actually found a good seating area there and felt safe with the Kazakhstan military all around us. We had a decent view of the stage from the side, but the concert was not the best thing at that moment. This was an incredible evening as a good breeze was flowing, the temperature was again perfect and we had a spot alone where we could be together. The only thing missing, you guessed it! We are on the count down of “last” things we do as 3 , and are ready to start the “first things” part of our lives as 4.

As we started walking back towards the apartment, Kim told Rylee she could buy a little toy from a vendor. As we stopped at the vendors stand, the lady working there motioned to a teenage girl to come here. The girl was Kazakh and to our surprise spoke very good English. She was so excited to meet someone from the USA and talk in English. She mentioned that she won an English contest for the region and her dream is to go to school for a year in the USA to improve her speech. You never know what will happen here….we gave our email address for her to write and she was so excited.

Another action packed day in Kaz, but we are missing everyone back home tons!!! Thanks to everyone again for helping us through our journey! Poka, poka…