Day 5 "not the final countdown after all"

Monday, August 14th “Check up to check out” We need your prayers….

Privet from Almaty, KA3ACTAHCKNN. You will be able to get the bad news at the end, so please read from the beginning to see how the “better” part of the day was spent.

What a change for us, we actually had to be up and going early this morning. With the new “handicap” we have for getting ready, we started extra early. Actually, the credit should go to Landen and Rylee for getting Kim and I up….Rylee rolled over on Landen around 6:15am and it was all over. He let her have it, us too…. He was fine, just mad that his sleep was disturbed. I know from experience with Rylee that she is good for a kick or two during the night.

After being waken earlier than he wanted to, Landen decided to work the crowd for some food. He started with a bottle, then around 7:45am he got some cereal. As all good men do, he decided to take a nap, since he had a full belly. He had one of those Thanksgiving Day naps, you know eat, sleep, eat, sleep and so on. Oops, I forgot a poopy in the middle of the naps.


Jenia arrived around 9:45am to take us to the medical exam. We were not sure what to expect at the exam, so we just went with the flow. Kim wanted to check the paperwork she had been preparing with Jenia, but he decided we could do that in the lobby while we waited. The building was named “International SOS” and looked like a medium sized doctors office in the US. Most of the staff spoke English to one degree or another, but everyone was extremely nice during our visit. The receptionist area in the front of the building was our first stop. We signed in and gave them the paperwork Kim and Jenia completed it while we were waiting. Rylee, Landen and I had a chance to read I Spy (Sesame Street)….well Rylee and I, Landen just pulled the pages and tried to throw it in the floor. After 15 minutes or so, a lady came into the waiting area, introduced herself and said she was a nurse. She had Kim and Landen follow her to take his vitals. Not to be left out, Mommy #2 (RyRy) followed close behind them and did not miss a thing. Landen weighed in a 21.16 pounds and 29 inches long. Since the last check in at the baby house he has gained almost 2 pounds. I told you he was an eater. That made Kim and I remember Rylee being a baby, not the eater…the weight. She was 10 pounds at birth. Kim has made the comment a couple of times that holding Landen reminds her so much of Rylee as a baby. They do the same things with there arms and legs, their heads are shaped a like and they both love to be held (a lot). It amazing to us how a child that made it 11 months without being held at all, cannot make it 11 minutes with being held. I’m not sure, but I don’t think Kim can make it 11 minutes with picking him up either. Well, the little fellow deserves it!

After the nurse completed the spec’s on Landen, we were told to go up stairs and wait to see the doctor. After a few minutes of waiting, a female Russian doctor came out and said “Robert Landen Woodard” with the heavy Russian accent. It’s neat to hear how they pronounce it here. We all went in and it was a good thing, as it took all of us holding him down to allow the doctor to check his nose and mouth. Until that point, he was very willing to allow her to check him out as he was busy with his eyes checking out everything she was doing. He is so interested in everything: wheels, sounds, pictures, etc… or maybe he is just noisy. She said he was a fine boy a few times, something mom and I already knew. He did have “slightly” inflamed nostrals and his throat was a tad bit red. Both ears looked good…he had been pulling at them earlier in the week, so we were relieved to hear that. As she finished, she said he is a………good boy, I was waiting to hear a ….spoiled rotten boy as she was able to look in his eyes and I just knew she could see it spilling out of him…..Yes, he is spoiled already… and that is from Dr. Daddy! We went back down to the lobby and finished up by paying the bill, getting his vaccination history for Dr. Plotkin and a sealed envelope for the US. Embassy.

That was our next stop, the US. Embassy. Landen had eaten again, so it was back to turkey day nap time and he quickly feel asleep on the 5 minute ride to the US. Embassy. Kim had a few questions she wanted to ask, so I stayed in the car with Landen while Mommy 1 and 2 went in the embassy.


******** News Alert - Disaster Strikes ********
We interrupt this blog entry for a news flash:

Not a joke - The Woodard’s are being delayed from leaving…. I had this entry ready to go with the morning update and was just pending some fun details from our last full night in Almaty when the unthinkable happened. Jenia came to our apartment and delivered the most shocking news imaginable - Landen’s Passport has an error.

We went immediately to the US Embassy, where they called the Astana counsel (they found the error and will not release his passport) and try to allow us to travel with the misprint. The error on his passport came from the Pavlodar police when they filed the application. They placed Robert Landen Woodard in the child and father’s name. This is unbelievable since we were packed and ready to go. Without going to deep into the detail for now, we will not be able to travel until 8/19 (yes, Landen’s birthday). That would not be so bad, but we have been on the phone for hours with United, our Agency, our travel agent and local staff trying to find a flight….the first flight out so far is 8/29. When our agency heard this they were going to get right on it and get something done. All we can do is pray.

As for now, we are in a holding pattern with no set time to fly back. We will be posting ome short entries with updates, and we are staying positive….we know the good Lord is going to get us home…

As for pictures….we hope you can all understand, it was not a picture "perfect" day, therefore, we will try to make up for it tomorrow…

Until then……Poka, poka

P.S. Guess what the best thing of the day was....I'll tell you tomorrow....