Day 2 "Family of Four"(double click for pics)

Saturday, August 5 “Just as the directions noted”

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN.

I will try to express how awesome of a feeling it was to wake up to a smiling baby beside me, but bare with me as it may be impossible….

The mornings are definitely going to be different around here now. We managed to get all four of us in the bed (It is a King)…Rylee and I on the ends, Landen was between me and Mom. We have started out great with the sleeping…Landen went to sleep at 8pm and did not wake up until 6:50am. I checked him a couple times during the night just to make sure everything was ok and Mom checked every 30minutes, again just to make sure he was fine. We have spent hours just looking at him, whether he is sleeping, eating, playing…it does not matter; we just enjoy the feeling of “IT’S REAL”.

Back to the morning…I was awaken by the touch of a little hand to my head. When I turned over, I was greeted by the cutest little smiling face. Rylee was also awake and looking at Landen (she said she had to feel of him and make sure he was breathing as well). Rylee said she watched him open his eyes, look around and then say Dada and touch my hair. Landen can say Dada pretty well from Kim singing him the song. Mom opened her eyes as Rylee was saying how cute Landen was waking up his Dad…then Landen spotted Rylee and gave another big smile. He then noticed Mommy and had to roll over and grab a hold of her. It was such a wonderful moment seeing the look on his face as he realized where he was and who he was with. We stayed in the bed for approximately 30 minutes tickling, giggling and loving on each other. You could not see Landen’s cheeks for the big smile he had on his face…Wonder what he was thinking…..

Kim got up and prepared his first bottle. We had purchased some formula and he seemed to approve of the taste. We followed that up with a little cereal mixed with fruit. Feeding him will be one of the biggest changes from the baby house. He is used to getting A LOT of food, from a very big spoon and all given in a short period of time. We are going to reduce the amount a little at a time, downsize the spoon and take our time to eat…He is not too happy about this change…so a little at a time…. When he is ready for the next bite, he will raise his arm and start moving it up and down. Although he has been trained how to eat from the time he was born, we could see him changing to our style by the end of the day. The boy loves to eat!

After breakfast, we had play time!!! Not much beats getting to watch your children playing together. They pulled out tons of toys, balloons and the empty water bottles…Landen has made this one of his toys… After playing, it was time to get the first bath. We were a little anxious, because we did not know how Landen would feel about a true American bath. He passed with flying colors. When we first put him in he stood there and would not sit down…we think they must have them stand up for their baths at the baby house We finally convinced him to sit down….He was all smiles after that. He immediately started splashing and did not stop until we got him out. He was loving have the water splash him and the rest of us in the face. He had a blast! Whew…that was a lot easier than we thought and a ton of fun for us as well. After bath time it was nap time (according to our directions), sure enough…he went right to sleep at 9:30am and slept until 11:30am. Unbelievable! When he awoke we fed him a lunch of rice and some meat mixture and broccoli. Yum, yum. It was then time to load up and go to the grocery store for the last time…. We had planned for Sergey to pick us up at 12pm, but Lena called around 11:30am and asked if 1:00pm would work as he was running some of our paperwork around town. Hey, anything to make sure we stay on schedule!

Landen got to experience his first grocery shopping outing and again, all went very well.
I carried him most of the time to allow both of his “moms” a chance to shop. Most of the buying was for baby food, but we did pick up some what we think is ground beef and vegetables. We could not resist the rotisserie chicken on the way home, so I gave Sergey the chicken sign and he fully understood where to go. The chicken sign is me flapping my arms like a chicken….Just imagine what he thinks when I do this!

When we got home we, played a little more, then…..another first….poopy time.
No doubt when it happened as one could not hide the look on his face when it was time to go. We were glad to see that all the plumbing was working, just getting past those fears of changing his diet. Mom changed the diaper (not to get too detailed, but it was solid to the point Kim was worried he may be getting constipated). This was soon ruled out, to say the least. After the diaper change (seems to work like that doesn’t it), he went back to it. Rylee after weeks of saying “I won’t change a dirty diaper” was going to change this diaper. She was so excited, so she and I opened it up…to a big surprise. We hit the jack pot, the mother load, the real deal…none of the solid stuff Mom had, we got 3 diaper fulls in one and it was anything but solid. She did not change her mind, to our surprise, but I sure did. Kim started laughing and I knew it was all mine and Rylee’s. My first diaper change in years and I get a 5lb’er to deal with. Needless to say, we did a fine job and all was well again.

After the explosion, it was naptime again. And yes, the directions were correct…he went right to sleep at 3:30pm and slept until 5:30pm. We all actually took much needed naps today. When we awoke it was dinner time, so we fed Landen another rice mixture and squash and apple. He gobbled it down!

Kim and Rylee had planned to go ice skating where Landen and I were going to watch, but the time got to be a little late to have him out, so the boys stayed home while the girls played. The boys night out was a lot of fun. We played, sang (poor child having to hear me sing) and crawled around on the floor. The only thing that could stop our playing was some spit up. We had several breaks during our play time if you know what I mean. Nothing more that a labor of love…

The girls soon arrived home (Rylee with some extra bruises from the falls) where they were greeted with a big smile. It was getting near 8:00pm, so Landen was winding down for the night. He had a bottle and his moms put him to bed. Just as the direction said….

We have had so much fun during our first full day with Landen that we sat back and reflected prior to me writing this blog. The one common theme that we noticed today (besides the huge smiles, belly laughs, giggles, etc…) was Landen followed the “directions” perfectly. The schedule given to us by his caretakers is almost to the minute….Wow, a baby with directions… How cool is that? Poka, poka….

"Gotcha" Day!!!!! (double click for pics)

Friday, August 4--- “Gotcha Day

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN. As we noted earlier today, we have Landen….yeah!
I would torture you by starting with some of the same old day in day out stuff you have heard for weeks, but instead let’s get right into the details of the day.

Lena was to call around 12pm and update the status of the paperwork for our final step to pick up Landen. This call actually came in around 11:30am with some good news. All of the paperwork would be complete around 1pm, so we would be picked up after that, but she would call back around 1pm to give us the exact time. As one may imagine, we had some of the longest hours this morning. From 6am (yes, we were all up at 6am) to 1pm, we officially went stir crazy. I would clean something, then Rylee would clean it, then Kim would go behind us and clean it again. I must say that Rylee did a majority of the cleaning around here (all on her on). She was so excited that she could not stop. It was wonderful to see an only child get this excited about having a sibling. It meant the world to Kim and me. Back to the update; Lena call around 12:55pm to say they (Lena, Svetlana, and Sergey) would be here at 1:15pm. Of course we had been ready to go since 9am, so this was no big task. We jumped into the van as it was pulling up, not giving it a chance to stop as we were ready to go. Just kidding, but we piled in and headed off to get the cakes and pick up Nina. We selected two cakes for the “party”, and then we stopped by Nina’s apartment before we could arrive at the baby house. Around 2:10pm, we pulled through the gates for the last time. I can not express in words the feeling that we had as we did this. Let me prepare those “weak at heart” people out there, the next few details will make you cry (well Kim cried).

The atmosphere was so different as we entered the baby house. All of the staff was smiling at us and some had soft tears rolling down there face. You can truly tell that these people care for the kids. I thought the tears were from all the gifts, cakes and champagne that we were caring in, but Kim quickly corrected me. Our crew started off going to visit the doctors as the Director was not there today (Svetlana will take her gift later for some brownie points down stream). We soon figured out that this was not the type of party we are accustomed to. Kim was ready to set up for the party, when we were told to leave a cake, a box of candy, a bottle of champagne and the doctor gifts in the doctor’s office. Needless to say, we were not expecting to have gifts for the doctor, much less 2. If you know my wife well, you had confidence that she would have over packed gifts just in case… and she had! She saved us big time and never missed a beat by pulling out some gifts and acting as if she had planned it for days. We said a few words to the doctors, then as customary here, we all sat for 1 minute of silence to reflect on Landen’s life there and his future. I was praying for a safe and speedy trip home with my family, if I must be 100% honest. This “party” was over almost as quickly as it started and we had not seen Landen, but we were down 50% of the party supplies….smile!

We then made the trip upstairs to Landen’s room. This is the sad part…. Landen’s room Mom as we refer to her broke into tears when she saw us coming up the stairs and cried until we left. She was so glad that Landen was getting a new start to his life, but you could see the pain she was feeling by letting him go. Lena asked Kim to say a few words to her, but I soon noticed that Kim was also crying and in no way could she say a word, much less a few…I tried to refocus the group and motioned to the gift in my hand. This did move the “party’ to the play room where we had picked Landen up every day. There were only two caretakers in the room, so we placed the gifts on the table and showed his room mom her gift and had Lena tell her that we had a special photo album in the bottom of the bag. I’m not sure if she heard a word as she was deep into the saddest cry one can imagine. It truly was touching to everyone in the room. We asked if we could see where Landen slept which was granted. We took a few photos, even one with him in his bed for the last time. All of the children have their own cribs without sheets from what we could tell. We were then escorted to a changing table where Landen was stripped down and given to us “as is”. We were happy to get him anyway we could and quickly put a little outfit on him for his first car ride. We left the other half of our “party” supplies in the room for the caretakers and gathered our things and headed for the exit. I wanted to make a run for it, but Kim stopped me to take some more photos with every person we passed in the hall.

The next adventure started as we walked out of the door. Landen’s head was on a swivel with his big eyes not missing a thing. To our surprise, he seemed to know exactly what was going on and never once seemed afraid. He enjoyed the ride without a doubt as he watched the trees, cars going by and people. We videoed some of the ride and took several photos to remember the day. We first dropped off Nina, and then went to get his passport photo made. This was interesting as Kim sat and held him, but with in 10 minutes the photo came back with a white background as if he sat by himself. We then came back to the apartment for the 1st time with our son. We were so proud that we stopped in our little grocery store downstairs to show him off. I gave it a good attempt to explain what was going on with my SpanEngRussian language, but I soon figured out they did not have a clue as to what I was saying. I guess showing up with a baby after weeks of not having one kind of said it all. Maybe we won’t have the police called on us.

We started making some calls to spread the news, when we had a knock at the door. The lady from down stairs was at our door. My first thought was….. Oh no, they did call the police. From the peep hole I could she was alone, so I liked my chances. She had a note to call Lena and gave her cell number. Kim called Lena and we got some great news about his birth certificate and adoption certificate. We were expecting to go on Monday and pick this up, but Svetlana pulled some strings and we got them the same day. Wow, this was the first time we got something done ahead of schedule. It was time for us to retire for the day and spend the first evening together as a family.

As in the car, Landen seemed very aware of what was going on. He crawled around the floor in the apartment like he had for been doing this for months. He played with some toys, but soon found an empty water bottle that he found to be most interesting. He would bang his head, the floor, and his head and so on. That’s my boy! He seemed to be getting a little hungry around 6:30, so we fixed him some carrots and cereal. He loved the cereal, but we are definitely going to have to adapt to his style of eating. We could not get the spoon to his mouth fast enough for him. We got a good bit in him, a good bit on me, a good bit on the floor, etc… This was so funny for us, frustrating for him and overall we got the job accomplished. With a full belly, he was ready for some more play time. He and Rylee played around on the floor for a while then he started showing signs that it was time for bed. He went to sleep in his Mom’s arms (I knew we did not need to have a crib) and is now fast asleep… Thanks to all of our friends and family for thoughts and prayers again, we made it!!!!!!! It’s time to rest from a wonderful day!

By the way…..it is 10:45pm here and Kim is still crying (Thanks Bob for being a strong shoulder for her) ….she keeps going in the bedroom and seeing him sleeping and cannot believe we have him. It may be a long night---but one we have waited for for a long time…. THANK YOU GOD FOR SUCH A BLESSING!!!!

"GOTCHA"

We are all home safe and sound! Momma and Baby came thru with flying colors!!!!
It's like he knows what's going on....

We will have our normal post later today. We just wanted to let everyone know asap. Wish you all were here. Miss you! Bobby, Kim, Rylee and Landen.

Day 15 waiting - "Delivery Day Eve"(double click for pics)

It's been a while since we had to buy these...

Thursday, August 3--- (Day 15 waiting period)

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN. The 15 day waiting period is officially over….We are so excited about this and what’s happening tomorrow. Can you believe, months of paperwork, changing countries midstream, setting a record for length of time to get the letter of invitation, 15 days of bonding, then court being moved out 7 additional days and another 15 days of waiting, we are seeing prayers being answered before our eyes… Landen will be in our arms for good tomorrow.

As for today, we started the day with some calls from the family…Kim enjoyed talking to her brother and had a little fun quizzing him on the blog updates…We should be saluting him from now on as he just got a big promotion from the U.S. Coast Guard. Congrats Bro! The rest of the morning was spent replaying our journey to this point and preparing for what’s coming tomorrow….If we have not told you, we are to get Landen tomorrow.

Lena came with us today on the visit so she could assist Kim with the meeting with the caretakers. We found out some interesting facts: first, he had a big lunch today that consisted of beet root soup (bright red in color) and fish with rice mush. This had a very distinctive aroma after it came back up later in the visit. He does not have any known food allergies at this point. Finally, Lena translated his “baby house” schedule for us….Not sure he will be on this one for long…for your viewing pleasure - here it is:

Gets up between 6:30am and 7:00am
Breakfast 7:00am to 8:00am
Play time 8:00am till 9:30am
Naptime 9:30am till 11:30am
Lunch 11:30am to 11:32am (kidding, 12:00pm)
Play time 12:30am till 3:00pm
Snack 3:00pm to 3:30pm
Naptime 3:30pm till 5:00pm
Play time 5:00pm till 7:00pm
Dinner 7:00pm to 7:30pm
Play time 7:30pm to 8:00pm
Goes to sleep 8:00pm.

Nothing too crazy here. This baby house is very good about keeping this schedule and we have grown to appreciate them for that.

We had one of the best visits of all to end with. Landen was again in a great mood when he came down the steps and was laughing at RyRy most of the time. I wanted to video some of the play time and the property for him, so I walked the grounds to film my documentary. Kim and Rylee strolled close behind and allowed Landen to take it in one last time. If the simple things like wind, birds and bees amaze him, just think about 4 dogs, 2 turtles, 2 frogs (thanks Nana), and 2 hermit crabs will do to the child. This seemed to be the fastest visit yet, which was somewhat surprising to us. Kim made the walk she dreads so much (dropping him off for the night) for the last time. The caretaker had music playing and he loves to listen to music. Kim thought he would go straight to her, but he held on to Mommy. He played a game with the caretaker, where he would smile and turn from side to side, but never letting go of Mommy. What a feeling to know that was the last time to make that walk!

We left the baby house with a list of errands to do. We started off going to a notary (this is a very big deal over here) for passport paperwork. Yes, we will actually be coming home soon. This took a good 30minutes for 4 forms and cost about 10.00 each. The lobby was packed with other patrons, so I’m guessing there are very few notaries in town. After the notary, we went to the big baby store and bought some baby food….wow, we will get to feed him from now on. Of course my selections were quickly rejected by the three ladies (especially the 6 yr old), so I left well enough alone and let them enjoy. Kim and I looked at each other with one of those…“its’ real“looks. We got a variety of cereals and puree foods along with some cookies.

During the ride from the store to our apartment, Lena remembered that our package from Nana had finally arrived. We planned for Sergey to pick it up from the train station and Lena advised she would call when he was near our apartment and we would meet him in the lobby. Well, our hopes on the package turned to disappointment when Svetlana arrived with a package from Indiana. The only good thing is the date on that package was June 27th, prior to the date Nana mailed hers. I guess the horse needs a lot of breaks on long trips to Pavlodar.

We finished the day with a little dinner…Actually we threw half of it away as the taco’s were not good at all. We are sooooo ready to get home, but know how blessed we are to be this close! Until Gotcha Day….. Poka, poka…

Day 14 waiting - Happy, Happy Birthday (double click for pics)

Diane's Birthday Card...
Kevin's Birthday Card...

Wednesday, August 2--- (Day 14 waiting period)

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN. We have a couple of special people out there today…
Happy Birthday to Diane Bickerstaff! Kim started off her “long” birthday with a call this morning. We reminded Diane that she is having the longest birthday possible as it turned 8/2 over here yesterday at 2pm (GA time). We wish we could be there to celebrate your 29th birthday, but we will have to settle for a long distance celebration. Thank you so much for being you and what a special person you are. Happy Birthday again!

Also celebrating a birthday today, Kevin Edwards is turning a lot more than 29 …I would also like to be at his party, so I could find some tools to borrow. Kevin, since we can’t be there, please have the girls (Mary Beth, Ashley and Sarah) give you a great big hug from the Woodard’s. Happy Birthday Kev!

The mornings are starting to get a little exciting around here. We’re deep into the party planning and gift wrapping for the “gotcha party” on Friday. We have most of the gifts purchased and should finish up the wrapping tonight.

Can you believe we are another day closer????? We are on pins and needles as we watch the seconds tick off of the clock. We keep saying all good things come to those that wait. Well, we have definitely done our fair share of waiting, so we now what a great moment that will be when we leave that baby house for the last time with our son. In case you may have forgotten, we pick him up on FRIDAY. Less than 2 days from this post Kazakh time!

We decided on the way inside the baby house that we would enjoy another beautiful day and go outside with Landen today. This was a great idea as we were the only people outside and we could take Landen on little walks around the grounds. While I had him on one of my little walks, he spotted a group of birds flying overhead. I wish you could have seen his face, it was priceless. I was thinking to myself that was probably the first time he had seen something flying like that. The next thought was.... wait until he gets on a plane, he may think he turned into a bird….just kidding, but we are sure to see some interesting looks. Speaking of looks, Landen had plenty of them today. We were able to capture a few of them so I hope everyone enjoys. We stayed outside for half of the visit then finished up back in the music room. Landen was again full of smiles today making it harder and harder to leave each day.

Sergey dropped us off at our attorney’s office after the visit where we finalized a few things: We first discussed that Lena would go with us tomorrow and translate our meeting with the caretakers to find out Landen’s schedule, diet, etc… We finalized the date for our apartment here and confirmed Aeda would meet us at the Almaty airport on 8/10 and take us to the selected apartment there. We wanted to confirm the phone number for the internet ahead of time (trying to keep the blog updated…), so they will work on that. Lastly, we found out that when we meet with Svetlana tomorrow afternoon, she should have the time for the “gotcha party” on Friday. So far, all is falling into place.
After the visit with Svetlana and Lena, we went on a short trip around town where we found an ATM machine in English. This was a nice find, I think…Well it’s time for us to sign off on another day, but we want to again send out the Happy Birthday wishes to Diane and Kevin. Poka, Poka.

Day 13 waiting - surprise, surprise, surprise..(double click for pics)

Tuesday, August 1--- (Day 13 waiting period)

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN.. (If the N’s were backwards that would be how Kazakhstan is spelled here). We have been blessed with some incredible weather since we arrived in 2005...just kidding, but the weather has been awesome. We are not sure what the exact temperature is on a daily basis as most people do not keep up with this. They will just add more clothes if it is cooler and take some off if it is warmer. This may be another idea to bring back as our U.S. meteorologists are seldom correct. Anyway, it feels to be in the low 80’s with no humidity. After the visits, I usually put on a pair of shorts to walk around town and this gets a lot of stares from the locals…not many people in shorts around here.

To update the photo issues with the blog: (Sorry to all the upset grandparents)
We have been experiencing some technical issues in which we could not post any pictures. They should be updated now.

Where do I start today….morning should do fine. This was another typical morning with out any surprises (the kind we love) and we got to talk to several people, which is always great. We arrived at the baby house around 12pm and Kim again went to get Landen from his room. He was in a walker and started running towards her as he figured out she was there to pick him up. He had already finished his lunch, so the caretaker only had to change his clothes and send him off with Mom. From the minute he came into the room, until he gave Rylee and I our goodbye kiss, he kept a smile on his face. I think he knows what’s around the corner! Appears he may have gotten a good night sleep as he did not need to take a little nap during the visit. 2 more visits to go….

After the visit, Lena came with Sergey to pick us up and take us on a shopping trip for the party on Friday. Lena told Rylee and me she had a gift for us. Leeza had put together a bracelet with Rylee’s name on it and gave me a set of CCCP coins. This was an awesome gift as I love coins and to get a set of coins that have not been in circulation since 1990 was incredible. Lena knew I wanted as set from here, but her husband wanted to give me these. We started off the afternoon by mailing a few postcards and looking for some uncirculated Kazakh coins for gifts. We were not able to find the coins, but you will not believe what happened later. With the postcards mailed, we headed off to find some candy, gifts and champagne for the party. Lena took us to a neat store that carried all of these items plus more. As Kim shopped for the items, I went to an outdoor store above the grocery store. I found some Kazakhstan “official” badges that I had to purchase. I got one from: police, customs, fire department, and military. What a great way to remember our visit. The last stopwe had was to pick up some more pictures for the gifts on Friday. Our friends at the Kodak store were not in, but the young lady behind the counter handed me what looked to be a cardboard CD case and said it was from Sergey and Luba. It was an uncirculated set of Kazakh coins. They could not have had an idea that we had been looking for these, but they gave us an incredible gift. We have planned a return visit to thank them for their generosity and thoughtfulness. What an incredible and lucky day!

We are now getting ready for some dinner and to start putting together the presents for Friday. We are so excited and cannot believe we only have 2 visits left! Thanks for your many thoughts and prayers, they have helped tremendously! Poka, poka from Pavlodar…

Day 12 waiting "The week we have waited for" (double click for pics)

Monday, July 31--- (Day 12 waiting period)

Privet. The countdown is officially on! Can you believe that we are this close to having Landen home with us…it sounds like he is ready as well.

After the normal routine again, we arrived at the baby house ready to see our son. We had a little, well a lot of anticipation to see how Landen was doing. Yesterday was hard, but we kept saying to each other that it would be the last day without him. When Kim arrived at his room, he was in his swing awaiting his lunch. He saw Mom and got excited, but like a true Woodard, he was controlling his emotions until lunch was over. Kim watched as the caretaker feed him lunch and changed his clothes. His lunch consisted of the red soup and some kind of cereal mush. Needless to say he will be excited to get one of Papa Butch’s steaks in him….I’ve heard Papa Butch has been planning one for Rylee and Landen as soon as we get back. As Kim was handed Landen, the caretaker was trying to tell her something in Russian. Kim was able to make out that Landen had been crying for Momma and Dadda, as she was saying “Momma..Papa” and making a crying motion with her finger. This was tough on Mom as you can imagine.

The visit was great to say the least. Landen was all smiles again and had a lot of play in him to begin with. As has been the routine lately, Landen seems to attach himself to Mom right away and is so excited just to be in the room with us and especially glued to Kim. He has gotten to a point that he is hugging Kim so hard that he grunts. From my professional training in childhood psychology, it appears he is overwhelmed to see Kim and something inside his body puts him at ease to a point of exhaustion, or maybe he is tired. Anyway, he was asleep within 40 minutes of our visit. Some may ask why let him sleep during our 2 hours, but we feel this is what his body needs and maybe the best rest of his young life. It will be fun to see his schedule when we get him home…

Around 1:30 we decided to start waking him up and our RyRy did a nice job of this. It took 1 kiss to the forehead and he was up. I think it was that long hair in his face, but she thinks it was magical. He came from a deep sleep with another big smile. He did not get this from me! We had a wonderful play time to end the visit as he was into everything on the floor. We played bubbles (this is getting some big smiles now); he crawled from one of us to the other and threw some toys around the room. The boy has an arm…

The visit ended around 2pm when Kim took him back to his room. He was holding onto Mommy tightly, but saw that he had a snack ready for him (true Woodard fashion), so he was willing to go to the caretaker with out a fuss. We are thinking they plan this snack at 2pm now to avoid him getting upset when she leaves, as we don’t remember a snack until a week or so ago and we have been here for a loooong time.

After the incredible time we had at the visit, we came back to the room for a little lunch and plan the rest of the day. We finished our second puzzle of the trip, then we visited our friends at the Kodak store to get some pictures printed off for gifts on Friday, then found another little store where we got some frames for the pictures. After this, we had some pizza (something we are not going to want for a while back home) and are now planning to watch a movie and call it a night.

From Kazakhstan, good night and Poka, poka….

Day 11 waiting "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" (double click for pics)

Sunday, July 30--- (Day 11 waiting period)

Privet. Our last day where we will not get to see Landen!

Today was a slow day around here. Kim got up early and made some cinnamon muffins that Diane and Bob had sent (they were great). Every discussion we had seemed to work its way back to Landen and this being the last day where we do not get tosee him or have him. Lena had made the comment Friday, as we picked up the tickets that our vacation would be over Friday. The way we see it, the fun will just start as we will be filling our arms with our precious son.

We decided to get out for a little while today and tour the area. We are still looking for the gift albums, but few stores are open on Sunday, so we just enjoyed our walk. Kim and I felt there was a difference in the “air” today, no not the temperature, but the town. We could only account this to a late night by the locals at the concert. Anyway, it was as abandoned as we had seen it. Who knows, the Woodard’s may have not gotten invited to another party today.

We worked our way through the park and wound up at the fair. This is my favorite kind of fair, free. Well, it’s free to get in and most of the stuff to do or buy is inexpensive. Rylee rode on the horse and carriage again, rode the swings, and we ate cotton candy while listening the band and watching the babushka’s (Russian grandmothers) dance together. A quite relaxing and enjoyable Sunday afternoon I must say!!!

During our walk, we decided that we would share some numbers with everyone today:

1. Our adoption journey has been going on an incredible 544 days to this point. You think we are ready to get our child?

2. We have 17 days left! There will be a total of 561 days from the first paperwork on 2/1/2005, until we arrive home on 8/16/2006. Every minute has been worth it.

3. We have been on this final leg (the trip to Kazakhstan) since June 23. A total of 38 days.

4. Again, we have 17 days left. The total number of days on the last leg will be 55 at conclusion. If you divide 55 by 3 (trimesters), you get 18.33 days. The way we see it, we are 1 day into the last “trimester” of the trip!

5. We have 5 days until “gotcha”, then 6 days until we fly to Almaty, then another 6 days until we fly to “Hotlanta”

6. I have 1 bowl of red beans and rice calling my name (makes us think of Newton’s red beans and rice when we go camping during Oktoberfest,) so until tomorrow- Poka, poka

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…