We're home...well 2 of us anyway!

We made it home safely!

The drive from Taraz to Almaty took 8 hours! The first half of the trip was kind of rough. The road was bumpy and icy. The second half was nice and smooth. The two drivers that took us were so nice...we stopped at a gas station to use the restroom and stretch. Then they took out a thermos of hot water and 4 porcelain tea cups for us to enjoy some hot tea. We reached Almaty about 4pm. We ate at that hotel and our coordinator came over to discuss some things. We had to wake up at 4:30 am in order to be ready and get to the airport two hours early. Our 3 flights went well. KLM has the individual screens on the back of each seat so that you can play games, watch movies, TV shows, etc. on demand. That makes the 25 total hours on the planes a little better! When we arrived at the SA airport, we were greeted by Mom and Dad A. who kindly took us straight to Chili's!!! Chips-n-salsa, chicken fajitas, and iced tea!!!!! Yipee!!!


When we checked our email after getting home, we already had an email from our coordinator in Almaty about our court date. It is either Feb. 13 or 14th, but he said we need to be in Taraz by the 12th. Of course, remember it takes 2 days to get to Almaty and another eight hours either by car or train to get to Taraz. So, we need to call our travel agent ASAP to get our flights booked! Well, it's 3:20 in the morning so I should go to bed, but we wanted to update everyone! It's also nice to upload these pictures with high-speed Internet!


This is a picture out the car window on the way to
Almaty from Taraz.




This was out the window of our plane when leaving Almaty.










Here's a few more of Caleb on our last few days with him...well certainly not our last days with him, but you know what I mean!















This is a picture they have hanging in the Baby House. We thought it was kind of cute...we don't know if it's from a nursery rhyme or fairy tale or if it's just a picture.

Guardianship Council Day!

Well, this morning we were picked up at 9:45 to visit the baby house for the last time this trip. We're going to miss him soooo much! Obviously we have lots of pictures (way more than what's on the blog) and plenty of video that we will cherish while we're away. Caleb was very active and talkative this morning. He kept saying, "Dadadadada!" When I told him to say "Mama" he would click his tongue like I taught him to do. By the end of our time, he was wiped out and fell asleep.

Caleb has eyes that are similar to Brad's. We say that Brad's are a combination of green and brown. Depending on what he wears, sometimes they look more green, sometimes more brown. Caleb's are like that, too, just a little bit lighter.

We were dropped off back at the hotel after going to the baby house, but we walked to the store. We bought some snacks...bread, sausage, etc. for lunch. We came back to eat and watch a movie.
At 3:45 we were picked up for Guardianship Council, which as it turns out, is in a building about a hundred yards from our hotel. When we first got in the building, it was very hectic. Then we went up the the room where it was to be held. Apparently, this GC isn't just for adoptions because there were about fifteen other people there for it, and we're quite sure they weren't adopting! Once we were inside the room, our nerves calmed. There were five people on the council... one male, four female. They asked us a few questions and it was over very quickly. We have their approval to go to court! They just asked that we be sure to tell Caleb about the country where he was born.

We came back to the hotel and paid up through the night because we are leaving Taraz for Almaty by car Tuesday morning at 8am. Our driver we are familiar with will be taking us, so we are comfortable with him. At one point, we thought we would have to take a taxi, and that made me a little nervous! We think the drive will be about 6 or 7 hours! Yikes! Our translator gave us a paper that has phrases in Russian and English for us to point to, if needed, like "Please stop" or "I need a bite" or "We need a toilet" etc. I thought that was a cute idea. Of course, we also have our Rus/Eng book. Our coordinator in Almaty has booked a hotel for us by the airport because our flight leaves Wednesday at 8:10am.
We ate dinner at the hotel with Rod and Kym, a couple from California, who are adopting a little eighteen month old girl. Their first day with their daughter was our last day with our son...for a little while, anyway. Finally we began packing our things and getting ready for our long trip home.

"MMMmm, apples and bananas are yummy!"

Saturday, Jan. 20th

We were picked up in the morning today to go to the baby house. We were able to be in the big room again today. Caleb still had his little cold and seemed tired this morning. The translator said that he would have just eaten about an hour before, and it would be his nap time when we left. Sure enough, a few minutes before we left, he fell asleep in my arms. Today we brought out some of the musical instruments from the closet in the room. He enjoyed playing the piano! (You'll see in the photos!) I think we may have a Schroeder from Peanuts on our hands! He liked hitting the bell on the ground, which was really loud! We put that one away pretty quickly! He did the "Ashley cough" a few times. He would really cough, and then he would grin and fake cough a couple of times. We also have a picture of this. We were also lucky enough to get two photos with all three of us in it today--WOW!

After we visited the baby house, our translator took us to develop our bonding photos to present to the court. While we waited for them to be developed, she took us across the street to a Turkish bakery and a small grocery store. We tried some things from the bakery. We both got a pastry with potato inside. They were okay but would have been better warm. The small grocery store was nice and closer to our hotel than the Gros. We bought a few items. They had some children's books in Russian that I had to buy. They had a version of Cinderella. They had one that teaches the Russian alphabet and another with the Russian names for shapes. Finally, I bought one that our translator says has the words of the song that children sing around the Christmas tree. We walked back to the hotel and hung out there until dinner. We ate at the hotel and watched a DVD.

On Sunday we will prepare our photos (glue them onto white sheets of paper) and go over our answers to possible questions we might be asked on Monday. We are also supposed to meet up with another couple who just arrived Sunday night for dinner. We will be going to the baby house at 10am Monday and Guardianship at 4pm. We are told that the Guardianship should only last about 10-15 minutes and is nothing to stress over. Of course, we're still a little nervous! We'll let you know how it goes!

Our little musician

Caleb "coughing"

TGIF

Friday morning I stayed in the hotel room while Brad walked to the Gros Market. We were out of units on our Nursat I-card, which is what we use for the Internet. He bought a new card and a few other items. He bought some really good artisan bread that we like. We watched a movie and ate some of the bread. Then we got ready and went to the baby house. Once again we were able to play in the large room. Unfortunately, Caleb seems to have a little cold. He was coughing a little but mainly had a runny nose. He didn't act like he didn't feel good, though, so that was good.
For dinner, we ate at Cafe Istanbul. I ordered, you guessed it, cheese pizza. Brad ordered something new that he just pointed to a picture of on the menu. It was sort of like quiche on bread. It was pretty good...yes, I even tasted it.

Gros Market

Caleb knows where we keep the all the goodies (toys, food, etc.) He always gets excited and stares when we dig in the bag!

Thursday, Bonding Day 11

Thursday morning we ate breakfast at our hotel. I had hot chocolate with my breakfast. Our hotel makes YUMMY hot chocolate. It reminds me of The Polar Express where it says something like the hot chocolate was "as thick as melted chocolate bars!" Then we walked across the street to a historical museum of the Zhambyl Region. (Remember, Taraz is the capital city of the Zhambyl Region.) It was pretty interesting. Then we went to the Tsum, which they call a department store. It was definitely no Macy's!!! We bought a small Kazakh National Instrument called a dombra to hang on our Christmas tree.

At 2:45 we were picked up to go see the baby. We got to go to the nice, large room again. Caleb crawled all over again. He makes a lot of noises and sounds--nothing we can recognize, but maybe some Russian words. ? He mimics us a lot, like when I would click my tongue. He watched me do it several times, and then he did it. At the end of our time, we asked if we could walk with them back to his room. We did, although the caregivers didn't seem too happy about it. There weren't very many babies in his group--maybe 4 or 5. He seemed like he may have been the oldest, or at least the biggest. Several of them were scooting around on the floor in their walkers, and one was having his clothes changed. Everything was neat and clean.
Then we came back to the hotel and ate dinner. We watched a DVD, and I went to bed. Brad watched another DVD before going to bed.

There are no other couples here for adoption right now, that we know of. The couple that was next door at our hotel left. Their Guardianship Council was this past Monday. There will be a couple that I met through my Yahoo group coming this Sunday. They are planning to stay at our same hotel, so we made plans to meet Sunday evening.

We will probably be heading out on the overnight train to Almaty Monday evening. We will spend the night Tuesday and catch our plane Wednesday morning. This all still depends on when the court date is and if we can change our plane tickets to leave Wednesday. We'll let you know!

Brad in front of the building at the museum that housed balbals, which are totem-like stones dated from the 7-8th Century.

Wed., Bonding Day 10

Well, this morning we hung around the hotel room again and watched DVDs. For lunch, we ate at Cafe Istanbul. On our way back, we took some photos. It was a beautiful day! The photo to the left is of Brad in front of a statue in the square. The statue used to be a statue of Lenin, but they took it down after the fall of the Soviet Union. There wasn't a statue there at all until they had their Taraz 2000 year history fair, and they put up this one. We're not sure who it is a statue of now, but heard it might be Genghis Khan.

When we went to the Baby House, they were cleaning our usual, little room. (It needed it!) So, we got to venture to another part of the orphanage to another room! We saw the kitchen area and a bunch of offices. We still didn't see where all the children stay, though. The new room we were in was a very large room, where it looks like they hold parties. There were balloons on the wall, confetti on the floor, a piano, and other musical instruments. When Caleb came in, he was just looking around the room, staring at everything. He felt much better than the last few days, you could tell! He crawled and crawled...their wasn't much space in the other room, but he enjoyed all the space in this room! They said that if we like this room, we could keep using it. We told them, "Yes! We like it!" At first, he had on that Polo shirt from Tuesday with light blue warm-up bottoms over a couple of different layers! He looked like a linebacker! Then we changed him into a baseball outfit that wouldn't fit over all the layers. We took one shirt off on top so that this outfit would fit. It looks really cute on him!

We decided to stay in the hotel and snack on some stuff we had bought at the Gros Market the other day. I thought I was about to eat some Original Pringles. I tasted one...and you know my taste buds...I knew something was different. They weren't horrible or anything, but not the same. It turns out I had accidentally bought Cracks! The red, gold, and black container looked just like Pringles. We thought it was so funny! I had picked up some sour cream and onion ones for Brad, but those really were Pringles!

Wow, back at home you've had two bad weather days? I can't remember missing school for two bad weather days in a row, ever--when I was in school or since I've been teaching! I'm not going to have to make those days up do I?!

1. Brad and linebacker Aldridge

2. Caleb, crawling around our large room

3. Normal-size Caleb in his baseball outfit with Daddy. His shirt says "Daddy's All Star"

4. Caleb with Mommy

5. Brad holding Caleb in the air

6. Caleb in his "I Love My Mommy" bib

Tuesday, Bonding Day 9

Hi everyone!
The weather Tuesday during the day was warmer, and the snow and ice is beginning to melt. (It's ironic, considering it is so cold and icy at home right now!) We watched DVDs for most of the morning and early afternoon. We went to the Baby House at our usual time. Caleb was still not feeling too well. They didn't bring him in until about 3:30 because they said he didn't want to eat and kept crying, but they still said our time was over at 5:00. We went to the Bosfor for dinner. By the time we began walking home, the sun was going down and it was getting really cold again!
Sorry for such a short post, but like I had read on someone else's Kazakhstan adoption blog before, it's beginning to be like the movie Groundhog Day! You know, the same day over and over again!

Pictures:

1. The picture above is of Caleb inspecting his light up, musical dragonfly. He always points to where the two red lights light up.

2. "Ouch, my teeth hurt!"

3. The two Polo boys!

4. Mama consoling Caleb

5. Wow! All three of us...we don't get pictures of all of us very often!

Bonding Day 8

The picture to the left is the view from outside our hotel room window.


On Monday, we slept in, watched a DVD, and didn't go down for breakfast. We did eat lunch here at the hotel, though. We came back to the room and watch more DVDs. At our usual 2:45 we were picked up by our driver and Janet. They took us to the baby house. When Caleb came in he was all smiles. He was wearing his Spurs outfit again, but with only ONE layer underneath! Brad and I both said he looked so small! (He had only one layer on because it wasn't quite as cold of a day, well we guess anyway.) We did our usual routine...bounce, sing, play with the toys we brought, etc. His teeth began bothering him...he was fussy, chewing on everything, and drooling on everything. I brought out the BabyDent. He got all excited when he saw it. I put it on, and he acted like he felt better for all of five minutes. I'm not sure about this BabyDent stuff! It doesn't seem to last very long, and I'm not sure how often I can reapply since the directions aren't in English. I know that when Tyler and Ashley have had Orajel or that Ambesol, they get this awful look on their face at first (because it tastes nasty) and then this look of huge relief! This BabyDent stuff is sweet, so Caleb never makes a face, but he does seem to get some relief for a little bit. Tuesday if our translator is there, we can ask her to read the label to find out how often we can reapply. His fussiness continued, so we decided to feed him. I wish I would have brought his bottle to give him some juice instead (remember we are only allowed to feed him either some fruit baby food or juice each day after 4.) He kept biting the spoon, which hurt his teeth and made him cry. Yet, he didn't want us to stop feeding him. After we fed him, we tried to console him. Even rocking him back and forth would only help for a little while. We're ready to take him home and give him some Tylenol for his hurting teeth! It's hard to see him suffering, and you can't do anything about it. When it was 5pm we left the baby house, went to the Gros Market to get a few snacks, and came back to the hotel. We watched DVDs until we went to bed.

Several of you have asked questions about the Baby House. To tell you the truth, we don't know very much. We know that newborns through 3 year olds live there. After age 3, they move to another orphanage. It is a fairly large facility, but we have not been given a tour. We've only been to the director's office and to our little bonding room. We figured that if they wanted to show us around, they would have. However, we are a little braver this week, we may ask for a tour because I want to see where Caleb spends most of his time and see his friends. We may wait until after court, though, that way the director and social worker would have already testified in court on our behalf. We'll see!


So, we hear that it is cold and icy at home and may even snow. It's funny, it's cold, icy, and snowy here, but Brad and I are both like, "Aw, it may snow at home, and we're gonna miss it!"


Well, stay warm...drink some yummy hot chocolate!



Pictures:
1. Brad in back of our hotel, waiting to be picked up by our driver
2. Pet " "
3. Caleb sticking out his tongue
4. Caleb looking at his Longhorn he received for Christmas from his Gma and Gpa Aldridge
5. "Mmm. This food is yummy!"
6. Caleb walking (with a little help)

Update

Next Monday, January 22nd will be our last official day of bonding. That is also the day we will have what is called "Guardianship Counsel." This is when it is formally stated that we want to adopt Caleb. This will also be when the court date is set. While we still hope and pray that the court date will be within a couple of days, according to everyone here, that isn't much of a possibility. Everyone says that it will probably be three weeks later. So, we are tentatively planning to both come home for that time, as hard as it will probably be to leave the baby. Then we will return for court, the 15 day waiting period, and spend a few days in Almaty waiting for Caleb's official papers before returning home. We have carefully thought about our options and feel this is the best. First of all, Brad will have about six weeks worth of work to fit into that 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. Also, we need to finish, okay well do the baby room. I want to find a pediatrician during that time as well. Also, quite frankly, we don't think Caleb will miss us all that much. That's not to say that he won't miss us at all, of course, but we will have only spent 2 hours a day for 12 days with him (a total of 24 hours!) Right now, he thinks of us as those two people who come to play with him, rather than his caregivers. Even when we get back, we'll only be allowed to spend those same 2 hours a day with him. We feel that until we all get home, he won't begin to really see us as his parents. I have spoken to other parents who have been through this very same thing, and they have said that yes, it will be hard to leave, but in the long-run well worth it. They said that you will need rest and recuperation before round number two. Many of them have even left again after the court date and returned to pick up their baby after the 15 day waiting period. So, that's the decision we made in case the court date is set for three weeks or later. It was a tough decision where we hope we're doing what is best for our family, not unlike the many others we will be making throughout our lives as parents.

Days 6 and 7

Well, Lisa, we did move back to our original hotel, but I didn't have my porridge this morning. Let me explain how it all went down:




Friday Night
The toilet in the second hotel room didn't work either. The phone worked fine. When the hotel people helped us move to the second room it was so funny...this lady picked up the phone as if showing us how to work it. She pushed the receiver button down and put the phone to Brad's ear, then pushed it again and put it to his ear again! He looked like he wanted to smack her! Anyway, the room was also very cold. So, in the middle of the night Brad went to the lobby, with his hair all sticking up, and said the russian word for "cold" to the receptionist. He came back up a few minutes later and a few minutes after that this man came in with a space heater. It took a while, but it warmed things up. The hotel also has a casino in it, so it was quite noisy. When we got up, we were quite determined to go back to our first hotel that we liked...we just needed to figure out how to do it.

Saturday
We were picked up by only our driver this morning and taken to the baby house. We usually visit in the afternoon, but because it was Saturday, we went from 10am-12pm. We wondered if Caleb would react any differently because it was a different time, but he was the same. Check out the pics to see Caleb in his Spurs outfit! He was "talking" a lot this morning, so we tried to get him to say "Mama" and "Dada," etc. but he was content at making the raspberry sound a lot!
When our time was up, we walked to the car and it was still just our driver. We knew there was a possibility of us going to the Bizarre today, so we were hoping the driver wasn't going to just drop us off there! As it turns out, we drove to a bus stop and waited for Janet's son to get off a bus and join us. He walked us around the HUGE Bizarre. Well, I think we only saw about half of it! It was a really cold day today...colder than it has been since the night we left Almaty! So, Brad said that shopping at the Bizarre was like shopping in a freezer! There was a lot of ice on the ground, so we kept slipping! There were a lot of really nice looking, warm coats for sale at the Bizarre. They were ones that we might wear one or two days out of the year in San Antonio. I ended up buying a purse (surprise, surprise) and Brad bought a watch. (Now he won't have to keep asking me what time it is!!) When we were leaving, we tried to explain to Janet's son that we wanted to go back to our old hotel. He said he didn't understand. I said, "Hotel Zhambyl ploho (bad), Hotel Gazovik harasho (good). " He just shook his head. We kept trying and finally he said he would tell his mom. He called her on the telephone and then we waited for the driver. Then they took us back to the hotel...the one we don't like! So, we called our interpreter at home. Brad explained everything to her and she said she'd call us back. We figured we'd have to pay for two nights there since by the time we would leave it would already be after 5pm, plus we'd pay for the night at the Gazovik. We didn't care, we just wanted to be someplace where we were comfortable again. As it turned out, they just charged us for one night. We waited a little while in the lobby for our driver and Janet's son. We figured they were thinking "crazy Americans!" They took us back to the Gazovik where we were able to get our old room! We were just like little kids...Brad said,"Ahh, my blanket!" I said, "Ahh, my toilet paper!" Then we ate dinner at our hotel and watched DVDs until we went to sleep.

Sunday
Sunday we slept in (since we were so comfortable) and didn't go down for breakfast. We are not allowed to visit the baby house on Sundays, so we figured we'd just rest up, watch movies, try to catch up on the blog and emails, etc. today. So, now that the blog is caught up, I think we'll go get some lunch and then come back and watch a movie...well, in about an hour after I upload the pictures! Last night was new year's eve over here. Fireworks were being shot off all over town. We just got back from lunch and are finishing up this blog. We went to Cafe Instanbul. Pet had magarita pizza (cheese) again and I had some chicken shishkabobs that tasted good. You would think we were in Turkey since the 3 nearest restaraunts are all turkish restaraunts. And its not like there are a lot of choices either. On our walk back to our hotel, we stopped at the main square and grabbed a few candy bars from a vendor on the street to take back to the hotel to have later. Pet needs her chocolate. Anyway, talk to y'all later!

Days 4 and 5

Thursday
Well, Thursday, we didn't eat breakfast...oh my goodness, no porridge! We ate yogurt and Pringle's for lunch. The driver, our rep, and our translator picked us up a little early so that we could visit another hotel. They said they could show us some rooms that were bigger than the one we're in now and cheaper. We visited the Hotel Zhambyl. (Zhambyl is the name of the region where Taraz City is located.) The hotel is older, but they did have a room with a living room/bedroom for half the price of the room we're in now. We decided tomorrow we'd check out of our hotel and into The Zhambyl. Then we went to the orphanage. Caleb came in and immediately started playing with us. We put him in the walker that was already in the room. (Up until now we had only played with the toys we brought--so, I wiped the walker down with an antibacterial wipe before he came in!) He first started going backward, then when he was backed up against the wall he went forward. He seemed to control it pretty well and enjoyed it. Today they didn't put him in the outfit we left for him--they had him in that same original outfit we brought. We have to take pictures with the dates on it of each day of bonding for court, so I want him wearing different clothes. I don't want them to think we faked it! So, we changed him into a new outfit and took the first one with us! Today I was holding Caleb facing Brad and they were talking to each other. Brad started clapping and Caleb did too. It was so cute! Something else funny that happened on a previous day that I forgot to tell you was Caleb kept pulling my hair and trying to put it in his mouth. I said, "Neeyet!" He started to cry! Brad and I cracked up! Nine month olds don't like the word "No" in any language!
When our time with Caleb was up, we went back to our hotel. We went to eat dinner in our hotel. Brad ordered something that, ironically, tasted like meatloaf. He liked it. I ordered my same salad, bread, and get this...chicken noodle soup! Of course, I basically just ate the noodles. Two words for you: bird flu!

Friday
Well, this morning we moved to our new hotel. We hated the room...we couldn't get the Internet to work (the phone cord was spliced with a piece of tape), the room was really cold, and the toilet didn't work. We moved to another room. It is smaller than our room in the previous hotel and is only saving us a little money. Plus, breakfast was included at the other hotel and not this one--I sure am gonna miss my porridge. Yes, we wish we wouldn't have moved! (Oh and to top it all off, they had just switched to two-ply quilted toilet paper at the other hotel--What were we thinking?!) Brad just said that he can't get the toilet to flush in this room either--we may be moving back to The Gazovik!!! All of these hotel problems are the reason we didn't get to post "on time"--sorry! Our visit with Caleb today went well again. He started off in a good mood, then about halfway through acted like his teeth were bothering him again. We gave him Babydent and fed him some fruit. He looks so cute when we feed him. For some reason he always turns his head sideways for me to put the spoon in his mouth. He walked in the walker some more. We stayed a little later than usual for some reason, and he started getting really cranky. I rocked him back and forth to calm him down. He put his fingers in his mouth and fell asleep. We may "hear about it" tomorrow because of messing up his schedule, but oh well. He was tired, his teeth hurt, and he felt very comfortable in Mama's arms!

Tonight we ate dinner at our new hotel's restaurant. Brad and I both ordered a salad, mashed potatoes, and we each ordered a different chicken dish. Yes, I ordered meat, despite my fear! Brad really liked his. Mine was called a chicken cutlet. Sounds like a thin piece of breaded chicken, right? Wrong, it was thick and stuffed with stuff--I don't even know what! It looked like anchovies or something. Needless to say, I didn't eat much of it!