Feb. 27-28

On Tuesday, Feb. 27, Caleb turned 11 months old!

We had a nice visit with Caleb on Tuesday. Assyra went to pick up his passport photos but returned without them. She said the photo place had used a light blue background and for his Kazakhstan passport the background must be white. So we had to pay 200 more tenge (which is less than $2) in order for them to do it with a white background.

On Wednesday, we spent half of our visit in the music room and the other half in the physical activity room again. This time we shared the room with Rod, Kym, and little Aray. They had their court this morning, so they visited the Baby House in the afternoon. (Congratulations Rod, Kym, and Aray on officially becoming a family of three!) We were also told that our Visas would expire on March 5th, so we would have to pay some more (of course) and do more paperwork for an extension. I tried to get Assyra to tell us when we would get custody of Caleb since tomorrow is day 15 of the waiting period, but she told me a bunch of things that we would have to do within the next couple of days. I don't know if she understood what I was asking. So later, when Janet was there, I asked again. Assyra translated my question in which Janet responded with about the same information that Assyra had said earlier, except she mentioned March 2. So maybe we'll get him Friday...I don't know!?


TUESDAY:



WEDNESDAY:
A family picture courtesy of Rod.

Monday, Feb. 26

Caleb sends a great big "Howdy" to everyone!


Sunday all the snow had melted, but this morning it snowed again! We walked to the store (pronounced something like Zoom). We found two children's books with the text written in English, Russian, and Kazakh! That was all we got there, but I was very excited!

When we went for our afternoon visit with Caleb, we figured we wouldn't go to take his passport picture because of the snow, but we took his coat and stuff anyway. We spent the first 45 minutes in the music room. We changed his clothes and played. Then, we had to leave that room because of the music class. Austin and Jeannie visit with their daughter in that small room that we were in before, so we went to a new room we had never seen before. Assyra called it the physical activity room. It was neat! It had a slide, a swimming pool filled with balls, a long mirror for dancing, etc. Caleb was scared...I don't think he had ever been in there before. It was also really noisy! A bunch of the workers were taking a break right outside the door, and they kept coming in and out. Caleb is curious about everything, so each time one would come in, he would jerk his head around to see who it was and what they were doing. And then...believe it or not...despite the snow, Assyra came in and said we would take Caleb to get his picture taken for his passport. So, we got his coat, hat, and mittens on, and hopped in the car. The place we went was very close to the Baby House. Caleb was nervously looking around at everything, and was very good. When we got inside, we took off his coat and hat for the pictures. He looked at the camera for the photos, but he didn't have a smile...just a look of confusion! When we left, I wanted to just take him back to the hotel with us, but we had to take him back to the Baby House.

Another thing exciting happened today! Rod and Kym returned and brought me some magazines and Rice Krispy Treats!!!! Yaahoo! Rod and Kym, you rock!!!
For dinner, all three families went out to eat at the Bosfor.














In the car on our way to get his passport photos taken.

Sat., Feb. 24

They said the weather was bad Friday? Look at what it looked like Saturday, looking out the music room window at the Baby House!


We should have taken his passport photo Friday!!


Anyway, Saturday morning we had a nice visit with Caleb. He's always a little confused on Saturdays because we come at a different time. He seems to be tired. He would stop every few minutes, put his fingers in his mouth, and just lay down wherever he happened to be.
Since it was colder, the caregivers bulked Caleb up again with several layers. He looked like a linebacker again...this time wearing Baylor Bear green. See Marcie and Ginny, I know there are other Universities in Texas!

I've tried not to whine too much this trip (I know some of you are thinking..."try a little harder"...but, I'm really ready to get our boy and go home!!! Of course, it seems to be worse for me on the weekends. I guess it's because we visit the Baby House in the morning on Saturday, and then we don't have anything much to do until Monday. Now, if we were at home and this was the case, it would be sooooo great! Oh well, as Brad keeps saying, "In the grand scheme of things, this is just a speck of time."

Feb. 22 and Feb. 23

Thursday, when we went to the Baby House, we finally changed Caleb out of his UT outfit. We took a picture of him in just a diaper--see below. Future bribing material? Look at those little-bitty legs!

Thursday we were told that Friday we would be able to take Caleb to get photos made for his passport. I was all excited about that! So, today we brought his coat, hat, and mittens. When we got to the Baby House, however, Assyra told us that we couldn't take him out today because of the bad weather. The only thing "bad" about the weather was that the sun wasn't out! It wasn't very cold at all! We definately didn't need our big coats that we have here. So, we figured they just didn't want to do it today. She said maybe Monday.

During our visit today, Caleb crawled over to Brad, who was standing up. He used Brad's legs to pull himself up and then went up and down on his tiptoes for Brad to pick him up. It was so cute! We had seen Caleb crawl, "walk" with us holding his hands to keep his balance, etc., but we had never seen him pull himself up from a sitting or crawling position.

Today, we met a couple from New Orleans, Jeannie and Austin. They got into Taraz early Thursday morning. They are adopting a baby girl from Umit. They are staying in the room next to us. We talked with them before going for our afternoon visit. Then this evening we went out to dinner at the Bosfor with them. It's really nice to have another family to talk with. Rod and Kym (that we met on our first trip) should be here either Sunday or Monday. So, there will be three families here adopting from Umit.

Feb. 21st--A Special Day

Today is a special day because one year ago our nephew, Tyler, was born!




We love you, Tyler, and we wish we were all three there to celebrate with you!
(Kiss, kiss, kiss from your Aunt Pet!)


Today Caleb seemed to be feeling fine, but he got really tired by the end of our visit. We started out in the music room, but we spent the last 45 minutes in the small room because they had a music class. In case you're wondering why Caleb has been in the same clothes for so many days, I'll tell you. The caregivers only change him into the clothes that we bring right before we visit and then change him out of those clothes when we leave. We figure that we'll need all the clean clothes we can whenever we have him fulltime on our trip. Besides, he just looks so darn cute in that UT outfit!

Feb 20

Pet sitting on a bench outside Umit Baby House.

Today was a lot better than yesterday. We got to see Caleb for our usual 2 hours. They said that he still did not get as much sleep as he is used to, but he was in a good mood when we visited him. You could tell he was a little tired though. He smiled a lot more than he has been and talked some baby talk. We got some of it on video. We didn't give him any baby food or juice today - we wouldn't want to give them something else to try and blame us for.

We ate at our hotel restaraunt for lunch. No corn & peas pizza today! Pet had salad and french fries, and I had a big bowl of borsh(sp?) soup and french fries.

We forgot to mention that yesterday it snowed. It didn't stick to the ground or anything, but it was much colder than it has been. When we woke up this morning it was 13 degrees F, but the sun came out and it was a nice day.

After our visit to the baby house, we walked to the store and bought some bread and other munchies for our hotel room. We bought some fried pastry thing that was sort of like a doughnut without icing or sugar on the outside. They were good. They'd probably be even better warm and with some powdered sugar!

Monday, Feb. 19th

Well, Sunday went by very slowly since we didn't get to see Caleb.

Today wasn't that great of a day, either! We didn't eat breakfast, so we decided to go to the Bosfar for lunch. We hadn't been back there since our last trip. Brad decided to have vegetable pizza, while I ordered spaghetti. We ordered fried cheese for both of us. The fried cheese was good. Brad's veggie pizza had corn (which of course he had the other day on his salami pizza at the other cafe), black olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, and PEAS! He only ate 2 slices. Yes, that's right, Brad only ate 2 slices of pizza. (And when we're talking that the pizza is the size of a plate, the slices are quite small.) My spaghetti wasn't bad. It had carrots in the sauce, but you couldn't really taste them. I ate a little of it--it was one of those dishes where you get tired of the taste before too long. Thank goodness for the fried cheese and the yummy bread that they serve.
Then at 2:30, we were picked up for the baby house. When we got there, we're told that we have to wait to speak with the doctor. Caleb had gotten sick Sunday and still was sick today. The doctor wasn't there right then, but we would have to wait until she returned to talk with her. We weren't sure if we'd be able to see him or not. Assyra said that he had "diary." (diarrhea) She asked us what we fed him on Saturday. We told her he had a little bit of juice and that was it. She said that it probably wasn't from anything we had given him then. Duh! After waiting over an hour, the doctor came. She didn't really tell us anything, but brought Caleb down. We were able to see him in the lounge area of the baby house for maybe 5 minutes and that was it! They took him back to his room and we left. Assyra said not to feed him anything. I don't know if she means for the rest of our visits or just for the next few days. I also don't know if that's what the doctor had told her or not. I think it probably was. I don't like being made to feel like we're the ones who got him sick! Assyra said we'd have to wait and see whether or not we'd be able to see him tomorrow or not.
So this evening we've been feeling very frustrated!!

Fri., Feb. 16th and Sat., Feb. 17th

Friday, we went out to lunch at Cafe Istanbul (the first time this trip). I ordered cheese pizza (duh!) and Brad ordered salami pizza. We figured the salami pizza would be similar to pepperoni. It had 2 other ingredients on the menu, but they were not in english so we did not know what they were. The salami that we thought may be pepperoni turned out to be more similar to ham and the other toppings were mushrooms and CORN! I thought that was hilarious! Brad ate it (of course) and said it was good. (But corn on pizza was kinda weird--Brad)

Then, at the usual 2:30, we were picked up by our driver to go to the Baby House. The driver doesn't speak English, but he asked, "Assyra?" We said, "Neeyet, Assyra." She usually is waiting for us at our hotel, but today she wasn't there. Last trip, it wouldn't have been unusual for just the driver to pick us up and drop us off at the orphanage because Sholpan, the college student who was practicing her English with us, was there to help us. Now, she's back at school, though. The driver was very nervous, you could tell, and he drove us like a bat out of you know where to the baby house. We assumed he would go back to the hotel to see if Assyra was there, but we didn't know for sure. When we got inside the baby house, we weren't sure what to do, but we were able to mutter a few words and motion that we needed the key for the music room. Once in the music room, we waited. Then, I ventured up to Caleb's room. I said hello to them in Russian, and said, "Roman." One of the caregivers said "aheoouoeuouoah rlenelkjoi ajkdjoio dohtoioj thohoeho." (Just kidding, but that's pretty much what it sounded like to me.) I figured she was saying she would feed him and bring him to us, which is what they always do. I pointed to myself and then pointed downstairs and said, "Musica." She said, "Da, Musica!" Most of the caregivers in the orphanage don't speak Russian, they speak Kazakh. I don't know any Kazakh words except "thank you," which sounds something like "rockmit." I went back to the music room where Brad was waiting, quite proud of myself. A few minutes later Assyra came in with Caleb. She said, "the driver didn't wait for me." I wanted to tell her, "Hey, we managed pretty well on our own!"

A little bit into our visit, we were booted to the small room because, how dare they, they actually had a music class in their music room!

After we went to the baby house, we ate dinner at our hotel and then watched the last few episodes of season 1 of Lost. Since they left us hanging, as they usually do for season finales, we wished we would have bought season 2. Oh well, we also brought a couple seasons of the Sopranos, thanks to Brent and Karen, that we'll be watching next.

On Saturday, we visited Caleb in the morning. We were picked up by our driver and Assyra at 9:45. Assyra was nice and early this time! Yesterday I had asked Assyra about Caleb's schedule and the food he eats. Today, while we visited with Caleb, she said she would get a copy and translate it for us. We had to be in the small room again today for some reason. Also, we were cheated 30 minutes of our visit today because they eat at 11:30. Well, it didn't seem to matter during the last trip, but we never know what to expect. As soon as you think you have somewhat of a clue about what's going on, you find out that you don't!

Tomorrow, we won't get to see Caleb since it's Sunday, so we probably won't have another blog entry until Monday.

Feb. 15

Well, today is the first day of our 15 day waiting period. It wasn't as nice outside. The sun didn't come out, so it was cold and dreary. We figured we wouldn't take Caleb outside today, so we didn't pack his coat, hat, or mittens.

We didn't really do anything exciting today. We ate breakfast at the hotel. (I actually had a vegetable omelet, instead of porridge.) We watched some episodes of Lost. I blogged. Brad played a game on the computer, while I read a book. (I should have brought more books! I've already finished the first of my two.) We snacked in our room for lunch. We visited Caleb from 3 to 5pm. Then we walked to the store and bought some bread, sausage, and sodas for our dinner, which we ate in the room. That's about it, so we'll just get to the pictures right away today:


Caleb likes to do as his cousin Tyler does when playing pat-a-cake. He takes your hands and claps them together.




We found the big piano today.

Valentine's Day

While we were waiting at court for the judge to come back in with his decision, the director of the baby house said that today is a holiday in Kazakhstan where people celebrate when they are in love. She asked if we had this holiday too. We said yes, Valentine's Day. So, they do celebrate Valentine's Day here, although, there isn't a ton of red and pink hearts everywhere or anything like that! There were some people celebrating a little too much in the lounge right beside our room last night. I think they had a little too much vodka, well a lot too much! Luckily it didn't last too long before someone from the hotel came and told them something, and so they left.
After the judge made his decision, the director congratulated us and hugged us! I don't know if the other director would have been so nice, from what I understand, but this one is great! Families that follow us here should be relieved on that one! Bulat called us from Almaty to congratulate us and to tell us that now is the time to give the gifts we had brought. So, we gathered all the gifts after lunch, and took them in a small suitcase with us to the baby house. Janet took them all and had already distributed them to some of the people at the baby house by the time our afternoon visit with Caleb was over. She will distribute the rest when it is appropriate, I guess. We don't even know which gifts she gave to which person. It's a little strange, but at least we didn't have to worry about them, and our luggage will be lighter for the trip home! This will help since we do have an additional 18 and a half pounds of extra special cargo to hand carry home with us!!

It was another beautiful day, so we had decided we would try to take Caleb outside. The high was about 50 degrees F and nice and sunny. We took his coat, hat, and mittens. We changed his clothes and put on the coat, etc. This was not an easy task, but he looked soooo cute!!! Then we headed outside. The sun was very bright and kept getting in his eyes. So then we'd move to the shade, but it was pretty cold! He wasn't scared or anything, but he kept looking around with a strange look on his face, like "What's going on here?" It should be interesting when we take him in a few days to get his passport pictures made. He's not going to know what to think about riding in a car!



This picture is outside the courthouse. Janet, our representative in Taraz, is on the left. To the right of her is the Baby House Director. It would be nice if we knew her name, but our translator just always calls her "The Director." (That's just like the names of our drivers. We've asked her several times and she just laughs and says she doesn't know. I thought that our second driver was Nicoli, but when I asked her yesterday she said no, she doesn't know where Nicoli is. Bulat always tells us our driver will be Nicoli, but we've never seen Nicoli!)



This is Assira, our translator.




Caleb, all decked-out to keep warm outside.

Proud Parents

Well, it's official (sort of) that we are the proud new parents of Caleb Roman Aldridge! It will be officially official after the fifteen day waiting period. We were pretty nervous for court, but it didn't last very long. The judge was late due to a meeting he had earlier, so according to Assira, he didn't ask a ton of questions like he usually does. Of course, to us, it seemed like plenty of questions! The Baby House Director and one of the ladies from Guardianship Counsil spoke on our behalf. The "prosecuter" wasn't mean, like for for some reason I thought she would be. She was very young and spoke English very well.
We just wanted to let everyone know as soon as we knew that the judge approved us to adopt Caleb, but we're hungry so we're going to get some lunch! We'll visit Caleb this afternoon, so we'll have pics.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!
Love,
Pet, Brad, and Caleb Aldridge

Here we are in the courthouse--all smiles and relieved that it is over!!

Tuesday, Feb. 13

Tomorrow is our court date!!! Yes, we're getting a little nervous! Asira says it will only take about 15-20 minutes, and then we'll wait for the judge to come back in with his decision. We also found out that after the 15 day waiting period, we will not go to Almaty with Caleb like we thought. We stay in Taraz and wait for his passport--about a week. Then, we will go to Almaty for only a couple of days for some paperwork and a medical evalutation at the US Consulate. So, of course I asked if we would get custody of him after the 15 day wait, which you would assume, right? Wrong! Asira said that with the old director, she would have the babies stay at the orphanage because it wasn't good for the babies to stay at a hotel. She wouldn't want the baby to get sick...he couldn't travel if he was sick. I guess I see the point, but the best place for a baby is with his mommy and daddy!!!!! Anyway, she said that she didn't know what the new director will do. I don't really see why it's the director's decision, though, because it will be after court and the 15 wait time--he's ours!! Things are done so differently here, but all we really care about is that we get Caleb...eventually!

Early in the morning it was really foggy outside. Then, it cleared up, the sun came out, and it was actually kind of warm! I'm not sure what the temp was, but it was one of those days like we have in SA a lot in the winter where it's cool/cold in the shade, it's pretty warm/hot if your in the sun, and you're burning up if you're in the car with the sun shining in.

Before we went to the Baby House today, we stopped by a bank to exchange some US dollars to Kazakhstan tenge. It was a madhouse in there! Brad and Asira went up to the counter, but I waited where there wasn't 50 people all crowded up in a 10' by 14' space.

Then we went to see Caleb! He came in today smiling and talking! We had some of his familiar toys, but we also brought out two new ones. One is a stuffed Astro's baseball that has bells in it. He enjoyed rolling it back and forth with Brad, but he also liked chewing on the tag. The other toy lights up and plays music. He did his Stevie Wonder head thing as the music played--it is so cute!

We also fed him some baby food! He already eats like the Aldridges and Jandts! He wore a bib today that we think his Uncle Brent will appreciate--see picture!

Caleb is really sad that he missed his Grandpa Jandt, Uncle Tony, Aunt Mitzi, and Cousin Anthony doing their acts at the Valentine's Day Banquet at church! He hopes somebody video recorded it so he and his parents can watch it when they get home!!

On our drive home from the Baby House, there were a lot (and I mean a lot) of Police Officers gathered in the square that we walk through all the time to get to the restaurants and stores. As we drove by, a police officer was waving all the cars to pull over. Our driver pulled over, got some papers out of the glove compartment, and went back to talk with the officer. He wasn't gone very long, and he explained (in Russian of course) what was going on. They didn't bother to tell us, so I asked if we should go out to dinner tonight like we had planned or not, which is my way of trying to ask what's going on but not asking it. I should have asked because all I was told was, "Oh, of course it is okay." We decided not to go out for dinner, anyway, because we had eaten lunch at our hotel and weren't very hungry. We ate some food we had in the room.


















This is the view outside our window of the park. It seems so strange to look out there and not see snow! There's grass down there!

Seeing Caleb Again!

We were able to go to the Baby House Monday afternoon! We went to the large music room and waited for him to be brought to us. They must have been expecting us because we didn't wait long at all! They woke him from his nap--you could still see the sleep lines on his face! They brought him to us in the same clothes as we had on him our last day with him. His hair is a little longer than before, so we can tell his hair is more of a light brown color. He looked a little unsure but was not really scared of us! He came right to me, and I think he was wondering where we had been. They hadn't fed him when they woke him up, so a few minutes later, our translator took him to be fed. We told her that after we went to the GROS this afternoon, we'd feed him during our visits. He came back more alert and happier after having a full tummy--although, he was back in about 5 minutes, so they must feed him in a hurry! About halfway through the visit, he really began to "talk" more, as he had during our last several days with him before. For our first visit with him, we brought all the familiar toys for him to play with. I think he was happy to see them and enjoyed playing with them. We sang Old McDonald and clapped our hands, and he shook his head back and forth. We brought the piano out of the music closet and he went to town playing "music" and shaking his head back and forth. I can't wait to get him home to play with his very cool new piano that even lights up! I'm trying to teach him to "give me five," but I have to do it with his hand first before he'll do it.
After our visit, we went to the GROS and bought a few items for ourselves and Caleb. Then we came back to the hotel and munched on some food we bought at GROS. We watched one full episode of Lost, and about half another before our eyes couldn't stay open any longer.