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!