Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Greetings from Kazakhstan July 5, 2005

Hello again from Ust! We are still working on the photo issue, and we will send some as soon as we can. However, until then just know that God has blessed us with the perfect little boy for our family.

Tuesday we had our third day of visitation. Ivan is coming out of his shell a little more with each visit. This morning we even got a small smile while Joe was playing peep-eye with him. We have gotten other smiles, but always after lots of kisses and tickling. Every little smile is a blessing and we have cherished every one.

We arrive at the orphanage about 10:15 every morning and leave around 12. Usually, lunch is served at 11:30, so we have been fortunate enough to feed Ivan his last three lunches! What a sight they all are sitting at their little tables and waiting for chow time. Lunch begins with a piece of bread, then a bowl of chicken broth, carrots and either noodles or potatoes. Then the "main course" is served which is usually mashed potatoes and some type of meat. All of the children eat EVERY bite, and whine if you take it away before they have cleaned their plates. "Dessert" is another piece of bread and a cup of tea. Yes, tea. They are served in china teacups, and truly prefer to hold the cup themselves. We’ve noticed that when someone holds the cup for them, they spill. However, when they are allowed to do it themselves, they don’t miss a drop! After lunch we leave until our afternoon visit.

We return about 2:15 and visit until 4. We play until about 3:30 when it is snack time…usually a cookie and some milk. Ivan is always the last to finish his cookie, which may explain his low weight. Our little man is too busy taking everything in to eat quickly when left on his own. The caregivers are always telling him to hurry up and finish! Then they are off for a bath and a nap.
The caregivers are so fabulous. We can not tell you how much love is in that room. It has been such a privilege to watch them with the children. They love them like their own and they truly adore each and every one. Ivan’s favorite is a blond (just like him) who coos over him. We feel so indebted to this woman, as she has clearly loved our little boy while he waited for us to get here. It is really sweet the way they all react to each other.

The other couples are all having a wonderful time as well. There are three of us adopting 15 month olds, one couple adopting a 14-month-old and one couple adopting a 9-month-old…all boys. What a treat to have so many around the same age!

Lorraine and Alan are from San Francisco and are adopting Ben who is 15 months. Ben is very Kazak looking, meaning dark eyes, skin and hair. Very cute and curious.

Curtis and John are from Boston and are adopting Leo who is 9 months. We have only seen Leo once, and that was very briefly. He is very Russian and seems to be a very active little man…lots of crawling and pulling up from what we have heard.

Mary and Austin are from Dublin, Ireland and are adopting Daniel who is 15 months. Daniel is quite a character, running around and into EVERYTHING that he can get his little hands on. He is by far the most outgoing and advanced of all the children so far. He has blond hair and blue, blue, blue eyes.

Bridgette and Eugene are from Ireland as well. They are from a little village in the Midlands of Ireland. They are adopting Rory who is 14 months old. Rory has been in the "sick room" ever since we arrived and no one has met him except Eugene and Bridgette. They say that he is doing very well and appears to just have a very bad chest cold. However, we think that he may have been in the hospital for a while, which is why he is now in quarantine in the sick room for 14 days. Hopefully he will be out with the others soon.

Ivan is a mixture of both Kazak and Russian features. He has blond hair (which was a total surprise to us, since it was so dark in the video), large brown eyes, and chubby cheeks that you will all want to pinch! His eyelashes are so long and luscious, all of the ladies will wish they were theirs!

Everyone is getting along well, and we try to go out to eat as a group in the evenings. Our translator has shown us a couple of places that have English menus, so we mostly stick to those places and eating in our rooms.

Ivan appears to be very shy; however, with each visit we see his self-confidence improve. Today (Tuesday) we saw him not only hold onto his toy while Daniel tried to take it away, but get up and go get it once Daniel had let go and fallen down! Very funny.

We know that Ivan can walk, with assistance…we’ve seen him do it a couple of times. However, he won’t do it with us yet. Anytime we try to make him stand, he slides right onto his bottom, but if one of his caregivers tells him to stand in place, he does it with no problem whatsoever. Same thing with walking. He won’t walk for us, but he does for his caregivers. When we are there he just likes to sit and play and be held. He LOVES to be held and we are more than happy to oblige him. We know that once we have custody or when we get home he will be busy enough walking and running around.

This afternoon (Tuesday) we were able to put Ivan down for his 4 PM nap. He polished off his warm milk and Charlotte carried him into the "crib room" for his nap. She laid him down in his crib and he immediately started to arch his back and cry. His favorite caregiver came over and covered him with a blanket and started to sing to him and push his crib back and forth. He hushed immediately. What we wouldn’t give to have a tape recorder of her singing to him when we leave. Perhaps that is something we can find here to help Ivan with the transition once we leave Ust.

Tonight we are going to dinner at a local pub, the Black Bull. We tried to go last night, but we missed it by a block, so we all came back to the hotel and just drank beer and wine in a little reception area on the 5th floor. It was so therapeutic for us all to sit around and discuss all that is going on and what will happen as the trip proceeds. Austin and Mary adopted from Ust in October 2002. They are the proud parents of Maria, who is now 28 months old. Things have changed slightly since they did this in 2002, but not so much that their experience is not beneficial to the rest of us. Their presence has been a real blessing to us all.
It’s time to wrap it up for now. Off to the pub for some dinner and laughter.

Love to all!
Charlotte and Joe

PS. We have not had a chance to read the emails that you all have sent yet. We hope to do that tomorrow. Sorry that we don’t have time to reply to everyone individually, but our Internet experience so far has been a little stressful. We are hoping to find a better connection tomorrow at the library, but who knows what that will be like. We will have DSL in Almaty, so then we should be able to send lots of pictures, or we may post them on Ofoto or something like that. Thanks again for all of the love and prayers coming our way...we really can feel it half way around the world!!

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