Friday April 20, 2007

Bonding Day #3
This morning, we got up early and had a visit with Az. He was in great spirits again today. We went up stairs to pick him up and as soon as he saw us he started grinning from ear to ear. Every chance he had he looked at us. When he was changed into 14 layers of clothes he walked over to Amy and turned putting his back to her. We have learned from watching the caregivers that this is how they carry the children. They pick them up and the child’s back is to the front of the caregiver. So this action is very typical of what he is used to.

We are getting very excited over the fact that he is recognizing us. We have waited on that for a long time. Well, going back to the 14 layers, we decided to take him outside to the playground. The doctor said not stay out more than 15 minutes. As soon as we walked outside with him, he got a frown on his face. We put him on the swing but he did not like that. We think he may have been scared. We tried to let him show us around but he wanted to hold on tight to us and didn’t really want to do much, so we headed back inside to the playroom.

Once we got him down to just 3 layers of clothes: overalls, sweater, and thermal pants with footies, we started to play with the trucks again. We played with those and he is getting much better at pushing the trucks and rolling them around. He likes to mimic what we do with them. He is also fascinated with the wheels. After that we got the “Who Loves Baby” picture album out. He immediately dropped the trucks and went after this new toy. We showed him everyone’s picture and tried to get him to point to Momma and Daddy. After that he just loved turning the pages and pointing at everyone. Rebekah, he pointed to your picture a bunch, so get ready, he will be ready for you.

He also likes to turn everything over and toss around to make noise. It is hard to describe but he loves to hear things bang against one another. Time with him is just so short. Before you know it your hour has flown by and we are off again to run errands or return to the apartment.

On our way to Svetlana’s office, Grove asked if we were near Krindles. It is a pastry shop that is wonderful. We got there and found the best place yet in Pavlodar. There are two sides to this place. On one side of the store, they have all kinds of cookies and cakes. On the other side they have fresh pastries and donuts. So you know these Memphis kids were ready for some good eats. We choose an iced donut and a cream filled pastry puff. They were delicious. They are cake like and not greasy and Krispy Kreme better hope they never come to the US. On our way back to the van, we ran into a Kazakh gypsy that asked Grove for money. He gave her all the change in his pocket. After we got in the van, Tanya explained that she was a hypnotist and that she would use her powers to force you to give her all your money. She looked like an aborigine from Australia. This is probably not correct but it is what she looked like. She was wearing a one piece outfit (one large piece of material) that wrapped around her several times and her baby. Tanya explained that when they hypnotize you they will tell you things like, I know your mom is sick, your boyfriend is cheating on you, etc., and ends up getting all your money. What a hoot!! We will definitely try to avert our eyes the next time we see one.

After escaping the hypnotist, we had a few more errands to run and then we had a meeting with Svetlana. We signed some papers for the office of Guardianship and Care and discussed the apartment issue. Unfortunately we will be in this apartment until around May 9th. After May 9th, we will move into the apartment that we had in December. Also, at the meeting Svetlana assured us that Az’s paperwork is all in order and that we should not have any problems.

After leaving Svetlana’s office we picked up the items that we left from the first trip and met Trinia, a new mom from New York that just adopted a 3 and 5 year old brother and sister. She was having a time. The language barrier was a big problem for her and the kids. She invited us to a surprise birthday party for Tanya our interpreter on Saturday. It should be exciting getting together with everyone.

The rest of the afternoon was similar to all the others. We took a walk to the grocery, fixed dinner (homemade pizza), played cards and watched “Terminal.”

Paka (bye) from Pavlodar,
Love David and Amy