Monday, April 30, 2007

Monday, April 30, 2007





Bonding Day #13

Another day with Az. Today we were a little late because Jenny and Grove had to take their son Paval to get his passport pictures. Their gotcha day is at the end of this week. Once we got to the baby house we went straight up to Az’s room. All the other children were outside with the caregivers and Az was left with a caregiver to await our arrival. He was in a playpen with lots of toys and the caregiver was cleaning the playroom. As soon as he saw Amy he stood up and lifted his arms to be picked up. Instead of looking around at Tanya and I he laid his head on her shoulder. He got spit all over her but she didn’t care, her son wanted some cuddle time.

We went down to the playroom and he just wanted to be held for a little while. After that it was romper time. We covered every inch of that little room touching everything and making noise everywhere. It kind of wore mom and dad out a little but it was a lot of fun. We tried to get him to drink out of the sippy cup that we brought. He was not used to that at all. He was a lot more used to drinking out of the cup instead of sipping it. Now I say drinking but it was more like gulping. Once he got a hold of the cup he did not want to stop. He was even drinking so fast that he almost choked himself. He didn’t even want to stop drinking while he was choking. Amy tried to get the cup away from him but he displaying super baby strength because that wasn’t going to happen. He choked and drank more. We finally got it away from him and put the lid on to keep Az from spilling it everywhere. For the rest of the visit the cup became a rattle toy. Az liked to hear the water splash around the cup.

After the visit we went with Tanya to deliver some papers to the Guardianship of Care office and to the Ministry of Education. For us it was just something to pass the time. We came home and decided what to do next. We had not been back to the strip mall on the other side of our building so we did that. We just poked around looking for something to get into, but didn’t find much.

On the main street, which is directly behind our apartment, people were practicing for the May 1st festival and parade. (We think May 1st is a combination celebration of May Day, Unity Day, and Workers’ Day, but we aren’t sure.) There were floats and children all over the place. The entire street was blocked. It was their last practice for the parade tomorrow. We plan on watching the parade tomorrow with Jenny, Grove, and Tanya. We will let you know how it turns out.

After watching some of the practice we picked up a few things from the market and stopped to enjoy the park. The city has turned on the huge water fountains which are very relaxing to listen and watch. All the children from the parade were running along the fountains screaming when they got wet. Not so different from American kids at a fountain. After enjoying the sights and sounds, we went home and decided to have a pizza for dinner and to finish the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It was a good day and we look forward to tomorrow’s outings.

Paka
Love, Dave and Amy

Sunday, April 29, 2007








Bonding Day #12

Another Sunday has come. That means that we have been in Pavlodar for 2 weeks now and everything is going well. We are looking forward to finding out about our court date this week. Hopefully it will be within the next week to 10 days.

We started the day sleeping in a little longer. After we got up we decided to have some breakfast. We found some pancake mix at the store a few days ago and wanted to give it a try. We didn’t have any syrup so we used butter and strawberry jelly as toppings. They were great and they almost tasted like home.

We decided to spend some time walking around today and take pictures of Pavlodar to have for Az. First, we went to the Internet Café and posted some picts and stuff to the blog, and then we decided to go to the river park. On our way we saw two wedding parties taking pictures. It must be tradition for newlyweds to take pictures here because this isn’t the first time we have seen newlyweds here before and it is a beautiful park. The wedding parties are very similar to the ones in the US. You have the traditional wedding party consisting of a bride in a traditional white gown, handsome groom, a bridesmaid and a best man. Along with the wedding party is family and friends taking thousands of pictures. They also drive around in brightly decorated cars honking their horns all the way down the street.

After our walk we came home and decided to have some lunner. That is lunch and dinner squeezed into one meal. We are pretty limited on dinners so I decided to do something a little different. Amy said that we had the stuff to make Meatloaf but there was no pan to cook it in. So I asked her if she had ever had Saturday Burgers. Saturday burgers are meatloaf pattied into hamburgers and cooked in a skillet. Take your hamburger meat and throw in everything you would for a meatloaf: eggs, crackers, onions and all the spices. Mix all that together, patty them out and fry them in a skillet. Now the best skillet to use is a cast iron skillet. We don’t have one so we made do. Thanks Grandma for making those for Chad and I. Grandma, is my mom’s mother, Margaret Carrick, she used to make us some great meals. They were wonderful. We finished up the evening by watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Paka
Love, Dave and Amy

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Saturday, April 28, 2007





Bonding Day # 11

Sergei #1 picked us up and it was a much more subdued ride to the baby house. Thank goodness for that. Tanya had gotten Az for us already and they were at the door when we got there. As usual he and mom had their morning hugs all the way to the playroom. He was very cuddly today. We think he might be getting a cold. He didn’t want to investigate or play with anything but what was in momma’s bag. All he wanted to do was sit in her lap and babble and pull things out of the bag. I finally got some lap time with him and it was the same treatment, which was fine with me. After about 40 minutes he decided that was enough and wanted to do something else. He got down and threw the block around and made lots of noise. Tanya thinks that he likes to do this with us because he is not allowed to do these kinds of things in his group.

After the visit we went to the store for our weekly rations and sundries. We are expecting to take a walk today after we post and see what is going on at the river. The rest of the afternoon will be filled with movies and Friend episodes that we borrowed from the Burnetts. Hope you all have a great weekend and we will talk soon.

Paka
Love, Dave and Amy

Friday, April 27, 2007








Bonding Day #10

Today we woke up to a cold rainy morning. We had been having some very nice weather until today. Yesterday it got up to 87. Sergei #2 picked us up this morning. He drives a very nice Audi and we both wonder if it is a car or an airplane. Now this city has some streets that are marked as 2 lanes or 3 lanes but today we took a street that was not marked. If there are no marked lanes, the drivers fit as many cars across as possible. We could easily reach out our window and touch the cars next to us. As we were on our way Sergei must have thought that we were late or something because we got to a stretch were there weren’t any cars and a good distance to the next light and it felt as if he was flying about 4 feet off the ground. I have ridden in a car that has gone over 100 and you can always recognize how different the air sounds at that speed. Well I am sure that we cracked the 100 mark. Not that this bothers me very much because he is a very good driver. But, when the streets are wet and the old ladies are trying to cross the street have to run to get out of his way, he’s going a bit fast. He never had to honk but everyone must know this car. Anytime we got close to anyone they either ran across the street with their life flashing before their eyes or they backed a good 6 feet away from the street. Maybe Sergei is part of the Russian mob or something. I was kidding with Amy after we got out that if we ever got ourselves into a Memphis mob that I would have to hire him as our driver. Amy said she felt like the little girl from the movie “Pacifier” when she jumps out of the van, falling to the ground screaming “LAND.”

The Burnetts were with him the day before and they told us that a black Mercedes pulled next to him and the driver lowered the window and pointed for him to get over. Instead of getting over he decided to run. They said the guy in the Mercedes started chasing him and honking his horn. Finally he pulled over and this very large man got out of the black car wearing a dark suit and square framed sunglasses. His jaw was shaped like a rock. He shook Sergei’s hand very firmly and they maybe had 4-5 sentences between them. After that he got in the car and took off. They just speculated that the guy was undercover or the mob. They were just glad he got back in the car and took them home.

Well Az was doing great again today. We had another good visit with him. We think that he has incorporated us into part of his daily routine and if we are late, like the day before, or something else he starts getting upset. This really makes us feel good. We have some new pictures that we will post with this blog. He was very curious during our visit. He likes to investigate everything. There is a small bike with training wheels and a motorized motorcycle that he is enamored with. He inspects every detail, but does not like to ride them.

The rest of the day went pretty quickly. We had made plans to go to dinner with the Burnetts. So we met them at 6:00 and went over to the Irish Pub. Just imagine Dan McGuiness in the middle of Pavlodar. The food was wonderful. It was only the second time Amy and I had eaten out. She had a really good grilled chicken w/ buttered potatoes and I had steak and potatoes with a cream sauce drizzled on top. We also shared a greek salad and the beer went down really well. We also shared desert which was pancakes and jam. These are not the regular flapjacks at IHOP or anything like that. These are crepes that are about 9 inches around and then folded. It was delicious!!!!

We were able to have some really good adult, English Speaking conversations. We finished the evening with Tom Cruise in “The Last Samauri”.

Tomorrow we will go see Az and then to the store for more food and stuff.

Paka
Love, Dave and Amy

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Pictures of Azamat







Thursday, April 26, 2007

Bonding Day #9

We had a good start to the morning with 2 phone calls from home. We got to talk with Mom and Payton and Mandy. It was great to hear from home. We miss everyone terribly and can’t wait to get home.

Today was a big visit day. The lady from the Guardianship of Care office came to visit with Az and us. She is the child’s advocate when we go to court. We were ready around 9:45 am but no one came to pick us up. Come to find out our driver forgot to get us. He finally came about 10:10am. Because he was late he flew all the way to the baby house. He was probably going about 70 mph but it felt like 100.

Once we were there it was about 10:30 so we lost 30 minutes of bonding. The visit with the lady was really just a formality. She has to make sure that we are a good fit for each other. While they waited for us Az, Tanya and the GOC lady were playing together. (Sidebar: Later that afternoon when I was talking with Jenny, she said that when Tanya brought Az into the play room he was looking around for us and had a confused look on his face when he realized that we weren’t there. This made us feel good to know that he was expecting us.) When we walked into the play room, he saw us and immediately got up and came right for us. I think this was the best part of all. Tanya took a picture with the four of us playing and the GOC lady was out of there. Tanya said that she just needed some pictures. Az was in a really great mood today. We did a lot of hugging, tickling which he loves, and playing. He just wanted to be with Amy and me today and not wander everywhere. It was a really good visit. They gave us an extra 15 minutes with him and when we took him back he really wanted to go with us instead of his group. He started crying when we left. It is getting tougher everyday to shut that door and go downstairs.

Because of all the commotion with our driver we did not get to see Jenny and Grove at the baby house but for just a second. We completely forgot to ask for the can opener. Tanya said that she was going by there anyway so we tagged along. It was a good thing too because they were having trouble with the DVD player and Grove needed help with his email account. Also, we were able to finalize our plans to go to the Irish Pub on Friday night.

After that we headed home for some lunch and to get the posts ready for the blog. We decided to go to the Tsum to look for more souvenirs and then on to the internet café.
After our outing we had dinner and watched a movie (surprise, surprise!!!)

Hope you all have a nice end of the week and weekend. Talk to you all soon.

Paka
Love, Dave and Amy

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Bonding Day #8
Happy Birthday, Dustin

I don’t know why I remember that but I do. Dustin is my Uncle Ron and Aunt Sue’s oldest. I think that he is about 25 – 26 but I may be wrong. Uncle Ron or Aunt Sue, after you read this please tell Dustin to have a great birthday and tell Lilly that Will is anxiously waiting to meet her. Lilly is Dustin and Mary’s daughter.

Attention all that live in two or more story buildings!!!! We learned the best way to get rid of unwanted furniture or appliances from a third story apartment. You simply pitch it off the balcony. This morning a man in the apartment building next to us dumped his broken refrigerator off his balcony. It made a terrible racket. We were surprised it didn’t crush anyone. I guess it makes it much easier than lugging it down the stairs.

Our visit with Az went well today. He was in a great mood. We decided to go outside and play on the playground. Even though it is about 80 degrees they still dress him like it is 40 outside. He had on three shirts and a fleece coat. While we were outside playing on the merry go round or putting him in the swing we discovered that he does not like the sunlight. Tanya suggested that this was probably due to the fact that these are his first trips outside. Last summer he was still too small to go outside and during winter nobody goes out with children. So he is just getting used to the sun and how bright it can be. I think we can rectify this when we get home. Our house has a lot of natural light compared to the area he lives in. There are some very small windows in his area and they are covered with blinds or shades.

We have also found out that because of his not liking the outside he is much different inside. When we are in the play room, his jovial side comes out quickly and he smiles a lot more. He is just more comfortable inside right now.

How quickly the hour flies when you are having fun. Today, we dropped Az off with his caretaker and for the first time he reached back for us. We are not sure if he started to cry but we hope that he didn’t.

After the visit we asked Tanya if we could stop at the mall so we could look for souvenirs and so I could buy a tie. That was the one thing we did not pack. This was a very large mall, it had 3 stories and there seemed to be a large bizarre behind it. Even for a weekday there were a lot of people there. After spending some time at the apartment we decided we would check emails at the internet café and try to find a can opener at one of the local stores. That’s right we have been opening cans with a knife. Unfortunately we did not find one, but Jenny and Grove another family adopting a little boy had an extra one at their apartment. We settled in for the night with veggie pasta, Kingdom of Heaven, and an episode of 24.

Paka
Love David and Amy

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Bonding Day #7
Zdrastvuytye!!!!!
Over the past three days we have gotten to talk with all of our parents. What a great way to start each morning. Thanks for all the calls, its wonderful to hear familiar voices.

Today marks the half-way point of our bonding period!!!! Only 7 more bonding days to go and then we can get a court date which could take a week or more to get. Keep up all the thoughts and prayers that everything stays on schedule.

Sergei picked us up this morning and Kevin, Trinia (the couple from Switzerland), and their two children were in the van. They are on the final stage of the process and are on their way to Almaty. It is good to see a positive ending for a great family. It helps us keep our eyes on the prize.

As we approached the door to Az’s room this morning we could her a child crying. We were standing in the foyer listening to all this and he comes around the corner and he sees Amy and he goes right for her. As soon as he is in her arms everything is better again. His caretaker said the he had been crying for at least 5 minutes because we had not come to get him. We went directly to the play room and sat down and just held him and told him everything was alright. I guess we are now part of his daily routine.

After all the drama was over he wanted to get down and play. Today we decided on a new strategy. Instead of getting the trucks out immediately we got out the teething ring, bubbles, coloring book and crayons. We were hoping to see if he would pick up the color and work with us on the coloring book. That was not in his plan. He went straight for the teething ring. His back teeth must be coming in because he has been slobbering quite a bit. So the teething ring was perfect.

After that he got into the blocks and was stacking them and throwing them or chucking them off the table. Amy got the bubbles out to see what he would do. He was very confused by the bubbles. He did not understand that all the little balls were disappearing and he could not hold them. He also wanted to be in everything. He went from one corner to the next searching for anything and everything. Nothing could really keep his attention today. The exploring started around the couch and we were just rolling in the floor. After all that it was time to take him back to his group. We were trying to clean up and get him ready and he got a hold of the See and Say Elmo toy that we brought. He did not want to let it go. So we let him carry it back to his group. Once there we were working with the caretaker to trade off the Elmo for something they had. He did not want any of that. He started crying and crawling up and down the hall. We asked if he could keep it to help the caregivers and they said it was alright. Amy picked him up and gave him the toy again everything was alright. After he was with the caregiver she put him on the floor to take him to eat or whatever and we were trying to leave. He kept following us to the door. They were trying to get his attention and take him on and he kept pulling towards us. Finally we had to close the door and we heard him begin to cry. We hated to leave him, but we know that there will come a time when he can go with us.

As for the rest of the day, we decided to take a walk by the river and spend a bit of time at the internet café. After posting on the blog we went back to the apartment for the same old routine (dinner and movies).

We can’t wait to get back home to see everyone and to enjoy the comforts of home.

Paka!
Love David and Amy

Monday, April 23, 2007

Bonding Day #6
Zdrastvuytye (this means hello) from Pavlodar,

We went to see Azamat this morning. He was in rare form today. When we went up to his room to get him all the children were going to the bathroom. The caretakers have them on a tight schedule. Amy poked her head around the corner to see Az reaching to pull the hair of a little girl. Then she stepped away for only a minute to tell Tanya and me what Az was doing and when she looked back he was trying to bite her shoulder. Amy couldn’t believe it and said his name in a stern voice. I guess we will have to remedy this problem at home.

Today, he was a lot more vocal and is becoming very interested in everything. His attention span seems to be decreasing daily. We are now playing with lots of things in one hour (blocks, cars, balls, riding jeep, etc.). He is getting much more comfortable with us everyday. I asked Amy after the visit if she is feeling like a mom yet. She said that she did when she had to tell Az “Nyet” (which means no) because he wanted to eat something off the floor. He did not like that answer and cried about it until something else got his attention. Amy asked me if I felt like a dad yet and I told her that I don’t just yet. But we are sure those feelings will come soon enough.

After the visit, we returned to the apartment to await the lady who was coming to clean the apartment. She was also supposed to bring us more towels, hook up the internet and fix the satellite TV, but we only got more towels. Thank goodness for the laptop and dvd’s. Wish we had brought more “Friends” dvd’s. We really got into the “Friends” show and have watched all that we brought. The afternoon was very quiet we did not do much more than the normal of playing cards and watching movies. Maybe we will get out a bit tomorrow afternoon. Talk to you all soon.

Paka
Love, David and Amy

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Bonding Day #5
Sunday is our one day that we do not go to the baby house, although we do get to count it towards the 2 week bonding period. So it ends up being the day we get to discover more of Pavlodar. We knew we needed to post some stuff to the blog so we made sure we had everything together to go to the internet cafe. After we posted we decided to take a walk down to the Irytish river. It was a very warm day and we had nothing else pressing to accomplish. Here along the river they have built 3 tiered sections for everyone to enjoy the sights. The first level is the sand beach and play area. There were some play areas for the children and there were chairs set out for the parents. The second tier was a great place for a walk. There is a pretty wide walking area that stretches along the river. Every few feet there are benches for people to sit. The third tier or top tier is another large are for people to walk and there were several vendors selling kites and things for the children to play with. There were also some fountains and plenty of places for anyone to sit. If you wanted to see the view you had to go all the way to the rail and you could see the river, beach, play areas, the other walkway and you could see parts of downtown. People and children were everywhere, riding bikes, flying kites, and enjoying the beautiful weather. Sunday must be their family day. This would have been a great place to take a picture but the batteries were dead. We will definitely take another walk to get picts.

After spending almost 2 hours at the river we came back to the apartment and had some great spaghetti with hamburger meat, onions and peppers. It was the best meal by far that we have had yet. We finished that day like everyday with movies, 24 or Friends. Talk to you tomorrow.

Paka from Pavlodar.
Love,
Dave and Amy

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Saturday, 4/21/07

Bonding Day #4

Today, we were picked up around 9:45 to go see Az. His group was outside helping the caretakers “spring clean” the streets and grounds of the baby house. Tanya our interpreter said that everyone in Kazakhstan is supposed to help clean the streets on this day. This goes back to the days of Lenin, who established day for all citizens to participate in spring cleaning of the city. During our ride to the baby house this morning, we did see people everywhere cleaning the streets and parks. Might not be a bad idea!

Back to our visit. The caretakers brought Az to us all bundled in his 14 layers and we decided to stay outside and give Az some practice walking. He did very well in his blue sneakers. He did have to stop and rest a couple of times. It was kind of cute. He would squat down and bent forward touching the concrete with his hands. I guess you had to see it. After our walk we went inside to play. We had to take off 12 layers of clothing (3 pairs of socks) just so he wouldn’t sweat to death. He decided to play with the legos, stacking them as high as possible, knocking them down, and then slinging them off the table. Thinking this was funny, he did this over and over again. It was dangerous if you were sitting around him. You had to keep ducking from getting hit in the eye.

The next toy he played with was the trucks. He is getting better everyday with pushing them to David. Also, Az likes to throw them instead of pushing them. I guess we have a ball player in the makings. He does not have much aim but there is some force there. He noticed some larger vehicles behind us and wandered over to check those out. He chose one that he could get on. We helped him on and his legs are just long enough where he can push himself forward and backward on this jeep. We did that for a while, just pushing him back and forth. Tanya said it was time to take him back to the room for his next scheduled item.

So when it came time to clean up and put everything away he got his temper out again. Amy picked him up to measure his feet and I started putting everything away. He did the typical bowing thing and flinging his head backward, typical of any kid that doesn’t want to stop playing. Once we got him calmed down we took him upstairs and said goodbye until Monday.

This day is a little different because we have a party to go to this afternoon. Normally we would get something to eat and watch movies until we passed out around 10:00, but not today. We got home and ate some soup and journeyed off to pick up some supplies for the party. We were in charge of drinks and we had to buy Tanya something for her birthday. We went to the first shop closest to us and they did not have exactly what we wanted so we went to the other one. The other one has more choices of candy and anything else we could pickup. I got a Coke and a Sprite for the drinks and Amy picked out a nice box of candy. With that accomplished we set off for home.

Amy got the presents ready for the party and we set off for Kevin and Trinia’s apartment. It only took us about 5 minutes to get there. Some of you probably don’t know this or have never realized this but it is a curse that afflicts some of us Halls. We always have to be early. The party was to start at 3:00 and we were looking at the building at about 2:45, so not wanting to be the first to show up we decided to sit on a bench in the courtyard, which was really nice. So we waited for about 10 minutes and then went upstairs to the party. As always we were the first to arrive. Being the first to arrive we were thrown into decorating duties. No big deal something to do to pass the time. Plus it gave us a chance to meet Kevin and talk with them for a little while. They are the couple from Switzerland (originally from NY) who adopted the 2 siblings. By the time Tanya arrived the house was packed. Everyone showed up including Tanya’s boyfriend Illiya, Svetlana and her daughter Masha, Grove and Jenny, Sergei, and of course Kevin, Trinia, Masha, and Igor. The food was great, the normal suck up food and Trinia had bought 2 cakes from Krindles pastry shop which were delicious. We ate so much that we didn’t eat dinner. We made it home around 6pm and fell back into the normal routine of watching movies until we passed out.

Hope to have internet in the apartment by Monday and have pictures posted during the week.

Paka from Pavlodar
Love David and Amy

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

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Pictures

We will be able to post pictures soon, our plan is to get internet this afternoon. If that does not work, Kim or Bobby, please forward instructions on how to post pictures to the blog from the internet cafe. We have the pictures on a flash drive.

Thanks,
David and Amy

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Good Visit with Az

We had to get up bright and early today to be ready to go see Az. They picked us up at 8:35 and picked up the Burnetts after that. The Burnetts are 5 weeks into their process and know the ropes. When we got to the baby house they dropped their stuff off and went straight to their son’s room. Tanya asked us if we knew where Az’s room was and we told her that we did not know. So we found our way upstairs to his room. We waited until they changed his clothes and he came marching around the corner all dressed up in a Spiderman shirt and red pants (how perfect, definitely takes after his dad). He saw Amy and walked right to her and turned around and leaned up against her. It was the first time that we thought he recognized us. We took him down stairs to the play room and played with the legos and we got one of the trucks that we had brought. Grandaddy, he really liked the truck. (HINT HINT) And, we found out that he has a tad bit of a temper. It was getting hot in the room and I cracked the door to get some fresh air. He saw the door and immediately got up and was heading for the door. I blocked his way and pulled the door closed and he did not like that very much and he expressed himself like most other children with a grunt and a cry. He also fell to the floor and bowed his back, but it didn’t last long. Well at least we know now that he has a temper. Anyway his momma calmed him down and we started playing again. Time flew by as always and his caregiver was there to get him.

This afternoon we plan to go the internet café and take a walk around the town. After that it will probably be dinner and movie time. That is all for now and we will keep you up to date better in the future. Tanya is supposed to help us get an internet card this afternoon so hopefully we will be posting and emailing more often.

Talk to you all soon!
Love, David and Amy

Wednesday April 18, 2007

Good News, Good News

The director was able to sign the approval letter this morning. We were also told that Nina the lady from the Guardianship of Care office did not find it necessary to see us. So everyone signed the appropriate forms and we were off to see our son. They picked us up at 3:30 and we got to spend about an hour and a half with him. He did not recognize us and started to cry a little when his caregiver left. He settled down pretty quickly when we got to playing with him. We recognized immediately that he had grown quite a bit and his hair was a lot longer and thicker. He can walk everywhere and has great balance. While we were playing he got down into a good catchers position and was playing with BIG legos. He also played a lot with one of those ring towers and you stack the rings on top of each other. He really loved doing that. We also noticed that he has a great attention span and he really didn’t say a word. Every sound was an adventure for him. While he was playing there were sounds of water falling through the pipes and cell phones ringing. He noticed every one and wanted to know what that was. He will have a lot to get used to back home. After that we left him and went back to Svetlana’s office to discuss our apartment and bonding period dates and possible court dates. The court date will be decided by the judge and could lengthen the process a bit. Grove and Jenny had to wait a week for their time. But Pavlodar also has a new judge that is getting used to the process. After all that we had a good spaghetti dinner and watched a movie.

Love,
David and Amy

Tuesday April 17, 2007 Another day of Waiting

We waited around all day on a phone call so that we could go see Az. Unfortunately the Director did not come in to sign the papers. So with that wonderful news we went to the grocery store. Tanya our other translator picked us up and took us back to the Gros. All of this is just mundane every day stuff. We did get a chance to talk with Claudia, Amy’s mom, and Rebekah. It was great hearing from family members. We finally got a call from Lena around 7:00 or so and she told us that she would call us in the morning with an update. So we settled in with Friends and 24 for the night.

Love, David and Amy

Monday April 16, 2007

Good Morning from Pavlodar

Well our first night on the couch was ok. Amy woke up several times during the night. I took another round of sleeping aid and I slept fine until Amy got up, but we quickly went back to sleep.

Tanya our translator called and said that Svetlana would pick us up about 10:30. She called back and it would be about 11:00, surprise surprise. Anyway they did pick us up at 11:00 and took us to the Ministry of Education. We met Jenny and Grove Burnette from New Mexico. They are adopting a little boy and they were going with us to discuss their court appointment on Tuesday. This was good for us to hear because it let us know some of the process ahead. We all met with the lady from the ministry together. Basically, she wanted to see us in person, record in the book that we were here and issue the approval to go to the baby house. This approval needed to be signed by the Director of the Ministry of Education, who had unfortunately lost his father either the day before or that morning. We would have to wait until she received his signature to take the next step. The next step was to have a meeting at the Guardianship of Care office and receive her approval.

After that the Burnettes along with Lena and Svetlana went to Svetlana’s office to work out the details for their court date. They dropped us off at a very nice Russian café. Now keep in mind on our first trip we never made it to a café for lunch or anything else. Also, we left our Russian translation book at the apartment. The only thing that we were told was that they had good fish and the menu was in English. We went upstairs to the café and found a place that is very similar to Big Foot Lodge back home by Peabody Place. Take out all the heads of animals and birds from Big Foot and put in some floor to ceiling trees that looked very real, some stuffed chickens and some very nice decorative wall designs and you are at our Russian Café. We were seated at a table by the window and were given the menus. We looked the menus over and found a chicken dish that was in a cream sauce with mushrooms, onions and either butter or olive oil served in a clay pot with a flat pastry layed over the top of the pot and baked in the oven. This was a very good lunch and it was so filling we did not have to eat dinner that night. After lunch we came back to the apartment and waited to hear from Svetlana and Lena about our permission to go to the baby house.

Hope to have some news soon. Love,
David and Amy

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Skype Works!!

Well we have made the first leg of our journey. We are in Amsterdam and waiting on our next flight to Kaz. Our flight was delayed by about an hour and a half due to lightning in Memphis. No big deal when you have a six hour layover.

The flight went much faster this time than the last. Maybe we are getting used to this. Still got movie butt on the plane but that is to be expected. A guy sitting next to Amy thought he knew us from somewhere. He and five others were on their way to Nigeria, Africa for a mission trip. He graduated from Millington HS in 95. I did not get his name but all of them were very interested in where we are going and our purpose.

Thanks again to Bobby and Kim, Skype works great. I just woke my dad up in Memphis at 6:22. It sounded as if he was only a block away.

Anyway, we are going to continue on with movie butt and get ready to fly on.

Have a great weekend.

Peace out,

David and Amy

Friday, April 13, 2007

We are at the Airport!!!!!

Hey Everybody,

It is 5:45 and we are sitting at gate B43 at the Memphis Airport waiting to board the plane. It has been a very busy two days since our last post. We have visited all of our family members and told them goodbye. We have packed everything we need and got our house ready to be empty for 6 weeks. We went to Mass this morning and Fr. Timby and everyone at the service blessed us to have a safe trip and that everything would work out fine. Thank you Fr. Timby, if this blessing doesn't stick I don't know what will.

We want to say thanks to everyone that has shared some scripture with us or that we have shared a prayer with. You just don't know how much all of it means to Amy and I. We are truly blessed to be doing this. We are very excited about bringing Will home this trip.

As we make stops along our journey we will make a point to leave an entry here, that way you can keep up with us. We look forward to hearing from you soon and posting from Almaty.

Love,

David and Amy

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

What time is it???

Pavlodar

T-Minus 3 days and Counting

I talked with Yakov today. He has our travel plans and has a hotel room booked for us. He also told me that we have 2 tickets booked to Pavlodar on Sunday nights flight. So, if all goes well, Amy and I will be waking up in Pavlodar on Monday the 16th. We are hoping to start the clock on the bonding period then and get some precious time with Az.

We are leaving Mempho at 7:15 pm Friday.

Stay connected because there will be more to see here very soon.

David

UPDATE: The weather in Pavlodar is warmer than Memphis today. What a shoker. Looks like they are starting to really get into spring. Highs in the mid 50's to low 60's. We will take that over 10 any day.

Monday, April 09, 2007

T-Minus 4 days and counting

We have finalyzed our plans to fly back to Kaz on Friday, April 13th. No bad luck here this is all good news. As you know we received our Confirmation Number last week. Our Visas are being completed and our passports will be FedExed on Wednesday. Time to pack the bags and get moving. These last 3 months have really gone by quickly. We have kept busy with work, family and friends.

I remember when Amy and I were discussing which country to travel to for the adoption. I remeber saying in December or January of 05-06 that I did not want to take two trips to any country. Oh well. I guess that the Lord had plans for us all along and we just had to ride along and not worry. What an easy thing to say after 17 months of doing this. I also remember talking with Christine back in January of Feburary of 06 and she told us, "Oh will have you back before the summer is over!" Should have known then. I also remember telling my boss that I might not get to go the Las Vegas on 10/29 - 11/2 because I would be overseas. And we didnt travel until Dec 18th and here we are again on April 13th going again. Maybe one of these days I will stop and listen to Gods plan and not mine. What is it my dad always told me, " SON, you have 2 ears and one mouth. So, shut up and listen." Thanks dad, for that prophetic advice. Thats funny because I told my good friend Nathan the other day that he had two ears, two eyes and one mouth, so he should See and Listen twice as much as he talks.

Well anyway, enough of this chatter we have a trip to get packed for. Amy will be off on Thursday and Friday and I will be off Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. If anyone wants to join us, we are going to 8:15 am Mass on Friday to see Fr. Timby and to get a blessing. Anybody that can is more than welcome to come.

Alright, well I need to get back to work. Thanks for all the prayers and please keep them up. Also, thanks to the Woodard Family for all the advice. Kim you have been more help than you know.

David

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Pack you bags baby!!!!!!!

We received our confirmation number last night. We are very excited and are waiting to start the process with Panorama travel to get our Visa's processed. They open at 10:00 am and I will be the first call they receive. We dont really have a time frame of when we will be leaving. We are looking for the best flight that is available. So whenever that is we will book those tickets.

Please keep up the prayers and thanks to everyone for all the support. I will update as soon as I have more info.

chow,

david