The Start of the "Lasts"

Victory Day was over and everyone was back to work today. Several weeks ago we had anticipated that today would have been our court and “Gotcha” day but alas we would have to wait until Monday. So instead today we would prepare for our 20^th day of visiting Joseph in the baby house. But to put a more positive spin on it, today Laura announces that this will be our last Wednesday at the baby house! This is true as we will pickup Joseph on Tuesday of next week. So Laura will now officially keep us up to date on our “lasts” of things!

This morning’s visit was good with Joseph as he was looking like he was feeling better. There were no new spots and the newest ones that were there, seemed like they were scabbing over so he is likely no longer infectious and on his way back to health! We did much more playing today and even did some belly time. Yes, we have become excited when he spends time on his stomach – sounds ridiculous but it has not been his favorite thing to do except when getting his massage! One of his favorite games has been playing catch with one of the blow up balls so we did some of that as well. Besides taking inventory of the backyard, a few raspberries being blown on his belly and chewing on his bumble bee teether, there were no new happenings to report. At least until he got a bit cranky near the end of the morning visit. As we said yesterday we are thinking about how he is going to do if he gets like this with 17+ hours of flying time ahead of him. To test out our emergency procedures, Laura broke out the vibrating teether! Yes this seemingly boring yellow star is something Laura read about on the adoption website as being a must have. After searching many stores before we left, she found it and brought it especially with the plane ride in mind. Here is a photo of Joseph and his yellow star. When he squeezes down on it with his teeth, it vibrates and that puts him into this semi-frozen state. The room is silent, he has stopped babbling and all you hear is this “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” of the vibrating star. Joseph keeps making it work and has this deer caught in the headlights look on his face – very funny to see. We are keeping this star available for the plane ride home for sure!

After we said our good-byes we headed back to the apartment and then walked to the Atrium for some grocery shopping. On the way over we decided to hit one of the cafeterias we heard about from the other couples before they left. It was a very small place just off of the promenade. It had maybe 12 tables for sitting and then a cafeteria line about 15 feet long where we made our selections. We recognized the pieroskies and pointed to three of them just to keep with our standard diet of such foods. They also had a selection of beef, chicken and some sort of ground meat patty. What we went for was a rice and beef dish which was very good! We loved it. We tossed in two bottles of water “bes gas” (non-carbonated) and a Kit-Kat bar and checked out for the low low price of 510 tenge! That is about $4.18! I think it took about one mouthful before the both of us said we were coming back again! After we watched what people did with their trays we hightailed it out of there, grabbed some groceries and headed back to the apartment. It was a great day for such a walk. We really hit Kazakhstan at the right time for weather.

On the way into the baby house this afternoon Olga got a call from Olga (II) and confirmed our travel plans for us. We can leave from Uralsk on the direct flight to Almaty on Friday May 19^th and then leave Almaty for Chicago on May 24^th arriving into O’Hare at 10:27 am! This was great for us as just yesterday I had asked Anthony via email if he would contact our travel agent as I had not heard from him about needing to change our tickets. Well in normal Anthony style, he handled it so quickly and professionally it was a done deal via his Blackberry before we could even think about it. For those of you who don’t know, I have known Anthony since we were in elementary school and he is always been there for me and my family. Since Anthony contacted our travel agent I have received three emails from our agent about our travel plans!!! Thanks Anthony! This all was welcome news for us and so we had an especially good time with Joseph.

Joseph was in a good mood when he came in and as I greeted him we could tell he really wanted to play. He was looking pretty street in his UofC outfit especially in this photo with his Dad! He had fun sitting up – which he gets better at each day – and also on his belly. Today we went back to the Ukranian CD for kids which we brought with us and saved Neil Diamond for the end of the session. He is very interested in sounds and music in particular. He likes to stare at his CD player too and will attempt to lift it on occasion. As for toys, all three of us are getting a bit bored with the limited number we brought with us and even a couple we have purchased since arriving in Kaz. This afternoon we pulled out the baby house’s truck and blocks and he seemed especially interested in them as you can see here in this close up. After the truck and blocks, we played ball, did some more backyard inventory and then gave him a bottle of apple juice for our cool down time of the afternoon. After saying our good-byes Laura said it is getting tougher to say good-bye to him each time – she is so right. We packed up our gear and headed out with Olga to meet Igor.

The only stop we needed to make was for diapers and then we were home to work on dinner and laundry. We have been doing very well as far as eating is concerned and tonight was my turn to cook. Tonight it was chicken, carrots and rice which turned out well considering our lack of equipment and spices – but we are easily pleased. Laura handled the laundry and our Bosch machine with all instructions in German. It is teeny tiny for sure but she conquered it with flying colors. It should be noted that it takes about 70 minutes to complete a cycle! The drying part takes a bit longer. Although the washing machine is in the kitchen, the drying apparatus is conveniently located outside of our bedroom window…right outside…on our enclosed sun porch…the four lines for hanging out clothes! The photo shows the whole operation with our recently laundered clothes! The location for fabric softener has not been confirmed so we know we will have to deal with some hard, but clean clothes.

As the day comes to a close Laura usually reads while I struggle with the internet connection and the blog. We are trying to get to bed before midnight so that we are rested for Joseph and our daily walks around Uralsk. The laptop has been great not only for blogging but also for watching DVD’s. The other night we watched a classic Dick Van Dyke Show in bed and perhaps tonight a movie. On most nights, like last night, we can be found in bed reading. As there are no bedside lights we have each taken to reading our books by other means. Here is a photo of Laura making the most of my camping head lamp! I was originally mocked for my request for this light for my birthday (or was it Christmas) but thank goodness my dear sister-in-law Amy listened to me. This headlamp has gotten a great deal of use at home, in the woods and in Kazakhstan! If you don’t own one you should! So that is about it for our LAST Wednesday at the baby house…tomorrow our LAST THURSDAY!
Da zavtra!
(Just a reminder to send us your comments and that you can click on the photos to enlarge them!)