2.15.2005
Meeting the Children
The day we have been waiting for has finally arrived! We started the day by sitting down with Gulzhan at the lawyer’s office to go over paperwork and scheduling. We learned that we’ll be here for a national holiday on March 8, Women’s Day. It is similar to our Mother’s Day, but here they close for business that day. Because of this they may try to schedule our court date before the holiday, and even though we may be able to leave a day or two early, at this point we’ll probably stick with our March 19 departure date.
We then took an hour-plus drive to the little town of Esik. Once we were out of the city of Almaty, the landscape was wide open and snow covered, and as we got closer to Esik, you can see the snowy mountains on the horizon.
When we got to the baby house we were taken to a bright room where the children play and spend time making music and singing songs. We met the baby house director and learned that a little girl in Paige’s group just broke out with measle-like symptoms, so we will not be able to visit with Paige and Justin at the same time. They don’t think Paige will become sick, but they do need to keep her at the babyhouse for at least 11 days to be sure it isn’t incubating.
We then paced around the music room waiting to meet Justin. We could hear the caretakers calling his name out in the hall and couldn’t wait to see him. Next thing we knew, one of his caretakers was standing at the door holding him in her arms! He looked like Justin, but so different. He was smaller than we imagined, and he had a full head of dark hair! And that serious little face . . . so intense! We spent about an hour with him, showing him some of the toys we brought for him, giving him animal crackers and Cheerios, and just kissing and hugging him and trying to bring out a little smile. Not so easy . . . he’s going to warm up to us in his own time, and we’re going to need a lot of patience and persistence to break down the walls he’s built up. It didn’t help that we met him at his scheduled nap time, plus the poor little guy is recovering from the flu, so he’s got a nasty cough and you can tell he feels lousy. He fell asleep in Chris’s arms, and then a caretaker took him back to his group.
Next they brought Paige to us. What a little charmer!! Right off the bat she was all curiosity, smiles, and laughing. Within five minutes she was “daddy’s little girl” and she was just so easy to kiss and squeeze and watch her react. We showed her some toys and a teething ring, and she jumped right in, touching all the toys and putting all of them in her mouth! She also fell asleep in Chris’s arms and we said goodbye for the day.
Gulnara then drove us to the infamous Ram Store, a shopping mall where you can buy everything you need. We picked up an I-Card for Internet access and some groceries, and headed back to the apartment where we looked forward to adding an entry to our blog. No such luck! Due to technical difficulties, we could not log on to the Web. So frustrating not to be “connected” especially on the other side of the world when you’re counting on it!
We then took an hour-plus drive to the little town of Esik. Once we were out of the city of Almaty, the landscape was wide open and snow covered, and as we got closer to Esik, you can see the snowy mountains on the horizon.
When we got to the baby house we were taken to a bright room where the children play and spend time making music and singing songs. We met the baby house director and learned that a little girl in Paige’s group just broke out with measle-like symptoms, so we will not be able to visit with Paige and Justin at the same time. They don’t think Paige will become sick, but they do need to keep her at the babyhouse for at least 11 days to be sure it isn’t incubating.
We then paced around the music room waiting to meet Justin. We could hear the caretakers calling his name out in the hall and couldn’t wait to see him. Next thing we knew, one of his caretakers was standing at the door holding him in her arms! He looked like Justin, but so different. He was smaller than we imagined, and he had a full head of dark hair! And that serious little face . . . so intense! We spent about an hour with him, showing him some of the toys we brought for him, giving him animal crackers and Cheerios, and just kissing and hugging him and trying to bring out a little smile. Not so easy . . . he’s going to warm up to us in his own time, and we’re going to need a lot of patience and persistence to break down the walls he’s built up. It didn’t help that we met him at his scheduled nap time, plus the poor little guy is recovering from the flu, so he’s got a nasty cough and you can tell he feels lousy. He fell asleep in Chris’s arms, and then a caretaker took him back to his group.
Next they brought Paige to us. What a little charmer!! Right off the bat she was all curiosity, smiles, and laughing. Within five minutes she was “daddy’s little girl” and she was just so easy to kiss and squeeze and watch her react. We showed her some toys and a teething ring, and she jumped right in, touching all the toys and putting all of them in her mouth! She also fell asleep in Chris’s arms and we said goodbye for the day.
Gulnara then drove us to the infamous Ram Store, a shopping mall where you can buy everything you need. We picked up an I-Card for Internet access and some groceries, and headed back to the apartment where we looked forward to adding an entry to our blog. No such luck! Due to technical difficulties, we could not log on to the Web. So frustrating not to be “connected” especially on the other side of the world when you’re counting on it!
# posted by kaztree @ 8:00 PM 
