March to the end

Our visit with Chloe today was great. I think she’s ready to be home with us. I also think that she is really close to walking on her own. She can balance for a bit and is really good at taking steps when assisted. Mee and I bought her a pair of little pink shoes which fit great and more importantly looked good. We weren’t sure if she would tolerate shoes, but she seemed to like them just fine. She’s used to wearing about five pairs of socks at a time anyway.

After our visit, we went to the Tsum again. On the way there we saw this great Kaz wedding taking place. I got this picture for you, but I had to endure this “super stink eye” from the bridesmaid. We’re getting pretty good at shopping and getting around with our limited Russian but this time we had Marina with us and she was able to get us some discounts – something that I was not able to accomplish with my limited linguistic skillz. After the Tsum we went to the internet café where we managed to update the blog on the quick and check some email and have a half-caff latte apiece. No, not that last part. I don’t know why they call it a café. No coffé to be had, sadly.

The last thing we did was go to a Turkish run restaurant that featured “American” style food. We ordered pizza, which was either pretty good or we were just glad to eat something that didn’t have cooked cabbage in it. (Nothing wrong with cooked cabbage, we’re just a little tired of it.) It looked like they also had pretty decent hamburgers. Maybe we will give those a go next time.

If our plan holds, we will be retuning to Almaty on Wednesday and starting our trip back to the U.S. early Thursday morning.

Ouch!

This morning we said goodbye to Ali and Maribel and I for one have a bad case of the blues. The bond formed living with them for three weeks, twenty-four hours a day, in a foreign country, going through one of the most wonderful but strange and stressful situations we will ever endure is immeasurable. They are wonderful people and will forever be a part of one of the biggest moments of our life.

Chloe was just the thing needed to help me get over my blues. It’s fantastic how every other ache and pain fades when she is with us. If only I could find a way to bottle it, I would make a bajillion for sure.

To deal with the residual depression, Mee and I went shopping. To the Tsum! It’s a good battle cry. We did pretty well on our own; I even tried to haggle with a woman on a price. I didn’t get any movement, but it was fun to try anyway. It seems that as long as you are good-natured and make an honest attempt at Russian, most people are very patient and helpful.

Another Big Day

We are using the internet cafe today and we are having a bit of trouble with the photos. We will be sure to get some photos up as soon as possible.

Today our cottage mates (Ali and Maribel) went to court for their son Jaden. After some minor drama the decision was made and they officially became parents twice over. They said that the judge was a very nice woman and that’s great news for us because we will see the same judge when we have our court date. This also means that today is our last day with Ali and Maribel and while we could not be more happy for them to be getting back home and a step closer to their ultimate goal of being home with their babies, we are dreading life in Kazakhstan without them.

Our visit with Chloe today was a bit different since we didn’t visit with her yesterday. Alas, she was an angel. I know we have said this already, but she seems to be getting more and more comfortable with us each visit. In fact she’s been consistently great, and that is all there is to say about that.

Another Kaz Holiday

Today was Nauryz (Nor-eeze), which we have since learned is not so much a Muslim new year celebration, but more of an ancient Oriental holiday that has something to do with a new year. The truth is that the only thing that attending the celebration taught us was that our original information was incorrect. So while we don’t really know what it is, we know what it ain’t.

The festival itself is quite … festive. They closed off some of the major streets so that horses and donkeys and people could run amok. On the main square, they erected a couple dozen yurts and another street was filled with kabob stands. Mee and I had some scrum-dilly-icious lamb kabob. It may have been the best we’ve tasted so far.

We also made our way to the green market or bazaar. It’s the bazaar that really illustrates that you are in a completely different country with a completely different culture. It’s a colorful, raucous, raw, unadulterated three ring circus of activity. In one section you can purchase Russian pop CDs and just across the way, a whole pigs head (freshly butchered), fresh fish from the back of a Lada, or knock-off Calvin Kleins from a tent. There are old ladies selling fresh milk (possibly horse milk!), eggs, pickles and plastic shopping bags.

There was no visit with the niblet today. I found myself suffering from CWD (Chloe Withdrawal Syndrome). I have no idea how we are going to function for the couple of weeks that we will be away from her. I may need a shot or two and something to bite down on.

My computer makes no beeps and boops

Things are still going well here and it looks like everything in on track. Today our cottage-mates went for their second court hearing for their son Jaden and they are now the proud parent of two Kaz kids. Please congratulate them at leilaandjaden.blogspot.com. We'll miss them very much and wish them the very best.

In a related story, our cottage-mates are heading back to the states tomorrow morning and they kind of want to take their computer with them. I know, how selfish. What you probably don't know is that the modem in my computer is not working so our posts from here out may be a bit sporadic (please, no comments on how sporadic they've been to date). Please bear with us and we will do our best to post more pictures and updates.

Zac and Mee

Parenting 101

I’m beginning to think this parenting thing is pretty easy. I don’t know what everyone is complaining about. You play with your baby for a couple of hours and then when she starts to get cranky, hand her off to the help. Seriously, we are anxious to be responsible for her for more than just two hours a day. It’ll be easy right? Up ‘til now we haven’t even done as much as a baby sitter would do. We sit with her for a couple of hours each day and play and that is about it. I suppose we should count our blessings, in a couple of weeks she will be all ours and our first experience with her will be that of 24 hours of air travel back to states. How does it work on the plane? Do the flight attendants take her? Do the other passengers help? Maybe the pilot will change her poopy diaper? They’ll have more room in the cock pit, won’t they?

Tomorrow is the celebration of the Muslim new year and so it will be the first day in the last three weeks that we will not see our baby girl. We have some activities planned – site seeing and a parade or something – but right now I am feeling pretty depressed about not seeing Chloe for a day. I guess we will have to pore through the hundreds of photos we’ve taken. Not the same.

More miscellaneous cuteness

Here are some photos from the last couple of days. Things are going exactly as expected. We hope to be fininshed up and back home (sans Chloe) end of March, then we will return for her about two weeks later (mid April) if all goes as planned. Keep your fingers and toes crossed.

z

Hey, this is Mee. I habbed a code, den I habb a allergy addack, eddow I thig I'b cobbing dowd wida flu. I keeb rubbig da baby od by face, trying to bage byself feel bedder but it doesn seeb to be workin and she was a little sig too and ... Hey! W waid a bindut here ...


(Please feel sorry for me. It's the only thing makes me feel better right now. Oh, and the baby too of course.)

M

Three-week growth spurt?

We’ve been here almost three weeks and we can see Chloe growing before our eyes. A couple of days ago we met with the head pediatrician and she described Chloe as a blossoming flower, that she could see Chloe coming out of her shell since we’ve been visiting with her. Maybe she says this to all the families but we don’t care, it was good to hear.

As for her “growing before our eyes,” I don’t want everyone getting their undies in a bundle. Mee and I are taking extreme measures to stunt her growth (foot binding and the like) until she comes home, that way she will still be little and cute for all of you. It’s really best for all that we do this, but mostly we do it for the aunties.

The last few days we’ve had great visits with Chloe. She went through a spell when she would test us by being grumpy and sort of rejecting our attention. But now either she’s coming around to us or Mee and I are getting better at parenting. She really seems to like us and is even a bit sad to see us leave after our two-hour visits. It’s about time.