Home: Week one

We promised to update the blog after we got home, but we distinctly didn’t promise exactly when we would update. We’ll try to do Sunday updates
When we were reading adoption blogs before our trip, we always thought it was a shame that people immediately stopped updating when they got home. “Gee, can’t you just spare a few minutes to let us know how it’s going?” To all those people, I apologize. Real life in the US doesn’t stop while you are away for 6 weeks, it just stacks up in an enormous pile awaiting your return. I opened mail for four days, and filled one huge trash bag with junk mail.

We’re miles away from a routine, but we are making some progress toward “normal”. Jack and Julia are taking in their new home and life in Colorado in with remarkable composure. The first trip to the grocery store and Wal-Mart had them a little wide eyed at the beginning, but they seemed to quickly accept them as the way things are.
The best thing about the US is that they have parents here.

They were pretty impressed with Home Depot because it had so much stuff and a self- checkout. We went again today and I let them scan the items we bought. They had seen me do it a few days earlier, but I had to explain that the bar code was crucial to this bit of magic, and if it wasn’t pointed toward the laser, it wasn’t going to work. It’s been fun figuring out what they do and don’t know. We reasonably expect kids who grow up in the US to experience the same things that we do and in a somewhat linear order. The combination of growing up in Kazakhstan and growing up in an orphanage has left some gaps in their experience that makes every day an adventure. They’ve had to learn how to open aluminum pop cans and use a straw in a Mcdonalds drink cup—they had never seen either one before. We have been very impressed that they are very quick learners and don’t make the same mistake twice.

Kids must have an “electronics gene” no matter where they are from. Jack and Julia figured out Gameboys almost instantly in Taraz, and the Gamecube took about 20 minutes. When we got home they were struggling with the computer mouse on the desktop system. I thought it was kind of odd, because they did pretty well with my laptop in Taraz. Then I realized…. that they are both left handed and we’ve got everything set up for righties.

We’re really glad we didn’t get rid of our old educational computer games, because Jumpstart Kindergarten Reading is coming in real handy. Most basic phonics programs rely pretty heavily on the kids already having a full oral vocabulary, but they’re picking up the words as we go along. Julia may not know what the word “fog” means but she knows how to read, pronounce and spell it. Since we’re in Colorado, we may have to show her pictures of fog on the internet.

Communication is odd at this point, but surprisingly effective. We speak English, they speak Russian and we understand each other pretty well. We’ll ask them questions in English, they’ll reply in Russian and everything makes sense. I’ve started asking for responses that I understand in “English, please”. If I understand that ice cream is “marozhinay”, they understand that “marozhinay” is ice cream. They are in that gap between understanding a word and actually having the confidence to try to use it in a sentence. We’re going to start emphasizing usage right away.

Meals are a learning experience for everyone. We may have to resort to an Excel spreadsheet for ranking food tastes and who likes what dish. Jack and Julia’s tastes tend to run toward non-spicy stuff. Part of the problem may be dental problems—Jack winces every time he eats anything cold, so he’s either got really sensitive teeth or some cavities. The report from the orphanage dentist said he had a “tooth stone” in a few molars. We don’t know if tooth stones are cavities or fillings, and no one could tell us what that meant. We should have them on our health plan this coming week, so we’ll try to get them to the dentist and see what’s up.

April 16--Home at last

We're having an enormous glass of fresh milk, writing from the comfort of our own home with our own hi-speed internet connection when we're done we are going to sleep in our own magnificently comfortable bed with its' 14" mattress. Life is good.

The kids did a quick tour through the house and pronounced it "oching harashor" (very good). Our Pug dog Zoe has risen to the challenge and is working hard to make two new people love (and feed) her. We weren't home ten minutes before she brought her favorite toy ("The Precious") to Julia to play fetch. She also made a power grab for the apple slice that Julia was eating, but Julia was too quick for her.

The airplane rides went well. Both kids thought that they were pretty cool machines and we got oohs and ahhs with every new feature. The tray table and flip down TV screens were very impressive. The crew spoiled them on the leg from Almaty to London, since it was their first flight, and by the time we got to London they were stuffed with food and loaded up with goodies . We were pretty impressed with British Airways.

We overnighted in London at a *really nice* Holiday Inn near Heathrow. After the Almaty hotel, it was like heaven. Hot showers and normal beds never felt so good. The Denver trip was uneventful, and it was a huge relief to be back in the US.

We'll update some more tomorrow, if we can figure out when tomorrow is.

April 14--plotting the escape

What a great day--it's raining, but our bags are packed.

The hallmark of an adoption is waiting punctuated by intense flurries of activity--you rush to complete the home study and the dossier, send it in and then wait for the LOI. Then you quickly get visas and book plane tickets and the days drag until you can leave. You see the kids in the orphanage and then wait for court, wait for passports, wait for visas, then wait some more. The worst bit of waiting that we've had to do is the post-adoption wait. It is far worse than the pre-adoption waiting for one reason: We've gotten what we came for, and there's absolutely nothing we can do to speed up the process. The kids have gone from an environment that was intensly structured to one that is impossible to structure--hanging out in a hotel room with none of the comforts or resources of home. What they really want to do is get to Colorado and start their new life. We've started to transition to "normal" with our new family, but that only goes so far when everything about your environment is transitory. Basically, we've worked really hard to stay busy any possible way that we can, taking walks, working on English, going to malls and doing a little bit of sightseeing. Our coordinator and interpreter have been helpful, but it turns out that it is really hard work to stay busy when you in fact are killing time.

The good news if that we have all the documents we need and a departure date that we are actually going to be able to keep. Jack and Julia's plane tickets got kind of messed up and we've been working for 4 days to get them corrected. It's tough to get problems resolved when your travel agent and airport agent don't see eye to eye and are on opposite sides of the globe. It's 12 hours apart and somebody is always off work or sleeping!! We think they're OK now, but it's come to this.....we're leaving, even if we have to buy two tickets and sort out the carnage when we get home. We'll overnight in London and continue our trip to Denver on Saturday. A night on a real bed in London will be a nice break between 10+ hour plane flights. If the hotel has 1" foam matresses on top of a sheet of plywood, we all may just break down and cry.
The Hotel in Almaty had these unique devices of torture and sleep depravation, and everyone is feeling a bit bruised. It really made us appreciate our beds in Taraz.

We'll update again when everyone is home.

April 10

Almaty at last!
The train ride was pretty uneventful. The 4-berth sleeper cars that we rode back to Almaty were not quite as comfortable as the 2-berth 1st class sleepers we took to Taraz. It’s amazing how much more comfortable a 3 inch foam mattress is when compared to a 1.5 inch foam mattresses. We didn’t happen to get the so-called “Spanish train” either direction. The railway has a few really nice new trains that they bought from a Spanish company, and one of them periodically runs the Almaty-Shymkent route. We got the “Old Soviet train”, which looks pretty tired but still gets you where you need to go.

We took Jack and Julia to the SOS clinic for a set of pretty darn expensive immunizations before our appointment tomorrow at the US Embassy. Basically, the US assumes that any immunizations gotten anywhere else are suspect (old vaccines and diluted dosages are common in many places) and requires kids coming over to be re-immunized. They were regular troopers and took their shots in stride. I’ll bet they’re going to be sore tomorrow.

New thing of the day—escalators. The “Tsoom” store in Almaty has escalators, and by the looks on the kids’ faces, this was a first. Once we got the concept that the “up” escalators are opposite the “down” escalators, it was time for four or five highly entertaining rides. Everyone was in favor of escalators—all the stairs are the same height and if the power goes off you can just walk to finish your trip. It’s fun to see things that we stopped noticing long ago through the eyes of those who are experiencing them for the first time. Wait ‘till they see the moving sidewalks at the Denver Airport.

April 9

(Cue the Music to the Hallelujah Chorus here)………Ok, now hum it with me…. ” Aaaalelujah …..Aaaalelujah…..mumblemumble….Lord God Omnipotent reineth” Ok, that's all I know, but I'm pleased to announce.....
...The best news of the past two weeks --The kids' passports and exit visas are finally here, and the immigration police have approved our departure from Taraz. We leave on the Sunday night train to Almaty and will start the paperwork process with the US Embassy. We're pretty confident that they are not going to shut the Embassy down for 4 days to go to a conference in Astana. At any rate there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and we’re happy to be moving toward it. It may be an oncoming train, but at least it’s something different! Everyone here is ready to get back to Colorado. We have airline tickets to depart on the 15th, overnight in London and return to Denver on the 16th. Of course, we’ve had plane tickets before (several sets), but we’re pretty confident that this is a date when we’ll actually be able to get on the plane and come home.

By the way, there’s no entry in Spellcheck for “reineth”, so I apologize if it’s misspelled. I guess that word has kind of fallen out of favor with the hip-hop crowd.

We went bowling again and took Jack and Julia’s sister Irina. She had never been bowling before and had a great time. It continues to be cold in Taraz, so it was good to be able to get out and not have to walk in the cold.

The next phase of the trip involves a hotel stay in Almaty, so please forgive us if we don’t update the blog as often. We’re trying to get a place with in-room internet access, but we’re not sure if that’s going to happen.

More musings on Taraz:
Don’t assume that the elevator stops all floors, even if there is a button for that floor. We kept wondering why folks in our apartment building would get out of the elevator and then head directly for the stairs. The elevator only stops at the 3 or 4 floors of the 9 floor building. We’ve pretty much decided to take the stairs after our last “trapped in the elevator” episode. There are no emergency phones in Kazak elevators and no emergency lighting either. You shout in the dark and hope that someone will help.

Taking the stairs can also be a challenge. They don’t appear to do the math on staircases before they start building, so the staircases end up with a landing, 5 steps with 8 inch risers, one step that has a two inch rise, and another landing. The stairs at the museum were especially interesting because every third step was also twice as wide as the rest of the steps. It was pretty amusing to watch all the Americans in the family stumble and bumble our way up and down three flights of stairs. We’re accustomed to just going up the stairs, and in Kazakhstan you have to really concentrate on what you’re doing.

Never step on a manhole cover. It may look heavy and substantial, but there’s a decent chance that it will actually operate like a revolving trap door. They’ve probably got dozens of foreigners wandering around in the sewer system, looking for the elevator.
Russ

Bleeding from the eyes at the Playground of Doom. 

The Playground of Doom

We have a playground at the apartment that when new (in 1988, according to the date written in concrete), was a tribute to the grand tradition of Soviet physical fitness. It hasn’t had much maintenance since. In true Soviet style, it has all the components necessary for play, but they are just not…quite…right. The monkey bars, for instance, are pretty ingenious—they’re circular shaped, have gymnastics type rings around the outside and ladder type bars to the inside so that you can go around on either apparatus. They also appear to have been designed for actual monkeys, because they stand about 11 feet off the ground. The kids have to climb up a ladder to get on, and if they run out of steam before they get all the way around they have a 5 foot drop to the ground. It was designed with motivation in mind…”Either tough it out or live with shattered arches.”

The swing sets have no swings on them, and it’s probably a good thing because they are set close enough to each other to make mid-air collisions between opposing swingees a real possibility. Judging from how everything else is made, I can predict that the original swing seats were 6 pound welded steel monsters with pointed ends and bits of scalp and hair stuck to the bottom.

Most suburban playgrounds in the US are deep mulched with either recycled rubber or smooth wood mulch, so Jr. won’t hurt himself when he falls off the swing. Here, it’s just candy wrappers, plain old hardpack dirt, and a little broken glass thrown in as incentive to help you decide to keep your shoes on.

The slide is a metal unit that will sear the bottom of any kid who dares to use between late spring and winter. Summers are hot—we were told that Taraz averages 40 days over 40 degrees C (about 104 F). You are bound to suffer serious blistering if you’re wearing anything less than asbestos pants. One of the safety rails is bent up into eye poking territory for smaller kids, and the bleeding eye theme is carried through the sculptures that dot the playground (see photo).

There also an architectural feature that serves no purpose other than to look threatening. It’s 3 big, rusted steel pipes that stick out of the ground and come to a ragged, but sharp point about 8 feet in the air. Luckily, it is too high for real harm, but it does make a statement—a statement like “Prepare to be skewered, ye who enter here”.
Maybe that’s where they hide the bodies when things go wrong.

The best thing about the playground is that dozens of kids use it every day, have a great time and go home without permanent damage. Our American kids even like it. Our Kazak kids are accustomed to this sort of thing, and I am anticipating some eye rolling when they hit the reality of our ”helmets, knee and elbow pads” requirement for U.S. childhood.
Russ

April 6

Mind Teaser for Today
Into how many pieces will a hard boiled Easter egg with a shrink wrap design on the outside explode into if microwaved for 1 minute?

Well, this morning Vasya found the answer – millions! Microwaves are not common in homes here so this may be the first one they’ve seen. We’re going to have to enforce the following rule: “Mom or Dad must see what you’re about to place in the microwave BEFORE you place it in the microwave”. Thankfully, our microwave at home is a microwave/hood combination over the stove and they’re both so short they’ll need a chair to put anything in it. The movement of the chair should tip us off that something may be about to explode or catch fire.

More snow today. It only accumulated on the rooftops and the grass. Unfortunately landscaping is not a high priority here so there’s not much grass. Last evening the sun came out at sunset and we saw the sun shining over the tops of the buildings again. That’s such a beautiful sight. We hoped that was a sign that the clouds were moving out and we’d have clear skies today, but it was completely cloud covered again. Vasya told us tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and +7C. He said it’s -5C now. I don’t know Celsius like I should, but that’s a 12 degree swing in the opposite direction so that must mean it’ll be warmer tomorrow.

We walked downtown to the square and ate lunch at the Gazovik. Very good food! I highly recommend the chicken noodle soup on a cold day. And I’m not sure what kind of tea they serve but it was the best Kaz tea I’ve had so far.

Speaking of tea, we’ll use the last PG Tips tea bag tomorrow. A moment of silence, please.

The kids think I’m crazy, but I’ve been sneaking up on birds trying to get some pictures for my parents who like to watch birds. There are several small birds with very unusual markings. People look at me pretty strangely so bird watching must not have caught on over here yet.
Wendy

April 5

Another cold, snowy-rainy day here in Taraz. It seems ironic we had so many warm days before they turned the heating system off. Now that it’s off, we’re getting snow. Oh well!

We stayed in the apartment most of the day, but did venture out around 1pm and walked over to Tsoom, then to Globus and Rasbeiva on a search for souvenirs. We know the best place to purchase them is over in Almaty, but the kids enjoy shopping for them and it gives us something to do. At Rasbeiva, we ran into Beth and Ken from Interlink. Always good to see some friendly faces who speak English!!

Lunch was hot dogs or samsa from the street vendor. I’ll miss the samsa, they’re really good. On the way back to the apartment, Vasya and I got brave and rode the elevator. We’ve found that weight plays a major role in the elevator’s functioning. 6 people equals too much weight, 2 or 3 people at a time and it seems to work perfectly. That also leaves witnesses who can go for help if it stops working!

Sara stopped by this evening with some games for us to borrow. We left the games we brought with us at the orphanage and she was kind enough to loan us some to help pass the time. We also watched "The Incredibles" in Russian, tomorrow night is "Home on the Range".

Still no passports, not sure when we’ll get them. At this point we know we won’t make our Sunday flight.
Wendy

Someday I hope to find out where all the dogs are going. There are several strays around here and every one of them appears to be on a tight schedule. There are 2 who show up at the building across the street every day at 7:00am sharp. They stay until around 10:00am and then they’re off for their next “appointment”. When we’re walking around town, we’ve noticed the dogs are always on a fast paced walk to what appears to be a predetermined destination. They don’t just meander around glancing here and there. They seem to follow a preset route and they’re always moving, quickly. They’ll get to a corner, make a sharp turn and follow that street, or suddenly turn down an alley. It’s amusing to watch.

April 4

We woke up to snow! It snowed most of the morning but didn't accumulate. By early afternoon it was raining, so all the mud is back!

Since it was so cold, we just stayed in the apartment today. We did venture out to the Gross Market to buy a few things this evening, including another DVD is Russian so Vasya and Julia have more selections. We were able to find "The Incredibles" in Russian (that should be interesting).

Still no passports for Vasya and Julia which also means no exit visa. So we're still here in Taraz. Moshenbweet Zaftra (maybe tomorrow).

Wendy

April 3

Today started out a beautiful, warm day. We went to the Knauss’ house for lunch and an Easter Egg Hunt. All the Interlink families were there and with our family that made for a large group. The kids had a great time coloring easter eggs with crayons, food coloring and shrink wraps. A cold front moved in and the temperature really dropped about the time for the hunt so we held it indoors. The wind started to blow and we watched as a neighbor’s home almost had the roof blown off.

Later in the afternoon it started to rain and was much colder. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow’s weather will bring. We had a great time visiting with everyone and got back to the flat around 8pm.

Wendy

April 2

It was another beautiful day in Taraz. We don’t know how warm it was but it was warm enough for short sleeves and shorts – wish we’d brought some! Even our interpretor took off her coat this afternoon when we walked to the museum. That’s how warm it was!

At the museum we learned the ancient Kazakh people took the word “headstone” literally and their grave markers were carved to look like an individual. The museum is full of these stone sculptures and items from the soviet days. It was very interesting. We only spent 1 hour there but if the descriptions had been in English, we could easily have spent much more time. The museum does offer guides (and we’ve heard there’s a tour in English) but no guides were available today. We still had a good time.

We stopped at the San Prize restaurant for dinner. They have a very nice selection on their menu but were only serving pizza. So we had pizza. It was OK, not nearly as good as the pizza at Damdez. We will never get used to corn on pizza, which happens to be a standard topping here.

We had a nice walk back to the flat, stopped at a shop for a few pastries and got in the elevator. It moved slightly and the power went off. Yes, all 6 of use were stuck in the shower stall elevator in the dark. We managed to pry the elevator’s doors open and kick at the doors on the building, calling for help. When no one came, Russ was able to release the locks to get the building doors open. We were about 5 feet off the ground of the 1st floor. We lowered Vasya out of the 2 foot opening, then Julia (with the help of a local Kazakh girl who happened by) then Russ went out and helped the rest of us out. It seemed like an eternity, but we were only trapped for about 5-10 minutes. We’re decided that even though it’s 8 stories, we’re taking the stairs from now on. The power came back on, only to go off later in the evening. We did hear the elevator working later so they must have gotten it going again.
Wendy

April 1

Today was overcast with a few drops of rain. The “natives” became quite restless in the morning so we decided to walk to Damdez for lunch. When we got there, it was closed so we went for plan B – Bosfor. It’s on a side street off the square, so quite a walk from the flat, which was just what we needed. We enjoyed a nice lunch for all 6 of us for $14. The low price of eating out continues to surprise us.

Vasya met a friend who lives here and went to play with him for a few minutes this afternoon. We asked him to be home at 5pm. Shortly before 5, we heard the elevator running and wondered if it was him. Then the lights went out and the elevator stopped. I looked at Russ and said, “I wonder what the odds are that Vasya was in the elevator”. We went out to the hall and heard him hollering: Mamma, Mamma! Yep, you guessed it, he was stuck in the elevator (the size of a small shower stall) in the dark.

Luckily, the power came on after a few moments, but the elevator wouldn’t start. I was beginning to wonder what to do next because that elevator has been down for a day or two at a time. Russ went down to the 7th floor and pushed the button and a man came down from the 9th floor and he ran back up and did something too. The elevator started again and when the door opened, a little boy ran out of there and wrapped himself around my waist. He opted for the stairs when we left the building again. Later that evening a lady came around to all the flats collecting money for the elevator. We gladly chipped in our 200 tenge! ($1.75)

The kid’s passports didn’t arrive today so it looks like it will be Monday before we’ll receive the passports. The next step is the exit visas and then we can leave for Almaty. It looks like the earliest we’ll leave here is Tuesday evening. We’re really disappointed because we were hoping to leave for Almaty on the Saturday evening train. But we’re going to try to make the best of it by seeing the museum and some other sights we’ve missed during our stay here in Taraz.
Wendy