Here We Go Again!

I am writing this post while sitting in the Red Carpet Club at DIA (did I mention that being a frequent flyer has its privileges?). We are headed off to Almaty again - this time to go pick Bryce up and bring him home! Our travel route is a bit less direct this time. We fly from Denver to Detroit, Detroit to Frankfurt, and then Frankfurt to Almaty. Our flight to Detroit leaves at 10am Saturday, and we will not land in Almaty until 10pm on Sunday night. We will barely be in Almaty long enough to recover from jet lag, as our trip is less than one week long. On this trip, we pick Bryce up from the Baby House, take him to the medical clinic, and take him to the US Embassy for paperwork, and I think that's the main adoption things we need to do on this trip. We will probably do less sightseeing on this trip, seeing as how we will have a 1 year old in tow!

You might notice the pictures posted today are pictures of Frankfurt. When were we in Frankfurt? On our flight home last time, we have a 7 hour layover in Frankfurt. Rather than stay in the airport for 7 hours, we went into the city to explore. It turned out to be a great idea. The train station was directly underneath the airport, and it was only a 20 minute train ride into the city. We got off a a stop called Konstablerwache, which put us in the middle of a big shopping district. The only down side was that we arrived in Frankfurt at 6:15am, so there was not much going on. But by the time we left around 10:30, stores were opening and there was a large, wonderful farmer's market to browse around. We sampled some great apple cider, and Chuck had a traditional wurst. For dessert, he visited the konditerei (bakery) for some German pastry, yum. It was a great thing to do! This probably won't happen this time around. Since Bryce will be traveling on a Kazakh passport, I think he actually needs to get a visa to enter Germany, which complicates matters some.

The past three weeks have been extremely busy. We had a lot of preparation to do, lots of baby things to buy, but I think we are finally prepared at home......well, as prepared as we are going to get at this point. But he has a place to sleep, a stroller, a car seat, a high chair, and numerous accessories, so I think we have the basics covered!

We will write again once we get to Almaty.

Toni our greyhound and Bryce's big (dog) sister. 

In the train station on the way to Frankfurt....it wasn't as confusing as it looks! 

Building in Frankfurt. 

Chuck enjoying a wurst at the market. 

Happy Adoption Day!

It’s official! We are thrilled to announce that we are now officially the parents of Bryce Timur Martin!! We went to court this morning, and it was surprisingly quick and painless. The proceedings were in the judge’s chambers and included us, the judge, a prosecutor, a secretary, a representative from the Ministry of Education, Jamilla from the Baby House, and Gulbanu who acted as our interpreter. After some brief opening statements, we were asked a few questions such as our names, how long we have been married, and our occupations. Sometimes the judge makes the father give a speech, sometimes they do not. Chuck had a speech prepared just in case (and fully expected that he would have to give it), but he did not need it. The prosecutor asked us a few more questions about how long we have been married, our date of arrival into Kazakhstan (for which we presented our boarding passes – Exhibit A, I guess), the number and length of Baby House visits that we made, how we selected Timur, whether or not he could walk, were we aware of his medical conditions and would we be able to provide health care, and asked to see our photos. After that, Jamilla from the Baby House read his medical record, and the Ministry of Education representative gave his recommendation. Then the prosecutor had the chance to ask us more questions. She did not, and she also gave her recommendation for the adoption. Finally, the judge approved the adoption, hit his gavel, shook our hands, and Bryce Timur was ours!! The entire court hearing probably took about 15-20 minutes. It went more smoothly than even the agency expected.

After court we went to take some pictures – not outside the courthouse, but in front of Parliament. The courthouse was under repair, and not a great place for a photo. We also purchased an Almaty newspaper so Bryce would know what was going on in the world on his adoption day (although it’s in Russian). Later on, we visited the Baby House for the final time on this trip. It was a very good visit. Bryce had been cranky yesterday, but he spent today’s visit playing and laughing. Our flight home departs at 3:20am. We get picked up to go to the airport around 12:30am. It will be very difficult to leave for 3 weeks, but at least we know that Bryce is getting very good care in the Baby House. After our 15-day waiting period, we will come back during the first week of May to get his passport, and pick him up to take him home.

Tonight’s dinner was at the Glen Pub, and we highly recommend it to anyone visiting Almaty. We had an excellent meal (although a little pricey), and the atmosphere was nice.

Obviously, court is the biggest thing that has happened recently. We spent yesterday visiting the Baby House, and getting briefed for what was going to happen in court. Our visits, of course, went well. Bryce was a bit cranky again from his teeth we think, so we are learning all sorts of ways to distract a cranky baby. The weather cleared up a bit yesterday – we got some great snow pictures in the morning, but nearly all the snow had melted by afternoon. Last night, we also went back to Tsum to buy some more Kazakh items including a hat, a miniature yurt, a painting, and a mouth harp. We will probably get a few more things during our next trip.

We will post a quick entry when we get home and will pick up where we left off after our 15+ day intermission! Thanks for following along!

After court! 

Snow again in Almaty. 

Bryce in a baseball hat. 

Winter in Almaty - Again!!!

Oops - wrong caption on the photo below. Guess I'm getting ahead of myself!

The past few days we have experienced winter in Almaty again. It was raining on Monday, and the rain turned to snow on Tuesday and Wednesday. It has been snowing all day today, and there is quite a bit of snow – a few inches on the ground. Because of the weather, we have not been doing very much besides our Baby House visits.

It’s really hard to believe that we only have a few days left here on this trip. We leave for the airport 12:30am on Saturday morning (or Friday night, depending on how you look at it), which essentially means we have two more days!

Yesterday’s Baby House visits were good, as usual. Bryce did a lot of talking and continues to enjoy playing with his blocks and his books. Yesterday afternoon he was dressed in some kind of warm zip-up sleeper type of outfit. We felt sorry for him. It was obviously a bit small, and he had trouble moving around. We didn’t dare take it off, as the Kazakhs believe that babies must be dressed warmly, and we didn’t want to get in trouble. Between visits, we took our film to get developed. For court, we need date-stamped pictures showing that we visited Bryce at the Baby House for 14 days. The pictures turned out very well. We also stopped at a café for laghman (noodles), which were good on a cold day. Last night for dinner, we went out to a restaurant called Mad Murphy’s. It was an Irish pub. I think all adoptive families in Almaty must go there at least once, and it was really strange because everyone in the place was speaking English. Our verdict – food was OK, but a bit overpriced compared to what we have had elsewhere.

Today Bryce seemed to be catching a cold, and he was a little bit cranky. Or maybe he was teething…..now we see about 4 top teeth about to appear. Or maybe it was a bit of both. Still, we had fun visits, and we think he is making progress. He is definitely a fan of Cheerios, and ate quite a few during our visits today. Today between visits we went out for lunch at a Kazakh restaurant – laghman for Chuck and chicken bishparmak for me. Then we went shopping at Tsum for souvenirs. So far we have bought matroishka dolls, a little yurt filled with 10 little wooden people, and an Almaty area map. We will have to go back for more – maybe tomorrow.

Tonight we went out to an Indian restaurant with another World Partners family. It was the first night we were out with other Americans and it was great! They are headed out to Uralsk tomorrow for their adoption.

Tomorrow will be another big day – 2 visits and then we get briefed about what court will be like!

Thursday's visit! 

A Road Trip - and 2 Visits

Today was visit #14! It was also the start of us visiting twice per day - at least for today through Thursday. On Friday we go to court, and on Thursday some time we will learn all about what we need to say and do while in court. I've been asking the other families at Baby House #3 who have been to court what it was like, and they say that it was not too bad. Some of them said it only took 15 minutes. But somehow, I think a room full of people sternly speaking Russian might be a little daunting even if Chuck does all the talking. In between visits today, we went to the agency's office and filled out lots of paperwork - some in Russian and some in English. Some of the Russian paperwork was probably stuff that was necessary for court. The English documents were Bryce's passport application and immigration paperwork that will go the US Embassy. Lots of signatures!

Today's visits were good, and it was wonderful to be able to visit twice! We visited from 10:30am to 12 noon and again from 2:30 to 4:00pm. Bryce was really active during both visits and did a lot of crawling around and standing up (and very little crying which we were happy about). He also did a lot of babbling - we think he does more at every visit. Maybe our running commentary during our visits is paying off. He is making all sorts of noise, and it is nice to see progress which we feel we have seen in the past 2.5 weeks. Today's toys of the day were his books, and we read both of them quite a few times. He is fascinated by the pictures and by turning the pages which he is learning to do all by himelf. Today we also gave one of the Baby House doctors 1500 tenge which will be used for Bryce's passport photos.

It is winter in Almaty again today. It started snowing last night and snowed through this morning. But yesterday was about 70 degrees and sunny. Andrei, our driver, took us on a road trip. We left the city and drove north about 100km to the Ili River valley where there was a big climbing/hiking/biking area and 800 year old petroglyphs of Buddha. Driving, both in the city and out of the city, is an adventure. In the city, traffic laws are definitely loosely obeyed. Out of the city, the highway had huge potholes, and drivers had to be alert in order to avoid tire-eating holes. Once we got there, we spent most of the afternoon hiking. We hiked along the Ili River to the Buddha petroglyphs, and hiked all over the rocks, watching climbers and mountain bikers. It was a beautiful place (although we were a bit disappointed to see so much litter). We were kind of amazed to think that the Ili River flows out of China. On the way, it passes through Lake Kapshaghai, a 100km long reservoir. We drove by the reservoir, and it was huge and very blue-green. The area outside Almaty reminds us a lot of the area outside Denver. Almaty sits at the foothills of the Tien Shan mountains, but once you start driving north the land is a flat as a pancake, dry, and with few trees - similar to eastern Colorado.

After our return home, we ate dinner at the Soccer Bar and had a great pizza. Then a huge windstorm kicked up so we returned back to our apartment to watch a DVD. We brought 4 movies on DVD with us, and they have been a great alternative to TV sometimes! Today it was back to traditional food, and we sampled more laghman (noodles) for lunch. Later this week we will start thinking about souvenirs to take home with us, as we don't have that much time left to buy them.

Climbers at the rocks along the Ili River. 

Visit #14! 

Buddah petroglyph along the Ili River. 

Visit #13, Bishparmak, and Gorky Park Revisited

Busy day today! And hard to believe that a week from today we will be well into our 15+ hour flight home. We visited the Baby House once today, from 10:30am to 12 noon. When we arrived at Bryce's Group to pick him up, the entire group was up and in their crib - all 7 of them. His group ranges from some babies that are less than 3 months old to Bryce who is just over 11 months now. We took Bryce upstairs to play for the morning. He was babbling a lot to us today. He must have had a busy night to tell us about. We played with blocks, read some books, and fed him some Cheerios. He seems to like Cheerios. He also practiced standing again. We don't visit on Sunday, so the next time we will see him is on Monday. But all next week, we will have 2 daily visits. We are looking forward to that! On Monday we will also go to the agency office to fill our more paperwork - I'm guessing that this set of paperwork has something to do with our court appearance. We are tentatively scheduled to go to court on Friday - we'll know for sure next week.

After our visit, it was lunchtime and we headed to the Dastrakhan restaurant for some more traditional Kazakh food. This time we had a dish called bishparmak (spelled phonetically, but probably not correctly). Bishparmak is a dish of meat, onions, and broth served over noodles. I (Barb) really liked it, but I think Chuck favors laghman and some of the other dishes we have had so far. We visited another big market after lunch. It had stores that mostly sold clothes, shoes, toys, and furniture. The place was huge! I can't imagine shopping there!

Since the weather is great today (another sunny day with 70 degree temperature), we walked over to Gorky Park this evening. To our surprise, the amusement park rides and food stands were open and the place was packed. We walked around a bit and went on some rides (not quite up to US standards, but we survived). We went on the ferris wheel for a great view of the mountains and the city. Then we swung on what I have been calling a "Kazakh swing" - a big two person swing that can really get moving (see photo). We also walked over to the lake and boated on a paddleboat. There was only one set of pedals, so I (Barb again) was the horsepower while Chuck steered. It was lots of fun and a great thing to do this evening!

Afterwards, we walked back to the apartment for dinner and some Foodmaster ice cream cones for dessert. Everyone sells plastic wrapped vanilla and chocolate ice cream cones made by a company called Foodmaster. They are great and sell for only 35 Tenge. Yum!

The "Kazak swings" at Gorky Park. 

A funny face for today. 

Bishparmak - the Kazak dish of the day! 

A Change of Pace and Trip to the Zoo

Well, this morning Chuck mentioned that he was a bit tired of the same old routine every day. He was in luck. Not one half hour later, the phone rang. It was Jinara, from the agency. She told us to be ready to go in 10 minutes - we were going to the Baby House at 10am. We visited today between 10am and noon. Today was the day that we had our questions answered - Jinara met with Bryce's caregivers to find out more about him. We learned all about Bryce's schedule, personality, likes and dislikes, etc. We also found out more about his group in the Baby House. He is one of 7 in his group. He is also the oldest of the 7 by a few months. This probably isn't aiding his development any, but at least it is temporary. The caregivers say that he is a calm and serious boy, and he seems to be a Baby House favorite because of his sweet disposition. We would agree! We also learned about what he eats, and it seems his current diet includes formula, eggs, ground beef, vegetable puree, juice, and cereal. Also, Jinara asked the Baby House director if we could visit twice per day, so starting Monday we will be visiting for 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon. Monday, Bryce will also be getting his passport photos taken. Progress!

For today's visit (#12), we spent some time outside on the swings. After a while, Bryce obviously wanted to get down (no way we were going to let him play in the dirt), so we took him inside. We shared a room today with a couple from Spain who were also adopting a little boy from the same Baby House. There was much more activity in the Baby House in the morning than in the afternoon. It was amazing how many people stopped by to say hello to Bryce (aka Timur or as they call him as a nickname Timushka or Timka). We spent the time playing with blocks - the current favorite game is still knocking things over. We are also proud to report that Bryce seems to have mastered the skill of slapping me (Barb) five. He continues to babble to us in Kazakh.

After our visit, we ate lunch at our apartment and then spent the afternoon at the Zoo Park. The zoo was huge, with all sorts of animals, although the habitats were not up to US standards. We walked around to see everything and also paid 30 tenge more to go inside a reptile house where we saw snakes, spiders, lizards, and bats. Out of everything we saw at the zoo, the birds were the best and most extensive. We saw bald eagles, golden eagles, vultures, and all sorts of birds native to Asia.

We ate dinner at home tonight and had rice and leftover Chinese food. We ended up going to a Chinese restaurant last night where we got way too much food! We stuck with the basics, although the restaurant offered frog (they were sitting in a big tank at the front of the restaurant), eel, snake, and intestines. After dinner tonight we walked up to the Ramstore to go grocery shopping. Since it's raining, we will probably call it a night, knowing that we will head back to the Baby House to visit tomorrow morning.

A camel (available for riding) at the zoo park. 

Inside today for visit #12.