Other Americans!

Today was a pretty low-key day. Our driver Andrei was getting his Land Cruiser serviced today, so we spent the morning walking around the city. We walked up a street called Ablay Khan. To me, Ablay Khan seemed like a shopping district. We walked a number of blocks up to Tsum, which is a big department store with electronics, clothes, and (very importantly) Kazahk souvenirs. We plan on coming back next week with Andrei to buy souvenirs. Tsum is unlike the typical American department store in that the merchants are willing to bargain a bit - and though we have picked up some Russian, it is definitely not enough to bargain with. We would like to get Bryce some souvenirs from his home country - a book, a wool miniature yurt, matroyshka dolls, a dream quilt, traditional Kazakh hat and shoes. Outside Tsum is an outdoor market (kind of like Quincy Market). The highlight was rows of paintings - oils and watercolors of the mountains and scenes of Kazakh life. More stuff to come back and buy next week.

Today's walk was also fun because we were using Andrei's GPS (since he has the same model that Chuck has at home, Chuck has promised to teach him how to use his Garmin eTrex). We found out that we had walked about 9km total. Not bad for a morning walk. We also used the GPS to guide us home towards the apartment, although we know our way well enough that we really didn't need it. On the way home we bought a banana from our local fruit stand. Yes - a single banana. We meant to buy more, but evidentally didn't get out point across correctly.

This afternoon, we headed out to the Baby House for visit #11. Since it was such a nice day (in the 60s and sunny again) we took Bryce outside and decided to swing on the swings (which he seemed to enjoy). While we were out there, we met another American couple from Indiana. They were adopting a 13 month old boy from the same Baby House, and they had just been to court this morning. We compared notes about our experiences in Almaty so far. It was very nice to talk to another American adoptive family. They are the first we have seen in our two weeks here, although supposedly there are a few more World Partners families who have arrived in Almaty recently. For those of you who don't know, World Partners Adoption is our adoption agency, and we have nothing but good to say about them. Everything has been excellent so far. For our 1.5 hour visit, we mostly swung on the swings and talked with this other couple and their son. Probably not very exciting for Bryce, as he fell sound asleep, but he looked comfortable. He is definitely a laid back kid. After visiting him for 11 days, we figure that's just his personality. So far not very hyper about anything. Of course we realize that may change dramatically once we get him home. We will just have to wait and see.

It's about time for dinner, so we will write more tomorrow. Tonight we will go somewhere, just need to decide if we're in the mood for traditional Kazakh food or something more modern.

The zodiac fountain at the Academy of Sciences near our apartment. 

The three of us at the Baby House #3 playground. 

Mountain Exploration

It's hard to believe that our second week in Kazakhstan is rapidly coming to an end - and that only 3 weeks ago we received our travel dates. I wasn't even home when we found out with 9 days notice that we needed to be in Almaty on March 18th! I was out in Tulsa teaching classes and just happened to check my voice mail at lunch to get the news. What a surprise! I had to tell my class what was going on, or they would have thought their instructor was a real space cadet.

We have settled into somewhat of a routine here. We wake up around 7am and eat breakfast while watching the news. Our TV gets a number of English stations (thank goodness), so we tend to watch Fox News. By 9 or so we head out, either on our own for a walk or with our driver. We normally stop back at our apartment for lunch before heading out to the Baby House for our 2:30 to 4pm visit. Then we go back to the apartment and sometime later take a walk. Sometimes we go out for dinner - we have been going out to various restaurants on average every other day.

Today was a very exciting day, however. Andrei, our driver, picked us up at 9:30 this morning for a trip into the Tien Shan mountains. We drove about 10-15km up a rugged, snowy 4X4 road up a river canyon. Luckily, he had a vehicle that could handle it (Toyota Land Cruiser). We drove up to Big Almaty Lake, a natural lake which had been dammed as a reservoir. The entire river channel was manmade, in fact. There are a lot of landslides in the foothills outside Almaty, and there are a lot of precautions taken for flood and landslide control. The views were absolutely incredible! Similar to Colorado, but the mountains were much steeper and more jagged overall. Had we followed the road only 90km farther, we would have been in Kyrgyzstan. Although Almaty is about 250km from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan we have not seen any of their political unrest here.

On the way down from the mountains we stopped at a cafe called Saule and ate lunch outdoors. Today's menu was shashlyk - ie shish kabob (we had chicken, lamb, and beef liver) with onions marinated in vinegar, manti, tomato and cucumber salad, a blini (pancake) with cheese, onion, and potato, and tea with milk. Yum. But those of you who know me (Barb) well know that I only ate the chicken shashlyk. I'm really brave with all the rest of the food, but not so much with meat!

Then it was on to the Baby House for visit number 10. We were a bit disappointed that we were shorted today! At 3:45, someone came into the music room and must have told us that it was time to leave. A few minutes later a group of about 15 3-year olds marched in for what must have been their music class. Our visit today was good. Bryce was in a much better mood than he was yesterday, and we noticed that his nose was not running like it was yesterday. He was also very vocal. We're sure he was telling us the story of his life - again in Kazakh so we weren't sure what he was saying. Today we did a lot of knocking down the water bottle. He is getting to be an expert at various techniques for knocking down water bottles. We also fed him more Cheerios and tried to teach him how to use the sippy cup we bought for him. Unfortunately he could not figure that one out. I think he only drinks out of a bottle so far. He is also trying to stand, so we practiced standing a bit too. We think he will be standing by himself before too long. He definitely seems a lot more comfortable with us that he did at the beginning. That is one of the benefits to the 14 day bonding period - he will know who we are when we take him home on our second trip. And he definitely knows and recognizes all of his caretakers. Judging by the way he is attached to them, we feel that he is getting good care at the Baby House. We hope our visit is not shorted again tomorrow!

That's all for today. We'll let you know what's going on again tomorrow.

Bryce wearing his sunglasses during today's visit. 

Tien Shan mountains over Big Almaty Lake. 

Laghman (yum)

If the title of today's post seems rather cryptic, that's ok, we'll explain. Today for lunch we discovered another traditional food of Kazakhstan and Western China - Laghman. Laghman are thick, handmade noodles similar to udon noodles. They are served in a spicy sauce with onions, peppers, and beef. Andrei, our driver, took us to a cafe for lunch where we had laghman, bread, and tea. It was delicious - and inexpensive. The three of us ate for 1100 Tenge. At 131 Tenge per dollar, that was under $10! Most of the traditional foods we have tried have been good, although we have not tasted the horsemeat sausage yet. But today we tried a traditional Kazakh drink made from sprouted wheat and milk (maybe fermented, I couldn't tell) and I have to admit that is was not our favorite!

Today was visit number 9 at the Baby House. Bryce was definitely a little bit cranky today, but his nose was running nonstop. I think I (Barb) very generously gave Bryce a special gift from America - a cold! Hopefully he will not be sick for very long. I have no idea if they give kids any sort of cold medicine at the Baby House, althought I sort of doubt it. Today we decided to try to feed Bryce some Cheerios. They definitely seemed to be a hit - he was trying to eat them through the bag once he discovered what they were. We're not quite sure what he eats for his meals. We think it's probably some sort of cereal.

At some point during our time here, we are scheduled to have a meeting with the orphanage director and an interpreter in which we can ask about things like his schedule, likes/dislikes, what he eats, etc. But until then, we will just have to guess. No one at the Baby House speaks English. Most speak Russian, and some may only speak Kazakh. We are picking up a little bit of Russian which has been very useful - Barb is thrilled with the similarities between the Cyrillic alphabet and the Greek alphabet and has been able to sound out most words. This is a helpful skill when we are presented with Russian menus in the cafes! We have not tried to learn Kazakh. We think Bryce understands what's being said to him in Russian. When the caregivers talk to him, he pays attention quite intently. Of course, at his age he should quickly learn English. He is doing a lot of babbling, so maybe it won't be too long until we hear some real words in whatever language!

Other than the Cheerios, our visit was pretty routine. We played with the toys that we brought with us, took pictures, and practiced standing (Bryce, not us) since Bryce had on shoes instead of slippers today.

Outside of our visit and the laghman lunch, today we visited the Family Park. The park was newer than Gorky Park that we visited yesterday. There was a display of old Soviet military vehicles (a helicopter, armored personnel carriers, a jet, and a tank), a small zoo, amusement park rides, and an aqua park. There were also lots of trees and flowers. It looked like it would be a fun place to visit in the summer. We also visited a clothes market - shoes, clothes, houseware, all sold at stalls outside - and a sporting goods store (kind of like a small scale Bass Pro Shops). Sporting goods seem very expensive here. We saw a Coleman cooler for $400 - that might be $50 in the US.

It's about dinner time.....since we ate in last night, tonight we will probably go out. And since we had traditional food for lunch, we will probably have modern food for dinner. I think we will head out to a restaurant called the Patio. A local chain, but they have wireless internet (bonus!).

Bryce in the music room during today's visit. 

Chuck and an armored personnel carrier at the Family Park. 

Bryce and Mom during Tuesday's visit. 

Winter in Almaty!

It's been a few days since our last post and the weather has really changed! Our first week here it was around 60 and sunny every day. Then on Saturday it rained and on Sunday it snowed. Today (Monday) it is still snowy and cold. We went for a long walk this morning and Chuck is still cold. Our driver Andrei says he will take Chuck to the Arasan Baths - a traditional bath house - to cure him of the cold. As for me, I think I had all the bath house experience I needed when I visited Hot Springs, Arkansas. We are having the chance to experience many seasons in Almaty within a few weeks!

Today Bryce is 11 months old! Also, today was visit #8 - more than halfway to the 14 visits required before petitioning for our court appearance. Of course, who's counting? Our visits on Saturday and today (no visits on Sunday) went very well. Bryce definitely has an idea of who we are now, and today he smiled when his caregivers handed him to me (Barb). He continues to have fun trying to stand up, playing with blocks, reading books, and driving his car. Today's fun also included knocking down our bottle of water. Today was the first day that Bryce was at all fussy. We think he was either tired or teething. He has 2 teeth on the bottom and we can see 2 teeth erupting on the top too. We'll have to find some teething biscuits. But in the meantime we tried the trick of distraction and it seemed to work OK. We are quickly finding out about toddler disposition and how they can change from happy to crying in about 2 seconds flat! He continues to be active and seems to crawl around more on each visit. He also continues to figure out the toys that we brought with us. What was new to him last week is old hat now! Really our visits are getting to be pretty routine, but never boring. We just wish we could visit more often - 1.5 hours per day is not much!

Other than our visits with Bryce, on Saturday we visited the museum of Kazakh musical instruments in Panfilov Park, where we had a guided tour (the tour guide spoke about 15 languages, I think) and saw a variety of traditional Kazakh instruments such as the dombra. Our tour guide also offered a concert of traditional dombra music. We had lunch from the food stalls - plov (see photo), manti (steamed dumpling filled with meat and onion), and pastries for dessert. After our Baby House visit we went to a grocery store called Silk Road City where we bought bread (borodinski), salads (carrot salad and rice noodle salad), and pierogies for dinner. They were all very good - especially the bread.

It was snowing on Sunday, so we did not do much. We visited the National Museum. The museum chronicled Kazakh history from prehistoric times to the present. There were especially good exhibits about traditional Kazakh life - traditional dress, art, even a yurt. We also visited an archaeology museum, although that one was very small - most of the artifacts were moved to Astana, the country's new capital. That was about all we did on Sunday, although we did go out for a unique dinner at the American Bar and Grill. It was quite novel to eat dinner at a stereotypically American-style restaurant in the middle of Kazakhstan. The burgers were pretty good, though!

This morning before our Baby House visit, we ventured out into the cold to walk to Gorky Park. The park is huge and has a movie theather, amusement park rides, a lake with paddle boats, and I'm sure more. Not much was going on in the winter weather, but it looked like it would be a beautiful place in the summer with all of the trees and flowers! On the way back to our apartment, we stopped at the food market for a doner kebab. Yum.

Another day in Almaty! We'll update again soon.

Bryce and Dad on Saturday's visit. 

A kettle of plov - rice with carrots and lamb. 

An Adventure Outside

I think we managed to post some pictures today. Unfortunately I haven't yet figured out how to include them in today's narrative. Something to keep working on in our next 2 weeks here, I guess.....

Today's visit was an adventure outside. For the past week that we had been visiting Bryce at the Baby House, we always visited in their music room. However, today they were having some sort of concert in the music room. So Bryce's caregivers gave him an extra jacket and sent us outside. The Baby House has a playground outside, including a small pavilion. We walked over to the pavilion to see that it was occupied.....sort of. There were 3 or 4 cute (but wild) puppies. They ran away as soon as they saw us.

Our visits with Bryce have continued to be fun. He seems to recognize us when we pick him up in his nursery. He is part of Group 1 at the Baby House. We're not quite sure how many other babies are in his group. We pick him up in a play room that has a big playpen in it, but we only ever see one other baby there. In the back room there are about 9 cribs. He continues to babble to us (in Kazakh, of course). Lately he has been doing more crawling around (especially if he wants his favorite toy which seems to be our digital camera), and he seems to like to stand if we are holding him up. We are of course still experimenting with ways to make him laugh, as he has the cutest little smile (mostly gums with 2 teeth on the bottom). Today's hit was holding him up in the air and "flying". We brought a selection of toys with us from home. The car and blocks seem to be the most popular and he enjoys playing with them. Wish we had brought a few more, but I guess we can buy some here....or create a few on our own. He is also having fun with a zip lock bag full of cheerios.

Other than the Baby House visits, we have been doing more sightseeing. Yesterday, we took a walk over to St. Nicholas church, which was another Russian Orthodox Church. We also visited the national geology museum, only 1 block from our apartment. The mineral specimens, which were mostly from Kazakhstan, were excellent. Today we visited the Kazakh equivalent of Home Depot - a few building supply stores (at Chuck's request, of course). It was interesting to see the different types of products (plastic baseboards that were hollow for running wires behind, for instance) available over here. We also visited the national art museum where there was an extensive exhibit of Kazakh art, both traditional and modern. We are also enjoying just walking around. Almaty is a great city to explore by walking!

Bryce in the music room. 

Playing outside for today's visit. 

Happy Nauritz (Kazakh New Year)

Wow, it is Wednesday already! We have a lot to write about since Sunday's post. We have had 3 more visits with Bryce since we last wrote. Each day we see a little bit more of his personality unfold and he seems to recognize us better every day. We've been able to make him smile and giggle, and today he was quite conversational. Unfortunately, his thoughts were so profound that we couldn't understand them. I think he was babbling in Kazakh! He is a very curious boy and watches everything. We bring a bag of toys with us to the Baby House each day. None of them seem as interesting as Chuck's digital camera, but sometimes we can get him away from the camera and playing with blocks and books. He seems to be popular with all of the caregivers at the Baby House. Today, many of them stopped by to say hello to him and he greets them all with a smile. He obviously knows who they are! Today was visit 4 of 14 visits. On day 14, we petition for a court date which is tentatively set for April 8th.

We only visit the Baby House for 1.5 hours each day, so we have lots of time to explore the city of Almaty. Yesterday (March 22) was the Kazakh New Year - a holiday called Nauritz (phonetic spelling). What a time to be in Kazakhstan! Throughout the city there were several huge "party areas" in closed off streets. At these festivals you could get traditional Kazakh food such as "manty" - steamed dumplings filled with meat, "plov" - rice pilaf with carrots and lamb, and of course fermented camel milk. We didn't try the camel milk. There were also people in traditional dress, yurts, and Kazakh music played on the dombra (a small guitar-like instrument). We spent the morning wandering through Republic Square observing these uniquely Kazakh sights. In the afternoon, we went up into the mountains outside Almaty. We drove past the speed skating rink at Medey and continued to Shambulak - a ski resort. At our driver's suggestion, we took the lifts up to the top of the mountain (10,000 feet). Wow! What a view. We took 3 lifts up there - two double chairs and a single chair that looked to be about 100 years old. Because of the holiday, we did not have a Baby House visit yesterday. There were also fireworks at midnight. We could see them from the window of our apartment, and they were very loud - far louder than any in the US (tons of car alarms were set off).

Other things we have done in the past 2 days......
This morning we visited the Green Market. It was like something you would see on National Geographic. Tons of dried fruits, spices, and colorful products displayed out in the open. And that includes meat too - chicken, pork, beef, sheep, and horse. There was also Korean food (Chuck bought a bag of kimchi which is quite pungent), cheese, and of course fermented horse and camel milk. Our driver escorted us in and helped us negotiate a few purchases. I don't think we would have been very successful on our own!

We also took a walking tour of the city as described in the Lonely Planet Central Asia book. The tour took us by many of the city's sights including a beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral, the city's largest mosque (Kazakhstan is pretty evenly divided between Russian Orthodox and Muslim religions), and many parks. Almaty is a city of fountains and trees. When we come back for our second trip, we might be lucky enough to see them in bloom.

The weather here has been great, and we have been walking everywhere (except to the Baby House). Our driver says in his 4 years of driving families, we are the first to walk so much. But it has been about 60 degrees and sunny - perfect weather so far.

That's all for today. We'll post another update about Bryce and our trip soon!

We Made It!

Greetings from Almaty! After 16 hours of flight time and 2 lost bags we are here (the bags were delivered on Saturday night, so we did not have to go very long without luggage)!

Our trip started in Denver with a visit to the President's Club - Lufthansa's VIP lounge for frequent flyers. What a nice way to start off an international trip (all of those frequent flyer miles are good for something). We checked our email while sipping free drinks and snacking on free munchies. I could get used to this. Then we had a direct flight to Frankfurt, where we had a very short layover (which probably explains the lost luggage). We arrived in Almaty at 11:30pm on Friday night (time here is 13 hours later than Denver time).

Our driver was right outside the door waiting for us, and he took us to our apartment, which will be our home in Almaty for the next 3 weeks. The apartment is very soviet-looking on the exterior (think gray and concrete) but very nice on the inside. We have one bedroom, a spacious living room with TV (with English stations!) and stereo, kitchen, bathroom, and a small balcony.

On Saturday morning, we went to the local office for World Partners Adoption and met with the in-country coordinators. We signed some paperwork and learned more about how the whole process works. Our first visit to the Baby House would be at 2:30pm that day. In the meantime, we visited the Ramstore (a mall that includes a huge grocery store) to exchange money and buy groceries and an international calling card. After that we tried to sleep off some jet lag.

At 2pm we were picked up by our driver (Andrei) and taken to the Baby House (BH#3) for our first visit. Our first stop in the BH was the orphanage director's office, where we met with the director, our coordinator, and a representative from the Ministry of Education. Barb found this process a little intimidating! There was a lot of talk in Russian as we were asked some questions and were brought our child. He was even cuter in person than he was in his referral pictures.

After that, we went upstairs to the "music room", complete with pianos, xylophones, electronic drums, and various other musical toys. We played with Bryce for 1.5 hours (we will meet with him from 2:30 to 4:00 every day - hopefully we will be upgraded to 2 visits). He is the most adorable baby either of us have ever seen!!!! He is 10.5 months old, has brown eyes and black hair (we really will figure out how to post pictures soon). He was handed to Barb and we spent most of the time holding him and playing with toys - and a little bit of time trying to make him stop crying. Of course we have not figured out his personality yet. He seemed pretty quiet and laid back (that's what the caregivers said about him too). The visit must have exhausted him, as he fell sound asleep in Barb's arms towards the end of the time. We can't wait to visit him again today!

After the visit, we went back to our apartment for another nap and ate dinner at an Indian restaurant. The Indian food was great, but we are going to have to seek out some traditional Kazakh food soon (horsemeat sausage is the national dish). Then we waited for our luggage to be delivered. It finally came at 1am. Better late than never.

That's all for now. We'll post another update (maybe even with a picture) soon.

Leaving Today

The day we thought would never arrive is actually here! Soon - in about 9 hours to be exact - we are leaving for Kazakhstan. This will truly be a trip around the world. The time difference between Denver and Almaty (the city where we will be staying) is 13 hours. We leave Denver tonight at about 5pm, arrive in Frankfurt Friday morning, and will finally get to Almaty around midnight on Friday night. We will probably meet Bryce for the first time some time on Saturday.

Bryce is 10.5 months old and resides at Baby House #3 in Almaty. His Kazak name is Timur which we plan to keep as a middle name. As soon as we figure out how to post photos to this site, we will post some photos of him.

For now, we are too busy running around with last minute stuff to do to worry too much about photos. We will have plenty of time in Kazakhstan to figure things out. The process for Kazakhstan adoption actually involves 2 trips (so we have to do this again, but next time we will be experts). The first trip lasts about 3 weeks and consists of 14 days of court-mandated visitation. After the 14 days, we go to court and petition for adoption of our son. After the adoption is approved (and we're hoping that's the case, because our agency, World Partners Adoption has a 100% track record so far), there is a 15 day waiting period. We plan on returning home during that time. After the wait, we go back to Kaz to pick him up, get his passport, and take him home.

But on this first trip, visitation typically consists of 2-4 hours each day spent at the Baby House. That means we will have a lot of time to sightsee, explore, and get to know Kazakhstan. It also means we have ample time to figure out how this web stuff works!

We'll write again once we arrive.

Test Post

This is a test post! We hope to chronicle our upcoming adoption journey on this site as we travel to Kazakhstan to adopt our son Bryce.