July 8, 2007

We didn’t get to go visit Robert today because it’s Sunday. Sunday visitation is another thing that has changed since we were over here for Russell. Last time we got to visit on Sundays and it counted toward our bonding period. Since we couldn’t go to the Baby House Anastacia was going to find a church for us. Evidently she forgot and we couldn’t get in touch with her yesterday so, we had a wide open day.

We ended up walking around the city for about three hours. We had a good lunch at Guinness Pub (thanks for the recommendation Shannon). Chuck tried the fish and chips and I had chicken puff pastries. Then we headed to the Ramstore, think Walmart on a much smaller scale, and bought a couple of books in English.

I haven’t figured out how to do photo captions yet so I’ll have to explain the photos today. The first is of the Green Market. That’s the flea market type shopping place. And the other is off a painted camel sculpture. They’ve added these around the city much like Pensacola did with the Pelicans.

July 7, 2007

Our driver and a different interpreter, Aliye, picked us up today at 9 a.m. We had not met Aliye yet because she just got back from escorting a child to the US. We couldn’t believe it when she told us she had escorted the child to Montgomery, AL and the family drove Aliye down to Pensacola Beach to spend a day! It’s definitely a small world. I could have had her go by my house and get some clothes for us. Although, all my favorite clothes are somewhere in this world in my suitcase.

Robert didn’t even shed a tear when he saw us today. He actually seemed like he wanted to go with us. We had a good two hours with him. He even spoke to us today for the first time. One of the wheels came off a toy car and when I put the wheel back on for him he said something. What he said, I have no idea, but he finally spoke to us. We had Aliye explain to him that he would be getting a new name, too. She was very good with him. When his caretaker came to get him for lunch he didn’t jump up and go to her like he’s been doing. The language barrier is definitely the biggest problem. I spent hours before we came over here listening to Russian tapes so I could at least speak a few words to him. It turns out that they speak Kazakh to the children now. When we were over here for Russell they spoke Russian to him. Things are constantly changing.

It’s a rainy day here so we just walked to the pizza place and back. Looks like it will be an apartment day. Hopefully it will let up tonight so we don’t get too wet going to the internet café for our video chat back home.

July 6, 2007

I actually slept until 4:45 this morning! I think I’m finally adjusting to local time. Chuck however, only made it to about 3:30 a.m. Neither of us remembers taking this long to adjust to the time last time.

Initially this morning Robert didn’t want to have anything to do with us. He came in from outside and saw us standing in the hall. At first he came over to us but then he started screaming and crying. Chuck and I went upstairs to our visiting room and they brought him in about 10 minutes later with some cookies. We gave him his juice, a banana and a piece of candy. After he ate it he started playing with his toys and he seemed okay being with us. I finally just decided to pick him up and bounce him around to see how he would react. He loved it! He was laughing and giggling which was really good to see. Then Chuck gave him an airplane ride and he loved that, too. From that point on he was very happy and he didn’t want us to put him down. I think we made real progress. The Director of the Baby House told Anastacia that Robert was telling the other kids in his group that he was getting a Mama and Papa.

After our visit we had lunch at the Chicken House close to our apartment. Then we headed over to the Green Market so I could by another pair of pants and a shirt so I’ll have more than two outfits. Yes, you guessed it, no luggage yet—or hot water.
Later this evening we’ll head over to the internet café to call home for our video chat. It makes it a little easier being away from home. After that it will be an evening of FOX News. I need to find a bookstore that has some English books because the ones I was planning on reading are with my luggage.

July 5, 2007

We had a much better visit with Robert today! He still cried when they brought him into the room, but it didn’t last long and he started playing with the toys we brought. It also helped that we had some juice, a banana and a piece of candy for him! He reacted with us much more today and he made eye contact today without us calling out his name. Yesterday he would just hang his head down looking at his toys unless we said his name. We’ve been calling him Arman Robert so he slowly gets used to his new name. He even initiated a game of throwing balls back and forth to each other. Robert was definitely ready to go back to his group after our two hours, but he gave us big hugs goodbye and waved at us the whole time he walked out of the room. I think we’re making progress!

After our visit we walked down to Ciao Pizza and then walked to one of the parks just to get out of the apartment. There’s only so much FOX News you can watch.

Luggage and hot water update: No on both.

July 4, 2007

We started off another day with ice “so cold it hurts” showers. Our interpreter says we will have three days of no hot water because they are replacing some pipes in the city. I've added a photo of our apartment.




Our driver picked us up around 9 am and dropped us off at the Baby House. We did not get a good reception from Robert today! He definitely didn’t want to hang around us today. He cried and cried and then hid under a desk. Some of the workers went and got his main caregiver to whom he seems really attached. He came out from under the desk for her and she talked with him about us. We showed him lots of pictures of Russell and his caregiver explained that he was going to be Robert’s big brother. He finally got a little more comfortable with us and started to play with the toys we brought him. Today we tried cars and a coloring book. Tomorrow we’re going to try puzzles because he seems to like doing things with his hands. When it came time to leave he did give us hugs but I think it was because he was happy to get to be going back to his friends.

After our driver took us back to our apartment we walked to Mad Murphy’s Irish Pub for lunch. It’s a pub that a lot of Americans go to. It’s pretty good and you can get a burger but it’s higher priced than most restaurants. Then it was back home to watch FOX News. That’s about the only English speaking TV we get. Last time we were here we had a sitcom and movie channel.

Luggage update: Anastacia was told that our luggage is in Tokyo!!!

July 3, 2007

After taking ice cold showers this morning due to lack of hot water, we started our day making a run to the Silkway store to find some more toys and snacks for Robert before our visit. Aigul, our facilitator, was picking us up at 9:15 am. After waiting for over an half hour for Aigul we called our interpreter, Anastasia, to find out what was going on. It turns out that Chuck and I have been operating an hour ahead of everyone else in Almaty! When we were here in 2004 there was a 12 hour time difference from CST. However, about two years ago, the Kazakhstan government decided they wouldn’t have daylight savings time anymore. Now Almaty is only 11 hours ahead of CST! Live and learn.

When they brought Robert in today he was upset and cried a little, but it didn’t last long. It’s definitely going to take a little while for him to get used to us. We brought him some Legos and he got interested in playing with them. We also brought him a juice box that he practically inhaled. We’ll be taking one of those with us every day! We did get a couple of smiles out of him when we tickled him, but he has yet to say anything. They have us staying inside with him because if we went outside he would want to be with the other kids. Hopefully, after he warms up to us we can go outside with him and he’ll want to stay with us. We’ll see.

After our visit Anastasia told us they had found our luggage and a man was meeting us at our apartment with it. Turns out they only found one of Chuck’s bags and it was soaking wet. So off we went to the Green Market so I could try to find a change of clothes. Shopping for clothes here is hard. The nice stuff is very expensive and it’s hard to find my style in the reasonably priced stuff. Maybe our luggage will still show up!

July 2, 2007

We finally made it to Almaty on Sunday around six in the morning. We’re 12 hours ahead of CST. However, our luggage, which we have not set eyes on since July 27 is still not with us. Apparently three bags are in London and one lonely bag is still in Chicago. Our interpreter is supposed to call the airport today.

We’ve settled into to our apartment, not that we had much to unpack. Our apartment is sparse but it serves its purpose. It is located pretty centrally. We’re two blocks away from the Silkway. The Silkway is a mall that has a grocery store and internet café. We’ll be spending a lot of time there because our translator said we couldn’t even get dial-up in our room. We would have had to visit the internet café a lot anyway so we can video chat with Russell and that requires high speed. When we went to the café last night the guy that was working there didn’t speak any English so we couldn’t figure out how to switch the computer from Russian to English. Hopefully someone will help us with that today.

And finally, best of all, we met Robert today! He was very shy around us, but at least he didn't cry. We couldn't get him to smile or talk, but he did come to us when the caregiver told him to. We were only with him for about 30 minutes but tomorrow will be longer. He did give us hugs goodbye when the caregiver told him to. I'm trying to upload pictures on the blog, but the computer at the internet cafe is in Russian so I can't read anything. I'll keep trying.