Burner Adoption

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Mom, Dad...When can we go home?





Todays's visit was another great one. It always seems to start well for us when we go into the room to pick up our boy and not only is he awake, waiting for us, but the caregivers tell us how anxious he is to see us. He seems to know exactly when to get ready for us! We stayed inside because it was too cold today to take him out. We know you may not believe it at home, but it has become rather cool here in the last couple of days. We played with the rattle alot today, then went to the Baby Einstein video. Daddy so loves the fact that his boy has taken to a good show! He can't wait for football season to start so the two can sit on the couch together. Each with their own bottles.

Our journey home was a little more exciting when the second car in our caravan became disabled and all 6 of us had to squeeze into our Volkswagon Gulf for the hour and a half 4 wheel adventure home. We made it, but Motrin needs to send relief!!!

Saturday, July 29, 2006

A Nice Day Outside!




Today we spent most of our visit outside in the fresh air. We try and go out with the boy at least once a day and up to now it's been only for 15 minutes at a time but today they let us stay out longer. He loves the outdoors and the fresh air and sun does us all good.

We have included a group photo with our travel partners, Chris, Janine and Christopher (Madiyar) Rocillo. They are an awesome group to be living with for the long visit we have here. No doubt our boys will grow up showing each other around DC and NYC.

The caregivers told us again how he waits for us each day and you can tell he's meant to be our son!!! WOW, WOW, WOW!!!

Here are a few pictures of our "Pride and Joy"!!!

Friday, July 28, 2006

The "Cutest Boy In The World"





Ok, now that we've updated everyone on our travels, the most important stuff is the boy!!!

We had a great visit as usual today!!! The caregivers say that Kyle doesn't like to sleep any more as he waits for his mom and dad, that be us!!! He is so excited to see us everyday and that does our hearts good!!! It's amazing the bonding process and how quickly our love has grown for each other. We can't ever imagine life with out our son.

Check him out!!!

Das Baby House!



It doesn't look like much from the outside, but they take very good care of our boy until we can have him full time.

More about the trip...




Our day starts at 8:30am with our driver Nursultan. He picks us up and begins what is an hour and a half drive (although we think he views it as a big game) to the baby house. There is nothing like a long drive with Nursultan. The Kazaks don't really pay attention to lines in the road (even when they are present) and speed limits??? Are you kidding? The most undesireable part of the drive occurs about half way through where they are re-building the road, Kazak style. For about a 10 mile stretch we are 4 wheeling in the drivers Volkswagon Gulf. Twice we have blown a tire. Passing moments are always white knuckled for us, but seem to not bother Nursultan, he actually seems to get a kick out of it! And, just to keep the game interesting, he likes to pass slow drivers then slam on the breaks just to let them know who's in charge. The drive is very interesting, cows in the road, major potholes, pedestrians with no respect for the oncoming tonage, old closed down factories, and a host of other landmarks that we'll never forget.

We arrive at the baby house usually around 10:00 for our hour and a half visit, just to jump back in the car for another game of Kazak driving.

We aren't complaining. We have become to trust in Nursultan and the small amount of time we do get to spend with our son means everything. Truth be told, we'd drive 8 hours a day each way for just a 5 minute visit. We can't however wait for the time we get to go there and keep him forever. We estimate that we only have another 29 days of travel back and forth.

Check out some pictures of the trip and the final destination: The baby house!!!

Sorry for the delay






Sorry for the delay in recent postings. We finally had to go buy an advanced internet service so we could actually get some photo's out without taking 4 hours!

Take a look at some of our favorites from the last couple of days. We will upload more tonight from today's visit.

Kyle remains the cutest child in the world!!!

Monday, July 24, 2006

Big boy...



Yesterday's visit was better than the day before, which was better than the day before, etc, etc...And so goes parenthood I guess? He didn't even blink when Daddy went over the chore schedule. He just smiled and agreed. We think he may have some issues with the allowance, but we agreed to talk about it.

Yesterday, we also had our visit with the Medical Doctor. He seems to be doing very well. He has grown alot in the last couple of months and she is happy about that. Alot of technical mumbo jumbo (which means alot to us) but otherwise words like perfect seem to describe him best. Here he is...

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Sunday's visit




Since it was too cold to really take Kyle Anton out for a stroll, they let us have him for the hour and a half without a hat! They are very funny about hats. Children must be covered. We spent our time back in the music room. Daddy laying down the yard work schedule and Mommy explaining what this really means. Check him out! We meet with the Baby House Doctor today.

Day at the lake plus...



After our visit on Saturday, we went to the lake with our interpreter and 2 other families. The lake was beautiful. The company was great. Too many toasts, but a very enjoyable day. Our hosts put a spread of food together and we sat around and talked about each others culture for about 3 hours. A very good time.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Yesterday's Visit



We had another great day with the boy!!! Keith and I got to vist for about 2 hours!!! The time goes by so quickly too. When we get there one of us goes to get him while the other takes all our things to the music room which is where we have our visits. Usually, I go and get him and Keith will take him back as I have a very hard time with giving him up. I just want to hold him forever!!! Here are several new pictures. We will post more later as the internet access is very slow today.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Today's visit with the boy!!!





Our visit today was very short due to meeting at cottage with our coordinator. Since the baby house is an hour an a half away and our visit cannot go past 11:30 am., we only got about 45 minutes. We did get to take him outside and he seems to like us pretty good. Here are a couple of his latest mug shots...

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Flight to Kokshetau


Now that you have seen the prize at the end, you should know a little about what it took to get here... My many years of travel under the tutalage of famed Tour Director, Dan Callahan, could not have prepared us for this journey. The 18 hours that it took to get to Almaty were not very eventful, so we won't bore you with that. We begin on the morning of the 19th. We got to the the airport in Almaty and quickly learned what "no receipt" means. Basically, if you don't need a receipt, the fee can be negotiated down, so the many extra pounds of luggage that was packed were discounted because we were "flexible". Once we finally got to the plane, the YAK 40, is where it all started. We assume that 40 means the number of seats on the plane, never mind that there were about 45 people on the flight! Standing room only for 3 hours!!! We'll have to trust that YAK means something in Russian that is different then what we believe it means now. We entered the plane through the rear (picture a group of soldiers entering for duty). Once up the steps we crawled over top the excess luggage to what could have been a Steven King storyline for scary flight travel. Not only could we not sit together, the seats were close enough that your seat mate became your VERY best friend for 3 hours. Language barriers do not mean much at this time. For 3 hours there was no inflight movie, no bathroom and no comfort. There was however inflight service. First a passed bowl of candies, followed by juice boxes of tomato or apple juice, a Kazakhstan version of the Twinkie, followed up by a nice fresh, orange tinted cup of water! Nice! At one point in the flight my friend, Chris and I looked at each other wondering if we were smelling the same thing? Yep, it was smoke. Not to be alarmed, it was just the Captain enjoying a nice smoke from the cockpit. It didn't really bother me, whatever it took to keep the bird in the air was ok with me. For 3 hours we stared, white knuckled, directly ahead sharing private moments with our maker. The one time I longed for a book to read it happened to be in the part of the plane I could no longer access... 5 rows behind me. Why? the isle was cluttered with luggage from the 45 people inflight with us. Long story short, we made it safely to Kokshetau. More later, but we thought this picture of the rear of the plane should help to tell some of the story. More later.....

Our First Family Photo


Ok, so much to tell but first the most important is our son!!! Check it out!!!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

On Our Way!!!

Keith and I will be Kazakhstan bound tomorrow morning!!! We have been packing and repacking for HOURS and have finally faced the ugly truth, we can't get all the things required to take in 4 bags which you are allowed, so we are now taking 5 bags that will be checked and traveling with two carry on bags each. Anyone want to come along to help??? Didn't think so.....

We will be out-of-pocket for several days due to travel but will post once we are settled in. Stay tuned.