Day One in Karaganda

Another delayed, late night flight took us to Karaganda. We landed in the most modern and sleek airport we’ve ever seen…which is quite a contrast with the town itself, we’ve since learned. Oxana, our interpreter, and Vadim, our silent driver - greeted us right away and took us to our apartment. It was familiar to us from the moment we stepped inside, as it’s the same apartment as the Morningstars, whose blog we followed during their trip this spring.

We spent the morning unpacking, went to the grocery store (where Oxana was a lifesaver!) then headed to the baby house to meet Valeria. We were excited and anxious to finally meet her.

When they walked her in, we almost didn’t recognize her because she is so tiny. They brought her over to us, explaining that we’re her new “Mama y Papa.” She was quiet, taking it all in, and sat calmly in both of our laps. We then walked up to a small play room and I enjoyed the way she clung to me so tightly. She was a little shy at first, but in a few minutes she became playful and giggly.





We played with her for 2 hours… which admittedly did seem quite long, being our first day, and because we had to stay in one room the whole time. It was a lot to absorb in one day, draining and exciting at the same time.

Our day in Almaty

Our flight arrived in Almaty at 1am, and no one was there to greet us… a heart stopping moment! Sasha, our driver, arrived after about 5 minutes (whew!). He took us straight to our apartment, we popped our Ambien and had a good sleep.

In the morning, we did paperwork at the adoption agency’s office downtown, then our driver Sasha turned us loose for the afternoon on our own, before our flight to Karaganda. It was a rainy afternoon and we went for a long walk. It was an adventure to order coffee at a café and sound out the street names to find our way around, but it was fun. (Our time spent learning the Russian alphabet really paid off!)

Almaty is an interesting, big city full of pretty tree-lined streets and lots of tulips in bloom. (We’ve read that tulips are actually from Kazakhstan!) We found it quite charming with a bit of a European feel to it.

We asked Sasha to pick us up early for our evening flight, and he took us to a ‘famous’ church that is in all the tour books. Quite impressive, and set in a pretty little park. Here are a few pix.












It was a humbling experience at times, not being able to read or speak the language - or even make a phone call! - but we took it in stride and really enjoyed the day.

Greetings from Kazakhstan!

This time - it's for real! We are here, settled into our FAR-nicer-than-expected little apartment in Karaganda... and Russ was able to get internet going tonight. The connection is super slow, so can't post pix YET. Just want to post a note to let you know we made it, had a fun day in Almaty- which is a cool city! Karaganda isn't much to write home about, from what we can tell - but we have a wonderful interpreter, Oxana, who is really making life much easier for us!

Got to meet Valeria today - she was sweet as could be, a little shy and quiet at first, but became playful soon and has a cute little giggle. We go back tomorrow and will report more then - promise to try to attach a photo then!!

Monday as usual

Went to Royalgreen for dinner on Monday as usual, and I confess I brought the kids' favorite cookies. (Here's my chance for a shameless plug for Inspiring Kind Boutique Bakery in the Five Mile Center.) Aidan and Krissy did finish their dinner before having one apiece. I took on my first CEC ersatz parent task by taking home the "what should we do after kindergarten graduation?" questionnaire distributed by Kathy Sebastian. It's SOOOOOOO nice to have family responsibilities again.

Hope everything went more smoothly after you arrived in Frankfort. Everything wonderful here! We feel like young parents again; badly out of practice. Welcome to wherever you are when you see this message. Relax! All is well in Cincin. No swine flu in town yet. Your instruction binder is comprehensive. Kids were delivered to shcool on time (and picked up this evening). You even have numbers on your mailbox.

The old folks at home.

Kaz Take-off Redux

Greetings from Kazakhstan!!

Okay, I lied. We are still in Cincinnati...couldn't make it out yesterday after 7 hours at the airport yesterday (including 2 on the runway). Weather in Chicago.

So... we'll try again today! On basically the same itinerary, just 24 hours later (today, we know what the guy in "Groundhog Day" must have felt like!)

Here are 2 pix - our 'first run farewell' at the airport yesterday, and another that's admittedly only meaningful to me: FINALLY crossing off the last item on my to do list, which has been the bane of my existence for the past month or so.
As soon as I finish typing this, I'll cross my fingers that our flights go better today.

We have our travel dates!!

We received our "Letter of Invitation" and our travel dates this week!

We are still working out flight details... but we will be leaving 4/25, arriving Almaty 4/26, flying to Karaganda 4/27, and meeting Valeria 4/28!!

Unfortunately, our trip will be longer than we'd planned / hoped / been told... everything seems to go more slowly than planned with this deal. One would think we're used to it by now! ("Leaf in a stream" is our mantra, for sanity's sake...)

So...we will not return until 5/28. However, those extra days with Valeria will probably be very important and helpful to our bonding... and besides, Aidy & K have had us their whole lives ;-)

Things are starting to fall into place with homefront child care plans - thanks to wonderful parents, sisters-in-law, Pam McKenna and friends here who have kindly offered to help out.

More when we know more! Happy to finally have this news.