Home at last

We made it home - after 3 flights and 24 hours without sleep, and a bit of drama starting out. (When we checked in at the Astana airport at 2:30am for our 4:30am flight, they didn't have our reservation in the system! It took over an hour to get things straightened out; I have never been so happy to have a boarding pass handed to me...)

Pam and the kids had nice welcome home signs posted for us - it was a happy reunion! And we felt certain that both kids grew an inch or two while we were gone.

Day Trip to Astana

Our flight home started in Astana, about 2 hours north of Karaganda. Astana has only been Kazakhstan's capital for about 10 years, and the government has spent billions building the city during that time. We left early in the day to have time to check it out, and are glad we did - it is quite impressive. We enjoyed the national museum, and seeing some really cool architecture - and the city's master construction plan is only 30% complete at this point!

Following are pictures of the museum, Baiterek Tower, the new presidential palace, and some funky buildings near the Tower.

And this last picture is of the Pyramid of Peace, where every 3 years representative of world religions meet to talk about peaceful co-existence. We took a tour inside and it is beautiful! This picture doesn't do it justice... it's worth googling.

What happens next

Yesterday was our last day of visits at the baby house, before heading back home. While it is sad to say farewell to little Valeria, it is made easier knowing she is happy and loved at the baby house.

We have enjoyed every minute of our stay in Karaganda, and - of course - every minute with Lera. Later this morning, Vadim will drive us 3 hours north to Astana, where we will spend the afternoon sight-seeing. We are excited to have the chance to see Astana, which has been the capital of Kazakhstan since only 1999 and has a fascinating story, and some amazing architecture, as well. We are happy that our interpreter, Oxana, can join us too - she is not only helpful, she's a blast to hang out with and we find ourselves laughing a lot with her. (We'll post a few pix if we can get wifi access.)

Then, in the middle of the night (4:30am) we'll catch a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. Three airplanes and what will likely feel like an eternity later, and we'll be back in Cincinnati on Monday evening.

I'll return to Karaganda mid-June to pick up Valeria...but that will be another story.

Reply from Kapistan

Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!!! A little sister AND presents!

It's official: there is now one more Little Bitty Hickey!

Dear Aidan and Kristin,

We just left the courthouse after a long meeting with a Kazakh judge. We were so proud to show him your pictures, and tell him about you and what good big brother and sister you will be. The prosecutor even smiled at a cute picture of both of you.


And guess what: the judge agreed, and gave his decision that Valeria Chaikina should become Valeria Ann Hickey, your new little sister. Boy, what a lucky girl she is.

We can't wait to get home and give you big hugs and kisses...oh, and a few presents, too.


Much love,


"Mama" and "Papa"





P.S. to everyone else: thanks for your support, we are so relieved it is over. We came to a nice restaurant to celebrate, and half way around the world, the only beer available for our toast is Budweiser!! (Good thing we have a bottle of "wodka" stashed at the apartment.)

Countdown to Court

We finished our speeches today, in preparation for court tomorrow (Thursday 5/21) at 3pm. That will be 5am Thursday morning in Ohio, so by the time you wake up, hopefully there will be one less orphan in the world ;-)

Here are a few pix from our last few visits with V:






We have also had a few fun extracurricular activities: Dinner with other adopting families at Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian restaurants - a lot of good food in this town! Natasha invited us to her daughter's dance recital at the civic theatre - it was a great show; we were really impressed with the dancing, the costumes and the production in general. And today, we visited the studio of a local artist (he is the husband of Lera's doctor at the baby house, and is quite talented). We bought a small painting to help us remember our trip. It was a fun afternoon.

A daytrip to Lera's hometown, and pre-court

First, official business: we had pre-court this a.m. and it went well. We basically just confirmed our names and paperwork, and they informed us that our formal court date will be 5/21 at 3pm. We'll see if this date actually 'sticks.'

Next, a brief report on our adventure to Temirtau, where (we believe) Valeria was born. It is an industrial town of 200,000 people, about 25 miles north of Karaganda. While we'd read in our Kazakhstan guidebook that it wouldn't be much to "write home about," we jumped at the chance when Natasha, our adoption coordinator, offered to take us there. We enjoyed our first view of the steppe (vast, mostly flat grasslands) and knew we were close when we saw the skyline filled with smokestacks in the distance. Temirtau (which translates to iron mountain) is the center of the steel industry in Kazakhstan, home to the one of the largest "single-site integrated steel plants" in the world.

One of the city's welcome signs still has the hammer & sickle shield of the CCCP (USSR). We drove by: the city stadium (home of the "Steel Workers"), a large & impressive Monument to the Metalworkers, the expansive Mittal steel plant, the Steel Hotel, down a main corridor called Respublika Avenue (formerly known as Lenina), and then - yes - Steel Worker Avenue, en route to old town, where we believe Lera was from.

We saw the regional maternity hospital (where she was likely born) and the children's hospital nearby. Natasha was also kind enough to drive through a bumpy gravel "road" narrowly lined with pipes (in her newer Lexus 300) to take us to the block of apartment buildings where Lera was picked up at 18 months old, then taken to the children's hospital and on to the baby house in Karaganda. We were interested to learn that Natasha does all of the "private investigation" work to track down the birth mothers (when she can) and confirm the availability of the children. What a sad, yet rewarding, task.

How the Soviets managed to construct buildings that appear ancient after only 50 years is hard to figure. It was a dreary part of town, and the tough economic situation was evident, but it wasn't as bad as we'd expected - with trees and a few playgrounds. While there, we found ourselves wondering about Lera's mother, and how a young woman could possibly provide for a child in such a depressed (and depressing!) place.

Time Flies in Kapistan

My first week has gone by way too fast. I'm afraid you are going to have to do this again in the next couple of years so that I can have another extended stay. I'll help with all paperwork. The urge to picnic must be genetic. It was Krissy's idea to have dinner outside last Monday night. This is actually Location Choice #2. Choice #1 was right where the lawn meets the street. The very next day you posted your picnic!

Here's Aidan working on his research project about Ireland. His first choice was Antarctica, but that went to another kid. I asked him why he didn't choose Kazakhstan and he said he didn't know. Guess it's not exotic enough anymore.

Grandma and Bobby got Krissy started on helping with the dishes. She's a huge help! Grandma even got her one of those scraping brushes. The dishes don't really need to go in the dishwasher after she's done, but not being a college student anymore, I do put them through a real wash cycle. Almost time for baths, so good night for now!

A bit about Valeria

One of the most eye-opening parts of this whole adventure, has been witnessing the changes in Valeria since we first met her. We'd read the conventional wisdom on adoption websites, and are now convinced: "the baby you take home will be a different baby than the one you meet."

In the 2-1/2 weeks since they brought her in to meet us at the baby house, Lera has changed from a quiet, shy and entirely-obedient little girl with no apparent interest in saying words, to a confident & exuberant little ham - with a mind of her own. (Hey, ya gotta take the good with the 'bad'!) She now routinely says Mama, Papa, Oxana, about 6 words in Russian and/or Kazakh, and a few in English (up, in, out, more, ball).

We have come to think of her as an amazing little girl; she has had some tragic things happen in her life, but her little internal joy pilot light is still burning strong! She laughs a lot, and has even started to pretend and tease (she now completely cracks herself up by calling Russ "Mama.") We cannot wait to get her home with the kids: we know Kristin will enjoy playing with her and teaching her so much, and can just see Aidan clowning around to get one of her belly-laughs!

Here are a few other things we find special about Lera:
* her enthusiastic vocalizations "oy!" "opa!" and "oh boy!"
* the way her upper lip curls under when she's being droll or sly
* her happy greeting when we arrive: bounding out of her "gruppe" room with arms wide open, basically plowing into one of us with a big hug
* the concerned little crinkle face she makes when she needs to go "pisset"
* her patience. Even when she is just dying to go outside - which is a big deal for these kids - she sits patiently on the bottom stair while we stop to put on our shoes.
* her (sometimes relentless) persistence in learning and mastering activities, such as climbing the rope latter to the slide
* her helpfulness - she is trained, and apparently content, to always help clean up (awesome!)
* the way she ends most of our visits, returning to her "gruppe" with a wave and saying "paka" (bye bye, delivered with a tone of 'later, dudes'). We don't know if this is good or bad, as far as attachment is concerned, but we still think it's cute. (And, it will make it much easier for us to leave her in a few weeks, knowing that she is happy in her environment.)

We've often been told, "She is a lucky girl that you are adopting her" - but truthfully, we feel pretty lucky too.

The house where she lives

We've heard a lot about the quality childcare here; it's one of the main reasons we selected Kazakhstan for our adoption. Everything we've seen here has reaffirmed what we'd heard. Lera's caregivers are amazingly patient and genuinely seem to care for the kids, making each feel special with one-on-one attention when they can. In our 31 visits to date, we've never heard them raise their voices, yet they appear to have total authority - over 12, 2-year olds! Lera seems crazy about them.

We have also been impressed with the doctor, nurses and the speech therapist, who often stop to engage with the kids individually and enthusiastically; they appear to know them all by name. (How they do it with 100 kids stumps us!) Resources are limited, but they make do with what they have.

Here are a few pictures of Lera's world:

(That's Lera next to her bed, in the corner by the window.)

Yurt Alert!!

Another nice day with 2 pleasant outside visits to the baby house. We enjoy spending time with the other kids in Lera's "gruppe," and the caregivers are amused by our attempts to help. Aclima, one of the caregivers, indicated that she wanted me to hold hands with 3 kids as we walked down the stairs. Apparently my face gave away my thoughts "but, I only have 2 hands!!" and she pretty much laughed at me, then demonstrated how.

Selfishly, we are happy to notice that Valeria has become openly possessive of us, getting jealous if Russ gives other kids a high five, or if we help another kid get up after falling, etc. We think it is probably a good attachment sign.

An especially fun part of our day was on the way home; Vadim stopped at a display of two yurts (traditional Kazakh steppe homes) by the large city park. We asked Oxana to join us inside to translate; we're glad we did as the woman inside was very chatty - in Russian. We learned about the items that a traditional Kazakh family would have owned, and the way their small communities moved their yurts twice each year, in the winter and summer, as a way to survive and thrive in the steppe.

We admired some ornate traditional clothing, as well as a wolf skin/head - and the woman insisted that we try on both! She would not take 'no' for an answer, and Oxana and we were laughing as she draped the wolf on me, then dressed us both in the clothing - a little roughly. She then informed us this 'honor' would cost 200 Tenge! (Only about $1.25, worth the laughs!) She then proceeded to parade us outside... for passers-by to see and presumably drum up some business. We were a little embarrassed but made light of the situation, waving our arms and shouting "Come to the yurt! Come to the yurt!" ...at which point, Oxana started pretending she didn't know us.

Here are a few pix of our little yurt adventure:

Our friends in Karaganda & a quick adoption process update

We have met some other adoptive families at the baby house, and it has been great to chat with them during our daily visits, and run into them while out and about. (With only a few wifi cafes and a limited number of restaurants with an English menu, we tend to bump into each other a bit!) Here they are:

Troy, Theresa (from NJ) and Grace - their adoption was just finalized (congrats!!) and they're awaiting final paperwork and passport. They have been here since the end of March! Their blog is http://tntc.wordpress.com.

Heather, Don & Judy (from TX) and Sasha / soon-to-be Sylvia. Heather, her dad and darling 4 year old daughter are our ‘travel partners.’ If things work out, Heather and I will return here in June for our 2nd trip together. Russ and I love to see Judy, but oh does it make us miss A & K!

Cecile (from France) and Sarah, who was in Valeria’s “gruppe.” I have spoken more French in the past 10 days, than I had in the past 10 years prior! It has been such a pleasure spending time with both of them.

Jenny & Chris (from Canada) and Addison & Catrin, who are 1 year-old twins.

We've also met a nice couple from Belgium who are adopting Daria, 6, and her brother Dima, 4. Here is a picture of Daria.


It is a nice “community” of cool people - we've enjoyed and appreciated their stories and advice (from “be prepared for this kind of question from the social worker,” to “don’t buy the shiskabob flavored Lay’s, they are gross!”)

Want to close with an update on the adoption process. We have now officially completed the 14 day visitation period, and our paperwork is being submitted to the judge today for his review. This is normal procedure and timing, so we are still on schedule as planned. But, it's nice to have one more step completed.

A few more pix of Valeria

As you can see, we've had some fun times on our visits to the baby house. In the last picture below, she's with some of the older kids...which was a treat for her.

A Walk in the Park and some Kaz History

We are enjoying the nice weather here, and have had fun exploring the city. Karaganda is a great place to spend a month - small enough that we can find our way around and feel safe, but big enough to be interesting and have a “city” feel to it. One day this week, we took a long walk through the main city park and enjoyed a picnic lunch by the small lake there. Apparently that is not a common thing for the locals to do, as we drew a few stares! Parts of the park are run-down, but it still had a festive atmosphere and provided some great people-watching. We plan to come back in the evening for some beer and shish kebabs at one of the outdoor patio places.

We also spent an afternoon visiting the Karaganda Regional History Museum. We planned to be underwhelmed (the WW1 Museum in Kansas City has raised the bar pretty high for us!). But, we enjoyed both the museum and learning about Kazakh history, including the Soviet era (Kazakhstan's role as a place of exile for dissidents, the GuLag forced labor camps, atom bomb testing and the Soviet space program). We were also interested to learn more about President Nazarbaev and his wife, and the dramatic changes here since Kazakhstan proclaimed independence from the USSR in 1992. Fascinating. Even the English translations on some of the displays were entertaining; for some reason, the requisite stuffed animal exhibit had ducks labeled as "woofs."

Here are a few shots from our walk in the park: