Countdown to Home! (day14)

So in two weeks from today we should be home!!! I really hope that we can stay on schedule! I am really ready to go home… this seems like the longest trip for some reason! And we travel all the time… maybe it is because we have been here before and we have explored most of the city… maybe it’s because it is summer and we don’t usually travel in summer… it is our busy season in the construction world! Plus our gardens are growing without us! That is one of my passions and I am missing it! I just want to get my baby and go home!! So the countdown starts…day 14… tomorrow will be day 13 and so on… :)

So we signed some more papers today and gave Olga our coordinator our tickets from flying to Uralsk, for the court to know that we did arrive the day we say we arrived! Tomorrow we should know our pre-court and court dates… Hopefully it is Monday and Tuesday! Then we can get Anthony Tuesday or Wednesday morning.

So today Jerry actually finally took the camera and thought he would play photographer! He took a class in high school, so he actually does know stuff… He just doesn’t use it much… plus he thinks bright sunlight is the best lighting… oh boy! *sigh* so after remembered the general rules of aperture and such… and I showed him how to change stuff on my camera… he took off…. I was frustrated by him as A LOT of his pictures were NOT crisp and clear… the lighting was good, but they were blurry!!! Those drive me nuts! Plus I was holding a pose and he would take two years to take the shot and then he just took one and it was blurry! Uuuuhhhh! Anyways he did get some amazing shots... basically I am a control freak… when it comes to my camera.

So Anthony and I sang songs and played baby “games.” I made him laugh. He felt the floor… then I took him away from it and he got mad and tried to start a fit!!! Then… Anthony got up on his knees… he was rocking back and forth like he was ready to crawl! It won’t be long now! It was so cute! Jerry got a couple pictures and I got some of it on video! We played some more and Alex came and smooched on Anthony… he wanted to hug on him a bit… and then he says, “I’m done… bye!” and off he goes! Then I was holding Anthony up and Jerry was taking pictures and all of a sudden Anthony got all relaxed and wanted to lay back in my arms… he immediately closed his eyes and fell asleep! Just like that! A couple minutes! I could not believe it! He snuggled right into me and away he went! He slept for probably 10 minutes and then Olga came to take him away… he woke up when she took him though… I asked her about yesterday… she said he woke up on the way to his room yesterday, but I bet he went right back to sleep! HE LIKES US!!!!!!!!!

We went and met Marina to give her the letters for Zhas Dauren, from the sponsor program with WPA! We met her at a building that is a gym… they started a new thing for the handicapped children in the city, focusing on the orphans. The kids can come there and play in the gym and they do crafts and stuff there! She gave us a letter to hand out to try to raise money for their project… Jerry gave her some money toward it all… We were the first people to give money… so everyone else local has given furniture or supplies. She was very excited and said thank you many times! She let me pick a beaded necklace that one of the kids had made. I chose a white, pearly colored one. They had a gym mat in there, so Jerry taught Alex how to do a somersault… after he showed him a cartwheel… Alex fall on his head when he tried it! We showed him a punching bag… we had talked about it recently so it was cool that we could show him what it was! There was a farmers market on the street where the gym is… But it was so hot today that we didn’t want to walk around there today! We went to Kamelot to have lunch… it was so hot we were sweating almost the whole way though lunch! Yuck! We walked to the apartment and we had a whole 15 minutes until Olga came with a different driver! Poor Misha was at the police station again! He has been there about 10 times since we were pulled over… his license is missing! The police who gave him the ticket was a police from a local village outside of town! The city of Uralsk had invited the village police in for some special thing… I don’t know… anyways, this officer took his license with him back to his village and no one’s seen it since! So we went to the babyhouse without our bag of toys and stuff, they were in the trunk of Misha’s car… no biggie really. Pretty soon Misha showed up with the stuff though… I forgot to ask if he had his license back yet… tomorrow!

We were playing on one of the covered floors with a rug and the kids came out, so we moved… We spotted the most beautiful little girl… but I could not get a sneak picture of here! I will keep trying! However we were told by the director not to take pictures of the kids… Doesn’t mean we are going to completely comply… I think it is more important for us to have picture of kids that lived with our kids! All these little kids are so cute and sweet! They watch us and play around, but mostly watch us! They were all out there in their little underwear… the boys wear girl ones too… poor boys! Some of the caregivers are nice and some are very short with the kids… I have seen a couple of the caregivers that just grab the kid by the arm and lift them up if they fall or they lift them over another kid and just kind of drop the kid on the floor... It’s not very loving… I just want to love the kids and teach them how a family is supposed to be! It is so sad that they are not available for adoption!!!! One little boy was very sad today… he would cry at every little thing… the caregiver dumped out the box of toys and he jumped a mile and started screaming! Poor little guy… and he was little… probably the size of a 12 month old… but probably at least two. Most of the kids are pretty small… maybe they are younger, but I am guessing they are undernourished some too! There are only 3 girls in there… there are probably a dozen boys! A couple of the boys are not well… they just lie on the floor and look around! So sad! We snuggled on Anthony and sneaked peaks at the other little kids! Pretty soon it was time to go… and just as we were getting ready to leave Alex’s old caregiver came out bringing babies out for some playtime… I gave her Alex’s book and asked her to write him another letter! She seemed very happy to! She is so sweet! I can’t wait to see what she writes to Alex!

We headed straight home afterwards, Luba was going to come over later. Jerry went to the bakery and bought some of those potato filled bread things… and some little cookies.

Luba came and brought her friend Helen and her younger sister! Her sister brought her 2 year old boy with her! So we played with him and Alex got a little jealous of him playing with our toys… but he wasn’t too bad! They left pretty soon, but it was so neat to meet her anyways! She was as cute as Luba! Helen has come with Luba every time… she translates for us! We talked about Luba’s plans for the summer and finding a job in Aksai. Luba wants to work in the big oil town that is maybe an hour away or so… the oil companies pay good supposedly. But the cost of living there is higher too… so who knows… Now Luba has a little part time job at a shop here in town, so she works there some… so that is good… I hope she finds something in her line of work soon!