Photo Shoot with Askhat!

Anthony found a shovel to chew on... maybe he thinks it is a spoon! Like my shirt?
The veggies from Olga!
Erik, Birgit, Rufan and Askhat!
Such a cutie!

Buddies! They actually played together!

Probably about to get in trouble!

Askhat laughs really good!

these are the stickers that we found this time for the back of the car... Have we put the last ones on the back of the car yet?....... no.... :)

Paintings Done... (day6)

Anthony is quite the rascal! He woke up squawking at 4,5,6 and finally up for a while at 6:45. Went back to sleep in an hour and slept until 9:15! What a mess! Every time he wakes up, he gives you the dirtiest look! It really is ugly! It is so funny! He frowns at you… and then looks round, as if he is still unsure about it all! He usually ends up smiling soon though!

He definitely has a problem with one of us walking out of the room! If he notices! He is a mess! He will take a big breathe and then just scream bloody murder! Its horrible! He doesn’t do any little fusses… it is all bloody murder!!!! Oh my word! Even if he is just mad that we walked out of the room… as in… no tears, just screaming his eye lids turn bright red!! Oh my!

Today we went to Babyhouse 1! We needed to take a video and some pictures over to the doctor of Jon-Jon walking! They were happy to have the video and would be able to play it on their computer… they had to watch it a little later though so we didn’t get to watch them watch it… Then Alex had to play few minutes on their playground! There was a bunch of kids out there… the director was out there and a few caregivers… They had a photographer and they were taking some pictures. They had a little boy and girl dressed in traditional Kazakh dress. They were getting some special pictures of him and her together. It was so cute!!! The Director said I could take some pictures too! They are definitely much different at that babyhouse!!! There is no way they would let us take pictures at our babyhouse! That was so nice!

Then we stopped for Jerry to buy some stickers that have KZ on them… you put them on the back of your car. They were some really fancy ones! They were oval Kazakh flag blue with some designs… I will try to take a picture of them and post it! I love them! Anthony fell asleep and slept until we got home. Sweet little munchkin!!!

Then it was off to print some papers and deliver a box to someone here in Uralsk… They were not home, so we are going to try again later. :)

We came home and Jerry went and got Pizza from Pizza hot… They are such a mess! Probably 75% of the time we order pizza and it is wrong! But you don’t know until you get home, because it is all tied up… so we usually order 2 pizzas and then save whats left for later… well today Jerry ordered one with just cheese and tomatoes and one with cheese, tomatoes, olives and specifically drew a picture for NO meat! Well guess what… it had meat on it, and this really strong cheese!!!! Oh my word! So… we end up throwing out a lot of stupid pizza around here… its getting annoying.

We spent the afternoon her hanging out… the boys took naps… Alex slept for almost 3 hours! Anthony woke up after an hour and half screaming, of course… when he calmed, we went in an got him… we played a little, but he was still so tired… he kept digging at the back of his head and rubbing his face like crazy and he was fussy… just not content with anything… so we decided to put him back down and let him go back to sleep… well… that didn’t work… he was so mad! It was another screaming frenzy! He never did go back to sleep, but he was pretty tired and he knew he was in trouble… whenever you scold him, he refuses to look at you! He knows!!!! I can’t believe it! Little twerpy! So when he calmed down, jerry brought him out of the bedroom and he looked exhausted from screaming! So we left for Dixie Pub for dinner and then Olga and Misha picked us up to go see the painter! We found the place and went in… Our paintings are awesome! He showed us a bunch of paintings that he has done since we were last here. They were unbelievable… none of them really caught my eye… as in… we have to have it… plus we are getting low on money… :) He likes to paint beautiful women! Although they were incredible… for us not all that appropriate for a houseful of kids… for example… a side view of a woman with a breast made from a pear, with the stem as the nipple… very thought provoking… very creative, but I am not sure I can handle explaining that to my BOYS!!! :) I hope someday he does something great with his work, he really is amazing at what he does!! We left the paintings for him to package so we can get them to Almaty without being damaged, since they are still WET!!!!! Mr. Procrastinator!! When we get to Almaty and they are dry, we will photograph them and share!

Then we came home, tomorrow we are spending some quality time with Erik and Birgit. We are going to do a photo shoot of the boys together! Should be fun!!

Anthony was a bundle of happiness tonight… laying on his back grabbing his toes and saying “aaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!” very loudly! It was a very nice change from all the screaming! We read a book on manners and prayed smooched on him and put him in his bed… he let out one squawk and that was all we heard from him! I hope he sleeps better tonight!

Errands Day!

I loved this... these 2 old grandpas were just playing chess in the middle of the day! It was so cute!!!Just playing!
Gettin tired!
After a crying fit!
Adorable in his underwear! We took a few naked pictures, but... he is just white and kind of scrawny naked! Still cute though... He has a rather large, but very faint Mongolian spot all the way across his bahooney!
In my new PJs!
Hanging out with Daddy!

The boy who made me a momma!

One Week Left! (day7)

Today we had a pretty easy day… we all woke up about 6:30 with Anthony! He woke up and I heard him moving around so I sort of opened my eyes to watch him… he saw his Octopus toy hanging from the side… he tried grabbing at it for a little bit, and then I think he realized her was not where he normally is… He got a surprised look on his face and then started looking around the room… trying to figure out what was going on! It was pretty cute… I figured he had seen me, but thought I was sleeping… I don’t know… so I whispered “Anthony” and he jumped and started screaming!!!! Oh boy!!! What a mess… that woke Alex up and he started calling for us! We gave Anthony a bottle of juice, here they this really thick juice especially for babies… it has a lot of the fiber in it still I guess! Which is a nice thing… they feel like they ate something… Then we played for a while and about eight, Anthony went down for his first nap of the day! He didn’t cry too long… just a few cries and he was sleeping away! We were amazed! Jerry took a nap too, and I tried to doze a little with Alex on the couch next to me watching Queen Esther… the veggie-tale! Not very restful I must say! Jerry got up and went out for more water… somehow we used up our water and didn’t have any more… so we needed to make milk for Anthony when we woke up… Anthony woke up… but didn’t fuss too much… I laid down on the bed and pretended to be asleep so I could see what he would do… He just rolled around and looked at stuff… he would grab at the octopus for a minute and then roll over, then roll back over and grab at the octopus again! Pretty soon I put my hand in the crib so he could touch me… he was hilarious… he was afraid to touch my hand! When I would touch him, he would jump away like I was scary or something…then he would reach one little finger toward my hand and just barely touch one of my fingers… then pull away quickly! So funny! Soon he started getting bored… so I pulled him out and we played on our bed a while until Jerry got back. He was smiling and happy to see us! We feed him a bottle of weak milk with some cereal in it… to make it a little thicker. That worked pretty good. Then we played until about 11:15 when jerry said Anthony was so tired he couldn’t even keep his head up anymore… they had watched a baby Einstein together… the boys. So jerry put him back in bed… he hollered for a couple minutes and then went right to sleep! He is so cute… he turns on his side sticks that thumb in his mouth, grabs that hand with the other hand, kind of curls up… and that is how he likes to go to sleep! It’s so cute!!! Alex went for his nap at the same time. So I took a shower and jerry worked on something…

Assiya was supposed to come over between 1 and 2, so I think she came about 1:15… Anthony had just woken up, but was throwing a fit… so he was back in his bed when she came… he soon calmed down so I brought him out… she adored him!!! She couldn’t help but pinch his cheeks and stuff! We chatted a while I gave Anthony another bottle and then we went to the park. It was about a 20 minute walk from here but it was so nice outside that the walk was not bad… Alex actually rode in the stroller, and Alex was in the Bjorn on Jerry.

The park was beautiful again today… we walked around and took Alex to the bounce house thing… he went in and played for quite a while… then he pushed a little girl I guess… in play… and she started crying… so we had to get him to calm down… he was fine for a while and then the attendant told us, we better check on him again… he had apparently “bonked” the same girl in the head… “with his hand”… is what he told me… she was screaming and the lady was yelling at Alex… I don’t know what happen… but he apparently got a little carried away and wild… who knows… but of course we couldn’t understand what she was saying, but Assiya said she was asking him why he did that and telling him he was a bad boy and on and on… Alex was un-phased by her of course, since he had no idea what he was saying… but he did get in trouble from us… how embarrassing… we walked away and Alex was crying… so sad… we all got some ice cream and kept walking… Anthony of course fell asleep… it was about nap time… He always seems to fall asleep at nap time… no matter where he is! I hope he stays that way!!! So he slept for probably an hour… we walked slowly home so he could really sleep and we were talking anyways. It was a nice afternoon. We came home… Anthony woke up… I gave him a bottle of milk and cereal again… Jerry showed Assiya all about WeedFreeGardenBed.com, she said she wished they had that when she was a kid… they always were pulling weeds! We met her younger sister at Kamelot for dinner… Savilya. She is adorable too! She has darker hair, but looks very much like her two sisters. We had a nice dinner and laughed and chatted. Then we needed to rush home because Luba and Helen were going to come tonight too… well apparently we missed them… I feel bad about that… but they are never on time and the one day they never even came, so we figured it would be at least 8 before they came… so we got home about 8… bummer, I hope they aren’t mad at us!

We got Anthony ready for bed, Jerry read him a story and we prayed and put him in and left… he squawked a couple time and then stopped… then we put Alex to bed… he fussed more than Anthony! I checked on Anthony a few minutes later and what was he doing? He had a hold of his octopus guy and was banging it around! I let him for a few minutes and then if he was playing too long I was going to take it out… but when I came back he was on his little side, thumb in mouth sleeping away! So Precious!!!

I am still exhausted today so I am trying to go to sleep earlier… :)

First Full Day!

Aren't these pretty? They are all over the park! Strolling along...
So sweet! There are no words... Trying to crawl... i was sure he was going to fall on his nose as he was rocking...
Alex kissing Assiya... he had given her a bunch of change (tenge) and then wanted it back... she would only exchange it for kisses! so cute!
Counting the money from kisses...
Savilya and Assiya... As well as Alex with his gum... he has figured gum out... by the way.
Sisters... one is missing though!
Before saying goodbye!

Gotcha Day!!! (day8)

We got up early this morning… At least it seemed early for us!!! Goodness… we left the apartment at 7:45. We went straight to the babyhouse. Olga took our clothes in for them to put on him for the last time! Then she brought him to us for the last time… We waited a few minutes in the Music room, August the inspector came in, she was there because another couple was coming in today to choose a child! They were getting there when we got there… I wonder which child they were getting! Maybe I can find out later. I think they were one of the German families! They had the guy coordinator or interpreter with them that I recognized from last time.

August, the inspector, wished us that Anthony will make us happy and hopes that we will come back for a girl… we would like to… we will see how the next year goes…

We brought 14 gifts for the caregivers… one for his Doctor, one for the Director and one for the Inspector. We went to the Director’s office, she said some words to us about how happy she is that we came back and they know they can trust us with their babies now… Then we took some pictures all together, we signed the book saying we were taking Anthony out of the babyhouse! Then we left… that was about it! As we left, the Doctor was there to congratulate us as well… so we stopped to take a few pictures with her. Some of the caregivers came out and said goodbye to Anthony… they are funny… they doesn’t kiss the babies (unless they are a favorite baby) they sniff them… put their nose up to the baby’s cheek like they will kiss it and then sniff, sniff. Very Weird… But maybe it is so they are not attached… Who knows! We then walked out of there! We drove home… we will go to the record’s office at noon.

We drove to the maternity hospital that Anthony was born in… while we were walking around, Anthony fell asleep… Jerry transferred him to me in the car and I held him on the way home…

I carried him in and tried to put him in the bed to sleep… oh no! he woke up wide awake! So we played a while… then we put him in bed… jerry stayed with him while he threw his fit before he fell asleep… he slept about an hour and then we had to wake him to go to the records office… We were in and out of there very quickly just a couple minutes! Olga and Misha stayed outside with the babies! Anthony’s Birth certificate is so pretty… Kazakhstan blue with gold! Olga took those so they can be copied and translated and stuff… After there we went to the “Amusement Park” by the river… it is the one with the soccer stadium! There is a Ferris wheel and some little kid rides and a bounce house and the river… We walked around with Olga… Just after we parked and were heading into the park the police came and were giving Misha a hard time… something about a stop sign? They took his license again!!!!!! By the time we came back they worked it out and they just gave him a “warning”! Give me a break!!!! Good grief!

So the park is lovely! It was a beautiful day too! There was a nice breeze and the sun was shining… we are going there again tomorrow! I carried Anthony… he just snuggled up on my shoulder and hung out there… By the time we got back to the car he had fallen asleep again! He slept for the ride home and then I went in to get him a bottle before our meeting with Damir… he woke up of course.

At 2pm we met with the Judge’s son Damir again… we bought him lunch at MacJohn’s. He is so cute! He brought us a gift… well a lot of gifts! He brought us two mugs that he had someone put his design on for us… He is also a cartoonist apparently… so he drew a picture of our family and the main buildings of Uralsk and had it put on these cups and a t-shirt! He had printed on them… “Uralsk - Our Second Homeland!” Because when we met him, he asked us how it was to be back in Uralsk, we told him it was like being at our second home! Truthfully, half of our family IS from Kazakhstan! :) Then he brought out some food that he asked his Mom to make for us… Traditional Kazakh food… My mind was racing… oh no… I am sure it is meat… is he going to want us to try it right here!? He told us he had his mom make some horse meat sausage true Kazakh style and the fried dough bread. He said it was for later and that we can eat it later… I was relieved… just after he told us what HIS MOM made for us, he said I hope you aren’t vegetarians!!! I almost died!!! There was NO way in the world that I was going to tell him that we indeed ARE!!!! Oh my word… then we proceeded to order food with no meat! :) I hope that he didn’t really notice… oh dear!

Anyways he and Jerry talked finance and gave him some serious information on finance… It was funny trying to eat and hold a little rascal that kept dropping his toy and if he noticed that I was putting food in my mouth he was trying to grab it! Anyways we made it through… jerry held him for a while and then me… and then I took the boys for a walk while Jerry and Damir finished their finance talk! Jerry gave him a list of books and a big list of ideas… basically a serious lesson on finance!

Damir drove us home and we put Anthony down for the rest of his nap… it took hi about a half hour of screaming on and off to finally fall asleep… It was horrible… He gets very mad when we lay him down and walk away… We will see how bedtime goes… oh boy… so he had about 40 minutes of sleep and then we woke him up for dinner and play time… we have to try to tire him out so he falls asleep faster tonight… about half way through the 40 minutes… he woke up screaming again… I figured he was scared and didn’t know where he was so I went in to comfort him for a minute… He was screaming so much that he didn’t hear me or see me coming… so when I touched his tummy… I scared him half to death! He screamed so hard I thought his lungs were going to come out… so I felt so bad… I picked him up and held him tight for a minute until he calmed down, then I laid him back down… he of course screamed when I left the room… but it only took maybe 4-5 minutes for him to fall back to sleep… Then he was fine until we woke him up… and he was sort of happy… kind of weirded out though I think that WE woke him… After a few minutes he was happy and smiling at us… then we went in and woke Alex from his nap… he was sleeping in our bed, as Anthony was screaming his head off in the other bedroom! I changed his diaper… I laid him down on the bed and then Alex talked to him as I went around the corner to grab a diaper… he started screaming as soon as I left his sight…. Hummm… interesting… maybe a little attached… So far he is pleasant… I walked out of the kitchen to grab his spoon form the bag and he started screaming while jerry was holding him… it’s funny… we fed him some apple sauce… he doesn’t really know how to eat from a spoon… if it goes in just right he basically sucks it off, which means that if it doesn’t go in just right, then he squirts it back out with his tongue! Sucking action I guess… Now he is just playing on the floor… Still seems to freak out if he can’t see Jerry or I… I will update about the bedtime… later.

Well… I put his cute pjs on him and read the story of Jesus to him and we prayed and we all smooched on him and I put him in the bed and left the room… I heard him start to cry… but by the time I put something away and came back to listen he had stopped… It took me probably 10 minutes before I was brave enough to open the door and check on him… he didn’t even have his thumb in his mouth… He was one tired puppy!!! He was flat on his back but he was right next to the edge of the crib… Out like a light! He should be! Jerry moved his bed in by us… partly for him and partly for Alex… we want Alex to be able to sleep good too!

Luba and Helen came about 7:30 so we went outside to do a photoshoot! We put Anthony in the Bjorn on jerry… he did perfect… he just hung out! Jerry decided that he loves the Bjorn!!! He says he can hardly tell he is carrying Anthony around, plus your arms are free! We didn’t have one with Alex, so we had never used one before!

We chatted with Helen and Luba for a while and then they left… so I am free to journal…

I must say… it was a good day… a very LONG day, as in we thought it would never end… but a VERY good day!!! I will never forget it!

I hope this makes sense… I am so tired, I can hardly see straight!

Gotcha Day!!!

Poor guy... we had to wake him up after this photo!All the gifts! We gave the caregivers, nail polish, chapstick, gum, a notepad and a small peice of jewelry. The Dr. Director, and Inspector got... sticky notes, Jerry's favorite pens in black and blue, paperclips, mascara and chapstick.
The last walk form Group 2!
Let's go home!!!
I'm Ready, are you?!
Don't I look cute in my big outfit...
The director... jerry's sleeping...
The Doctor...
Some caregivers from group 2!
Alex's Special caregiver!


Bye Bye group 2!

Bye bye babyhouse! We won't say he'll never be here again... that is what we thought with Alex... you never know in life!
Where Anthony was born!!! Maternity Hospital 3.
Sleeping on the way home!
Calming down! Alex needed this too when he was a baby!
Oh dear!

Finally...
This is the book i made for Anthony's questions... It is basically a thinner composition book that i covered with cool scrapbook paper. You can always have them write in it and cover it later...
The Bounce House...
Here we go again... Mommy left the room for the camera! Waaaaa!!!!!
Our gift from Damir... Our judge's son! He drew them and had it put on 2 mugs and a shirt! It's us... can you tell... Isn't it cute!!! It was sooo thoughtful of him!!!

Our beautiful "daughter" Luba and her Beautiful friend Helen!
Sleeping like a baby... in his cute PJs!

Court!!! (day9)

Happy Adoption Day Baby Anthony!!

This morning we went to see Anthony for one last time at 11 am… We went outside as it was nice a cool… we played… Alex had to have his usual potty break and while jerry was with him, the doctor came out and told us that we needed to put more clothes on Anthony or take him inside… well we went inside… since we didn’t exactly bring a coat with us!!!! Back to the great old music room! So we took the opportunity to take some memory-lane pictures… Alex in one of those little chairs and Anthony standing at them… the blocks… remember those?! Well, Jerry stacked the boys knocked them over! Then Jerry tried to show Alex how to bowl with them… and Anthony got a hold of a ball and he played with that the rest of the time! I was sure he was going to scream when we had to take it away! He didn’t. We took a new family picture. The boys didn’t smile but everybody looks pretty good! Ok ok ok On to some more exciting stuff!!!!!

We went home, we all took naps and then had about an hour to get ready and go to Court!!!!

We were soooo nervous! Court actually only lasted about an hour and 10 minutes, including the recess for the judge to decide… we started about 20 minutes late and we ended at about 4:35-ish… we had to take pictures and all afterwards… The judge let us take pictures with him! J We do not have those pictures with Alex’s judge so this was extra special! When we went back in the court room for the decision to be read, it was only Jerry and I and the 2 Olgas! Everyone else took off! The judge read the decision to us… he was granting our application for adoption and our petition for immediate execution… meaning that we get to take immediate custody! Well… in the morning!

So Court was hard and scary… and Jerry messed up on the second question… he was so nervous!!! He forgot the most important reason we needed to get Anthony… “the doctor has informed us that Nurbek has serious diseases and diagnosis and we need to start treatment as soon as possible. Poor jerry… I felt so bad! After that he was fine… he just got kind of messed up for a few minutes. He said I did fine!

I am too exhausted to write every detail about court… I have the list of questions that they ask typed up separate… so if anyone wants them I can email it to you… I can highlight the questions he asked us… I really think he didn’t ask as many as he could have.

The rep from the Records office was there as well as the BH director, the inspector from the Dept. of Education, the prosecutor, and the assistant to the judge, besides us and the judge… :)

After court jerry talked to the judge and told him that it was a pleasure to meet his son and that we were impressed by his English, the judge told jerry that because he is his father, it is hard for him to think of him speaking English! They said some other stuff, and Jerry told him that he was hoping to see his son, Damir one more time before we leave for Almaty. Damir is leaving for Almaty soon, too to work on his paperwork to go to England.

We were so happy! I somehow managed to save my tears until we got home! Oh my goodness!!!!! We are done!!!!! Everything else is just technical stuff! Passport, medical evaluation, and visa to the USA!!! Woohooo!!!!!

We came home and made one phone call! Then we went out to dinner… we had not eaten all day… too nervous! We went to our favorite this trip… the Kamelot! I had this cool salad… it sounds weird, but I actually like it… shredded carrot& beet, raisins, walnuts, there’s supposed to be garlic in it too… as well as some mayonnaise… I think it will try to recreate it at home, with much less mayo! J But somehow the combination is good! Jerry wouldn’t even try it! Alex ate some though. Alex chow-ed on the bread tonight… He ate 4 pieces, as well as rice with vegetables, and mashed potatoes! Goodness! We came home and watched a little discovery channel! Then our internet was gone… go figure… on such an important day… after and hour, it finally came back! SO I better post quick! :)

Really good stuff coming tomorrow!!!!