Day 6--October 31, 2008

Day 6—October 31, 2008

Sorry for not posting a picture. Kazakhstan would prefer we not post anything until the adoption is complete.

(1:00p.m.) Today was an interesting day. We met with the Director of the orphanage this a.m. and received a great deal of information about Aydar. She was very forthcoming, and said that we could have a copy of his file (good news). This is some of the information we received: he has been at the orphanage since birth; all doctors say that he is fine/healthy with the exception of his mouth; he now understands that his speech is different from other children, so he doesn’t say much; he has had two surgeries—one on his lip and one on his mouth; he has had all immunizations (they say the same as American immunizations); workers come to work on the building, and he calls them “dad”; he is very intelligent and makes logical decisions; he stays close to his friend (girl) who has downs syndrome and cares for her; he was born in Almaty; he has no allergies; and he eats everything!

The orphanage was required to show us other children as well in order to satisfy court proceedings. They were very small and did not understand what was going on. Of course, we saw Aydar. All of the children were presented to us twice, once early in the meeting, and then again after the regional director came (she was required to ensure we saw more children than just Aydar). When we arrived, the children were going for a walk, and we saw Aydar in the group. We waved and said hello. Each time he came to the room during the meeting, he came right to me and climbed into my lap. What a sweetie! Bonding is obviously not a problem there. The workers at the orphanage are all caring people who truly love the children. I’m sure it is a mixed blessing for them when a child is adopted.

In other news, let me tell you a little bit about what is going on outside of the adoption. We went for a walk yesterday and found a park with some interesting statues commemorating WWI and WWII. There was a huge, bright yellow building with a decorative rooftop, but we have no idea what it was. The people here ALL dress in black, with the exception of small children. There is very little color here. The women dress in skinny dark jeans, black coats, and black stiletto boots. The women are all very tiny. I’m sure they don’t weigh enough to even give blood; they must eat only on Tuesdays and Fridays. The men dress in dark jeans, black shoes, black shirts, and black coats. The only variation in color is gray. Even when looking in store windows, the clothes for sale are only black. The food here is good, although I don’t venture outside of my own little realm here. At least they have what I like—fish, pasta, pizza, Chinese food. I don’t drink the milk, since it came in a carton that was from a display in the middle of the floor in the store. There is just something not right about that—at least in my head. John says it is good, and tastes somewhat like powdered milk. They have American soda (not Mountain Dew), but they typically serve it warm, so we drink mostly bottled water (although John has found a couple of good regional beers). We’ve been told to not drink the water, but that it’s OK to rinse fruit and vegetables in it. We’re not taking any chances—we brush our teeth with bottled water. People here drive CRAZY. There are at least five cars going in various directions at intersections. NASCAR has nothing on Olga. She is quick, and can get her car through the tightest of places. I just close my eyes when I’m riding with her. We’re living downtown, and there is definitely a split between poverty and wealth. One block may have Dolce Gabbana, and the next block may have a tiny market that no more than five people could fit into at one time. We’re told that teachers and doctors make very little pay, but someone is making money because there are a lot of nice cars here (BMW, Lexus, Mercedes). Everyone here smokes. That’s the one bad thing about going to dinner or to a café for the WiFi. There is no escaping it. We can even smell it in our apartment. YUK! Traffic outside of our windows is rough—people are always beeping their horns, and motion detector car alarms are going off constantly.

(8:00 p.m.) We saw Aydar this afternoon, and had a great visit with him. We played outside for more than an hour. We are putting pictures in a photo album to leave with him when we go back to the U.S., and brought the album to show him tonight. He LOVED it. He looked at it again and again, and then went back to it in between playing.

One thing that is very frustrating to us is that the orphanage said that our 14 day bonding period does not begin until today, but our plane tickets are scheduled for 14 days from yesterday. We’re not quite sure why, other than maybe someone did not know the correct sign in process yesterday, and had us sign a piece of copy paper. We signed a journal today, which seemed more official. We explained to our coordinator that we have pictures with the date on them, but that did not seem to matter. Also, we have to wait until after the 14 day bonding period before we have our court hearing, which means we may have another week here. That will mean almost a month without seeing Karis :-(