Day 22--January 10, 2009

Day 22—January 10, 2009

What a busy day. John and I got up early, packed, had breakfast, and stored our luggage, headed out the door for a whirlwind of a day. Of course, we began with a visit to Aidar. We now call the baby house “Aidar’s House”. He’s a little under the weather, but we still had a lot of fun. He loves to play with the phones and see pictures on the camera. Someone left some balloons in the playroom. He’s really good at hitting the balloons into the air over and over again. Great hand/eye coordination. After our visit, John and I walked around the city looking for a hotel that he had seen on-line. No luck. He tried calling someone about an apartment, but we can’t use our cell phone to a landline phone, so that was out.

We ended up going to a hotel (Hotel Alma-Aty) that is directly across the street from the opera house. The opera house is gorgeous, and sits in the forefront of snowcapped mountains. The price was the same as where we had been staying, so we checked in to our room. Let me say rooms—plural! We have a sitting room with a china cabinet (filled with tea cups and whiskey glasses), a love seat, chair, and refrigerator enclosed in a wooden stand upon which the TV sits. The next room is an office area with a chair/desk and a sitting chair, and then the last room is the sleeping area. Each room has a Persian rug in it. The shower room is off of the bedroom, and leads into the bathroom, which leads into the sitting area—a walk-through. We even have signature bathrobes. I love this place! The reason it is the same price as the other hotel is because it has not been renovated. Let me say that it has all of the charm of the Grove Park Inn without even half the cost. Our view is incredible. The opera house is lit with Christmas lights in the evening, and the mountaintop has several light displays. Hotel Kazakhstan is just off to our left.

After checking into our room, we headed back out to the slushy sidewalks of Almaty. We had some lunch (we passed on the restaurant that was serving chicken bowels), went back to the other hotel, called a taxi, retrieved our luggage, went back to Hotel Alma-Aty, and then finally headed back to Aidar’s house. He was really queit today, and this was one of those times when you wonder what little thoughts are running through his head. Was he just feeling miserable? Was he sad? Did someone make fun of him? Did someone tell him that he would go to live with us, and he was going to miss his friends? This was one of those times when you really hated that language barrier. All we could do was hold him, and we held him for a very long time. You know something is wrong if a four year old sits in your lap forever when he has a bag full of toys at his feet. We read his counting book twice, and we sat in silence for a few minutes. We looked at pictures on the camera. And then he got up and put his Sesame Street puzzle together. It’s a quiet activity, and he is amazing at it. We’re so proud of him. He absolutely adores John on this trip, and wants John to carry him everywhere. One side benefit of carrying him: you get kisses on your cheek! We hate to leave him each day, but are happy to see him run off to join his friends in whatever activity they’re engaging in when he returns to his room. That tells us that he can adjust well to change.

Another family should be arriving today. I spoke with the mom about a couple of months ago. Her name is Anna, and I can’t wait to meet her. She is incredibly nice—and funny. Hopefully, we’ll meet within the next day or two.

Until tomorrow…………..