Saturday w/Almira

Today Boris and Almira arrived a little after 2PM. Boris brought the 5 boxes I had sent to the Antares Foundation. I told him I would go through them and we would decide where to send them. I have more stuff for the little ones, so alot will go to the baby house. We sat in the apartment for a little while and looked at pictures on the computer. Boris brought a flash drive with pictures of Almira since she came to the orphanage. There were pictures of her winning awards for the art contest and the English essay contest. There were also pictures from the latest outing on Thursday, when the girls went to the movies. I just love seeing pictures of Almira being silly and having fun with the other girls. She seems so serious most of the time. I just love having picures of her from the past.

Then we went to this German restaurant that was really nice. Boris ordered Almira calamari salad. I couldn't believe she ate it, but she did. I've never eat calamari. She said at the orphange they eat a lot of porridge, I told her no more porridge when she comes home. But I hope that porridge is not like grits, because we eat grits in the south. Oh well, we'll figure it out. I'm not worried about feeding her.

Then we walked around town and did some shopping. We went to a video store to buy a DVD for Almira in Russian, but with subtitles in English. She picked Pirates of the Carribbean 2. She took it back to the orphange to watch tonight.

Then she asked if she could have ice cream for dessert. So we went to the Iceberg on our way home and picked out some ice cream cones, just the individual kind. Then we came back to the apartment and did melt beads. I think she enjoyed that.

Sunday they will come back about 11AM and I will try and cook lunch for everyone. It's tough not being in my own kitchen with my own stuff. But I'm going to make jambalya after we run down to the Iceberg and buy a roasted chicken. I'm just not sure what to do about a salad or a vegetable. Oh well. I'll attach a picture of Almira from the movie Thursday afternoon.

Almira Kathryn

We had to pick a name today. I was really hoping for Almira Grace, but she just didn't seem to take to it. So we tried Almira Hope, Almira Ann, then Almira suggested Almira Elizabeth, she wanted to be like Sarah. I told her that normally you don't have two children in the family with the same middle name. I asked if there was a Russian name that she liked that we could use, like Natya or Katya. Kathryn is translated from Katya. She said Kathryn, like mine. She said she wanted a name like her American Mama. She calls me her American Mama right now. So we tossed it around a little bit and I asked her if she really liked it. She said that's what she wanted, to be named like me. Jon thought it sounded good and Maria and the teacher in the room that it sounded good. I'll admit I'm having some trouble getting used to it, just because I never thought about naming anyone after me. It does sound pretty together when you just say Almira Kathryn.

We had a really good visit today. We brought our Louisiana Alphabet book and our small dry erase board. Jon drew and talked to her a lot today. They read the book together. He said everything he read she repeated back to him and sounded really good.

She asked a lot of questions today. She asked about water parks, roller coasters, Santa Claus, did he come. Maria said she is a serious girl and thinks alot. It is hard to read her sometimes. It looks like something is worrying her and then she's okay. Maria said she is just thinking really hard about everything. She said this is good, that she considers everything so thoroughly. Almira is concerned about school mostly and does not want to get behind. We told her today that we want her to keep her Russian and she said she plans to. She said there is no way she can ever forget Russian.

Almira said when she comes to school in America, she just won't talk, just will do her algebra, since it is the same in Russian. Then she just laughed. Maria did find out today that we can't change Almira's birthday. I really hate that. She is going to be a very young 14 year old. She will be 14 in about 6th grade.

She also out of the blue today asked why we were going to leave her after court. I explained to Maria that I had to go back to work now, so I could spend more time with her this summer. She also explained about Jon's situation that he had to help his father out, who is older. Then I told her Sarah would be upset with me if I didn't come home and get her, so she could come pick up Almira. She laughed at that and seemed okay after the explanation.

Maria asked Almira today if she wanted to come home with us and live in America, she said yes. She explained about court and what would happen. She said that Almira would be asked questions by the judge and have to say she wanted to come home with us. She said she would say that and she did want to be adopted. I told her about more friends of hers back home that wanted to talk to her. I asked her if alot of her friends had been adopted and she got kind of sad looking and nodded her head. I will show her more pictures tomorrow of her friends.

Jon thought today went really well. Almira is very excited about coming to our apartment tomorrow. She and Boris will get here about 2:20 and can stay until about 7:30. Then Sunday she can come at 11:20 and stay until 8 PM. It's Friday night here and we're just going to stay in and watch some movies. We have no American channels, but we can watch Animal Planet in Russian.

We did get some bad news today. Svetlana (our lawyer we haven't met yet) talked to the judge today and said the judge said she would need 4 days to review our documents before court after the bonding period. It looks like it might be Friday before we can get court, if we are lucky. So pray really hard the judge lets up and let's us have court on Thursday, Friday at the latest. There is no guarantee the judge won't make us wait until Monday or Tuesday. Maybe we can fly home on Sunday, the 29th. Just pray hard. I did tell Maria the other day about Jon’s situation and how desperately we need to get home for work. I explained about his father’s hip surgery and how difficult it is for his father to try and run the business by himself. I was hoping this would persuade the judge to let us have court earlier. So far it didn’t do any good. We’ll just keep praying the judge reconsiders and lets us have court on Wednesday or Thursday.

I’m posting a picture of Jon and Almira. Jon was reading her the Louisiana Alphabet book and she was thoroughly enjoying it. I catch her just watching him. She studies him like she is fascinated by him. He does laugh and joke around with her a lot. He makes her laugh all the time. Jon was saying words out of the book and she was repeating them.

We talked about English today. I was concerned about Almira knowing basic English like the alphabet and vowels and constanants. Maria never got around to asking her specifically, but when she asked her what she was studying in English right now Almira told her the history of Southeast Asia. Well, I think that answers our question of her knowing basic English. I almost wonder if she can read and comprehend English, but not speak it so well. Oh well, we’ll find out more tomorrow when she comes to visit.

Good night. We’re about to get back to our series we’ve been watching 24. Jon said this was the best thing I brought. That and the Ziploc bag of chocolates for the kids. I just can’t keep my big kid out of it.

Tell later.

Kathy B.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

We are sitting here on the couch waiting to get picked up now. We just came back from a little stroll around town. We got out and walked down to Constitution. We even went into a store, kind of like a small indoor mall. There were different sections like by different vendors. I looked at some beautiful coats. They had makeup, lots and lots of beautiful boots, hats, even children’s clothes. We are getting picked up today at 1:45 p.m. to attend the birthday party at the Donner Café. We have been taking a few little things for Almira every day. When I found out that she was attending a birthday party I told Almira that if she wanted to pick a little gift for her friend from the things I had in the backpack she could. She did and said she would give it to her later, when no one else was around.

This picture is of our beautiful Almira and our likewise beautiful translator, Maria, who is just an absolute sweetheart. She seems to really love the children. I'm also trying to post another picture of Almira with her friends. The little girl I was talking about is Vika, she is just adorable.

We just came back from the birthday party and it was so much fun. The kids are all just fascinated with us. I was joking with Jon that when we’re out walking what if Maria or someone saw us. She would probably panic to see us out alone. She is very protective of us. So we go to the café and we’re all sitting around the table visiting and Maria says “My sister saw you two out walking today”. I said really, at first I thought how did she know us, but then I thought, well we don’t really fit in here. We did get a lot of stares. Her sister was out walking and passed us. She described us as foreigners and gave descriptions to Maria and Maria told her that was us.

Anyway, we talked to Almira quite a lot today. We found out her favorite food is potatoes, her favorite subject in school is math, particularly, Algebra. She said she loves Algebra and makes good marks. Here the children only attend 11 years, so she thinks that if she comes home and starts in the 6th grade, it will be like 5th grade to her. We found out her favorite singer is someone named Sakera? I thought maybe they were Russian, but she is Mexican and sings in America. Almira knows about Brad Pitt, Harry Potter and Britney Spears.

We just fell in love with a little girl that was at the birthday party. She is 13 and looks about 7 or 8. She is just tiny. She has very short blond hair, blue eyes and big dimples. The kids were going to a movie after dinner and we walked half way to the cinema with them. Our apartment was about ½ the distance to the cinema. We walked and I had Almira on one arm and Vika, the little blond holding my left hand. They were both just adorable. When we got to my apartment building Boris stopped and said you are home. We had to tell the children bye. I hugged and kissed all the girls and told them Dusvadonya (goodbye). I told Maria we changed our minds, we wanted to bring home about 3 kids now. I think she thought we were serious. They are just so precious.

We are back in the apartment and I’ve got internet again. Last night I pulled the phone cord out of the little plastic thing in the computer. The man came when Maria was here with us and fixed it. I will try and post some pictures as well tonight. Maria showed me how to save them smaller. We talked about changing Almira’s birthday back at least 1 year. She is just so small. She does not look anywhere close to 13 or 14, more like 11 or 12. Her face looks close to her age, but her body is like a 10 or 11 year old girl here in America.

Tomorrow Maria will pick us up at noon and we’ll go do some shopping and have lunch with Sasha and Maria. We will go to the orphanage at 2:30 tomorrow. Till tomorrow, dusvadonya!

April 11, 2007

Today Maria and Sasha picked me up at 11:00 a.m. and we went sightseeing and bought a coffee pot. Jon had a head ache and was tired so he decided to sleep in. I made deviled eggs for lunch and we had fresh fruit. We got ready and were picked up at 2:30 to go to the orphanage. We arrived at the orphanage and everyone was looking for Almira. I asked where the restroom was and the assistant director took me by arm like a student and took me to the nurses’ area. There were several examining rooms and there were students getting doctored on. She showed me the restroom and then left. I went back down the hall to the classroom where we meet and we waited on Almira. She was off running around somewhere getting her drawings to show us. She came running in the room and had several of her drawings with her. She also had the Nick magazine that we had sent her. She had drawn some of the things out of the magazine in unbelievable detail. We were very impressed. Unfortunately I had to run back down the hall to the restroom since my lunch was not agreeing with me. The director saw me coming out of the bathroom and I rubbed my stomach and she came and took me by the arm and led me into one of the nurses’ offices. All these Russian women were crowding around me and all speaking Russian. I think they thought I was dying. One of them came in and tried to give me a pill. I said “Spaceba” (thank you in Russian) and tried to leave. They told me to sit down on the couch. They didn’t want me to leave. Then my interpreter came in and was all upset and thought something bad had happened. I told her no that I was okay, just upset stomach. So Maria starts translating and starts asking me about symptoms. I told her I ate something that didn’t agree with me, but I’m fine. She continues to ask what my stomach is doing and how is it feeling. They finally allow us to leave. It was really quite comical. I know they take really good care of the children.

All the while Jon is sitting down in the classroom by himself with Almira. They started working on the small Build a Bear dog that Sarah had picked out. He does not know what’s going on. Then when Maria and I get back we start going through the little book about her dog. Then Boris comes into the room and says he needs to speak with us outside. I asked Maria if she knew him and she said no. I asked him to come into the room and meet Maria. I’m not sure about the relationships between people here. I know that some coordinators and adoption workers don’t like Boris and I don’t why. He does wonderful things with the kids. He met Maria and then said he could just tell us there. He had another girl with him and he explained that this girl was sponsored and having a birthday party tomorrow afternoon. Since Almira was invited to attend the birthday party it would affect our visitation time, he invited us to come to the birthday party. So Jon, Almira, Maria and I will be attending a birthday party tomorrow. Then Boris said he needs to speak to me in the hall. He tells me that he has talked to the coordinator and has agreed to let Boris check her out of the orphanage all day Saturday and all day Sunday. She will have to be returned to the orphanage at night at 8PM. She can come to our apartment if someone is with her. I think maybe Boris and Maria may both be there. It is hard to tell when people in Russian are disagreeing or just talking. It is so fast and sounds like they are mad. So Boris takes me to the director’s office and talks to him and I just nod and agree with everything that Boris is saying. Then we go back outside and he tells me that everything is okay. We head back down to the classroom where Almira, Jon and Maria are and he does not want me to tell Maria anything. And I told him I didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t be dishonest with our coordinator. He said okay and goes in and proceeds to tell her everything in Russian. Almira is listening and her eyes are getting big. Sometime in the conversation she mentions something about school work and Boris told her “Don’t worry about school, you’re going to the United States.” She just started laughing at that. He then said something else to her in Russian and she started saying “Nyet, nyet” and shaking her head. Boris said he was joking with her and told her if she was worried about school work he could bring her back early and she was saying no, no. We laughed at that. Almira laughs a lot and seems to have a good sense of humor.

I told Maria I would like to take Almira shopping for shoes for court this weekend, if we could. It will be interesting to have Maria, Boris and Almira in our small apartment this weekend. I’m thinking about cooking some of my jambalaya I brought with me. The store down the street has a roasted chicken that is very good. I could just get Jon to shred it up and put it in the jambalaya. Maybe some salad and bread. We are very excited about spending some time with Almira away from the orphanage this weekend.

Tuesday, April 10th

I got up about 6:45 on Tuesday morning and started playing around trying to get on the computer. I had called Mom the night before and given her the numbers, but what I was given wasn't right. I called her this morning on my cell phone and talked her through calling, using a different number. We got to talk for a little while. I was on the phone with Sarah when I plugged in too much stuff and blew a fuse. The phone and everything went dead. I didn't know how to turn it back on and knew I didn't have a phone for Maria to call us. I took a shower and started getting ready about 8 AM because I didn't know when they were coming. I got Jon up and made him start getting ready. About 8:30 or 8:45 I called Maria on my cell phone and got her. I told her what happened and she said she had been trying to call us and was on her way to get us. We hurried and got ready. They got here a few minutes later.

We got power back on when Sasha and Maria came to get us. Sasha came up to the door and immediatly flipped the breaker right outside the door and it came back on. The breakers are outside in the hallway. We then left and picked up a lady from the Ministry of Education and went to the orphanage. Maria got a full explantion of everything in the car and translated to the lady from the ministry on how we came to know Almira and about us sponsoring her. We went to the director's office and talked for about15 minutes. They brought in one of Almira's teachers and we talked and I showed them pictures of our house and family. Then they brought Almira in, but told us she was in school and could only stay for a few minutes. The poor thing looked scared to death. She is very small, about Sarah's height, but very small. Then she left and they asked if we wanted to adopt her. Of course we said yes. We went back at 3:00 to visit with Almira and it was slow getting started but by the end she was laughing with us and seemed excited about us coming back tomorrow. She had a lot of questions for us, especially about Sarah. At one point Maria had to leave and go to the director's office and left us alone with Almira. I asked her if she wanted me to read the book to her that I had brought. It was about a kitten seeing a bowl of milk in the sky (the moon) and trying to get it. I read it to her and she read some things along with me. She laughed at the story and pointed to the pictures. We did fine without Maria. I had put a picture of Sarah in front of the Christmas tree holding Snowball in the front of the book. I had also written a note to Almira in the front of the book and signed i t "Much Love to you". She kept reading it over and over again outloud. She would just say it and run her fingers over the words. She loved the picture of Sarah and kept getting it back out and looking at it.

She wanted to know all about Sarah. In our pictures from home she would see Sarah's picture and giggle and point and say "Sarah". Then she saw Star's picture and said "Star". She wanted to know about the cats and what their names were. She does not know a lot of English, but she wants to study hard and learn. She can read some in English as well. I think today she was very nervous and that probably didn't help.

After our morning visit at the orphanage, I came back and called Boris. I set up dinner for tonight. They are going to come by and pick us up around 7PM. We met Boris and his wife around the corner and started walking. We walked several blocks and then found a restaurant that he recommended. It was not far from the Skiff, though we still haven't seen it yet. It was at the entrance to City Park and you could see the Ministry building from there. We had a wonderful dinner. Jon and I both had pork tenderloin. It was quite tasty. They even had real french fries, like I cook at home. Like Jon says, just cut up a potato and throw it in the grease. That's what they were.

We enjoyed dinner with Boris and his wife, Sevta. They are so nice and we talked for 5 hours, from 7PM to midnight. They walked us home in the freezing cold. There is old dirty snow piled up everywhere. I got a lot of information about Almira from Boris. He knew a lot about her family history. It is sad to hear what a tough time she has had. I asked him what would happen to Almira if we didn't take her home, he said she has no future here. The Kazak government is making it harder and harder for the Russian people. They are changing the laws where everyone will have to speak Kazak in a few years. There is about 50% unemployment here. Very sad. Jody, I have Boris two bags of good Community coffee and he was tickled. He said he had run out of good coffee. He said the stuff in the stores here is not good coffee. I gave Sveta some Clinique lip liner and lipstick in a deep red. She is very beautiful and it will look good on her. Boris may come get us this afternoon again and take me to buy a coffee pot.

Well, I'm up and it's Wednesday morning here. I had better get off my computer so I can get my morning call from Sarah and Mom. Skype is working great for them. I tried to call them last night late and it keeps adding the country code for America and it won't dial right. I'm working on that.

I'll try and post more tonight. I'll also work on loading some pictures. I'll try and post a picture of Boris and Sveta, our friends.

Kathy

Monday, April 9th

This has certainly been an adventure. We seem to have had all kinds of airline problems. In Memphis on Saturday night we get to the gate and are told they don’t have tickets for me. First we had the fiasco with them not having Jon’s reservation right. I thankfully held on to my printed off check in that I did on Friday night at almost midnight. We are allowed to go get on the plane. It was packed going to Amsterdam. We then flew all night on a packed airplane. I slept less than an hour, Jon maybe slept 2. We arrive in Amsterdam and enjoyed the day. We had no problems at the Amsterdam airport and enjoyed the day in Amsterdam.

We got on the plane in Amsterdam headed to Almaty and the plane was only about 1/3 full. I moved to the bulk head seat after we took off and had plenty of leg room. I watched a movie and tried to sleep some. There were a lot of Kazak people on the plane. The flight attendants spoke Russian, maybe Dutch and English. Jon stayed in his seat in the back of the first section of the plane and I moved to the front row of the economy section. The first class and business class sections are very nice. The business class section was completely empty.

We got off the plane in Almaty and went and filled out a migration form. Then we waited in line for about 20 minutes to have someone stamp our passport. It was a Kazak woman, maybe 30 and she had no patience with us and never smiled or anything. We have to keep up with the migration form the entire time we are here and will have to turn it back in when we leave. We then went and collected our bags. The Almaty airport was nice and seemed pretty modern. Right through the doors waiting for us was Oleg. He is such a nice man. He helped us with our baggage and we found a spot to sit in the café for a couple of hours. We arrived a little bit early, so we got in the airport at about 5:00 a.m., it was still dark.

Jon, Oleg and I sat in the café and drank coffee and visited until 8AM. Oleg had bought our tickets already for us. Oleg took me in the airport to change money and to buy a phone card. I know that 122 tenge is equal to $1. This makes things really difficult to figure without a calculator. Oleg and I had coffee and water. Jon tried juice and ordered several different things to try. Our bill after all this was 4000 tenge. It came to about $30.00. Oleg said the airport is very expensive in Almaty. Oleg had our tickets purchased for us and everything done. We checked in and went to the ticket counter. At the ticket counter the woman took all our luggage and printed some things out for us. She told us to go back up front where Oleg was and pay overage fees. I paid $120.00 in overage fees at the airport for our big bags. I then went back and sat down to wait on the plane. About 30 minutes later they called boarding. We went through security and gave them our tickets. What I didn’t know was that after paying the overages we had to go back to the ticket counter and get our boarding passes. She didn’t tell us and I didn’t bother looking at the tickets, because they were in Russian anyway. We hurriedly got our boarding passes and went back through security. We did not get to sit together and both had middle seats. I sat next to a young Kazak man who was very nice. We struck up a conversation and I practiced my Russian and he practiced his English. We watched some videos together on the flight. The flight was only about 1 ½ hours to get to Astana. I will look forward to going back to Almaty on our second trip. Walking out to our plane you could see the beautiful mountains. I didn’t have a chance to take any pictures, but know I can when we come back. The mountains were just breath taking, all covered in snow.

We arrived in Astana around 11:00 AM and waited for our next flight. People stare at us when we walk around. I think it is so obvious that we are not from around here. The Astana airport was very nice and modern, but empty. There were almost no people there. There was one little café down stairs that sold pastries and soft drinks and of course a bar. We didn’t realize at the time, but upstairs after we went through security to go to our gate there was another little bar. This is where I saw the computers and was able to log on wirelessly in the airport.

A class of school children, all ages were there the same time we were. The woman that was leading them had blond hair and looked so familiar to me. She looked like a school teacher or official that I had seen on some of the pictures. When walked down some stairs and caught a bus out to our plane. It was cold and there was old dirty snow all over the place. We were all standing on the bus, no seats, just bars to hold on. Several of the children were staring at us and talking about us. Finally the lady pointed at one girl and said she knows some English, talking to me. I turned and started talking to the girl. She knew very little English, but seemed to understand a little of what I said. She wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing there. I told her and she just smiled. We all got on a crop duster looking plane. Jon and I ended up in the second row, not our seats, but I’m not sure anyone cared. The plane ride was cold, loud and lasted just over an hour and a half. Jon slept a lot and I slept for a few minutes. I was really tired.

Flying into Petro I could see just miles and miles of frozen tundra. I saw frozen rivers. Everything was white. There were very few houses out away from town. We landed in Petro and walked from the plane to the airport. It was very cold. It was shocking to say the least walking into this airport. It was like something that time had forgotten. Very, very old and not well maintained. Some parts had dirt floors if I remember correctly. We stepped through the doorway and there was Maria and Sasha waiting for us. I recognized her immediately from her pictures. She is a very pretty girl, maybe 25. We finally got all our luggage into Sasha’s little car. It was packed. Our big purple bag had to ride in the front seat and Jon, Maria and I rode in the back.

We came into the town and I was just amazed. Everything is just so dirty and run down looking. There is mud and piles of old snow. There is trash laying around and the buildings are simply depressing. We really do have things good in America. We went to the apartment which was quite scary looking from the outside, but things got better after we went in. You stepped over a thresehold onto a dirty floor. There is a really bad smell there, sort of like sewer. We went up a couple of steps and our apartment was to the left. There was a man there with the key and he opened it for us. Maria introduced him as the manager of all the apartments, he was very young, maybe 25. The apartment on the inside is much nicer than you would think. They obviously use it for Americans. We have a small kitchen with a table, a den, bathroom with a corner shower stall, with a small washing machine.

We leave all our luggage and go to the grocery store. Maria goes in with us and we buy a few things. Then we go back to our apartment and take showers and hurry to go to the Ministry of Education. We are ready in about 45 minutes and Maria and Sasha come back and get us. After the grocery store we had an hour to shower and dress and then went to the Ministry of Education. We were picked up at 4:30 and went to meet with the head of the Ministry. She was a Kazak woman and had little to say to us. But she asked us a few questions and then signed everything. She commented to Maria that we seemed very nice. I spoke some Russian to her and she seemed to like that. After we walked out Jon said I was scaring him talking Russian to people.

We went back to the apartment after this and crashed. I was asleep by 8PM and slept until 6:45 this morning. Jon slept longer than that.

I hated we couldn't go to the orphanage that day, but someome from the ministry had to go with us and set everything up with the director.

I'll add more for Tuesday.

Kathy

Amsterdam on Easter

Hello everyone! Jon and I landed safely in Amsterdam and went out for a little tour. We just got back about an hour ago. The locker thing worked great, thanks Nanci. It was right after we got off the plane from Memphis, there were lockers right there for us to use. Jon has decided this whole process was just too easy. We put our bags in lockers and then started looking for the train tickets or the tran information. We went through one Passport check and got a stamp. Then we went out into the main part of the airport and I got in line and traded for some Euro. Then I bought us 2 train tickets into Amsterdam Central and we caught the train. We got off right in down town Amsterdam and just walked around for a little while. I took some pictures. we ducked in this little cafe and had a quick bit. It was close to 3:00 and I was getting nervous about getting back without any problems. Besides I had trouble getting on-line this morning when we first got here and I wanted to get this working.

We checked this morning to see if there was anything we needed to do when we came back into the airport to board our plane and was told no, as long as we had our boarding passes. We came back into the airport, and walked through the passport line, got a stamp and then walked to our locker and got our carry on bags. Wow, that was just too easy. We are sitting upstairs in the lounge area, where they have the lounge chairs, but I'm sitting in the internet cafe. I'll post a couple of pictures and then Jon wants to get on and do some surfing.

Till later,

Kathy B.