Miss Spider

We have a Leap Frog spider who sings and shows the alphabet when you tap her tummy. This has now become one of Bryce's favorite toys. He has figured out that she sings when he taps her tummy so he will pull himself up, tap her tummy, sit down to listen to her sing and when she's finished, he will stand up again to tap her tummy...

We're Home

It feels so good to be home. The plane ride went well. It was a long day but, Bryce did great and was really only fussy when it was close to nap time. The only trouble we ran into was when we landed in Mainland Japan and they wondered why we had a Japanese Visa for him (after all we went through to get it). When we brought Bryce into his bedroom last night, it just felt so surreal. Here we've been planning this and setting up the room for what feels like forever and now, we have a little person here to enjoy it. And boy does he. In a matter of minutes this morning, he had all of his toys scattered all over the place. He's also getting to know the layout of the house. One minute we're in the bedroom playing and the next minute, Wayne sees me running across the hallway to catch Bryce who's now in the kitchen. And then there's Cody. Cody is our 12 year old Lab who is a minature horse but, as sweet as can be. Looking at it from the point of view of a little person who has never seen a dog, Cody can be pretty overwhelming. Bryce has attempted to pet Cody a time or two but pretty much steers clear of him. From Cody's point of view, he now has a new best friend who has a bunch of cool toys that he wants to play with and food that is just waiting to end up on the floor for him. So, here are a couple of pictures from our first day home...

11 months old

Bryce turned 11 months old today and he marked this milestone by clapping his hands all on his own. This is something that we've been working on since we started visiting him in the babyhouse. Another thing he can do now is roll the ball back and forth between him and us.

We head home tomorrow so, it will probably be a few days before we post again.

Take Care,

Cari, Wayne, and Bryce

2 Days Left to Go!!!

Only 2 days left to go. Today was our US Embassy appointment and we received Bryce's Kazakhstan passport and Birth Certificate along with all of his documents to apply for his Social Security Card & documents to become a US Citizen. We have 6 months to set foot on US soil so, good thing we're going to San Diego in October. At that time, we can then apply for Bryce's US passport. We're still dealing with getting his Japanese Visa. They've promised it to us by Thursday so, let's keep our fingers crossed that we get it since we're supposed to fly out Thursday night. On tomorrow's agenda, souvenier shopping.

We finally got our hot water back the other night and then heard from our friends who are still Uralsk that they're out of hot water now. Sorry guys!

Here's a picture of Bryce just hangin' out in the bedroom...

Check out my Chuck's...

We put Bryce's first pair of Chuck Taylor's on him today and he seemed pretty pleased with our choice

Firsts

Things continue to go well here for us but, we’re really ready to get home. Five more days left to go. Tomorrow we’re headed for the Japanese Embassy to get Bryce’s Visa to enter into Japan since he has a Kazakhstan passport. On Tuesday, we go to the US Embassy.

We’re learning more about each other each day. We know when he’s hungry (which is just about always). I just learned this evening that I can’t eat my own cookie in front of him without him expecting me to give him some of it. We know when he’s tired (but, that doesn’t always mean that he will lay down in his crib without a fight). We know where all of his tickle spots are (which is just about everywhere). We know that we can expect him to be a crazy man after he’s had a diaper change and a full belly. We know which 2 toys are his favorites (1 is a rattle from the 100 yen store and the other are his stacking rings that we bought at the grocery store in Uralsk). We’re also teaching him new things such as waving “bye bye” and saying “dadadada” and “mamama”.

We were afraid that since he was already 10 months when we met him that we would miss out on a lot of firsts but, we’ve already shared a lot of firsts with him this past month. We put him in his first snowsuit, experienced his first car ride (other than the one from the maternity hospital to the babyhouse), took our first stroller ride outside, sat in grass for the first time, went to the mountains, went to the zoo, fed him his first Goldfish crackers, and pretty soon I’m sure we’ll get to witness his first steps. We’re also looking forward to the first time that we can take him to the beach to play in the sand and water.

Here is a picture from our walk yesterday and the first time he sat in grass…

Mountains in Almaty

We went to the mountains this morning. They were beautiful. The weather here is a lot nicer than in Uralsk so, it was nice to be out. The mountains reminded us a lot of Colorado. We took a gondola ride and enjoyed the scenery and the nice day.

New Pics

Thought we'd get some new pics posted of Bryce...

Leaving the Babyhouse

With mom at the apartment in Uralsk

I think we'll have to go with a picture of the day from now on. Since we have dial-up, just uploading these 2 pictures took me about 30 minutes.

We're off to the mountains today.

Love,

Cari, Wayne, & Bryce

WE HAVE INTERNET!

Sorry to leave everyone hanging this week. We lost internet connection while we were in Uralsk Monday night and never got it back. We're in Almaty now using dial up connection so, this will be short. Luckily I typed up a Blog about our court & first day with Bryce to save so I will post that. The rest of the week went well. He's eating good, sleeping through the night, and we're having a great time with him. The plane ride went awesome today. We couldn't have asked for a better child. The only time he got fussy was when it was his nap time but, that only lasted a few minutes and then he slept for about half an hour. He did great in Almaty this afternoon. As soon as we got off the plane, they whisked us away to take his visa pics, to the legal office, then to the medical clinic to take his blood and examine him. He didn't cry once. So, here's the blog from the beginning of the week. Since we're on dial-up, I'll try to upload some new pics in the morning. Love, Cari, Wayne & Bryce

I’m sitting here typing in Microsoft Word in hopes that the internet repair guy will be here soon so that I can copy and paste this to our Blog. The internet went down Monday evening and hasn’t been up since. So, while Bryce takes a nap, let me update everyone and what’s been going on with us for the past couple of days before it all becomes a blur.

So Monday was our court date. Olga and Aliya came over Sunday evening to go over what questions to expect and to talk about what Wayne should say in his speech. We were a little overwhelmed to say the least. We had our morning visit with Bryce Monday morning and then laid around the apartment the rest of the morning until it was time to get ready for court. Our court hearing started at 2:30 and the Judge,Prosecutor, Babyhouse Director, Inspector, Olga, a member from the records department, Aliya, Wayne, and myself were present. As during pre-court, Wayne answered the majority of the questions and I noticed as he was answering his questions, the judge appeared to be checking his email. I don’t think he made eye contact with either one of us during the hearing and at one point he even yawned. The Prosecutor asked one question and then the Babyhouse Director and Inspector presented documents for the court. We asked for Immediate Execution of the judges decision so that we didn’t have to wait an additional 15 days to take custody of Bryce and both the Director & Inspector supported our request. When it came time for a determination to be made, the Prosecutor granted our application for adoption but denied our request for Immediate Execution, luckily, the judge overruled the Prosecutor and granted both our request for adoption & our request for Immediate Execution. Yahoo! The whole nerve racking process took 30 minutes. Afterwards, we were whisked away to buy babyfood, a cake for the caregivers, and then we went to sign for the Adoption & Birth Certificate. We didn’t get to pick Bryce up until Tuesday morning so, we went out for a dinner celebration with our neighbors from Maryland, Dave & Amy.

So Tuesday morning, we loaded up all of our gifts & cake for the caregivers and headed off to the Babyhouse for one last time to pick up Bryce. We met with the Director first and she wished as all the best with Bryce. Then all of the caregivers came in to say goodbye and we presented them with their gifts & cake. All was going well until it was time to put Bryce into his snowsuit. He was not happy at all with that. We left the babyhouse and Bryce calmed down for a little while because I’m sure it’s the first time that he’s been outside since he was brought here from the maternity hospital. The car ride was pretty rough because Bryce was terrified and still not too happy about the snowsuit.

We got him home and settled and that’s when the real fun began. We had our first diaper blow-out and outfit change about an hour into began back at the apartment. After we took care of that, we had lunch which was a success. We got him to lay down for his afternoon nap then which lasted about an hour. Afterwards, we had our second diaper and wardrobe change due to him peeing during the diaper transition. Oops! The rest of the afternoon & dinner went well. We started the bedtime routine around 7:30 and that was a rough patch because he didn’t want anything to do with a bottle and he was so tired at that point that he was screaming. I had him laying in the living room with me with the lights out then just to get him settled down and he finally went to bed a little after 9:00. The night went well. He was fussy a few times but never really woke up so, we all had a pretty good night’s rest.

So far, we’re doing good this morning. We’re going to try to go out on a walk with the stroller this afternoon to see how that goes. Hopefully the internet guy comes and we get that back up and running so I can post new pics for everyone to see.

Love,
Cari, Wayne & Bryce

Our son, Bryce Danil Morrison

As of 1500 on Monday, April 16th, we were officially declared parents of Bryce Danil Morrison

Feeding Time

For the first time today, we get to feed Bryce. We're going in for our morning visit later and then staying afterwards for lunch. It's amazing that we've been spending time with this boy for the past 2 weeks and all we've ever seen him eat is a cookie. This will be a fun experience this afternoon. After lunch today, Aliya and Olga will be coming over to go over our questions for court tomorrow. I'm not sure if I've posted this before or not but at our court hearing, Wayne will have to give a small speech just to speak on our behalf on why we want to adopt this boy and the kinds of opportunities that we will be able to provide him. So, we'll be rehearsing his speech tonight.

2 other families arrived in town this week so, we have nextdoor neighbors now, Dave & Amy from Maryland. We're glad to have fellow Americans here with us to share this experience with. Last night was Dave's birthday so we went our for beer & pizza to celebrate. It was so nice to get out of the apartment and just relax for a little bit with friends.

We were busy yesterday afternoon preparing our giftbags for the caregivers at the Babyhouse so again, I don't have any new pictures to offer you.

Coming soon, pictures of Bryce...

Court Date Set

Pre-Court went fine yesterday. As expected, Wayne was asked a majority of the questions and he did great. I was only asked 3 questions. The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes. The judge set our court date for Monday, April 16th at 1430. So, if all goes well, we'll be picking Bryce up from the Baby House and bringing him back to the apartment with us on Tuesday.


During our afternoon visit yesterday, 2 other families were picking their children up from the Baby House. They brought their gifts in and a cake for the caregivers and were bundling their little ones up in their snowsuits. It made Wayne & I so excited to know that that will be us in a few days.


We didn't do any sightseeing yesterday as we were preparing for Pre-Court so, here are a few pictures we haven't posted to the Blog yet...


Walkway leading to Atrium (where we buy our groceries)

Oblast Akimat Building

Abay Square

Pre-Court

This post is going to be short tonight. We have our Pre-Court date set for tomorrow (Friday) at 1430. Aliya and Olga came over this evening and we discussed questions to expect and what things would be like tomorrow. Pre-Court is an "informal" meeting with the judge in his chambers where he will review our family photo album and pictures that we've taken with Bryce over the course of our visits. He will then proceed to ask Wayne & I (mostly Wayne) questions such as "Why are you adopting", "Why Kazakhstan", "What is your profession", "Who will take care of the child", etc... After we answer our questions, the judge will then speak with the Baby House Director and any other people in the room who have information pertaining to the adoption proceeding. After that, he will let us know what our Official Court Date is. We're hoping that it will either be on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

So, send positive thoughts our way and we'll let everyone know how things go tomorrow.

Love, Cari & Wayne

Taco Tuesday

Bryce was in a pretty good mood today. He's always full of giggles when Wayne tickles him. He was eating a cookie again today during our afternoon visit. We were surprised to see that they give him regular cookies and not baby cookies. He handled it pretty well. He can sure make a mess though. He was a crawling speed demon again this afternoon. I think he tries to see how fast he can crawl now just to see if one of us can catch up with him because he was just laughing as he was speed crawling towards the door today. Aliya told us today that a photographer would be coming this weekend to take his passport picture. The time is getting closer!

Aliya likes to ask us what we do for lunch and dinner so I told her that last night was "Taco Tuesday" to which her reply was "What's Taco?". WHAT'S TACO?! How can someone not know what a taco is? So, we had to explain to Aliya exactly what a taco was. The one thing that Wayne and I say that we've been craving since we've been here is Taco Bell (weird, I know) so, that's why we had Taco Tuesday last night.

We went to the Zoo this morning. It wasn't a big zoo but, it wasn't a bad zoo either. They had bears, wolves, birds, snakes, and a miniature pony. It was a nice morning out so, it was nice to be outdoors.

5 Fingers

We're continuing with our morning and afternoon visits with Bryce. Whatever he ate this morning wasn't agreeing with him (or us for that matter) so, we tried to keep things pretty low key. When Aliya brought him in this afternoon, he had a blue spot from his lip to the side of his nose. We couldn't figure out what in the world it was. Wayne thought it was a bruise and I thought maybe they were having art time before he came in to see us. When Aliya took him back after our visit, she found out that it was from his cold medicine. We never would have guessed that. Aliya is setting it up for us to visit him this weekend during one of his meal times so that we can see how he eats and hopefully be able to feed him ourselves.

So, to the title of today's Blog. 5 Fingers... Wayne and I went to eat dinner at a restaurant called the Golden Century last night. Aliya recommended that we try a dish called 5 Fingers as she knows that we're adventurous eaters and it's a traditional Kazak dish. The reason that it's called 5 Fingers is because you're supposed to eat this dish with your fingers (luckily they let us eat it with a fork). It really wasn't what we were expecting because it mostly tasted like stew to us. It had roast meat, potatoes, onions, and carrots. But I guess what makes it different is that it was all on top of gigantic paper-like noodles. It tasted okay but it was too greasy for me so not something that I will order again. Our next eating adventure... horse meat (just kidding)

The Golden Century

Church Tour

Our visits with Bryce went well today. He likes to play the game now where he pulls himself up to a stand with a chair and then drops his toys under the chair only to have mom or dad pick it up for him. He's still doing well with crawling and pulling himself up onto things. Aliya is wanting him to start walking while we are still here but, we're hoping that doesn't happen until after we get home. We're already going to have our hands full with a crawling infant going through the airports. :) When they brought him out to us this afternoon, he was still munching on his afternoon cookie. He was pretty pleased with himself.

We visited some more churches today with Aliya. Religion plays an important role here and we've been asked by pretty much everybody that we have come in contact with what our religion is and what do we believe in.

This was the only church that people here were allowed to attend during the rule of the Soviet Union


This is the oldest church in Uralsk which was built in 1751

Tomorrow, we're going to the Old Uralsk museum.

Happy Easter

We hope that everyone has a Happy Easter today. We had a nice Easter visit with Bryce today. We took him a stuffed Easter rabbit & chick. We had a nice outfit picked out for him to wear today to take an Easter picture. We had nice pants and a long sleeved nice onsie top. So, when Aliya brought him out to us today we just looked at him in puzzlement because they had his pants on and his onsie top but, his longjohns were on over the top of his onsie top. It was pretty comical. So, we had to take in a sweater during our afternoon visit to put on over top of his longjohns so we could take a nice picture. :)

People have been crazy at the bakeries this week buying up the Easter breads by the box full. It's bread with raisins in it with a marshmellow frosting & sprinkles. Our adoption coordinator, Olga, gave Wayne & I Easter bread this morning along with dyed Easter eggs. Here's a picture of an Easter bread along with Bryce's first Easter Card...

Scenes from around town

It was another quiet visit this morning. We brought out some new stacking blocks for Bryce to play with but, he didn't show much interest in them this morning. Wayne was rubbing his feet for a little while and it nearly had him in a trance. We could tell that he was tired so I picked him up to hold him and it wasn't long before he was sleeping in my arms. He was still holding his purple stacking ring in his hand as he slept. We let him sleep for about 15 minutes before waking him up so that he would be awake for his morning snack. Hopefully he got a good nap in this afternoon so that he's ready to play when we got back for our second daily visit.

We bought Bryce a little rubber ball with little rubber spikes on it. That was the hit of the afternoon. He was working pretty hard at chewing on it. We were also playing with stacking blocks that also rattled. Wayne was rattling one and Bryce was studying him pretty intently, then Bryce started to shake his too. So we had a little game of follow the leader going on. He was cracking us up because he was working so hard at having his hands placed just so before he would start shaking his rattle.

We set out on a mission for diapers this afternoon so we walked around town for a little while. Here are some of the scenes from around town today...

We call this the "slinky" bus

Going into the babystore

Looking for Easter bread at the bread stand

Not too much to write about today. Bryce was sleeping when we went for our morning visit so, he was pretty calm today. Hopefully he'll shake his cold once we get to bring him home. We had our list of questions answered by the caregivers so we were able to review that yesterday. One of the questions we asked is "What solid food are being fed to him?" We thought you might find what he eats interesting:

breakfast-milk cereal with butter, cocoa or tea, bread with cheese and butter

at 10 am-juice, cookies

lunch-meat soup, vegetable puree with a meat loaf, tea or juice

snack-milk with a roll or cookies

dinner-milk cereal or milk soup, bread, juice

So, we think that adjusting to American food will be a big change for him.

It's cold today so we didn't do much sightseeing. So, the only pictures that I have to offer you are of Wayne's dream van. They're everywhere and he's trying to figure out how he can get one back home to Okinawa with him...

Just when we think the Little Man is getting over his cold, he runs a fever last night. They let us have our visits with him today but said if he started to seem like he wasn't feeling well, we would have to cut our visit short. He was his same feisty self so, guess he wasn't going to let a cold ruin his fun. He's still enjoying his stacking rings and his beach ball and makes a break for the door when he spots our bag that we bring his toys in. Wayne had him laughing today just with the thought of being tickled. Everything is ticklish on that poor kid. We put his first pair of shoes on him today and when he realized he had something on his feet, he immediately bent over and started to chew on them.

This is our translator Aliya...

She comes with us on every visit to the BabyHouse and takes Bryce's clothes in to change him and then brings him out to see us. She usually just hangs out in the room with us and reads a book. I think the past week that she's been with us, she's already read 2 books. She challenges us on a daily basis on our vocabulary skills. She reads books in English and wants to know what certain words mean and if we use them in everyday language. We told her that she needs to come over one night to play Scrabble with us. I'm sure she'd give us a run for our money. She's also our unofficial "tour guide" of Uralsk. I told her that she needed to work part time at the museum's because she did such a good job on giving us our tour and it seems that all the staff there know her. She's a resident of Russia but is in Uralsk going to school. She's currently going to school to be an English interpreter and is also learning German and wants to master Italian next.

Our first week in Kazakhstan

Well, we've already been here for one week. Only three weeks left to go. Visits are still going good. We took an inflatable beach ball with us today to play with that he liked. The big hit now are his stacking rings. He can take them off the pole but, we haven't mastered putting them back on yet.

After our visit this morning, Mischa (our driver), wanted to take us to a convent that is a neat newer building here. There are "dorms" next to the church that the nuns stay at.

We really like our driver Mischa. He always arrives 5 minutes after he's supposed to be by to pick us up but, we somehow manage to always get to where we're going 5 minutes early. He loves classic rock so we've been listening to The Beatles, The Doors, Rolling Stones, Elvis, and the other day he was playing Johnny Cash. Much to Wayne's dismay (and probably Mischa's) I had to sing along to Johnny Cash. Wayne and I crack up because it seems he only knows one phrase "Okay, you're welcome" We got out of the car the other day and said "We'll see you in a little bit" to which he responded "Okay, you're welcome"

We're trying to eat in our apartment as much as possible. It seems like we make daily trips to the grocery store to get food & juice. This past weekend while we were at the grocery store, we were in the wine & beer aisle and ran across a nice kid who spoke a little English. They sell beer separately so, he was helping Wayne to pick out Kazakh and Russian beer. Then he helped me to pick out a bottle of Kazakh wine.

At the grocery store, there is literally a whole aisle dedicated to mayonnaise. Aliya said that the Kazakhs love mayo and they put it on almost everything. And the milk, well that's not sold in the refrigerated section but rather on the shelves. Really, the only thing we're using the milk for is cooking. We tried it with our cereal but, neither one of us was too crazy about it.

Then of course there's the bakery down the street & who could resist buying fun breads like this...

Little speed demon

We've known that Bryce can crawl but, most of the time he's content just sitting with us and chewing on his toys. Today, we learned that when he has something in his sight that he wants, he can crawl after it like a little speed demon. We bring his blanket and bigger toys in a large grocery bag. He saw that I set it by the front door of the playroom today and the next thing we know, he's taking off across the room after it. It was pretty funny to see just the speed he can crawl at. So, we had to make things more of a challenge for him and place the bag at different locations in the room just to get him crawling some more. We're making more progress with him because today when we came into the room, he was smiling when he saw us.

Thought I would show everyone some more scenery from around town. Here are what the typical houses around here look like...

The pipes that you see are hot water pipes.

Feeling better today

Bryce was feeling better today. We only used one Kleenex during the day compared to the usual one packet of Kleenex. We bought 2 new teething rings today and put them in the fridge but, he didn't show much interest in those. He still enjoy's his Taggies blanket and little balls from grandma. We went and bought stacking rings today for this afternoon's visit and he enjoyed those too. We're starting to figure out that he likes when we make weird noises with our tongues. He just stops what he's doing and stares at us. Our homework today was to prepare questions for his caretakers for Aliya to translate to give them. We asked questions such as: what is his bedtime routine, what does he do during the day, what soothes him, is he still on formula... So, hopefully they can answer some of those questions for us to make the transition easier when he comes home with us.

After our visits each day, we are given his outfit from the previous day to bring home and wash. We then come home and get his backpack ready for the next day with his toys, 5 diapers, and a new outfit....

Day 2 with Bryce

The little man wasn't feeling very good today. He's currently fighting a cold plus we think he's cutting another tooth. On our last visit today, he was content to sit in one of our laps and gnaw on his teething ring. He was trying to gnaw on the wooden handles of one of the rocking horses in the play room today. We can just picture finding him chewing on our coffee table at home. :)

Since things were pretty quite at the Baby House today, we thought we would tell some of the interesting things we've seen since we've been here:

-The elevator in our hotel in Almaty was literally big enough to fit only myself & Wayne in it.

-There are people sitting on each street corner selling scoops of sunflower seeds out of big bowls.

-There are two lanes of traffic, however; within each lane of traffic, there could be 2 lanes or 3 lanes of traffic depending on the moods of the drivers. It's pretty much a free for all over here. Nobody wears seatbelts and everybody travels at their own speed. Trying to cross over to the other side of the street is like playing Frogger.

-There are bakeries at almost every street corner. We found one 2 minutes from our apartment and have been walking over there in the evenings to get little treats. We will definitely not be loosing any weight on this trip.

-We went to a good restaurant last night for dinner called Kamelot. Their menu consists of items like "The Golden Haired Maiden", "Nightime Hurricane", "Bohemian Chops w/ Onion", and "Apple Forest Schnitzel" It was good but, it's anybody's guess what you'll end up with.

Aliya took us on a tour of the town today so, here are some of our pics:

Cari & Wayne in front of The Hero of the Soviet Union monument. She was a 30 year old Kazak woman who was a gunner during WWII

Old Mosque

First visit with Bryce

We had our first 2 visits with Bryce today. Our first visit was from 9-10 this morning. We have to take diapers and a change of clothes with us each day so, as soon as we got to the Baby House, we gave our diapers and clothes to Aliya. She then took them to Bryce's caregiver and they changed his diapers & clothes and brought him out to us. Wayne held him first this morning and since they don't see men in the baby house, he started to cry. So, I took him and calmed him down. Then it was on to play time. We spread out a blanket to play on and laid out all of his toys. He can sit up, can pick up his toys, and crawl. We had a fun time playing with him and by the end of our visit, we had him smiling and laughing.

Here are details about the little man: Born on May 25, 2006, he has 6 teeth, blond hair and the brightest blue eyes you have ever seen. As of the beginning of March, he weighed 19.7 pounds.

After our visit, Aliya took us to the Regional Historic Museum where we were able to learn about the history of Kazakhstan and the Kazak people. Afterwards, she took us to a neat bookstore where we were able to buy a book about Uralsk and then also children's books that are both in Russian and English.

Our afternoon visit was from 5-6. There were no tears this time so, we're already making progress. He loves to play with a little ball that grandma bought him and a Taggies blanket. There was another family in the room with us this afternoon so, he was very interested in what they were doing.

Some of you may wonder why we haven't posted any pics of Bryce yet. Well, as much as I would love to, we've decided to wait until we officially take custody of him after our court hearing. So, for now, you'll have to bear with us and enjoy our pictures of us sightseeing around Uralsk.

Outside of our apartment building

Cari & Aliya outside Regional Historic Museum